80's heavyweights..

Who do you feel squandered the most talent of that underrated crop of 80's heavies?

 

Of all of those 1980's title contenders (outside of Holmes/Tyson) I think most of them just wasted their potential. I've always thought of Greg Page as being the best of the lot talent wise. Just wasn't dedicated enough.

That's one credit I've always given Mike Weaver. I think he was a journeyman at best, but I do think he was always in shape and trying 100%.

 

There were quite a few. Dokes, Tubbs, Tucker to some extent, Douglas, Page, Thomas and of course Tyson. Green was just a headcase with a big mouth but stylistically he presented challenges for a young green Tyson.

He fought Tyson when he was still very young and inexperienced and Tyson came up in an era of Ali copy cats so it made it more difficult for a pressure fighter to overcome and learn how to deal with mobile boxers, especially very tall ones like Green who was 6'5.

 

It could have been a golden era had these guys not sniffed or drank or ate away their talent.

 

I remember in the early-mid 90's when Green was supposed to face Shannon Briggs but pulled out of the fight suddenly. Green did that a lot. But without him we wouldn't have The Warriors.

 

To realise a potential a fighter has to have opportunity so immediately we must erase all the talented fighters who did not get the best opportunities from the search for a 1980s heavyweight who “threw it all away”. There was a lot of talent around. To find the most talented fighter who threw it all away we must look for a heavyweight who got the easiest road to a title fight and then blew it - and there was a lot of them.

Greg page actually had a very hard run to the title. Look at all the competitive fights he had against very decent guys like Larry Alexander, Marty Monroe, Stan ward and defending a USBA title with something at stake. This was no bull**** 20-0 bottom feeding record that many 80s heavyweights like tucker, tubbs, carl Williams, Frank Bruno and even Mike Tyson were raised on initially. If Greg blew it against witherspoon and berbick he’d already had a lot of tough fights and still beat Coetzee, snipes and Tillis when they were all good.

Guys like weaver, smith and berbick never were supposed to be champions, you just had to be good to beat them and of course each had paid their dues before wining titles. Coetzee Kod Spinks, lost to Tate and weaver before knocking out dokes. Even Thomas beat Tillis, drew with Coetzee, knocked out weaver before blowing it with berbick - a good fighter. Even john Tate Kod bobick, Mercado and kallie knoetze.

witherspoon only blew a rematch with smith in his prime, he'd already proved he was better than bones. Tim did not blow the Holmes fight and thomas was a good fighter when spoon lost to him.

What I want to know is what exactly did Tony Tubbs and Michael Dokes do to get title fights? For me the biggest waste of talent who blew it is out of those two. They bypassed a lot of tough guys then blew it.

 

Were you around boxing at that time or are you merely looking through boxrec?

 

yes I was around at the time. WERE YOU?

lots of good fighters but too many belts up for grabs. Dokes and Tubbs were talented but over rated somewhat IMO.

 

They've got nothing on Sugar Kevin Johnson & Eddie Chambers, right?

 

Especially Dokes, who power was somewhat a little above average when he won the title.

 

Mitch Green just had a couple of bad breaks.Definitely tougher than Tony Tucker at one point.

 

Dokes late career showing against Evander shows what he could have done had he dedicated himself as a young un.

Page was really good too. Thomas had that super jab and people forget how good he used to be, he was even in the Ring Mag p4p top ten for a bit and considered Holmes heir apparant.

My personal fav of the 80's "B" group is Spoon though. Awesomely schooled fighter who came up the hard way through Phillys gyms. He was able to keep it together more than the rest though.

Tubbs is under rated nowadays. Top notch fighter he was.

 

That's absurd.

 

Tubbs and Dokes were better than both of those two:good
However by 1980s standards at the time dokes got weaver and later when Tubbs got page I felt (because I was there) that there were contenders just as worthy with better credentials. The talent was there but the resume was thin for both. Don’t get me wrong, I watched Dokes blow John L Gardner away on world of sport on a Saturday afternoon and though he was going to be the next big thing but looking back it was not enough. He struggled with cobb and drew with ocasio who Gardner beat in albeit suspect circumstances andm that was it. Tubbs beat smith - big deal! The bowe fight was years away and he lost that!

 

Check out their pro debuts.