Floyd Mayweather Jr’s showdown with Manny Pacquiao is not the only fight that has taken too long to arrive. Steve Luckings looks at the other most high-profile cases.
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Mike Tyson v Lennox Lewis, 2002
Following Mike Tyson’s release from prison in March 1995 after serving three years for rape, the self-titled “Baddest Man on the Planet” set about unifying the heavyweight championships. After a few warm-up fights, Tyson took the belts previously held by Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon, showing glimpses of the brutal power that made him the division’s most feared before his incarceration. A fight with Lennox Lewis, the WBC title holder, was first mooted in 1998, but a combination of Tyson having his boxing licence rescinded by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his now infamous biting Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997, and Lewis losing his championship to Hashim Rahman in 2001, meant that they did not meet in the ring until 2002, with Tyson well past his peak. The Briton’s clubbing right hand decided the contest with an eighth-round stoppage to retain his WBC, IBO and IBF titles.
Mike Tyson v Evander Holyfield, 1996 and ’97
Evander Holyfield had been an outstanding cruiserweight in the early part of his career, and when he made the move up to the biggest league, it was widely anticipated it would only be a matter of time before he met Tyson, one in his pomp who had terrorised the division for years. What made the prospect more tantalising was the realisation of seeing two smaller, mobile, and quicker heavyweights do battle, rather than men with bigger physiques who solely relied on their power. But the biggest upset in boxing history cost us of seeing the two gladiators do battle in their prime as James “Buster” Douglas shocked the world with a 10-round TKO of “Iron” Mike in Tokyo in 1991. It would be another five years before Holyfield and Tyson would meet in the ring, with Holyfield winning the first by TKO and the second when Tyson was disqualified for taking a chunk out of his opponent’s ear.
Joe Calzaghe v Roy Jones Jr, November 2008
What if? If ever that rhetorical question needed a prefix it would be “What if Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones, two of the greatest super middleweight’s mankind has known had met five years earlier?” The outcome, of course, is impossible to know. What can safely be assumed is that Jones would not have been on the end of a lopsided unanimous decision, with all three judges at Madison Square Garden scoring the fight 118-109 in favour of the Welshman. If ever two boxers were meant to meet in their heyday, it was these two. Both could deliver lightning combinations and carried knockout power in both hands. Sadly, we saw a beat-up, and sadly washed up Jones clinging on for dear life as Calzaghe dished out meaty blows almost at will. It was Calzaghe’s last fight, as he retired undefeated in 46 contests. Jones continues to fight to this day, a slower, bulkier version of the man who dominated the 168-pound division for years.