Underrated Tomato Cans

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by BillB, Feb 28, 2016.

  1. LXEX55

    LXEX55 Active Member Full Member

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    Ron Stander. He could have cracked the top ten had he trained seriously. The guy had decent power and a great jaw. He kayoed Shavers early in their careers. He backed Frazier up in their fight and I believe staggered him in the first round. After that fight, he sunk deeper and deeper into depression and gained more and more weight.
     
  2. turpinr

    turpinr Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    The Bootle Bulldog was indeed a tough lad
     
  3. BillB

    BillB Well-Known Member Full Member

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    It sounds like Shavers was a punching bag for tomato cans.
     
  4. BillB

    BillB Well-Known Member Full Member

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    How about Pete Rademacher?
    He served as a can for Patterson.
     
  5. Alexandrow Vids

    Alexandrow Vids Member Full Member

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  6. heerko koois

    heerko koois Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    :yep
     
  7. Titan1

    Titan1 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Greg Page was shot after 1985. He was never the same fighter after that time.
     
  8. Bonecrusher

    Bonecrusher Lineal Champion Full Member

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    Notice I said "completely" shot lol..

    He was still competitive as late as 92 when he gave Ruddock a few issues. When he lost to Wills In '86 he was only 28!! I went wild when he knocked out Terrance Lewis in 2000!!!! Sad what would happen to Greg only a couple of years later.
     
  9. Saintpat

    Saintpat Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Props for mentioning Malcolm "Flash" Gordon. I'd love to read a "whatever happened to" on him. Fascinating character.

    You offhandedly also dropped Ossie Ocasio's name -- he was in over his head against a Holmes who was rising into his prime, but OO deserves discussion in this thread. I think most would regard him as a ham-and-egger, if not a can, but look closer and it's far from the case.

    He upset Jimmy Young twice, drew with Dokes (was KO'd in one in the rematch). He dropped down to cruiser and won a vacant WBA title, which he defended a few times. After losing it, he beat Dwight Muhammad Qawi and got beaten up by a young Evander Holyfield.

    OO then made a move back up to heavy almost a decade after losing to Holmes and was viable enough to split a pair of decisions with Pierre Coetzer, take Ray Mercer to a split decision and fell into journey survivorman mode.

    I'll toss out Lorenzo Zanon as a "can" who is, truly, underrated: he shut out Jerry Quarry until getting caught in the ninth, made Holmes look bad and IIRC was competitive with Norton until he was taken out -- Zanon had no chin, but a couple of good Euro-circuit wins and awkward skills to go with surprising hand speed (but no power).
     
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  10. Nighttrain

    Nighttrain 'BOUT IT 'BOUT IT Full Member

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    Ocassio was thrown into the pit. Holmes was his 14th fight! I wonder what he could have done.
     
  11. fists of fury

    fists of fury Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Ocassio honestly wasn't a bad boxer at all. He was sneaky and crafty and I remember watching him take a very much deserved decision over the bigger and stronger Pierre Coetzer in Cape Town.
    Ocassio was a cherry pick but it went very wrong for Coetzer, who simply could not deal with Ocassio's guile. I remember that in the rematch Coetzer just outworked Ossie but at no point in the 20 rounds they fought was Ocassio in any danger.
    Coetzer was not a big puncher, but he could hit and hurt heavyweights without great chins.

    Anyway...Ocassio certainly was no can. Not by definition at least.
     
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  12. foreman&dempsey

    foreman&dempsey Boxing Addict banned

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    Sonny liston
     
  13. Saintpat

    Saintpat Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    I agree, but I think a lot of people perceive him to be one -- the topic being underrated cans, I figured he'd be worth throwing into the discussion.
     
  14. SmackDaBum

    SmackDaBum TKO7 banned Full Member

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    Which tomato cans knocked out promising fighters?
     
  15. foreman&dempsey

    foreman&dempsey Boxing Addict banned

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    i was going to say jaco did with ruddock but then i did remember that ruddock was a bum as well