11 Most Embarrassing Mismatches in Boxing World Title Defences

Boxing isn’t a sport based on merit. Sometimes, fighters end up in positions where they really shouldn’t be, to varying degrees of success.

Today, however, we’ll be looking at 11 times when a world champion defended their crown against some incredibly meagre opposition. It’s a phenomena that will likely never go away – so long as boxing remains corrupt at the highest level.

11. Anthony Joshua vs Eric Molina

Going into this one, Eric Molina had some minor pedigree – he had given WBC Champion Deontay Wilder a tough fight and boasted a decent KO ratio. He had, however, been knocked out in one round by Chris Arreola in 2012.

After winning the IBF inter-continental heavyweight title (we don’t know either) against Tomas Amadek, he earned a shot against Anthony Joshua. Molina was ranked 15th by the IBF at the time, making this all the more baffling.

Immediately, Molina showed no effort to engage meaningfully with the champ, as AJ picked him off and rattled him at will. It took just three rounds for Joshua to finish him off – Molina would never get another sniff of a world title after this.  

10. Teofimo Lopez vs Steve Claggett

Teofimo Lopez’s record as a world champion is among the strangest in boxing. At times, he’ll take on legitimate competition, such as Arnold Barboza Jr and his upcoming bout with Shakur Stevenson – in other instances, we get fights like this. 

38-7 Steve Claggett put in a brave effort, always looking to initiate, but the difference in class was evident from a very early stage. He never had Lopez in serious trouble, who in turn landed some massive bombs on the advancing Canadian.

Claggett’s limited head movement and leaky high guard allowed Lopez to land big shots all night long. Despite this, Lopez was unable to finish off his opponent, who enjoyed far more success in this one than he really should have. 

9. Demetrius Andrade vs Jason Quigley

Demetrius Andrade was infamous for fighting exclusively lacklustre opposition as champion. Out of all the subpar challengers for his WBO Middleweight title, Jason Quigley came in with the most unremarkable professional pedigree and put up the least resistance.

A successful amateur fighter, Quigley never really replicated this success as a professional. He had already lost by this point, having been bullied by world title contender Tureano Johnson in a TKO defeat. He fought scared in this one, constantly backing up with his lead arm outstretched in a vain attempt to maintain distance. 

Andrade simply bided his time and began to land big punches, dropping Quigley three times in the second round before his corner waved the fight off. After years of claiming that the big names were ‘ducking’ him, ‘Boo Boo’ would finally get his wish in 2023, where he was destroyed by David Benavidez on a show that mustered fewer than 60,000 PPV buys. 

8. George Foreman vs Jose Roman

George Foreman is a legend and one of the best heavyweights of all time – but his two reigns as heavyweight champion were both deeply underwhelming. 

His first stint with the title saw him make just two successful defences – and this was one of them. Jose Roman was completely outmatched by Big George, who made a point of hitting his opponent as hard as he could with each blow.

Roman did his best to endure the tsunami of punishment unleashed upon him, but Foreman wasn’t in the mood to hang around. Roman was stopped brutally in Round 1 – this would be his one and only crack at a world title. 

7. Vitali Klitschko vs Shannon Briggs

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Shannon Briggs found this out when he finally got his wish after years of calling out the Klitschko brothers – when he finally got himself in the ring with one of them with Vitali’s world title on the line, he found out pretty quickly that he had bitten off more than he could chew. 

What ensued was a complete beatdown of ‘The Cannon’, as Klitschko battered the aging American from pillar to post. To Briggs’ credit, he never went down, but it might have spared him from such an extensive mauling if he did. 

He later collapsed in his dressing room and was rushed to hospital, where he was found to have broken his nose and fractured his left orbital bone. This didn’t stop him from harassing Wladimir, Vitali’s brother, for a title shot years after this. Let’s go champ!

6. Deontay Wilder vs Bermane Stiverne 2

There are an awful lot of fighters to choose from for this list where Deontay Wilder’s much-maligned run as heavyweight champion is concerned. Nevertheless, none of them put in such a non-performance as Bermane Stiverne did in his second tilt against the Bronze Bomber.

