Bites, riots, phantom punches, loaded gloves, and a person who parachuted right into a heavyweight title battle. These are the moments that stopped the game chilly.
Boxing has given us a number of the biggest athletic achievements in human historical past. It has additionally given us moments so weird, so infuriating, and so downright surreal that the one affordable response is: What the hell simply occurred?
This isn’t a listing of dangerous selections or controversial scorecards — that’s its personal encyclopedia. These are the moments that stopped the game chilly, those that transcended boxing and have become a part of the bigger cultural dialog. The moments the place you needed to rewind and watch once more since you weren’t positive you’d really seen what you thought you noticed.
Listed here are the ten largest WTF moments within the historical past of boxing.
10. Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor — The Two-Second Stoppage (1990)
Meldrick Taylor was successful the battle. That wasn’t a matter of opinion — he was forward on all three scorecards heading into the ultimate spherical of their junior welterweight unification bout on the Hilton in Las Vegas. Taylor had outboxed one of the feared fighters within the sport for 11 rounds. All he needed to do was survive three extra minutes.
He virtually did. Chavez caught Taylor with a devastating proper hand that dropped him late within the twelfth. Taylor beat the depend, however when referee Richard Steele requested if he was okay, Taylor — dazed and along with his coach Lou Duva already climbing onto the apron — failed to reply clearly. Steele waved it off with two seconds remaining on the clock.
Two seconds. Taylor went from successful a unified title to shedding every little thing within the time it takes to blink. The stoppage stays one of the debated calls in boxing historical past, and it successfully destroyed Taylor’s profession. He was by no means the identical fighter afterward.
9. Buster Douglas Knocks Out Mike Tyson (1990)
The chances have been 42-to-1. Mike Tyson was thought of invincible — a pressure of nature who had demolished each man put in entrance of him, most of them in terrifying vogue. Buster Douglas was a gifted however inconsistent heavyweight who most individuals assumed would fold the second Tyson hit him.
Douglas didn’t fold. Preventing by means of the current loss of life of his mom and channeling what he later described as the perfect form and focus of his life, Douglas outboxed Tyson for 9 rounds in Tokyo. Tyson did knock Douglas down within the eighth — and there was a controversial lengthy depend that continues to be debated — however Douglas acquired up and completed the job within the tenth, dropping Tyson with a mixture and watching the baddest man on the planet crawl across the canvas searching for his mouthpiece.
It wasn’t simply an upset. It was a rupture within the material of the game. Tyson’s aura of invincibility was gone perpetually, and the heavyweight division was by no means fairly the identical.
8. The Fan Man Crashes Holyfield-Bowe II (1993)
Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe have been in the course of among the finest heavyweight fights of the Nineties — an outside battle at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas — when, within the seventh spherical, a person named James “Fan Man” Miller descended from the sky in a motorized paraglider and crashed instantly into the ring ropes.
That sentence is one hundred pc actual.
Miller acquired tangled within the ropes, and what adopted was 21 minutes of pure chaos. Followers and safety beat Miller earlier than he was faraway from the ring. Bowe’s pregnant spouse fainted within the crowd. The battle was delayed whereas officers tried to determine what had simply occurred, as a result of no person had ever deliberate for a person parachuting right into a heavyweight championship battle. When the bout resumed, Holyfield — who had been successful earlier than the interruption — appeared rattled. Bowe received by majority choice.
Miller, a serial stunt pilot who had beforehand disrupted different occasions, was arrested and fined. He died in 2002. The Fan Man incident stays the one most weird in-ring interruption in boxing historical past, and it’s laborious to think about something ever topping it.
7. Oliver McCall’s In-Ring Breakdown (1997)
This one is extra heartbreaking than anything, however it belongs on any record of moments that left everybody watching utterly shocked.
Oliver McCall had shocked the world three years earlier by knocking out Lennox Lewis to win the WBC heavyweight title. Of their rematch in Las Vegas, McCall got here in because the underdog however was anticipated to at the least compete. As an alternative, he fell aside in entrance of a worldwide viewers.
Beginning within the third spherical, McCall started crying uncontrollably. He wandered across the ring, dropped his palms, and refused to throw punches. Referee Mills Lane pleaded with him to battle. McCall’s nook couldn’t get by means of to him. By the fifth spherical, Lane had no alternative however to cease it.
