Fighters who left you with a bitter taste for having totally or partially wasted their talent

Heavy handed, tough and great instincts, the kind that can't be taught.

Preferred to surf and blaze the hippie lettuce more than get punched in the face.

 

Though I rooted against him... I wish that Hamed had given his career a second chance after his loss to Marco Antonio B.

 

Elisha Obed- the worst managed fighter of all time combined with being completely devoid of common sense. Watch his destruction of Tony "KO King" Gardner I uploaded to YouTube and you can see his effortless floating movement and blinding hand speed and you can see how good he could've stayed if he hadn't burned himself out on fighting too often out of greed, wine, women and more women, plus losing his original trainer, Moon Robinson. The clutch and grab journeyman of the early 80's is a far cry from the destructive machine of the mid 70's.

Lionel Butler- an absolute wrecking machine who fought way under his potential. Legendary story of his sleeping at a Trap House in Sacramento the week before his fight against Lennox Lewis and selling his ring gear after the fight to pay off the dealers.

Walter Moore- had he not delayed his career for seven years and wasted some prime years, I think he would've worked his way into a title shot and some good wins in the mid 70's and we'd have some good fights on tape to reflect on.

 

I know he's been mentioned already, but Eddie Mustafa Muhammad really pissed me off, as I was quite the fan of his.

 

I was at that fight. I Moorer fought Melvin Foster on the same card. I wondered why Butler didn't do more in his career. I was at the Hyatt in Sacramento when Lewis party arrived after the fight.

 

Max Baer

 

Mike Tyson
John Conteh
Ricky Hatton

 

I still think that if Corrie Sanders had taken his career more seriously with a better promoter, we might have been looking at him as one of the defining fighters of his era.

 

I might have said this before because I always thought it. Hector Camacho. Although, Hector was so smart maybe he knew he did not have the offense to compete in the higher weights so he became more defensive. In boxing, some guys who didn't do well might have done ok had they known how to handpick. It is an art, but knowing which styles to fight can help a fighter go further. Especially today where there are not many good fighters.

 

Edwin Valero
Ike Ibeabuchi
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Joan Guzman
Yuriorkis Gamboa
Andre Dirrell
Chad Dawson

 

#1
Ill start with Hector Camacho, one of the most physically gifted boxers in history though he had a good career it should've been so much more.
#2. James Toney if he had 75% of the desire and decipline of Marvin Hagler he maybe still Middle/Super middleweight champ.
#3 Aaron Pryor. At the peak of his greatness, after one of the greatest fights in history is found roaming the streets in Over town ( Miami) looked for his next fix.
#4 Riddick Bowe. ATG ability but the desire of pee wee Herman. Could also apply to Greg Page, Mike Dokes
#5 Ike Ibeabuchi. Couldn't control his demons. Tony Ayala also fits this criteria.
#6 Floyd Mayweather jr. If one is looking at the number of wins and being undeafeated one would think he is a top ten ATG. But real fight fans look deeper, and we realize his career, esp at the higher weights was smoke and mirrors...

# 7 Ray Leonard. Is an ATG and for a short career is one of the best in history when one looks at who he fought and when he fought them. But if he had stayed active and not fallen into feeling sorry for himself that lead into drugs and partying his career should've been so much more. Who beats him? He had already defeated the best Welterweight s and jr.middle weights available. Their was no one on the horizon that could compare to the fighters he had already beaten. The only threat to him was father time and complacency.

 

"Got his chin destroyed" ROFLMAO Ortiz got up laughing
Floyd couldnt break an egg. If he'd had a ko punch he may have seriously hurt or even killed Ortiz with that cowardly act

 

Ike Ibeabuchi certainly was. He could have ruled the Heavyweight div for years after Lewis retired. It was sad not only for Ike but for Curtis Cokes who took Ike, a crude brawler & formed him into a great boxer puncher. Curtis was like Manny Steward with Lennox. he primed him to rule the HW division

 

Every boxer has a weakness

Ike's was mental sanity

 

Ike final straw was that BS attempted **** conviction & being kept heavily sedated for months while they tried harrassing him to cop a plea promising him he'd be back boxing in 6 months. He finally capitulated & pleaded no contest. Then that woman judge sold him down the river.
Ike was no angel but neither was he the monster they claimed he was