David Versus Goliath / Sports

• How David Beats Goliath is an article in The New Yorker about this trope and its subversions. It talks mainly about a girls' basketball team reaching the National Junior Basketball Championships due solely to the full-court press (Instead of the 'normal' method of immediately retreating to guard your own basket when the other team has possession, the full-court press is aggressively defending against the other team in their own court.) The main reason that the full-court press worked is that it wears down both teams' stamina much faster — and the girls' team had worked almost solely on building stamina. The girls' team rode roughshod over other teams with taller girls and better shooting technique due to the fact that the other team couldn't get shots off due to having the ball stolen when they weren't expecting it, or losing possession for not bringing the ball back into play or in the other team's court fast enough. In some cases, they had 25-0 leads over other teams. The girls were then castigated by the other teams for playing 'unfairly' and not letting the teams 'develop basketball skills' — to the degree that fights nearly broke out. The team then lost its final game by caving to pressure and playing the 'proper' way after the referee (supplied by the opposing team) called excessive amounts of fouls. The general moral of the story is that when David plays by Goliath's rules, David usually gets crushed. However, by changing his tactics, David can become the favorite over Goliath. However, Goliath will respond in kind by using social pressure to force David to fight by Goliath's rules.
• Essentially the reason why a lot of people dislike or even hate certain successful sports sides like Manchester United (association football) or Australia (many sports, but especially cricket). Also part of the reason why "Stop Having Fun" Guys get on people's nerves: many if not most people prefer siding with underdogs.
  • Any team playing the New York Yankees, but specifically, the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• Super Bowl III. The AFL was largely considered a second-rate league behind the NFL and had lost the previous two Super Bowls to that league. The AFL champion New York Jets were now handed the daunting task of taking on the Baltimore Colts, a 13-1 team that would overwhelm opponents with stingy defense and potent offense. The Colts were favored by a ridiculous 22 point spread, but that didn't stop Jets quarterback Joe Namath from guaranteeing a win. The Jets would go on to shock the world, winning 16-7.
• Super Bowl XXXVI. The St. Louis Rams were coming off a 14-2 season with the NFL's top offense, the league MVP Kurt Warner, and the Offensive Player of the Year Marshall Faulk. They were just one year removed from winning one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, and were largely considered a better squad than 1999. They would have to play against a scrappy New England Patriots squad that came in at 11-5, barely (and controversially) won their two playoff games to reach the big game, was led by a backup quarterback^note some guy named Tom Brady after their starter severed an artery in his chest, and were 0-2 in Super Bowls prior. The Patriots had to play 60 minutes of near-perfect football to do it, but they escaped with a 20-17 win in the final seconds.
• Super Bowl XLII is an absolutely perfect example of this trope. The New England Patriots (boasting what many called the greatest offense in NFL history), led by quarterback Tom Brady (league MVP by a large margin, with stats worthy of some deeming his 2007 season the best ever of any NFL quarterback) and Randy Moss (who had scored the most touchdowns of any wide receiver in NFL history that year), went undefeated in the regular season, a 16-0 mark that no other team had ever accomplished, and on top of that, defeated the same New York Giants they would face in the Super Bowl in Week 17 of the regular season in what was an extremely climactic battle. Their opponents, the aforementioned Giants, were a Wild Card team who had barely made it into the Playoffs, had to eke out wins in the post-season on the road by slim margins, and had many players sidelined by injury. The Giants, however, used their effective pass rush to force Brady into quick throws. The Patriots were unable to score the large amount of points they were accustomed to, and this kept the Giants in the game. Despite Brady still performing at a high level in the game, his team scored only two touchdowns (in ironic fashion, before the big game, Brady literally laughed at the fact that Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress claimed that the Patriots would only score 17 points in the Super Bowl — the team averaged roughly 35 points per game in the regular season). The Giants would win the game after an improbable play in which Eli Manning escaped the grasp of numerous would-be New England tacklers and hurled the football down the field, which was caught by David Tyree by pinning it against his own helmet as New England's Rodney Harrison forcefully tackled him and attempted to pry the ball loose. New York would then score the winning touchdown (caught by Burress) and force a turnover on downs as the Patriots attempted to get in field-goal range with 29 seconds remaining. Super Bowl XLVI would be a rematch, ending similarly but by the score of 21-17.
• Super Bowl XLIII: The Arizona Cardinals, a franchise known for its inability to go to the playoffs and who has the second longest championship drought in American professional sports, facing off against the Pittsburgh Steelers, quite well known for their ability to make it to Super Bowls. In fact, they've been to more Super Bowls than any other team in the league minus the Cowboys. The Cardinals nearly won on a valiant, almost inhuman fourth-quarter effort by receiver Larry Fitzgerald, but the Steelers came back and earned a 27-23 win to obtain their sixth Super Bowl.
• In college Football September, 1 2007 Appalachian State (a Division I-AA school^note Now known as Division 1 FCS. Appalachian State for the record was no Jobber squad, winning the Division 1-AA title that year and the two previous years, and App State moved up to the Division 1 FBS (formerly Division 1-A) in 2014 and have continued to see success there) defeated #5 ranked Michigan. At Michigan! The Wolverines fell out of the Top 25 altogether after the loss.
