At one point, the heavyweight championship was the most-coveted title in mainstream sports. Management teams and promoters are often inspired to take shortcuts, or at least unconventional paths, to lead a fighter to something nearing the heavyweight title.

On this episode, we briefly talk about Anthony Joshua's clash with Francis Ngannou, but spend the bulk of the episode recalling other heavyweights from history who were fast-tracked.

A pugilistic tale as old as time: how do today's best fighters measure up to history's best fighters? Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, Tyson Fury, Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk and company... How would they do against the leaders of yesteryear?

On this episode of the Knuckles and Gloves podcast, the fight historian 1-2 of Patrick Connor and Aris Pina tackle the issue and offer (ahem) the absolutely most definitive answers possible.

Even if you're not quite old enough to remember when James "Buster" Douglas upset Mike Tyson for the heavyweight championship back in 1990, you're almost certainly well aware that it was a massive upset. Just how massive? More than 30 years later, it's still held as a sports upset gold standard for many.

On this episode of the Knuckles and Gloves podcast, boxing historian Patrick Connor and author/filmmaker Brin-Jonathan Butler team up to re-score, rehash and revisit "Buster" Douglas' defeat of Mike Tyson. The rise, the fall, the sparring, the "long count"... Let's do this.