UNDERDOG HAS HIS DAY : Lloyd Honeyghan’s Upset Win Over Champion Donald Curry May Rank as One of Boxing’s More Remarkable Performances

“The best fighter, pound for pound, in the world today.”

That was the oft-used description of Donald Curry, by boxing writers, trainers and a lot of fans. But on Saturday night, Curry wasn’t even the best welterweight in Atlantic City, N.J.

A little-known British boxer named Lloyd Honeyghan lifted the undisputed world welterweight championship from the battered head of the previously unbeaten Curry at Caesars Atlantic City.

OK, how big an upset was it?

To anyone but the most diligent of fight fans, it might not have ranked real high. But it was mighty big in the gambling community. Curry was such a favorite that there were no legitimate bets booked.

“It’s what we call an out-bet, which means it was figured as such a mismatch there wouldn’t be much betting interest, so there was no line,” said longtime Las Vegas odds maker Lem Banker.

“Odds-wise, it’s probably the biggest upset since Ali-Liston, in ‘64,” Banker said. “I can remember if you wanted Sonny in that one, you had to lay 10-to-1. (Odds quoted the day of the Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight in newspapers had it 7-1.) If anyone had put out a line on Curry-Honeyghan, it would’ve been on the order of 7-1 to 10-1, I’d say.”

Honeyghan, unbeaten at 28-0, was third in the most recent Ring magazine rankings, largely on the strength of a string of victories in Europe. His only wins over top-ranked Americans were a 1983 knockout over Kevin Austin and a 1985 decision over Danny Paul.

Nearly everyone had Honeyghan figured as cannon fodder for Curry, thought to be fine-tuning his way to a megabucks fight in a year or so with middleweight Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the only other undisputed world champion.

The smooth-working, fast-hitting Curry unified the welterweight title with a smashing two-round victory over Milton McCrory in Las Vegas last December. Curry, then 24 and having difficulty making 147 pounds, looked like the middleweight division’s future.

He may still be.

“I’m going to take some time off, get myself together, and then prove to people that I am the best fighter in the world,” he said Saturday.

In the meantime, the new king of the welterweights asks that you consider--are you ready for this?--Honeyghan-Hagler.

Honeyghan’s upset brings to mind some other shockers:

--Jim Braddock, a 10-1 underdog, beat Max Baer on a decision June 13, 1935, for the heavyweight championship. In his first defense, two years later, Braddock was knocked out by 23-year-old Joe Louis.

--Los Angeles lightweight Lauro Salas was a 10-1 underdog in 1952 when he fought champion Jimmy Carter, and won a split decision.

--Leon Spinks, in his eighth pro fight, was a 10-1 underdog when he fought Muhammad Ali in 1978, and won a decision. He lost the title to Ali in a rematch.

--Miami hospital emergency rooms were on full alert when Clay entered the ring a 7-1 underdog against formidable-looking Liston in 1964. Liston proved to be much less than formidable, quitting on his stool after the seventh round.

--Michael Spinks, a 6-1 underdog, made the Spinks family the first to have two heavyweight champions when he surprised Larry Holmes by earning a decision in 1985. He backed it up with another decision in the rematch.

--Max Schmeling was a 6-1 underdog in a non-title fight against rising young sensation Joe Louis in 1936, at Yankee Stadium. But he rocked Louis with a straight right hand early in the fight, finally knocking him out in the 12th. Two years later, Louis, as champion, knocked Schmeling out in the first round.

--Ingemar Johansson’s vaunted “Toonderbolt” right hand wasn’t enough to convince odds makers in 1959, when he fought heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. A 5-1 underdog, Johansson knocked Patterson down seven times in three rounds and took the championship to Sweden.

--The last British fighter involved in a shocker in a title fight was Randy Turpin, who, as a 3 1/2-1 underdog in 1951, beat Sugar Ray Robinson in London.

--Ali, most everyone believed, couldn’t stand up to the punching power of George Foreman, the 3-1 favorite, when the two fought in Zaire, in 1974. He did, with relative ease. Foreman punched himself out in the early rounds and Ali knocked him out in the eighth.

Curry, 25, was considered by many in boxing as the coming dominant figure in the middleweight division, perhaps in the mold of Robinson or Hagler. All this was supposed to happen after Curry left the welterweight division, which happened Saturday night.

“I will not fight as a welterweight again,” Curry said afterward, battered, bloodied and beaten. A doctor stopped the fight after the sixth round because Curry had a three-inch cut over his left eye.

At that point, Curry’s chances of winning the fight seemed hopeless, anyway. He was no match for the quicker punches of Honeyghan, who appeared on several occasions to be one punch away from a knockout victory over the staggering Curry.

Curry indicated afterward that he left his fight on the scales.

“I weighed 158 pounds 10 days ago, and for a while before that I was 168” he said. “I’d had trouble getting down to 147 before, but I’d never felt weak in a fight before tonight.

“Tonight, in the first round, I knew I wasn’t myself. In the third and fourth rounds, I tried to knock him out because I knew my legs would never make it. When he cut me and the blood flowed into my eyes, I knew the fight was over.”

Honeyghan, a Londoner by way of Jamaica, catapulted himself into national hero status in England, where boxing fans needed some good news, since British heavyweight Frank Bruno was demolished by America’s Tim Witherspoon in Wembley Stadium in July.

British boxing writers are calling Honeyghan’s victory the greatest upset involving a British fighter since Turpin’s victory over Robinson.