• Also in college Football, 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Boise State-Oklahoma. Heck, when the broadcast team openly acknowledge the trope ("This is truly a David and Goliath situation" etc), and an undefeated team goes up against one of the winningest teams in the history of the sport. And pulls off one of THE most improbable and thrilling wins....yeah, I think it qualifies. The win involved Boise State succeeding with three trick plays (a hook-and-lateral,^note in which the ball is thrown to a receiver running a hook route, followed by a lateral to a second player a wildcat variant, and finally a Statue of Liberty variant).
• In college basketball: March 26, 2006. The University of Connecticut, a team with 6 players that would be drafted in the NBA, a 1 seed in their bracket in the NCAA tournament, and the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing, takes on George Mason, a school that had gone winless in its three previous tournament appearances going into the 2006 tournament. The Patriots, no relation to the cheaters from New England mind you, shock everyone with an 86-84 overtime victory, sending them to the Final Four and UConn's players to the coldness of the NBA.
• The ultimate David in the 1980 US Hockey team, a bunch of college kids that defeated the almighty Soviet team... after getting creamed by THE SAME TEAM 13 days earlier.
• Baseball has this at times, but the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays have to take the cake. They play in the AL East division, home to the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox (teams with virtually limitless coffers and very solid teams; their payrolls are about $200 million and $150 million, respectively). With a payroll of ~$40 million, they win the AL East outright, and they make it to the World Series before losing to the Phillies after being tabbed as the underdogs in every round (especially the AL Championship Series, which they barely took over the Red Sox).
• Football (Soccer) has a version of this which is known by fans and insiders as Giant Killing, where a small team who would usually have no chance of beating a huge team will pull it off. The FA Cup is usually where to find it, happens more than you might imagine...
  • It's worth noting that this is actually expected in the FA Cup - if at least one giant-killing doesn't happen per season, then cue countless pundits and commentators bemoaning the loss of "the magic of the Cup", and the general corrupting influence of money in the game.
  • One of the most legendary modern examples was the 2015-16 Premier League season. Going into it, Leicester City were 5,000-to-1 outsiders, who had avoided relegation the previous year by the skin of their teeth, managed by beloved but not especially highly rated manager Claudio 'The Tinkerman' Ranieri. Cue an absolute fairy story, where a team of rank outsiders, made up of obscure signings, young talent, over-the-hill pros, and in the case of star striker Jamie Vardy, comeback stories from the very bottom of the football pyramid, who were rewarded with pizza for each 'clean sheet' (getting through a game without conceding a goal), won the title, providing the first new champions in decades.
  • The 2005 European Champions League final: on one side, AC Milan, a European giant and five times winners, a team that had won the Champions League 2 years earlier, stocked full of legendary players. One, Clarence Seedorf, had already won the Champions League with three separate teams. On the other side, Liverpool FC. A former European giant, four times winners, but with no domestic Championships in the last 15 years, and their last Champions League final appearance being exactly 20 years earlier, reaching the final through luck and sheer stubbornness. Having finished outside of the top four places in the Premier League, they had failed to qualify for the next season's Champions League. One of their few star players, Michael Owen, had moved to Real Madrid the previous year and the other, Captain Steven Gerrard, seemed to be on the verge of leaving for rivals and current English champions Chelsea. Milan promptly scored after 38 seconds, and were 3-0 up at half-time and cruising. Cue a tactical reorganisation by Liverpool, and what was later characterised as 'six minutes of madness' - after 53 minutes, Milan were still 3-0 up. Liverpool promptly equalised on the hour mark. After that, Liverpool stubbornly held on for over an hour of normal, added, and extra time, including an astounding point-blank double-save by Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek from Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko that was later voted the greatest Champions League moment of all time, to take it to penalties. Liverpool promptly won, earning the right to wear a multiple winner badge and keep the trophy, with the match becoming known as 'the Miracle of Istanbul'.
  • Great example was the 2011 Women's FIFA World Cup. Two-time champion United States, home of great players such as Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe, pulled many victories such as defeating the strong Brazilian team in a 122 minute plus penalties match, was in the finals against Japan, which reached there mostly through upsets (including defeating home team and defending champions Germany). Amazingly, the American Amazon Brigade that towered over the Japanese (literally. Some of the above-listed names are almost 6 ft, while the average height of the Japanese players was under 5'5") failed to score only on seemingly endless opportunities and the Nadeshiko Japan resisted until the penalty shootouts, which they won.^Postscript Inverted in the teams' rematch in the 2015 final. The USWNT took a 4–0 lead 16 minutes in, with the last goal coming from a ridiculous shot from the midfield stripe by captain Carli Lloyd, giving her a hat trick. Final: USA 5, Japan 2.
  • The 2004 European Championship saw an extraordinary feat of serial giant-killing. Greece arrived as rank outsiders, having only qualified once before when they were knocked out at the group stage. They were widely expected to repeat this feat. But they won their first group match against the hosts, Portugal. Still, they only just reached the quarter-finals ahead of Spain and Russia, and only beat Spain on goals scored. Nobody expected them to win their quarter-final against France, the defending champions and one of the pre-tournament favourites. But they did, and found themselves up against the Czech Republic in the semi-final. The Czechs were considered the form team, having won all three of their group matches and having won their quarter-final 3-0. Surely Greece couldn't beat them? They could, and reached the final. Could they somehow possibly be able to beat Portugal on their own soil for a second time? Yup, somehow they did, and took the trophy home.
