What Fighters Were You Wrong About?

Paul Williams. Incredibly tall for his weight category and regularly throws 100+ punches per round. This guy is unique, there's never been anyone like him. That's why I felt he would end up being one of the greats of this generation. But a devastating KO by Martinez and the tainted win over Lara have shattered all that. He clearly isn't as good as I thought he was.

 

A few years back I really liked Tokunbo Olajide to win a world title. Remember that guy?

Panchito Bojado is another talent who never made it.

 

Featherweight Angel Vasquez from the mid 90s. I saw him on USA Network's TNF three times. He beat Freddie Cruz, who had never been down, including his TKO-6 loss to Hamed. And Angel blew him out in three.
Then he fought another young prospect named Quinones, who was like 20-0 at the time. He didn't even break a sweat, knocking the guy out in four rounds. That made him like 16-0 with 15 KOs, and I just knew this guy was about to take the divsion by storm.
Then he had promotional trouble and only fought once in 98 and twice in 99. Finally he stepped up to fight Victor Polo a couple years later and jsut got embarrassed. Not KO'd or even ever in any trouble, he just couldn't touch the guy and looked awful. I think he quit after that.

 

Mijares, thought he was going to be on top for a long, long time and definitely beat Darchinyan. Then I thought he was going to come back to where he was before and that he'd only had a bad night with Darchinyan.

Tyson. I realize as an adult that he was great but not up there with Ali and Louis. He was the king of the sport for me when I was little and first paying attention. I talked about him constantly. When he went off the rails as a fighter, I was crushed. It still hurt by the time Holyfield knocked him out years later. It's silly to feel stupid, considering I was little, but I idolized the guy. Now, I think there's probably a very good chance prime for prime that Holyfield and Lewis still beat him. I think I was pretty wrong. Even up to a few years ago as a grown man, I probably rated him too highly, historically speaking.

I never saw Wladimir going this long without getting stopped by somebody. I couldn't have guessed he'd rule the division for years.

 

Luf, the fact that Bernard Hopkins at 47 is on top today, speaks more of lack of LH boxing talent TODAY. Sure he is terrific for his age, but only because boxing with few exceptions is at an alltime low. For example- if Hopkins were going against LHs of the 1940s ,such as Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore,Harold Johnson, Joey Maxim,Billy Conn, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall, etc, Hopkins would have been long retired. These guys above were great fighters, who would have persuades a 40ish Hopkins to fold it up years ago....

 

joe messi and the big turk samil sam. I didnt think they were ATG potential I just thought they could be as good as the champions around at that time. Belt holder level.

 

I thought Kelly Pavlik would be the next great middleweight. In fairness to me, Pavlik's career got derailed because of major alchohol abuse, not because of lack of talent.

 

Yeah, suuuure thing Lurleen Lumpkin.

 

I, too, thought Bojado was the next big thing, ea. Proof positive: 90% of an iceberg is below the surface.

 

Yet, Archie Moore was fine owning the lightheavy belt well into his 40's, after 100's of fights, in an era where there was more wear and tear and less medically known to treat it? Or it was great that old man Joe Walcott wore the greatest crown in sport at 38? An age comparable to someone in their early-40's today? Or even to defend an era wherein Don Cockell is a ranked heavyweight.

 

in the 1970s,80s and 90s jose urtain, randy neuman, Aldison rodriguez, micheal bentt were all ranked heavyweights because they beat rated fighters. You dont have to be a world beater to be a ranked heavyweight.

 

Sergio Martinez-I picked against him going into his fights against Bunema (Jesus Christ what was I thinking there?), Paul Williams II, and Pavlik and he proved me wrong each time.

When I saw Cory Spinks barely make it past 38 year old Rafael Pineda I didn't think he would ever amount to much but he racked up plenty of good wins against Mayorga, Judah, Gonzalez, and Karmazin and carved out a very respectable legacy for himself.

 

The recent fighters i would apply this to are Paul Williams who really should have been cleaning up as he says he came make anywhere from 147-160 with ease. His advantages over opponents is huge but i guess he doesn't really use them.

I thought that the Maidana fight was the end of Ortiz but at any point in 2010-11 i would have picked him over any of the other guys at 140 then his display against Bero sealed the fact he is a top guy around today.

 

Andrew Maynard. Sugar Ray Leonard agreed with me.

Riddick Bowe. After the night he beat Holyfield, I really thought he'd dominate a division that was shaping up to be at its most dangerous. But he had to go and listen to a PR pimp over an old school trainer.

John Mugabi, post-Hagler. It was only in retrospect that I realized how debilitating fighting Hagler could be.

There's a few; There's hundreds more by why look like a jerk-off? Happily, I was right about Pavlik, though a fan, and got on record about Williams' vulnerabilities right before Martinez made me a prophet.