The 50 Biggest Upsets In Sports History
Considering that Brock Lesnar was being called the "baddest man on the planet" and was and probably still is one of the biggest draws in the UFC, his loss to Cain Velasquez has to be considered a major upset.
How major?
Well take into consideration what makes for a huge upset. First of all, the odds must be against you winning (most likely Vegas odds as well as the average fan of your sport).
And lastly, in my humble opinion there has to be people who care. Lots of people. My high school team won a few track meets that we weren't supposed to win, but I doubt people would want them on this list.
All that being said, here are my 50 greatest upsets of all time.
50. Yang Beats Tiger... Seriously
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Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods in the 2009 PGA Championship straight up. This was before Tiger lost his mystique. This was when Woods was 14 for 14 when going into a Grand Slam final with a lead.
This was against a a guy who stood 5'8 and didn't take up golf until he was 19 years old and was the first Asian Male to ever even win a Grand Slam.
This was impressive.
And by the looks of the picture, the man knows how to celebrate.
49. Cain Is Able
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Lesnar outweighed him by 20 pounds and looked pretty unbeatable. The odds were against Velasquez becoming the first Mexican Heavyweight champion.
But in the end it wasn't even that close.
Compustrike counted 50 power strikes for Velasquez, compared to 12 for Lesnar.
It's tough to rank UFC upsets because, more so in MMA than anywhere else, any fighter can have a bad day.
And a bad day probably means you are on the wrong end of a knock out.
48. George Mason Likes to Dance
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in 2006, the George Mason Patriots from the Colonial Athletic Association proved why March Madness is still the greatest two weeks in sports.
To get to the 2006 Final Four George Mason beat a few names that you might have heard before: UConn, North Carolina and Michigan State. They also beat another Cinderella team, Wichita State.
Eventually they fell to the team that would win it all, Florida.
47. Everyone Loves Cinderella, Man
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During the depression, Jim Braddock fought to keep food on the table for his family. But by the time he was turning 30, he had lost 16 out of 22 fights and was about to retire for good.
Then a cancellation in an undercard for the heavyweight title match gave him a chance to fight the number one contender.
Braddock beat that man and then in a 15 round match against the heavyweight champ, Max Baer, Braddock won a decision and became the heavyweight champ of the world.
If this story happened today instead of 75 years ago, Braddock would shut the internet down.
Eventually, Russell Crowe played him in a movie.
Braddock's performance is so inspiring they ended up calling him Cinderella Man.
46. Reds Bash The Brothers
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When Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco played for the Oakland A's in the early 80's and 90's, they were known as the Bash Brothers in the late 80's and early 90's.
We would later hear how they did it, but they were knocking home runs everywhere and were favored to win the 1990 World Series.
But the Reds had Lou Piniella as their manager and Sweet Lou doesn't give in to anyone.
The Reds won Game 1, 7-0.
Then they decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and sweep the mighty A's leaving their mark in the record books as one of the most surprising World Series champs in history
45. Three Year Old Diamondbacks Beat The Yanks
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The Arizona baseball team was just a toddler in diapers when they beat the Evil empire in 2001. With a 2-1 lead, Yankee manager Joe Torre turned to closer Mariano Rivera for the final three outs.
Uh, usually that means Enter Sandman and cancel Christmas.
This time it meant the three year old wins!
44. The Name Is Fleck... Jack Fleck
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Ben Hogan was a golf legend back in the day.
Decades later, golf enthusiasts still mention his name as one of the all time greats. So, in 1955, when a regular guy named Jack Fleck beat him in 18 hole playoff in the US Open, it was big news.
The best part of the story is that Fleck beat Hogan with Hogan's own signature series irons, so Hogan had that..
Which is cool.
43. Nothing Like a Fiesta
8 of 50So the BCS Buster BSU Broncos (say that three times) got to play one of the BCS big time schools Oklahoma Sooners in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl
So what happened? Blow out, right?