  • 12 years later, rank outsiders Wales, at their first tournament since 1958 (when they'd been knocked out by a young Pelé), mowed through all opposition, including Belgium's 'Golden Generation', widely considered to be the most talented side on the planet. Unfortunately, they ran out of steam in the second half against a wily old Portugal side that picked them off on the counter-attack.
  • The legendary Alcorconazo, in which the most successful European side in history, Real Madrid, were swept away by third-tier Alcorcón in the Spanish King's Cup. By the 50th minute of the first leg, the score read Alcorcón 4 – 0 Real Madrid. Madrid, in fact, did not score until the 80th minute of the second leg, when the outcome was already all but settled.
• Not entirely uncommon in roller derby; some smaller players have made an art out of taking out larger ones. It involves a certain level of momentum and landing a shoulder check in just the right place, in such a way as to lift the other player into the air without very much effort. And, since most jammers are the smallest, lightest players on any given team, pretty much every jam involves a certain level of David v. Goliath for them to get through the pack in the first place.
  • Roller derby also has inversions at times; while jammers are typically small, super fast players who can get through the pack without being hit at all, some teams have "heavyweight jammers", large women who are nearly impossible to knock down, who can clear their own path, or who can wipe smaller jammers clean off the track.
• The 2010 Seattle Seahawks were the first NFL team in a non strike shortened year to win a division with a losing record. Their playoff game was against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. How much of an underdog were they? Before the game The Onion posted a picture of the Seahawks with the caption, "Saints get first round bye." Despite being double-digit underdogs, Seattle pulled out the victory propelled by an amazing touchdown run, leading to the infamous headline, "New Orleans Saints Lose First Round Bye."
• The 2001 World Series featured The New York Yankees who were playing for the 4th consecutive World Series vs the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were playing their fourth season. Despite multiple comebacks from the Yankees and having to face the greatest closer in baseball history, the Diamondbacks prevailed
• The Louisville women's basketball team faced several Goliaths during their 2013 NCAA tournament run.
  • A 5-seed entering the tournament, the Cardinals won their first two games to make the Sweet 16. There they met Baylor, the reigning national champions who were 74-1 over the past 2 seasons (with the only loss coming against #4 Stanford when their second best player was injured). Bonus points for Baylor having a literal Goliath on their roster, 6'8" player of the year, Brittney Griner. Louisville played a very physical game to limit Griner, and made a tournament record 16 3-pointers to find themselves up late in the game. One of the game's signature moments was when Louisville point guard Shoni Schimmel, nearly a foot shorter than Griner, drove on her, scored, drew a foul, and turned to briefly stare Griner down. After Schimmel fouled out with 4 minutes to go, the Cards remained in the game, but fell behind with 9 seconds to go. They then drove the length of the court and drew a foul. Monique Reid, a player who had missed a key free throw only minutes earlier, was taking the shots. She made both, and Louisville pulled off what many thought was an impossible upset.
  • In the Elite 8, they met Goliath #2, Tennessee. The Lady Vols had won 8 national championships in their history, more than any other team of the time. It was an admittedly down year for the program, but they were still a very good team. Louisville built up a lead and managed to hang on in the second half to get another upset, and advanced to the Final Four.
  • In the Final Four, they faced Cal. Not as much of a Goliath as the other two, but still a good team and favored to beat the Cardinals. After falling behind by 10 points at the half, Louisville made a comeback and took the lead late in the game, ultimately winning and becoming the lowest seed ever to reach the championship game.
  • In the National Championship, they faced powerhouse UConn, a program with (at the time) 7 national championships, and a team that had beaten Louisville handily during the regular season. A win against this Goliath would secure their run as the greatest in tournament history. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, reality ensued, and they wound up on the losing end of the largest blowout in championship game history.^note This would be the first of four straight national titles for UConn.
• The NCAA Men's Tournament in general features several opportunities in the early rounds for David to fell Goliath before Goliath gets a chance to make a deep run. More often than not, another Goliath restores order as early as the second round, though David occasionally runs as far as the Final Four.
  • The 1985 Villanova Wildcats were a rare David to run the full March Madness gauntlet. The Big East emerged as a powerful conference in short order after their inception in the 1979–80 season. The Georgetown Hoyas and St. John's Redmen (now the Red Storm) pressed forward as championship favorites while the Wildcats were an afterthought, entering the Big Dance with an 18-9 regular-season record (9-7 vs Big East opponents).
    • The Mideast 8-seed Wildcats first edged out 9-seed Dayton 51-49. Dayton played on its home court in the game.
    • Nova then took down 1-seed Michigan 59-55. Michigan featured eventual first-round selections Roy Tarpley and Gary Grant.
    • Nova then upset 5-seed Maryland 46-43 in a Mideast semifinal.
    • The Wildcats defeated 2-seed North Carolina, a perennial power, 56-44 in the Mideast final.
    • In the semifinals, they bested Midwest 2-seed Memphis State (since renamed the University of Memphis) 52-45.
