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If you are a fan of sport, you probably have some of your own personal memories that are special to you. However, there are some sporting moments that are truly incredible and inspiring no matter whether you are a fan of the sport in question or not. With that being said, in this blog post, we are going to take a look at some of the greatest sporting moments of the past decade.
Tyson Fury destroys Deontay Wilder in America – There is only one place to begin when it comes to the great sporting events of the past decade, and this is with the most recent one; the dethroning of Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas. The American fighter was unbeaten going into this fight against the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury. The pair had already met in a controversial draw. The first fight saw Fury knocked down twice, yet most people thought he won the remaining ten rounds of the fight.
Regardless of the outcome, it was a remarkable comeback for a man who had been on the brink of suicide, shedding 51 kg to get into the ring. It was pretty much a given that he was going to be even better this time around, yet many people thought Deontay Wilder would have improved after his poor performance in the first fight. Most fans were predicting that the fight would go one of two ways; it would either be a points victory for Fury or Wilder would win through TKO. However, it was Fury who knocked Wilder out. In what can only be destroyed as a one-sided maul, Fury dethroned the Bronze Bomber, arguably winning every minute of the fight.
Not only was the occasion a monumental moment from a sporting standpoint but Tyson is a great ambassador for mental health, and so from an inspirational standpoint, you could argue that it was even more significant. This is a fight that we will definitely be talking about for years and years to come.
Ray Allen’s three against the Spurs – Now we’re going to roll back the clock a little bit and look at 2013: Ray Allen’s three against the Spurs. This is one of the great NBA comebacks. The Heat were down 2-3 in the finals. They were going into the final 28 seconds of Game 6 and they were trailing 89-94. With 19 seconds to go, they had managed to claw back two points, making the score 92-95. Allen was able to tie the game with a three-pointer, taking it to overtime. The Heat then won 103-100 in overtime. The result meant that another game needed to be played, in which the Heat were victorious, enabling them to win their second consecutive NBA championship.
Brotherly love – Now we move onto one of the most memorable moments in sport for different reasons, and this is the brotherly love that was shown by the Brownlee brothers – triathletes Jonny and Alistair. After breaking onto the scene in 2012, the pair already had a bit of a following. However, it was the 2016 World Series finale that saw the world fall in love with the two brothers. The event saw Jonny leading in the final 800m of the 10k run. If he was to cross the line first, the world title would be his. However, he started to wobble near the end, appearing as if he was ready to collapse. This resulted in his brother, Alistair, catching up to him. Rather than win the race himself, Alistair helped his brother over the finishing line, making sure his brother got over the line first, and therefore sacrificing the race win for himself.
In the end, Henri Schoeman was able to overtake both men to win the race. Nevertheless, if Alistair had completed the race himself, he would have won, and so it was a real heart-warming moment for everyone watching.
Tiger Woods winning the 2019 Masters – We love a good comeback, and this is one of the best that we have seen in the last decade. There is no denying that the road back to the top has not been easy for Tiger, and so the celebrations were great when he won the 2019 Masters. The win may have been his 15th major victory, yet it was his first for 11 years. The win did not come easy either, as Tiger had to battle off an American trio, with Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, and Dustin Johnson finishing a point behind Woods. If that was not enough, it represents the first time in history that Woods has come from behind in the final round in order to win a major.
Leicester City winning the Premier League – In all football leagues, you have the cream of the crop. You have a select number of teams that are always vying for the title, and then everyone else simply “can’t win” in the eyes of the experts and the public. Leicester City certainly fell into the latter category during the 2015-16 Premier League season. After all, it was only their second consecutive season in the Premier League. However, that did not stop them from achieving one of the greatest sporting accomplishments of all time. At the start of the season, Leicester City were 5000-1 with bookmakers to win the Premier League. In fact, the year previously, they were looking like serious candidates for relegation, until they went on a big run, winning seven of their last nine fixtures, resulting in them finishing 14th.
This good run of results did not end when the new season began. The team only lost three games all season; twice against Arsenal and once against Liverpool. In the end, they won comfortably, with a ten-point lead, meaning they also qualified for the Champions League. Anything is possible!
McGregor defeats Aldo in 13 seconds – There are a lot of McGregor fights that we could have picked for this one. However, we’ve decided to go with the fight that started it all. The dethroning of Jose Aldo. We probably don’t appreciate this fight as much as we should, now that Aldo is reaching the end of his career and has suffered a few defeats. However, at the time, Aldo had not been defeated for a decade; winning 18 fights in a row in the UFC. This is unprecedented for a sport like MMA whereby unbeaten records at the top level are hard to comeby. Nevertheless, he was ruling the Featherweight division and no one could come close to him.
That was until Conor McGregor stepped into the octagon. There had been a lot of frostiness in the build-up to the fight, and so everyone was already excited to see what the up-and-coming Irish man would do. They did not need to wait long, as the bout was over in a mere 13 seconds. Aldo surged forward to start the fight off, aiming to connect with a right-left punch combination, yet it was a left punch from McGregor that connected, resulting in the referee stopping the fight. The knockout was the fastest UFC finish in history in a title fight.
As you can see, there really have been some incredible sporting moments over the past decade, and we are certainly looking forward to finding out what the next ten years are going to bring.