Just watch for yourself.
It was one of the best college football games of the decade.
42. World Baseball Not So Classic For Dominican Republic
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What happens when a super team from the Dominican Republic with the likes of David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada and Jose Reyes faces up against a no-name team from the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic?
They lose of course. Twice.
41. Mine That Bird All The Way to The Finish Line
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I don't know this personally but I can imagine that it ain't easy being a gelding.
And as the only gelding out of 19 horses in the race and a 50-1 long shot, Mine That Bird was up against it.
But he wouldn't be on this list if he didn't win the 135th Kentucky Derby, in style.
Atta boy, MTB. Smile for the camera.
40. No More Liberty for America
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To prove that we look at all sports, here is the scenario for this upset:
There is a sailing competition known as the America's Cup. By 1983 America had been defending this cup for 132 years.
And then the Australia II came along and beat the yacht chosen to defend the title, Liberty.
So if you lose for the first time in 132 tries, I don't care if it is yacht racing, that is an upset for the ages, damn it.
Now somebody cue Christoper Cross.
39. US Soccers' Biggest Win! ...Crickets
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It was supposed to be the hugest moment in US soccer. It was supposed to make us into a "football" loving country. The real football.
But even though none of that happened, our young boys did beat the #1 team in the world, Spain, 2-0, in the 2009 Confederation Cup Semi Finals. And it was seen everywhere else as one of the biggest upsets in international soccer history.
38. Matt Serra Rules
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Matt Serra upsets George St-Pierre in UFC 69. This is arguably the biggest upset in UFC history. (But I think there is one even bigger.)
Serra won the welterweight title with this win.
George St. Pierre was 13-1 and seen as almost unbeatable when Serra upset him in the first round with a TKO.
You really never know in MMA.
37. Warriors Came Out to Play-Yay!
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Imagine if Milwaukee came out of the east last year and beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA title.
That is pretty much what happened when the 48-34 Warriors beat the 60-22 Washington Bullets to win the 1975 NBA championship.
I can't see Monta Ellis meeting Gilbert Arenas in the final round this year, but who knows.
36. Francesca Schiavone Is Italian for French Open
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What happens when the 17th seeded player of the 2010 French Open wins the whole thing?
She makes this list, of course.
35. Fedor Goes Down
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Fedor Emelianenko, the legendary Russian submits to Fabricio Werdum's arm-bar submission at 1:09 of the first round of their bout.
Emelianenko was 32-1 and a champion of many different skills before his stunning defeat earlier this year.
His nickname is the Russian Experiment. But just saying Fedor is scary enough.
34. Ugly Ball Has a Champion!
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This was a #1 seed vs #8 seed but that is deceptive, because the teams had very similar players and a heated rivalry.
And their records weren't that different. Due to the lock out teams only played 50 games so the Miami Heat were the top seed but only had a ten game margin over the Knicks in the 8th spot.
The Knicks won the series over the top seeded Heat 3-2, then went all the way to the Finals where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs.
The Heat-Knicks series of those years were known for being pretty close to muggings.
33. The Sequel Wasn't As Good for the Rebels
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In 1990, the UNLV rebels beat the Duke Blue Devils 103-73 in one of the most lopsided title games ever.
So the following year, when the teams met in the final four and UNLV pretty much had the same team from the year before, how the heck did they lose?
Some folks were suspicious, being that UNLV is in Las Vegas.
But I knew the reason why.
Because it's March Madness, that's why.
32. John Daly Scores One for the Average Man
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He was 25 with a mullet and a tour rookie. But he sure could "grip it and rip it".
Since then he has continued to be a legend in his own time.
I wonder if he can trace any ancestry to Jack Fleck.
31. US Shocks The World... Trust Me
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I had to read up on this one, but you are going to have to take my word for it.
When the US soccer team beat England in 1950 World Cup it was and remains one of the biggest upsets in soccer history.