    • In the national championship game, the Wildcats faced off against Georgetown, who featured Patrick Ewing, David Wingate Jr. and Reggie Williams in their starting five. The Hoyas became heavy favorites after settling one final score with West 1-seed St. John's 77-59. Villanova rode a near-80% shooting performance from the field, two late free throws, and an intercepted pass in the closing seconds to a 66–64 upset of Georgetown, emerging with the program's first national title. They were the lowest seed ever to win an NCAA Tournament.
  • Other notable Davids:
    • The 1986 LSU Tigers, the first 11-seed to reach the Final Four, still tied for the lowest seed to do so. Even before the tournament, the Tigers had one of the most difficult seasons in college basketball history.
    • For starters, they had three players in the 7-foot range at the start of the school year, but before the season started, one was declared academically ineligible, and another (depending on the source) left the team or was dismissed.
    • Another player was declared academically ineligible for the entire season for taking too few courses in his major. and one of the remaining stars failed two courses in the fall semester and was ruled out for the rest of the season.
    • Remember the three seven-footers (give or take) above? The one who was left blew out a knee during the Christmas break.
    • All this led coach Dale Brown to move Ricky Blanton, 6'7" and normally a guard, to center. The team's captain Don Redden told reporters that the Tigers had "gone from an NBA-size team to a big junior high team."
    • Then in February, the team was hit with a chickenpox outbreak that briefly hospitalized two players and forced the postponement of what would have been a nationally televised game. Brown even called in an LSU football player as emergency cover.
    • When they made it to the NCAA tournament, it took them two overtime periods just to get past their first opponent, 6-seed Purdue, but they kept rolling after that, and unlike future 11-seeds, they went through the toughest possible path, facing the 3-seed, 2-seed, and 1-seed in the following three rounds (the three later ones would face a 7, 10, and 7, in chronological order, in the Sweet 16 rather than a 2, and the most recent one played a 9 in the Elite Eight instead of a 1). Not to mention that the 1-seed they took down, Kentucky, had beaten them three times that season.^note Twice in the regular season, and the other in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
    • The 2002 Missouri Tigers, the first team seeded 12 or lower to reach the Elite Eight (and the only one for 20 years). While this accomplishment is slightly dulled by the fact that unlike most 12-seeds who reach the Sweet 16, they were spared from playing a 1-seed, it should also be noted that the 8-seed that took care of said 1-seed the previous round was UCLA, the most successful (men's) program in the sport's history.
    • The 2011 VCU^note Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. Five years after George Mason's run (see above), the Rams, coming from the same conference,^note At the time, Mason and VCU were members of the Colonial Athletic Association. VCU left for the Atlantic 10 Conference, then considered by some to be a major basketball league, in 2012; Mason rejoined them a year later. were considered a controversial at-large pick, but due to the newly expanded field, they had to play in the "First Four", forcing them to win just to reach the Round of 64. They easily handled their fellow borderline at-large selection, then crushed their next two opponents, 6-seed Georgetown and 3-seed Purdue. They struggled with fellow low seed Florida State, a 10-seed, in the Sweet 16, but rebounded to beat top seed Kansas, 71-61, to reach the Final Four, whereupon they ran into...
    • The Butler Bulldogs. Already notable after losing in the Championship Game the previous year as a 5-seed, the Bulldogs, like the Rams a "mid-major" team, were an 8-seed in 2011. The 8-vs.-11 was by far the lowest seeding matchup ever in a Final Four game. The Bulldogs lost the Championship Game to Connecticut, who was a "mighty" 3-seed from a power conference... in which they'd been the 9-seed in the conference tournament, forcing them to play the maximum five games to take the conference title, which they did.^Postscript The Bulldogs are no longer a basketball mid-major; they became part of the reconfigured non-football Big East when it launched in 2013.
    • The 2013 Wichita State Shockers, another lower-half-of-the-bracket, mid-major team that made the Final Four. They aren't as strong an example since their path through the region featured a pure David (13-seed La Salle, which managed to pull a pair of upsets of their own to reach the Sweet 16, also having to get through the First Four to even make the Round of 64) and a David-turned-Goliath (Gonzaga, a mid-major darling in the late 1990s, had seen their rise to basketball powerhouse culminate with a 1-seed in 2013, which ended with the 9th-seeded Shockers sending them packing in the Round of 32).^Postscript The Shockers followed that up the next season by entering the NCAA tournament unbeaten—the first D-I men's team to do so in over 20 years—but lost narrowly in the second round to Kentucky. After three more NCAA tournament appearances, they definitively left the ranks of basketball mid-majors by joining the American Athletic Conference, the other half of the split of the former Big East. The early-2020s realignment might send The American into the mid-major ranks, but the jury's out on that.
    • The 2013 Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. They became just the seventh 15-seed in tournament history to upset a 2-seed (Georgetown) in the Round of 64, then took it a step further than the previous six by upsetting 7-seed San Diego State to reach the Sweet 16.