McCall later acknowledged that he had been battling substance abuse and extreme psychological well being points within the lead-up to the battle. It was a deeply uncomfortable second that raised critical questions concerning the sport’s capability — or willingness — to guard fighters from themselves. The truth that McCall was allowed within the ring in any respect stays disturbing.
6. Andrew Golota’s Self-Destruction and the MSG Riots (1996)
Andrew Golota was successful the battle. Comfortably. The Polish heavyweight was beating Riddick Bowe on factors and demonstrating precisely the sort of expertise that had made individuals imagine he could possibly be a critical contender. There was only one drawback: Golota couldn’t cease punching Bowe within the groin.
Regardless of a number of warnings and level deductions, Golota continued to land blatant low blows all through the battle. Referee Wayne Kelly lastly disqualified him within the seventh spherical. What occurred subsequent was worse than something within the battle itself.
Bowe’s entourage stormed the ring and attacked Golota. The violence unfold to the gang. Chairs have been thrown. Followers fought one another and safety. Madison Sq. Backyard descended right into a full-scale riot that required NYPD reinforcements to include. A number of individuals have been hospitalized.
Extremely, Golota and Bowe fought a rematch 5 months later. Golota was DQ’d once more — for low blows. Once more. One other riot broke out. You genuinely can’t make this up.
5. Roy Jones Jr. Robbed on the 1988 Olympics
Roy Jones Jr. placed on one of the dominant performances in Olympic boxing historical past within the 164-pound gold medal bout in opposition to South Korea’s Park Si-hun on the Seoul Video games. Jones landed 86 punches to Park’s 32. He managed each second of the battle. By each conceivable metric, Jones received going away.
The judges gave it to Park, 3-2.
Park himself apologized to Jones after the choice was introduced, which tells you every little thing you should know. The IOC later suspended three of the judges who voted in opposition to Jones, and an investigation revealed that two of them had been wined and dined by South Korean boxing officers earlier than the bout. The scandal led to a whole overhaul of Olympic boxing’s scoring system.
Jones recovered — he went on to change into one of many biggest pound-for-pound fighters in skilled boxing historical past. However the theft in Seoul stays arguably probably the most egregious judging scandal within the historical past of the Olympic Video games, throughout all sports activities.
4. Roberto Duran Says “No Más” (1980)
5 months earlier, Roberto Duran had crushed Sugar Ray Leonard of their first battle — one of many biggest welterweight bouts ever — by means of sheer will and ferocity. Duran was “Manos de Piedra,” Arms of Stone, one of the feared fighters alive. He didn’t give up. He didn’t cease coming. That was the entire level of Roberto Duran.
Then, within the eighth spherical of their rematch on the Superdome in New Orleans, Duran turned away from Leonard, waved his glove, and give up. The phrases attributed to him — “No más,” no extra — turned probably the most notorious two phrases in boxing historical past.
Duran blamed abdomen cramps. No one purchased it. Leonard had been clowning him, showboating and making the proud Panamanian look silly. Most observers imagine Duran couldn’t deal with the humiliation and selected to stroll away moderately than endure extra of it.
It tarnished Duran’s legacy for years, although he ultimately rebuilt it with nice performances at larger weights, together with victories over Davey Moore and Iran Barkley. However the picture of certainly one of boxing’s all-time warriors merely quitting in the course of a world title battle stays one of many sport’s most incomprehensible moments.
3. Ali vs. Liston II — The Phantom Punch (1965)
The rematch between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine was suspicious earlier than the opening bell. Their first battle had ended when Liston refused to come back out for the seventh spherical, citing a shoulder harm. Rumors of mob involvement had already shadowed Liston’s profession.
What occurred within the rematch solely made issues worse. One minute and 44 seconds into the primary spherical, Ali threw a brief proper hand that dropped Liston. The punch was so quick that many of the crowd didn’t see it, and the {photograph} of Ali standing over a downed Liston — screaming at him to rise up — turned one of the iconic photos in sports activities historical past.
Referee Jersey Joe Walcott misplaced management of the state of affairs. He by no means gave a correct depend. Liston stayed down, then acquired up, and the fighters really resumed earlier than the timekeeper knowledgeable Walcott that Liston had been down for greater than 10 seconds. Walcott then stopped the battle.
Was it a official knockout? Was it a dive? The talk has by no means been settled. Liston had deep ties to organized crime. Ali himself taunted the conspiracy theories. Gradual-motion replay suggests the punch did join, however whether or not it carried sufficient pressure to drop a person of Liston’s dimension and toughness stays genuinely unclear greater than 60 years later.