The Brits at the time were known as the Kings of Football and the Yanks had lost their last seven international matches by the combined score of 45-2.
So I guess it truly was a "miracle on grass".
30. Miracle Mets Win in Style
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Up until 1969 the New York Mets were pretty much a joke. So when they decided to make their first winning season into a championship one, well it was pretty much a shock to everyone.
29. Japan Stuns the US in Softball
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By 2008 you could say the US owned the softball world. The ladies had won 22 straight Olympic contests and all three of the gold medals awarded in softball up to that point.
They were running through everyone on their way to another gold when they played Japan a third time (after beating them two times prior by a combined ten runs).
And then it happened. Japan beat them 3-1. And for the first time ever, USA Softball did not win gold.
28. The Soviets Win Gold in Olympic Basketball... Kind of
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Basketball was created in the states so it was no surprise that until 1972, the U.S had won all seven gold medal in Olympic basketball history .
But everything changed after the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
Hall of Famer Doug Collins made two free throws for the US team to put them up 50-49 with three seconds left.
What happened next has lived in infamy for decades. Through a series of sketchy "clock malfunctions" the Soviet team was given three different chances to score and finally did, winning 51-50.
The U.S. team voted unanimously to refuse the silver medals, and to this day still has not accepted them.
One player has it in his will so that none of his future generations can ever get the medal either.
27. Frankie Edgar Shows the Value of Hard Work Over Penn
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Frankie Edgar must've had a great night's sleep before his UFC lightweight division fight against BJ Penn. The goal of the massive underdog was to keep the pressure on and that he did.
Penn aka the Prodigy still had flashes of brilliance during the fight but was a step slow for the majority of the match.
In victory, Edgar was gracious. "This is it. B.J. is the greatest lightweight ever and I just beat him. I just hope I can be half the lightweight champion he was."
Edgar won the rematch even more decisively.
26. The Wild Card Wins Wimbledon
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In 2001, Goran Ivanišević won the Wimbledon title by defeating Australian Patrick Rafter in five sets.
Stepping on to the Wimbledon grass, Ivanišević was ranked the World No. 125 because of an injury to his shoulder that would require surgery. He had no business being there except for a wild card spot opening up.
Before that season he had been a runner up several times so this time he decided to go ahead and win the whole thing on this, his 14th try.
25. Billy Mills Wins the 10,000m Track Gold Medal...Who?
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To put it simply: No American ever wins the 10,000 meters in Olympic Track and Field competition...except for Billy Mills at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Mills was an unknown whose time was a full minute slower than the favorite after the prelim race. Yet he beat all the favorites and brought home gold.
No American had ever won the event and no American has won it since. Mills' feat is considered by many to be one of the greatest Olympic upsets of all time.
Pretty awesome.
24. James Madison Is a School, and They Play Football
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In college football in 2010 there is the FBS and the FCS.
The FCS occasionally plays the FBS, but only so that FBS teams can beat them bad enough so that they can get a BCS bowl.
Does that make sense?
It didn't make sense to James Madison of the FCS, so they beat Virginia Tech, ranked #13 in the polls, 21-16.
You get the feeling less FBS schools will be playing James Madison in the future.
23. Smart Young Ladies Rule
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In 1998 the women of the Harvard University basketball team became the first and only #16 seed to upset a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
And they did it to the Stanford Cardinal on their home court, 71–67. It had not happened before then and has still never happened in the men's tournament.
And you thought all they did in Cambridge is study.
22. Chaminade Can Play Ball
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It wasn't for the NCAA title but it still goes down as one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history. Little Chaminade University with its 800 students beat the Mighty Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia was ranked #1 in the country and had one of the best players in the country, Ralph Sampson, patrolling the paint for them.
Goliath, meet David.
21. Ever Heard of Hoosiers?
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You want to talk small?
In 1954 Milan High School in Indiana, had an enrollment of 161 students.