    • The 2016 Syracuse Orange. Unlike the other members of this list save for the two sets of Tigers, the 10th-seeded Orange came from a major conference, and their run was at first seemingly a fluke of getting upsets to happen in front of them: 2-seed Michigan State, which was actually considered the favorite to win the region, was bounced in the first round by Middle Tennessee (the first 15-2 upset since FGCU's run), and Gonzaga, back in their old stomping grounds as a dark horse, reached the Sweet 16 as an 11-seed. Even their first opponent, 7-seed Dayton, wasn't from a major conference. Then they ran into the champion of their own conference, top seed Virginia, in the Elite Eight, and won, becoming the first 10-seed to reach the Final Four.
    • The 2018 tournament was loaded with these... especially in the South Region, which we'll get to in a bit.
    • The other three regions had a few surprises, though they were ultimately won by two 1-seeds (Villanova in the Midwest and Kansas in the East) and a 3-seeded traditional power ( Michigan in the West). In the Midwest, Syracuse made the field as a very controversial 11-seed (i.e., not a few commentators believed they shouldn't have been in the tournament) in the Midwest and got to the Sweet 16; Marshall scored a big upset over Wichita State in the East; and Michigan beat 9-seed Florida State in the regional final after the Seminoles had taken down 1-seed Xavier and 4-seed Gonzaga in the prior two rounds. Now, we'll get to the South...
    • In Thursday's first-round action, Loyola Chicago took down Miami (the one in Florida) on a buzzer-beater in an 11-over-6 upset, and 13-seed Buffalo blasted 4-seed and trendy Final Four pick Arizona.
    • Friday's first-round action saw unquestionably the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA (men's) tournament up to that time. Ever since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, no 16 seed had ever beaten a 1 seed.^note It had happened in the women's tournament in 1998, though that was a fluke that involved a matchup between an underseeded Harvard team and a Stanford team that lost its two best players to knee injuries in the week before the tournament. Enter UMBC.^note University of Maryland, Baltimore County The Retrievers faced top overall tournament seed Virginia... and didn't just beat them, but turned it into a Curb-Stomp Battle, never trailing in the second half on their way to a 20-point win.
    • In the second round, Loyola used another last-second shot to beat 3-seed Tennessee, and Nevada^note Nevada–Reno; there's also a Nevada–Las Vegas, but that school calls itself UNLV. took down 2-seed Cincinnati. Reality ensued for UMBC, which lost a hard-fought game to 9-seed Kansas State. Still, all this made the 2018 South the first region in the history of the men's tournament in which none of the top four seeds made it to the Sweet 16.
    • The insanity continued at the regional site in Atlanta. In the Elite Eight, K-State took down the region's top remaining seed, traditional superpower Kentucky, and Loyola scored another last-second win over Nevada. This resulted in the first 9-and-11 matchup ever in a regional final, which Loyola won by double digits. Loyola's run not only made them the fourth 11-seed to get to the Final Four, but also turned their team chaplain, then-98-year-old nun Sister Jean, into a national and even international media sensation.
    • In 2022, the Saint Peter's Peacocks did the 2013 FGCU Eagles one better. The Peacocks started their run by shocking 2-seed Kentucky in overtime. They then matched FGCU by taking down another Kentucky team, 7-seed Murray State. After that came 3-seed Purdue (which we'll get to again very soon), with an NBA lottery pick and two 7-footers. That didn't stop the Peacocks, which became the first 15 seed ever to reach a regional final. Reality finally ensued against 8-seed and traditional powerhouse North Carolina, which blew the Peacocks out.
    • Speaking of Purdue, it became the second 1-seed to go down at the hands of a 16 seed the very next season. Making the David–Goliath analogy even more apropos, one of Purdue's 7-footers from the previous season, Zach Edey, went on to receive all major national player of the year honors in 2022–23... while the Boilermakers' opponent, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, had the smallest roster in all of Division I. Not to mention that FDU (1) only made the tournament because the regular-season and tournament champ in its conference was ineligible for the NCAA tournament because it was transitioning from Division II, (2) was rated by the NCAA as the weakest team in the field, and (3) had to win a game two nights earlier in the First Four to get to play Purdue. This game was much closer than UMBC's blowout of UVA five years earlier, but it was no consolation to Purdue. Reality ensued for FDU against another relative David in 9-seed Florida Atlantic, which went one-and-done in its only previous tournament appearance back in 2002.
    • Also in 2023, Princeton became the third 15-seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen. First, they came back from a double-digit deficit in the last 8 minutes to shock 2-seed Arizona. Then, the Tigers scored a surprisingly easy win over 7-seed Missouri. Their luck ran out in the Sweet Sixteen against Creighton.
    • And that's not all. For the first time ever, no 1-seed reached the 2023 Elite Eight. That said, none of the other three teams that took out 1-seeds were what you'd call true "Davids".^note Arkansas over Kansas in the second round, and San Diego State over Alabama and Miami (FL) over Houston in the Sweet Sixteen.
    • On top of this, the 2023 Final Four featured three first-time participants, one of them being the aforementioned Florida Atlantic.^note The fourth team was UConn, a traditional power that capped off its emergence from a dry spell in the last half of the Tens with the natty. Ironically, the Huskies' 2023 championship run coincided with the end of the school's record of 14 straight women's Final Fours. FAU became the first team since George Mason in 2006 to make the Final Four in the same season it scored its first tournament win.
