Heavyweight contenders who you thinks should have been better

If Earnie Shavers was a more polished fighter and had more stamina he would be a World Champion.

 

Odlanier Solis is an obvious one. No pro heavy ever had an am career like that.

Dominic Guinn was a weird one. He had a granite chin and solid fundamentals, but basically stopped throwing enough punches to win after building up a nice rep. You'd think he could've been as good as Ruiz or Maskaev, but it didn't happen.


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Dominic Guinn has/had an interesting career. For a while looked like he was going to be the next big thing.

I think Guinn had something like 300 amateur fights. I think he was just burned out. He was old beyond his years.

 

That's true. I don't think he trained hard enough either. He still fights and I'm not sure if anyone has even knocked him down yet.



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Stan Ward
Duane Bobick
James Tills
Tyrell Biggs

 

Great post!!!

 

Greg Page came to mind immediately after reading the title of the thread.

 

Sorry lads I misread the title. It says contenders.

 

No problem. It becomes pretty difficult if we're calling someone a Champion because they held a belt post Muhammad Ali. Other people made the same mistake on a forum in which many are informed fans. It really makes you question what constitutes a champion, and if a belt suffices.

 

Mitch"Blood"Green should have at least won a USBA or NABF championship. If he got out of NYC, and had a better attitude, he may have even won the title.

 

This quote not only makes me hungry, but reminds me of a quote I remember from one of the Boxing magazines.

It was in reference to Page, not Tubbs, but they were both too often fat.

I believe it was penned by either Steve Farhood or Jeff Ryan and it was something like, "How did Page train for the fight?" "Do a sit-up, eat a twinkie. Do a push-up, eat a ho-ho. Run a mile, eat a Water Buffalo?"

LOLLLLLLLLLL

 

Maurice Harris - I really liked this kid and thought he was going to be something. He turned pro so young at 16 and had plenty of early losses, but he started finding his groove. The first time I saw him fight he stopped Jimmy Thunder and I was very impressed. Some more good wins followed like against Jeremy Williams and David Izon somewhere in there. But when Larry holmes was on his oldies tour he took on Harris and I felt Harris won, but Larry took a very disputed split decision. The KO loss to Derrick Jefferson - whom he had down - may have been the turning point. I think he went back into his journeyman mentality and that was it. But he had the size and skill to go so much further.

 

Good call. He was like the Emmanuel Augustus of heavyweights. His best win, against Liakovich, actually came after Jefferson though.



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The squad of the 80's heavies.

 

I'd say belt holders, sadly, aren't champions.
That being said, a lot of fighters post 1980 never reached their full potential due to drugs, politics, and a bit too much short term money too fast.

Going way back, I think Luther McCarty had tons of potential and would welcome an alternate history where he is champion.