So when they beat power house Muncie Central High School, who had an enrollment of over 1,600 students, in the Indiana High School State Basketball Championships by a score of 32–30, you knew Gene Hackman would star in a movie about it more than 30 years later.
Well, you didn't know for sure, but still.
20. UCLA Goes Down... Finally
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Ho hum.
In 1974, Notre Dame defeated the UCLA Bruins 71–70.
This wouldn't be such a big deal if UCLA hadn't been on a seven consecutive national title, 88-game winning streak.
Other than that, it wasn't a big deal.
19. Bulldogs Win The World Series From Way Out
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In 2008 the Fresno State Bulldogs were the 89th ranked team in the country and the #4 seed when they went ahead and won the NCAA College World Series.
If you are ranked 89th in the NCAA Men's basketball they don't even let you play in the NIT.
As impressive as any college feat on here.
18. Can You Please Spell Mazeroski...
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It feels like a duty to report a milestone in Pittsburgh Pirates history whenever possible. In 1960, The New York Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27 in a seven game world series.
Curiously enough though, the Pirates scored just enough to win the series, 4-3.
Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 gave the Pirates a 10-9 victory and the World Series title.
Nice way to end it.
17. Adolph Rupp Learns a Lesson
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In the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship Texas Western faced off against the top-ranked University of Kentucky team and their legendary coach Adolph Rupp.
Texas Western's head man, Clem Haskins, made history that day by starting five African Americans in the game.
Haskins and his crew also made history by beating the top ranked Wildcats, 72-65.
Not bad.
16. Red Sox Do the Impossible, Finally
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This would be higher on the list if the teams weren't so evenly matched and weren't such bitter rivals.
Also, if not for the fact that it became such an improbable upset because of the eventual victors' own doing.
Though they were the underdogs and the wild card team, this would not have been a monumental upset if the Red Sox had not fallen behind the Yankees 3-0.
And it would not have been so big if the third game wasn't 19-8. In Boston, there was also that thing about not winning a title in 86 years.
So most thought a Yankees sweep was probable and a Red Sox come from behind 4-3 series win would be as possible as growing a horn in the middle of your forehead.
So horn me.
For the first and only time in MLB history, a team came back from a 3-0 series deficit to win.
15. Leon Spinks Beats The Greatest
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Muhammad Ali was a legend in 1978 and was close to ending his career. He was considered one of the greatest of all time for all that he had accomplished.
Leon Spinks was a young fighter with only 7 bouts under his belt. Ali was approached with a way to make some quick money by beating up the novice so Ali agreed.
Bad decision.
14. Stanford Did What?
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These were the salad days at USC. Always ranked in the Top Five, always in contention for the national title.
But 2007 was a little different. They played a Stanford team that the Trojans were favored to beat by more than 40 points.
And USC had made its way all the way to the No.1 ranking.
But they fell to the Cardinal 24-23 and they still haven't gotten back up.
13. Mt. Mutumbo Roars
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I still say this is one of the reasons the NBA went to 7 game series in the first round. To make sure that #8 seeds don't beat #1 seeds.
But in this five game series it did happen, as the heavily favored Seattle Supersonics fell to Dikembe Mutumbo and his upstart Denver Nuggets, 3-2.
By the way the Nuggets were down 2-0 in the series.
12. Hoya Paranoia No More
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It took almost perfect shooting and no shot clock but #8 seeded Villanova slayed the Giant.
Georgetown was the defending champs and consensus No. 1 team in the land.
But none of that mattered when Villanova made 22 of 27 shots (78.6%) for the game (including just one field goal miss in the second half).
They beat the Hoyas 66–64 to become the lowest seeded team ever to win the title.
11. Max Schmeling Scores One for Hitler?
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When Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis in their first bout, Adolph Hitler used it as evidence that his dream of an Aryan Nation and it's supremacy was inevitable.
