|
Who doesn’t love some level of surprise in sports? Here, you have three of the most unexpected wins in the history of sports betting to remind you that sometimes, the impossible happens!
Boris Becker Wins Wimbledon in 1985
Boris Becker won six Grand Slam titles, including three at Wimbledon, by the end of his career. Nobody expected him to win the first one in 1985, as he was only 17 years old and became the first non-seeder player to win the most prestigious competition in this sport.
That year, many other players were thought to succeed, such as Pat Cash, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, and Kevin Curren. No one was betting on Becker, aside from one anonymous fan, who had put £10,000 on Becker at odds of 18/1.
Emma Raducanu Wins the US Open in 2021
Only 18, Emma Raducanu surprised everyone as she became the first qualifier in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam final, and eventually winning it without dropping a set for the whole duration of the tournament!
Raducanu was ranked 150 in the world before the 2021 US Open started, and similarly to Becker’s case back in the 80s, no one believed in her, at least not on a large scale. And yet, the British teenager won the £ 2 million prize as the absolute winner and became the first player to win a slam at only the second attempt. She produced the biggest upset in the history of women’s sports.
Buster Douglas Beats Mike Tyson in 1990
This is perhaps one of the most famous upsets in the history of sports. Mike Tyson was undefeated and the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Arguably, he was, and still is, one of the most famous boxers of all time. Buster Douglas, on the other hand, was a 42/1 outside, and he was supposed to fight as a gentle warm-up for the later match with Evander Holyfield.
As Tyson was considered the best pound-to-pound boxer in the world, almost everyone took his victory for granted. There were some people, such as two analysts working for HBO, Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley, who claimed that, in their opinion, the fight would have been over within 90 seconds. Instead, this fight often ranks as one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history.
How did he do it? Douglas started strong, making it obvious that he did not agree with being a “gentle warm-up,” regardless of what other people thought of him. As Tyson struggled to find the right rhythm to beat his opponent, Douglas gained more and more confidence throughout the game. In the tenth round, Douglas hit Tyson with a knockout blow and was responsible for one of the most extraordinary moments in boxing history.
History tells us that it could have been Tyson's hypothetical lack of discipline that caused the surprising outcome. Still, we can’t know for sure, as what happened between them is one of the most unprecedented and surprising events in the history of boxing and sports as a whole.