2. Luis Resto & Panama Lewis — The Loaded Gloves (1983)
That is the darkest entry on this record, and it’s one each individual in boxing ought to know by coronary heart.
On June 16, 1983, undefeated prospect Billy Collins Jr. fought journeyman Luis Resto on the undercard of Duran-Moore at Madison Sq. Backyard. Collins was 14-0 and anticipated to win. As an alternative, he took a savage beating over 10 rounds from a light-punching fighter who had by no means proven that sort of energy.
After the battle, Collins’ father and coach, Billy Sr., went to shake Resto’s hand — and instantly felt that one thing was fallacious with the gloves. He grabbed on and began shouting. The gloves have been impounded, and an investigation revealed that Resto’s coach, Panama Lewis, had eliminated padding from each gloves. Years later, Resto admitted that Lewis had additionally soaked his hand wraps in plaster of Paris, successfully turning his fists into casts.
Collins suffered a torn iris and everlasting blurred imaginative and prescient. His profession was over. He spiraled into melancholy and alcoholism, and 9 months later, at 22 years outdated, he drove his automobile right into a creek close to his Tennessee residence and died. His household has lengthy believed it was suicide.
Resto and Lewis have been each convicted of assault, felony possession of a weapon, and conspiracy. They served jail time. Resto ultimately visited Collins’ grave and apologized. The wraps, notably, have been by no means confiscated by investigators.
The Resto-Collins tragedy led on to improved glove inspection protocols and stays the game’s starkest cautionary story about what occurs when the individuals entrusted to guard fighters change into those attempting to destroy them. The Margarito plaster scandal of 2009 — found earlier than his battle with Shane Mosley — inevitably drew direct comparisons, and retroactively forged doubt on his brutal 2008 victory over Miguel Cotto.
1. Mike Tyson Bites Evander Holyfield’s Ear (1997)
There was a time when Mike Tyson was probably the most feared man in sports activities. By their second assembly, that concern had been changed by one thing nearer to desperation.
Holyfield had shocked the world by stopping Tyson of their first battle six months earlier. Within the rematch — billed as “The Sound and the Fury” on the MGM Grand in Las Vegas — Tyson was once more being outfought and outclassed by the larger man. Within the third spherical, annoyed and shedding, Tyson spat out his mouthpiece, lunged at Holyfield, and bit a bit of cartilage off his proper ear. He spat it onto the canvas.
Referee Mills Lane deducted two factors however allowed the battle to proceed. Tyson then bit Holyfield’s different ear. Lane disqualified him, and the MGM Grand erupted into chaos. The group rioted, and police in riot gear have been known as in to revive order.
Tyson was fined $3 million and had his license suspended for over a yr. However the injury to his legacy — already eroded by his jail sentence and the primary Holyfield loss — was everlasting. The picture of Iron Mike Tyson, the person who as soon as appeared invincible, lowered to biting one other man’s ear off in frustration, stays the one most stunning second in boxing historical past.
Nothing else comes shut.
Honorable Mentions
Antonio Margarito’s Plaster Scandal (2009): Coach Javier Capetillo was caught with an unlawful substance on Margarito’s hand wraps earlier than his battle with Shane Mosley. Margarito was banned for a yr, and the invention retroactively haunted his devastating win over Cotto. The parallels to the Resto-Collins case have been unattainable to disregard.
Mayweather’s Chilly Shot on Ortiz (2011): After Victor Ortiz headbutted Floyd Mayweather and was penalized, Ortiz stored attempting to apologize along with his palms down. Mayweather touched gloves as soon as, then instantly cracked Ortiz with a left hook-right hand mixture that knocked him chilly. Authorized? Technically sure. Soiled? The talk nonetheless rages.
Chavez-Whitaker Draw (1993): Pernell Whitaker clearly outboxed Julio Cesar Chavez over 12 rounds in San Antonio. The judges known as it a majority draw. No one exterior of Staff Chavez agreed. One of the blatant hometown robberies in trendy boxing.
The Lengthy Depend — Dempsey vs. Tunney II (1927): Jack Dempsey knocked down Gene Tunney in spherical seven however refused to go to a impartial nook, delaying the referee’s depend. Tunney acquired as much as 14 seconds of restoration time as a substitute of 10, survived, and received the choice. The controversy birthed the trendy impartial nook rule and almost a century of debate.