Joe Louis felt like he let the world down. Unfortunately, even though it was just a boxing match, he kind of did.
But he made up for it in the rematch, annihilating Schmeling and his boss's dream in 124 seconds.
Schmeling and Louis would later become good friends.
10. Never Mess with a Wolfpack
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It was 1983 and we all know the footage—the long jumper for the NC State player, the tip in at the buzzer and the late, great Jim Valvano running around everywhere looking for someone to hug.
The NC State Wolfpack, a #6 seed had beaten the heavily favored Phi Slamma Jamma Houston Cougars with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
Classic.
9. Where Exactly Is Appalachian State?
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In 2007, the Michigan Wolverines were ranked #5 in the country and had aspirations of winning the national title. All they had to do is navigate through the Big Ten conference.
And oh yeah, beat this (soon to be FCS) school called Appalachian State.
Quarterback Armanti Edwards and wide receiver Dexter Jackson etched their names in the history books as the Mountaineers became the first Division I-AA team to beat a ranked Division I-A team.
8. Foreman Grill, Anyone?
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George Foreman was such a bad man in 1974, Mike Tyson would have been scared of him. Even if he wasn't a toddler.
But Foreman got rope-a-doped by Muhammad Ali that year, lost the title and everyone thought they would never hear from him again.
Then almost out of nowhere, 20 years later, he reinvented himself as the proud grandpa with the big smile and the Foreman cooking Grill.
He seemingly hit heavyweight champ Michael Moorer upside his head with one of those grills. Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champ in history by beating Moorer at 45.
7. Only One Guarantee Counts, The First One
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Joe Namath is known to the younger generation as the guy who tried to kiss Suzy Kolber or the guy with the hot daughter on Hard Knocks this past season.
What they should know is that he guaranteed a win for his New York Jets in Super Bowl III and delivered on it.
The only Jets title ever.
6. Rulon Beats "The Bear"
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Rulon Gardner defeated Alexander Karelin in the 2000 Olympics. At the time of this upset, Karelin was so intimidating most opponents didn't even score on him.
Karelin was the three-time defending champion in Greco-Roman wrestling and had never lost in international competition.
He was also on a 13-year winning streak. Thirteen. Years.
5. New York Giants Hate Perfection
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In 2007, the New England Patriots were one game away from being the most perfect team ever.
Then they were one Asante Samuel interception away. Then, one Eli Manning sack away.
Finally, they were one caught ball stuck to the helmet of a receiver who would never catch another ball in the NFL, away from perfection.
But on this day, in this Superbowl, the New York Giants were the best team in football.
4. The Birth of Brady
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in 2001, the New England Patriots were the little team that could. They lost their starting quarterback and replaced him with a sixth-round pick who they rode all the way to the Super Bowl.
But all the fun would stop there, right?
They were facing Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and the "Greatest Show on Turf". And they were 14 point underdogs.
Ah, yes. But Mr. sixth-round pick, 199th overall wanted to introduce himself.
His name was Tom Brady.
And he had a winning drive in him.
Hello, world.
3. Buster Douglas. You Know the Name
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How do you beat the baddest man on the planet. Well you have to be focused, in great shape and be able to get up when knocked down.
On February 11, 1990, James "Buster" Douglas beat Mike Tyson because he was all of those things for only one night in his whole life.
Sometimes, one night is all you need.
2. What Do You Call a 100-1 Shot
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First of all, Man O' War is a great name for a horse.
And apparently this was one hell of a horse. He started 21 races and won 20 of them.
But that one loss, well that became legendary.
Man O' War lost to a 100-1 shot at the Sanford Stake.
The year was 1919 and the horse was named...Upset.
Now how cool is that?
1. USA Hockey Gold Medal Winners
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1980. Lake Placid. Cold War.
Unbeatable Soviet team.
"Miracle on Ice".
You knew it, so don't act shocked.
Say it with me...
"The impossible dream has come true!"
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