When motivated, Stiverne was a good fighter. He had nice footwork and a snappy jab, but these attributes were nowhere to be seen as a clearly overweight Stiverne waddled his way to the ring with a look of resignation on his face. 

The one-time world champion made no effort to mount an offensive as Wilder annihilated Stiverne, dropping him three times and folding him into a body position not seen since BBC’s Hole in the Wall was axed. 

5. Adonis Stevenson vs Thomas Williams Jr

Adonis Stevenson’s stint with the light-heavyweight title was a joke. While he won it in impressive fashion, stopping ‘Bad’ Chad Dawson in one round, he remains one of the most mollycoddled and overprotected champions in boxing history. 

In fairness to Williams, he’d just scored an impressive KO over Edwin Rodriguez in his last fight, but to suggest he was the strongest contender at light-heavyweight at the time is disingenuous at best. With fighters like Eleider Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward one the scene at the time, how Williams ended up with a title shot is beyond us. 

Williams came out swinging, but quickly found himself outmatched in the ensuing gunfight – Stevenson was always known for having heavy hands. After four rounds, Williams’ first and only tilt at a world title was over. 

4. Tyson Fury vs Dereck Chisora 3

Tyson Fury’s reign as heavyweight champion does not get nearly enough criticism. After years of promising to be a fighting champion, Fury decided to give a man who he had already beaten twice – and someone he was friends with – an inexplicable crack at his title. 

From the opening bell, it was obvious that Dereck Chisora had no chance, even after landing a bomb early on that Fury effortlessly absorbed. This was a pitifully easy fight for the Gypsy King, whose superior speed and movement allowed him to land on the much shorter man with ease.

Chisora was in survival mode from the get-go and simply didn’t have the tools to gain a foothold in the fight. His face resembled one of Pablo Picasso’s cruder paintings by the 10th round, when referee Victor Loughlin mercifully called an end to the proceedings.

3. Joe Louis vs Johnny Davis

You can’t have a list like this without including someone from Joe Louis’ infamous ‘bum of the month’ club. Johnny Davis is probably the worst of the bunch, coming into the fight with a thoroughly unimpressive record of 3-3. 

In fairness to Louis, this fight took place during his time in the military during World War Two – so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t be fighting the highest level of opposition around this period. 

While initially viewed as an exhibition, a ruling by New York State Athletic Commission chairman John J. Phelan meant Louis’ title would be on the line. He was in no jeopardy of losing it, though – he knocked Davis out with the first meaningful punch of the fight. 

2. David Haye vs Audley Harrison

Audley Harrison was always well liked by the British boxing public, but certainly not for his prowess in the ring. His time in the professional ranks serves as little more than a tired punchline, as memories of his 2004 Olympic gold medal become increasingly distant. 

When David Haye gave him a title shot in 2010, Harrison was 39. Even in his prime, Harrison was never a world title contender – opting to defend the title against him, instead of a legitimate challenger such as Ruslan Chagaev, is shameful. 

The fight itself brought even more humiliation to everyone involved – after two suspiciously quiet, Haye burst into life in the third and promptly stopped Harrison. He then suggested that he had bet on himself to win in the third round, though he would deny this in a BBBofC hearing. Sure thing, David. 

1. Sven Ottke vs Joe Gatti

Joe Gatti, the younger brother of Arturo Gatti, simply couldn’t hold a candle to his older sibling. A capable fighter in regional circles, how he managed to secure a title shot against Sven Ottke in 2002 – when he was beyond his best – is utterly befuddling. 

Embarrassingly, it took Ottke nine rounds to finish off the aging Gatti, who looked to survive the contest, rather than win it. For context, it took Terry Norris just one round to knock Gatti out – and that was nine years before this.

This is far from Ottke’s biggest black mark against boxing, but it’s still worth mentioning. Through a wave of mismatches, corrupt officials and a cowardly unwillingness to fight outside of his own country, Ottke retired with the flimsiest undefeated record in boxing history.