Dave Tiberi vs James Toney. (I never saw Tiberi in the ring before and I never saw him again.) Micky Ward vs Arturo Gatti (first fight - the other two fights weren't very close and Ward never really looked good against anyone else who was good)
For the absolute idiots (by that comment, I mean just me, the OP) reading this thread... When you say a name... Who was the opposition fighter? I'm looking for some YouTube gold. So when people say "Honeyghan" I know exactly the fight you're talking about. But some other names, who was the opponent?
Jake The Snake Rodriguez. One night he was the finest fighting machine ever. Actually he upset somebody I don't recall who it was.
I dont think Turpin was Welsh! He lived in Leamington spa not far from me .I would pick Goya Vargas looked brilliant taking apart Hoko for the feather weight title but never seemed to reach that level again.
Turpin wasn't Welsh, but he did live there later on. Vargas looked like a beast against Hodkinson, but was then outslicked by Kelley who was in turn battered by the aforementioned Cobrita Gonzalez. I think in retrospect styles played a big part in all of this. Hoko's come forward, slugging style was made for the granite-chinned Vargas, who was too slow for Kelley, who was overwhelmed by Gonzalez' pressure. All good fighters, but ultimately all missing vital ingredients required for greatness that would be exposed by the wrong fighter on the wrong night.
Mavrovic comes to mind. Tough guy in that Lewis fight and then the career was over. I'd only seen like 3 of his bouts prior to Lewis and really didn't think of him as much more than a spoiler or guy tough to look good against. But he was better than that.
Hasim Rahman against Kali Meehan (not Lewis). Sergei Liakovich against Brewster. Paul Spadafora against Pito Cardona. Dominic Guinn against Dokiwari (one or two other good fights). Allan Green against Jaidon Codrington.
