Last month we saw Michael Sprott fight an excellent fight against a top pretender Alexander Dimitrenko. Sprott was being outgunned for the first 5 rounds, fighting flatfooted and eating about 20-30 jabs/round, while Dimi mixed in a few powershots here and there and kept Sprott outta range. But even in the early rounds where Dimitrenko was floating on springy legs, Sprott seemed determined to be the spoiler, and for all intents and purposes, he was. Being the first Blevel fighter to exploit the weaknesses of an upncoming pretender has got me wondering WHAT IF! There have been sooooo many excellent HW fighters throughout the past 30 yrs who have simply underachieved for whatever reason. Sprott, being handed his 16?th loss, is one of them. The following is a list of guys, whose talent and overall skill level was undermined by factors either their own fault, lack of dedication, or literally being paid to lose. Don't argue this, we all know it happens. #1 Corrie Sanders- his rare mix of unorthodox power, speed, and iron chin had him sending 3 world champions across the ring. He was the ONLY professional HW to ever KD Vitali Klitschko (debatable call by ref), and his abilities were only overshadowed by his poor mgmt and his lack of dedication to the sport. #2 Danny Williams- phenomenal power, solid beard and defense, couple with a never say die attitude elevated this fighter to wins in which the odds were stacked so highly against him that most fighters might have turned down such opportunity. His only setback was his lack of proper training and nutrition. Ballooning between fights and often times appearing to have been paid to lose. #3 Michael Sprott- skills, power, and heart. The tools to become a champ, but would fight down to his opponents almost never being consistent in the ring. #4 James Thunder- Power, power, power. Heart, chin, and speed. Dominating force when he had his heart and MIND in the ring with him. A fighters fighter, having fought future champions Akinwande, Ruiz, and give them all they could handle, often times The Sandman would come into the ring and fight as if he were being paid to lose. Poor mgmt, and DK, coupled with undertraining or being paid to take a dive seems to have kept this powerful Ironfist from becoming the Baddest Man on the Planet. #5 Oliver McCall- Climbed the tallest ladder by KOing the best fighter of our generation. Power, chin, and superb defense coupled with ringsmarts, excellent grappling ability, and the heart of a lion could have given us a futre Top 10 ATG.............drugs, and poor mgmt were his downfall. #6 James Buster Douglas- whether it was lack of discipline, laziness, or poor mgmt, the guy had ALL the tools to become an ATG. Hunger though, and not the good kind, seems to have been his achilles heel. #7 Denis Boystov- As much as I criticize him for the fights he TAKES, he could become a great. I don't think he is filled out, and should add about 15lbs to his frame, but whether it is his hands, his mgmt, or his lack of confidence, he seems to be heading in the direction of nowhereland real fast. #8 Fast:-( Fres Oquendo- Growing up in Chicago, in a BARRIO, LaRaza, Fres was the guy who was going to fulfill ALL our dreams. The young Mexican American with lightning speed and power to boot, Fres was exactly as his nickname deemed him. FAST. He rolled through contenders, solid journeymen and clubfighter as if they were straight up cans. Slick, fast, defensive CPer with ringsmarts to boot. Seemed like he was gonna conquer the world. Then on a warm April night, in what looked to be a title eliminator, Fast Fres showed up to the weight-in looking NOTHING like the 22-0 fighter I had been accustomed to. He was fighting a RAW, straightforward slugger with almost no other ability, David Tua. Tua, the shorter, but much bigger man was supposed to be facing a slick, fast boxerpuncher, but instead got a pillowbelly slow Oquendo who, while CPing effectively and winning the rds IMO, had lost his mobility and was a sitting duck for a TUA R hand. The outcome was forseeable and it happended as most thought it would. Fast Fres was NO longer the slick fast hard hitter, but instead, a blown up, slow plodding boxerpuncher whose future fell in midflight that very night. That's my list so far.....there are sooooo many more....Rodriguez looks to be falling into this category as well due to his poor mgmt, or overeagerness to get a K2. Keep em coming. Hw UNDERACHIEVERS who could-woulda-shoulda conquered the world, but didn't because either their heart wasn't in it, or their mgmt wouldn't let it happen.
Good one.........Seems Bowe could've been a better fighter had he stayed slim, but I've always thought that his **** poor defense caused him all those wars which damaged his brain to the point that he just couldn't get his mind right when it came to staying in shape, in and out of the ring.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USxJeHV1pd8[/ame] 7:20 of the video......Vitali on shaky legs....Sanders shoots a straight left which catches Vitali on the R side of his face, follwed instantly by a cuffing R hand, Vitali buckles, but wasn't pushed. KD in my book.....and I'm certainly one of Vitali's BIGGEST fans on this board. Luckily, statistically only, the ref saw the cuffing R instead of the straight L and called it a slip.
And I did write "arguably a KD". Your point is taken. Statistically it was not ruled a KD. Besides that......Sanders is boxing's worst undercheiver. Had the man come in shape to fight, dedicated himself to boxing, and not gassed after the 4th round in all his big fights, we might not even remember Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko, Haseem Rahman, and Wladimir, b/c an inshape Sanders, fully and completely dedicated to boxing would fare better than the version we saw destroy Wlad, give Vitali fits, be ducked by Tyson and Lewis, and almost send Rahman into obscurity.
If we're going HW underachievers then Golota is your man. He always found a way to screw up when it mattered.
James Toney. Exceptional skills and one of the best chins ever, but lack of dedication and self-discipline. Imagine if James Toney had the focus and training habits of a Roy Jones or a B-Hop.. sure, he probably would never have moved up to the HW division then, but I'm sure he would have ruled the MW, SMW and LHW divisions to this very day.
Ever since the 80's IMO. When Big George, and Larry Holmes would some out at 260+ looking fat, seemed from then on many a HW contender has come onto the scene with very little dedication to training and staying in shape between fights.
Definitely. He left CW at what 34-35 y/o right after Jirov I think. He coulda rule that 200- division until this very day.
IDK.....Golota, even though he showed a beard in the Bowe wars, couldn't stay standing long enough vs the harder hitting HW's. But I think your'e right....it was prolly more mental than lack of chin.
Yep. What a headcase. Later in his career, he actually showed a lot of heart in gutting out a win over Mike Mollo. Golota's eye was grotesque. Too bad he didn't have that type of heart (or mental stability) in tough fights when he was younger.
say what you want about his character, but zab judah would've been a potential atg if he had the mental fortitude and dedication to every facet of the fight game