Extremely popular but not great fighters

Putting Norton on this list is crazy

 

Old George Foreman

 

A lot of the guys mentioned were not the greatest fighters obviously,but they were in great fights.

 

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William Harrison Dempsey?

 

Good list .. I would have left out Vazquez tho .. Great fighter, solid resume, and the wars with Marquez were all time

 

I'll start with guys who were on TV every time they fought during the 80's. B.Chacon, Boza-Edwards, F Fletcher, Hardrock Green, J.Garza, R.Lockridge. R.Mayweather, J.Mugabi, Marvin Johnson, R.Limon, R.Mancini, R.Blake,H.Arroryo.,M.Starling, Tex Cobb, Of course Cooney, H.Davis jr. M.Paul, M.Hamsho,R Roldan, And their were so many others that were a staple of weekend fighte during that era. None of them should be considered "great". But everyone were worth watching.

 

Barry McGuigan
Steve Collins
Nigel Benn
Carl Froch
Johnnie Tapia

 

Art Hafey

 

I'm not debating Graziano deserves to be on the list. I actually think he is a poster boy for it .. My point is and was the Norton was a top world class heavyweight , gave Ali and Holmes their toughest fights, likely beat Ali two out of three and the third should have been a draw, beat a prime Jimmy Young so he was a great fighter. I'd pick him over many of the men that ever held the heavyweight title ... on the other hand he really was not a huge draw on his own, more based on who he would fight so he is the opposite of who belongs on this list.

 

Good post .. I remember those days so well .. that being said I think we need to define a line between good fighters and over rated fighters that were popular .. Chacon, Boza-Edwards, R Mayweather, M Johnson, M Starling were all terrific fighters, maybe not great but certainly very , very good and top world class .. the next group, in varying degrees, were not . Mancini falls into the category of a borderline as does Czyz, a Cooney is an undecided as they threw away what could have been a prime so we don't know, Fletcher, Cobb, Mugabi and many others were exciting guys that brought game but were limited .. it's an interesting subject (in my opinion) ..

 

Starling stands out on this list as "which one does not belong." He wasn't all that popular. And he was more skilled than the others on the list, save. Mayweather. But he had the durability Roger could only dream of having. At times he was underrated. Two guys he knocked off, Breland and Honeyghan deserve to be on such a list ahead of Starling.
I think Lockridge is underrated, as well. Other than, the wipeout against Laporte his 80s resume is extremely solid up to the Lopez fights, when he was past prime.

The quality of opposition was so high in that era, so many high quality matches were made that it was almost. Impossible to come out unscathed.

 

Art Aragon, Joe Miceli,Henry Hank ,Ralph Tiger Jones.