1980"s H-weights..who was biggest wasted talent?

Tim Withersoon. Greg Page. Pinklon Thomas. Those are my top 3. All had enormous potential, I thought.

 

dokes

 

Most people would probably say Page, and he was very talented and simply blew it. But to me I would pick Tim Witherspoon.

 

I think Witherspoon is my guy out of those three. He showed terrific speed and mobility against Holmes, but needed to keep himself around 220.

Thomas didn't have the right hand I thought, or the mobility. Page wasn't that good when he came in at what most deemed a reasonable weight for him.

Witherspoon had what was needed when coming in at a reasonable weight, but his gut looked like a bas-relief map by the time he climbed up to 234 for Bruno. "Please Tim, don't raise your arms when Bruno gets stopped! That's a BAD look for you! Just get your robe right back on quickly, so we don't have to see that!"

 

Johnny du Plooy

 

Dino Dennis. With higher level training, he could have been a better version of Mike Tyson.

 

Witherspoon was the King of the Lost Generation. Although you do wonder whether he would be in good enough condition to show up to his Coronation...

 

Yep, excellent point, he should of been better than Mike, Iowa Mike Tyson...

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=22474&cat=boxer

 

Witherspoon had it all .. naturally gifted ... big, strong, a terrific chin, big power, excellent defense ... he simply did not train or have the fire in his belly ...

there is a reason why Larry Holmes was a great fighter while fighting the same fight against Don King as the rest and that was his heart and determination ... he had more than the rest combined ..

 

Tim Witherspoon and Pinklon Thomas should have had better results in their careers.

 

Gerry Cooney, we hardly knew you......He could of been the 1st 100 million fighter if he had Gil Clancy early on.

 

Wasted talent is a bit strong in most cases. The number one reason why a fighter does not reach his potential in profesional boxing is match Making not wasted talent.

With perfect match Making Carl the truth williams and Tony Tucker could have really been something.

The trouble is in heavyweight there is this circuit of unbeaten prospects constantly treading water. It is not so much that they are protected its that there is a lack of money and influence to land learning fights with world class veterans an are often forced to take title shots unprepared.

 

Cooney

 

Excellent comment!:good

Cue mention of Ken Norton HERE.

Again, cue Norton, who was dropped or staggered a number of times in his first 29 bouts, mostly at his San Diego home base outside the mainstream spotlight, almost always on the Pacific coast. [He only came to the Atlantic side for JQ, Stander, Ali III, Bobick and Cooney, and left the States just to challenge Foreman in Caracas.]

Going into Garcia I, he was 16-0 with 15 KOs. Then he suffered a bad stoppage defeat. He was already 26 years old, the same age many believe Frazier actually peaked at for Ellis I. But he was back in there pitching leather the next month, and took his first quartet of ten round decisions in his next 11 to get his first major exposure against Henry Clark on the Ali-Bob Foster undercard at age 29. Kenny closed out his 20s with his signature upset of the GOAT.

I don't know that a Norton could be produced in more recent times under media glare from amateur competition onwards. Despite his look [which was a huge commercial asset after he reached the big time], he was a slower starter than Frazier, and came up the ladder with extended bouts against journeymen and veterans on the downhill slide. Questions about his chin and punch would plague him throughout his career, and may have been insurmountable obstacles if all those early bouts up to Clark were televised to a wide audience.

Norton doesn't appear to have been the beneficiary of any fixed fights coming up the ladder, but recognition of his limitations seem to have been realized with selective match making.

"When a fighter's undefeated, there's something wrong."-Billy Conn. Not only was Rocky Marciano the first HW Champion with a perfect record, he was actually the very first HW Title challenger with an unblemished mark! [Much overlooked fact in the aftermath of his reign.] Then the floodgates opened and reversed matters. It didn't just become important to be undefeated, but also to have never been knocked down or stopped before getting a title shot over the next few decades with increasing significance.

Now, Tony Tucker was injury prone, and went in against Tyson with a broken right hand. He had a long slow pull up the ladder, but he also enjoyed a high early profile before going off-TV. Unfortunately, he was on television when the Danny Sutton fiasco occurred. His best shot came with Steward, but he and father Bob didn't stick with Manny. Take the good with the bad where TNT is concerned though. He also owes the fact of his mere existence today to having always been injury prone. A bum shoulder prevented him from perishing on March 14, 1981 on LOT Flight 7 in Warsaw at age 21. [A car crash the previous week also spared the life of 18 year old Bobby Czyz from sharing that early fate with Tucker.]

Following Tyson, Tucker took over two years off. Like Foreman, he didn't handle defeat particularly well, not getting back on the horse very quickly. One's recovery from defeat can also be a matter of greatness. Norton's rebounds from Foreman [Kirkman], Ali III [Bobick] and Shavers [LeDoux] were respectable enough. [He did barely make it to the end against LeDoux, but did more than enough in sweeping the first seven rounds to merit a UD win, and clearly would have on neutral turf.]

Carl Williams? He simply didn't have the punch resistance of an Ali or Holmes. Larry keyed him with some booming body shots, then Weaver destroyed him with a single hook. Carl had the height, reach, speed and skill, but not the durability. Bert Cooper absolutely should have stopped him, but it turned out to be Carl's unlikeliest career win. [Bert's the guy who really should have been something, with Frazier's fire lit under his arse.]