• Marion Bartoli does this with some regularity. Her 2013 Wimbledon win, however, is not a good example; Bartoli won the title over lower-seeded Sabine Lisicky, who arguably did most of the giant-killing by beating Serena Williams and 2012 finalist Agnieszka Radwańska.
• The 1960 World Series: The Pittsburgh Pirates were grossly outmatched by a New York Yankees team who outscored, outhit and outplayed them in almost every category except wins. The Yankees defeated them in three of the games with scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 but the Pirates' victories were close (and the Yankees still outhit the Pirates in 3 of those 4 wins). Game 7, which the Pirates won 10-9, saw the first walk-off home run^note for non-baseball fans, a game-ending home run to end a World Series, and still the only one in a Game 7.^note  The only other walk-off homer to end a World Series, namely Joe Carter's shot that gave the Toronto Blue Jays the 1993 Series, took place in Game 6—meaning that if the Jays hadn't won that game, they still could have won the Series in Game 7.
• The 2019 Washington Nationals had this happen twice during their postseason run:
  • After making the playoffs as the first wild card, few expected the Nationals to get past the Los Angeles Dodgers, the number one seed in the National League and the team with 2nd best record in the 2019 MLB regular season, especially because they had a history of underperforming in elimination games and had not made it into the National League Championship Series in their franchise history; indeed, the Dodgers shut out the Nationals in Game 1 of the Division Series. However, the Nationals took Game 2, and after a loss in Game 3, the Nationals won two straight to advance to the NLCS for the first time in franchise history; where they proceeded to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals.
  • And then the Nationals faced the Houston Astros, who had the best record in the major leagues. The Nationals took Games 1 and 2 in Houston, and returned home to lose the next three games. Returning to Houston, the Nationals won Game 6 and 7 back in Houston for their first World Series championship in franchise history.
• The 2020 Carolina Hurricanes had this happen during a regular season NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs after both of their goalies went down with injuries and they had to resort to the EBUG — Emergengy Back-Up Goalie — who was a 42-year-old Zamboni driver who worked for the Leafs ^note  To be more specific, he worked for their farm team, the Toronto Marlies . David Ayres — the EBUG in question — allowed goals on the first two shots that he faced before stopping the next eight shots on goal and Caroline won the game 6–3, with Ayres becoming the first emergency goaltender to record a win in NHL history. The match lives in infamy with the Leafs fanbase to this day.
• Boxing:
  • Subverted with George Foreman vs Muhammad Ali. "Big George", at 6'3 and 215-220 lbs, highly cut and with incredible knockout power, was a heavy favorite against Ali. More than one sportswriter predicted that Foreman would literally kill Ali. This was due to both his intimidating physique and his last few wins - he had knocked out Joe Frazier and Ken Norton (who had both beaten Ali before) in a mere two rounds each. Ali ended up winning, and both in the lead-up and aftermath, pointed out that his opponent was bigged up more than he deserved. More specifically that A. Foreman's only noteworthy wins were the aforementioned two plus mid-level contenders Chuvalo and Peralta while Ali had a higher number of relevant wins, B. Ali had also beaten Frazier, Norton, and Chuvalo (albeit not as easily as Foreman), and most importantly C. the two of them were in fact almost the exact same size. Ali even managed to out-wrestle Foreman in the clinch.
    Ali: People talk about [George] like he's a giant. Foreman is 6-2½ I'm 6-2½. Foreman is 217 [pounds] when he's in shape. I'm 214 when I'm in shape.
  • David Haye at 6'3" and 215 pounds took on the 7'0", over 22 stone (310 pounds) Nikolai Valuev, the heaviest boxing champion in history — 'Goliath Versus Bigger Goliath' if you will. Even though he broke his wrist in the attempt he came out on top. "He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking." — Haye.
    • Every match David Haye had at heavyweight, really. Audley Harrison, Monte Barrett, John Ruiz, Dereck Chisora, Mark de Mori, and Arnold Gjergjaj all outweighed Haye by between 10 and 40 pounds in their respective fights—and all of them got crushed. His athleticism, skill, and insanely disproportionate punching power carried him to victory. The exception was when he challenged unified world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who was actually faster, harder-hitting, and at least as skilled as Haye, on top of being 6'6" and 245 pounds. Haye lost handily, though it should be noted that unlike most of Wladimir's opponents, Haye did manage to put in a decent showing by winning a few rounds and finishing the fight on his feet without major damage, which is a small victory.
  • Possibly the best example in boxing was Evander Holyfield vs. Nikolai Valuev. Holyfield was a bit smaller than Haye; Valuev, as noted, was seven feet tall and weighed over 310 pounds. Valuev also ended his career with a 50-2 record (having never been knocked down, stopped, or even UD'd) and 34 knockouts, so Muscles Are Meaningless was definitely not in effect. On top of this, Holyfield was 46, practically ancient by boxing standards; even taking on a respectable contender his own size at that age would have been considered extremely impressive, much less a world heavyweight champion over a foot taller than him, whose weight advantage over Holyfield was bigger than the advantage Holyfield would hold over a flyweight. Despite this, Holyfield put up a damn good fight and only lost by a close majority decision — and many commentators still contend that he won the fight. Valuev commented afterwards that Holyfield broke his ribs in the fight.
