Fights that you thought were going to be great fights you thought someone was going to win but performed miserably in Fighters that you thought were going to have a great career. Go ahead list them. Obviously mike Tyson's career is a big one so let's get the clichée out of the way. Some of mine: Joseph Parker's career and the fight vs Joshua. He has everything except killer instinct, him and fury are the only heavyweights today that aren't stiff or clumsy. The way he went after Whyte in the last roundgives me some hope Tito Trinidad vs DLH. In hindsight it makes sense DLH would use his legs but still... Jones vs Johnson Jones looked nothing like he did just months earlier in the first 2 rounds vs Taver before he got sparked. Had not gotten his coordination back clearly after that KO. Kovalevs career. His arrogance and lack of dedication has literally cost him his career. Blames everyone except himself. He had elite power and offensive skill. What a shame.
After Ali Frazier Foreman Spinks, Olympic Golds were supposed to become champs , so Ty Biggs was never gonna reach the expected heights.
Shane Mosley He was great , but not as great as i thought he'd be. He was supposed to become "THE MAN"
Frazier getting stopped by Foreman Holmes coming out of retirement for Tyson Franklin being shot for Braxton Duran being off against Benitez weather it was over training disinterested or something. He just didnt seem like he cared to be there that evening. Kalambay getting caught by Nunn Hearns not getting one over Barkley Hagler fighting stupid against Leonard Marquez and Barrera not fighting when Barrera wasnt heavy on the down slope. Ali Liston 2 not being postponed due to Ali's hernia Jimmy Young getting the decisions he deserved against Ali and Norton GGG getting the 2 victories he deserved against Canelo Pryor being clean in the first Arguello fight. Losing 15 rds Mancini not regaining his belt from the Rasta man. The Kim fight took alot out of his psyche . I'm sure theres more but that's what I came up with on the fly
Yup. I felt the mayorga fights possibly damaged him, probably psychologically. He just didn't look strong and confident in the rematch vs mayorga, legs looked weak too(like he hadn't recovered yet) I found the quarter fight especially dissappointing. Quartey had taken 5 years off and wasn't exactly slick
Good list. Disagree with some, for example I didn't think GGG deserved the decision in the rematch. 7-5 either way is plausible but really I as Canelo as the guy in control there and GGG as the guy who didn't look like he wanted to be there the first 8 rounds(I did have him winning 3 of the last 4 but he just didn't do enough before that to pull it off for me) I didn't think Duran was off vs Benitez. I think Benitez was Just a little too big and put in a great performance. Duran was just a bit past his best but visibly in very good shape, which was rare above 147 for him, had taken benitez seriously and trained on an island close to a prison for the fight and i think he just took a big counter early and then realized he couldn't rush this guy and then got outboxed. Duran is my favorite fighter by the way. Agree that Barrera was slipping but don't think a younger agressive Barrera would have done that much better, his "veteran slickness", ambushes and movement gave Marquez some trouble. Great fight.
Weaver--Dokes #1 comes to mind. Mike Weaver should have known exactly what was going to happen in that first round and fought, if possible, more defensively minded. He, or his corner, knew about those fast hands of Dokes and that quick left hook of his. Really a nice short and quick left hook and accurate as well. Weaver didn't need to even bother throwing a right hand for a few rounds. And they knew it was a title fight cross promotion against a DKP guy. And Arum sure didn't love Weaver and back him very much at all. So they would know they are not getting a break from the ref or on the scorecards. Just give away the early rounds and start to do things around the 5th round. He'd have had his hands full with Dokes early anyway but he needed to get the bout to the 10th round or so. And Dokes had already stopped using his legs by this point so strategy like the Coetzee bout was what was going to be required. And Weaver takes the same punches better as the bout goes on. Really different than most heavies and that was going to be needed against a Dokes. Being totally sweated up and raring to go wouldn't have hurt his cause either. He looked a little too dry and a stagnant during the pre-fight instructions. Not like a world champ defending his title---that was dokes who was fired up and ready. And Weaver always did that fly swatting parry defense of his. He was just so slow at it and rarely deflected a punch anyway. He'd swat a fly though and it'd literally occur when the opponent had already brought his arm back. Kind of like a real slow metronome. And his hands would not be in position to throw anything either. So a guy with handspeed like a Dokes is always going to present a major set of problems.
David Tua comes to mind. Disappointing performances against Lewis, Byrd and Rahman. Jeff lacy is another. Didn't see him losing every round to Calzaghe going into that fight. He was never the same after.
He did. He just got knocked out. The shot that knocked him out was a COUNTER right hand with tyson catch and countering spinks right hand. There just wasnt any way for him to win. He didnt have the right physical attributes. It wasnt obvious before the fight because spinks hadnt fought a guy as physical and agressive at HW, holmes was a boxer not someone who came to bring the pain early
He needed to be fully warmed up which would have helped him ship that first assault a bit better and be sharper. He wasn't even sweating. He also needed to punch back a bit more once he got up via your accurate portrayal of the circumstances. Realistically he wasn't overly hurt and took almost all the follow ups on his gloves. On any standard day the heavyweight champion would not have been stopped anywhere near this point. Weaver did not make the same mistakes in the rematch. He came in sweating heavily and got off first. Dokes then hurt him and dazzled him with handspeed but Weaver never stopped punching for too long. The bout actually settled down to the grind after 40 odd seconds after both had thrown their bombs. No big robbery but Weaver should have won the rematch by a point or two.