  • Inverted by Manny Pacquiao against the taller, longer-reaching Oscar de la Hoya on their December 8th, 2008 "Dream Match" for eight rounds. As ESPN's analysis put it in round 5, "Forget pull the trigger, De La Hoya doesn't even have a gun." Inverted again, this time against Antonio Margarito in the Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight; Margarito weighed in at 18 pounds heavier after rehydration (147 vs 165) and was 6 inches taller (5'5 vs 5'11). Pacquiao did such a good job in the fight that pictures of a Asian boxer are currently going around while people claim it's really Margarito. It is.
  • Perhaps the most extreme examples (and one of the earlier ones caught on film) was the title bout between Jess Willard and Jack Dempsey in 1919. Many people thought the fight would be a mismatch as Willard had about 6 inches and 60 pounds on the smaller Dempsey. Instead Dempsey unleashed perhaps the most savage and brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in boxing history on Willard and forever etched his legend into boxing lore. To this day Dempsey's name is synonymous with the words "ruthless" and "relentless" in boxing circles, and many latter-day fighters such as Mike Tyson purposefully adopted and imitated a number of Dempsey's mannerisms.
  • Speaking of Mike Tyson, he was exceptionally short for a heavyweight, with a short reach, meaning he was often the smaller fighter and yet routinely destroyed his opponents. While him losing to mid-level contender Buster Douglas at the height of his career is shocking, it is less so when you consider that Douglas had 4-5 inches of height, a lot of reach, and around 15 pounds of muscle on Tyson. Even more so when you consider that the death of Douglas' mother inspired Buster to make a once-in-a-lifetime effort in the ring that night.
  • Rocky Marciano vs. Joe Louis in 1951, both ways. On one hand, Louis was more experienced, stronger, and much bigger, at 6'2" and 214 pounds to Marciano's 5'10" and 184 pounds (that fight wouldn't even be allowed today due to the weight disparity; the cutoff for heavyweight was changed to 191 pounds in 1979 and 201 pounds in 2003). On the other, Marciano was younger by nearly a decade, and was noted for his extreme level of stamina. Louis had in fact come out of retirement the previous year to fight Marciano, and while Louis wasn't totally out of practice (he had beaten eight fighters in the preceding year) and still possessed his signature power, his stamina and speed had noticeably degraded. Louis was slightly favored to win, and got in a few good licks early on, but Marciano came to dominate the fight and knocked Louis out in the eighth round.
  • Similar story with Evander Holyfield vs George Foreman in 1991. Both were top-ranked heavyweights, but Foreman had such a big advantage in both experience and size on Holyfield that it was ridiculous- he went into the fight at 257 pounds with a 69-2 record, while Holyfield was 208 pounds with a 25-0 record.^note To give you some idea for how insane a disparity of 50 pounds is: the max allowable size of a welterweight (147 pounds) is also about fifty pounds less than the max allowable size of a cruiserweight (200 pounds), with that range encompassing six modern weight classes (welter, super welter, middle, super middle, light heavy, cruiser). The disparity is even greater when you consider only heavyweight experience, i.e. fights where their opponent weighed over 200 pounds (Holyfield was a former cruiserweight champion, not heavyweight, and Foreman's career started in an era where heavyweight started at 175 pounds instead of 200 pounds as it does today); in that case Foreman's record was 52-2 and Holyfield's was 7-0. Balancing this out was that Foreman was 42 years old while Holyfield was just shy of 30- while Foreman was if anything even stronger and tougher than he was in his youth (he did gain 40 pounds, after all), he was also slower. While it wasn't totally one-sided, Holyfield consistently beat Foreman to the punch with his superior reflexes and had him severely hurt in the later rounds, while not allowing himself to fall victim to the One-Hit Kill Megaton Punch of his giant opponent as future champ Michael Moorer would. He outboxed Big George for a win by unanimous decision.
  • Alexander Povetkin vs Dillian Whyte, the first time around. Povetkin was a great heavyweight and the #1 contender in his prime (which still wasn't enough to get past Klitschko), but was 41 years old and on his last legs. Whyte was a top 5 ranked heavyweight at the time of their fight, the WBC's interim champion, nearly 10 years younger than Povetkin, and bigger; 6'4/250 pounds vs 6'2/225 pounds. Whyte smacked the older man around for most of the fight, with Povetkin getting in a few good hits but mostly just being dominated, with Whyte even flooring him twice in the fourth round. But Povetkin had been studying his opponent all night and put some of that old-timer skill to use when he perfectly set up a left uppercut to get through Whyte's guard in the fifth. Showing that power is the last thing to go in a boxer, that one great punch was all it took to send Whyte to the canvas unconscious in one of the cleanest knockouts ever caught on film. It's arguably Povetkin's career-defining victory.
• Randy Couture's Mixed Martial Arts victory over Tim Sylvia, a man seven inches taller, forty pounds heavier, and thirteen years younger. It was a one-sided beatdown and secured Couture his third UFC title reign.
• "Big man versus small man" MMA fights are very popular in Japan. Fedor Emelianenko (180 cm and usually fighting around 105 kg/230 lbs) has faced and defeated the aforementioned Tim Sylvia (203 cm), Mark Hunt (125 kilos), Zuluzinho (201 cm and 177 kilos!), and Choi Hong-man (166 kilos and an unbelievable 218 cm)... all in one round each. He also has a notable win by decision over Semmy Schilt (212 cm and 133 kilos). However, the smaller man in these matches is invariably far more skilled than his opponent and highly favored to win.
  • Eventually inverted in both men's cases. Couture moved back to light heavyweight after losing the heavyweight title to Brock Lesnar (who was at least fifty pounds heavier and a mountain of muscle) and Fedor was completely dominated by Antonio Silva (194 cm and 130 kilos). In early days of MMA big fighters usually coasted on their size (or in case of Hunt and Schilt were kickboxers with almost no grappling skill) and could be defeated by smaller, skilled guys. Modern Goliaths like Lesnar, Alistair Overeem, and Antonio Silva bring both size and skill, meaning former heavyweight greats who weigh around 100 kg (Fedor, Mirko Cro Cop, Couture, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira) are no longer as dominant as they used to be.
  • The secret is that unlike kickboxing an MMA fight can go to the ground, where the height and weight can sometimes be a disadvantage when grappling there. While Fedor basically slugged out Zuluzinho and Sylvia on their feet, Choi actually took Fedor down and Hunt almost submitted Fedor on the ground before he eventually came back to beat them on the ground.
  • There was also the 2009 Super Hulk Tournament where four guys of varying lighter weights were put up against four apparent behemoths — middleweight Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa against Bob Sapp, middleweight Gegard Mousasi against Mark Hunt, light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou against Jan "The Giant" Nortje, and the debuting ex-Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco against Choi Hong-man; with the exception of the untrained, mid-40s Canseco all of the "Davids" won, complete with Bob Sapp (getting a bye thanks to the "injured" Mousasi withdrawing) being eliminated twice, and the finals are between the middleweight Minowa and light heavyweight Sokoudjou.
• These fights happen all the time in K-1 kickboxing, where the only weight classes are at 70 kilos and unlimited. This has lead to such notable matchups like Mighty Mo (slightly over 6 feet) vs Choi Hong Man (towering over 7 feet), where Mo KO'd the Korean giant with a single punch, Kaoklai Kaennorsing (80 kilos) vs Mighty Mo (at 130 kilos), where Kaoklai knocked Mo out with a flying kick to the head, and Nicholas Pettas (at less than 6 feet) vs Kim Young Hyun (almost as big as the aforementioned Choi Hong Man) where Pettas thrashed the Korean giant with a fury of ruthless kicks.
  • Speaking of K-1, Kid Yamamoto of the now-defunct K-1 Hero's and now, DREAM promotions made it a point to fight at the 155 lb. weight class, while he walks around at 143 lbs and 5'4". He fights people who weigh in at 155 lbs. and regain all their water weight before the actual fight (we're talking 10 pounds or so, here). He has a record of 17-1 - I think you can figure out the rest. 20 pounds isn't that huge of a number but size definitely matters in this sport. That's why there ARE weight classes.
  • Japanese MMA fighter Kazushi Sakuraba was famous for this. The guy was a natural welterweight (i.e. 170-ish pounds when cutting water for a weigh-in, walking into the fight at 185-ish pounds) and usually fought guys who, in UFC terms, would be at least a weight class above him, sometimes multiple. He actually lied about his weight to qualify for the UFC Japan heavyweight tournament, which he entered at 183 pounds (claimed to be 203)... before submitting the 240-pound Marcus Silveira (who was himself a BJJ black belt) in his first fight and ultimately winning the tournament. He went on to defeat many notable light heavyweights and heavyweights of the 2000s including Kevin Randleman, Vitor Belfort, and Quinton Jackson. Taking fights at a size disadvantage often screwed him over though, e.g. three straight knockout losses to Wanderlei Silva (who was naturally two weight classes above him).
• Somewhat a case of "Goliath Versus Bigger Goliath", but Cain Velasquez (6 foot 1, weighed in at 244) defeated Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight championship (6 foot 3, weighed in at 264 and by his own admission weighed 280-290 lbs in the ring) when his wrestling skill was at least roughly on par with Lesnar's but his striking skill was that much better. It should be noted that heavyweight has a much, MUCH wider range of allowed weights than any other weight class - anything between 205 and 265 pounds is a heavyweight (the next biggest jump is middleweight to light heavyweight - 185 to 205 pounds).
• Played straight and ultimately inverted by Royce Gracie. With an unimpressive-looking physique and anywhere from 175 to 180 pounds (he'd be a middleweight under the modern weight classes), he didn't look very imposing. In fact, that's why Rorion Gracie, the founder of UFC, chose him instead of Rickson to be their torchbearer, to prove that the style could overcome physical limitations. For a while, it looked like the classic scrappy-little-guy-finds-a-way-to-prevail story. Then a few ugly facts entered the picture... like, while he may not have been massive, he had tremendous speed, flexibility, stamina, and toughness, and he had tremendous strength for a middleweight. Not to mention that he was a master of ground fighting, something most of his opponents didn't know the first thing about. By the time UFC 5 rolled around, he was downright legendary, so much so that Ken Shamrock was frightened of him. This was almost certainly the main reason Gracie was able to escape with a draw in their matchup, as Shamrock (who actually had a pretty good chance of winning) was too intimidated to get any real offense going.

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