Follow up to FuryFTW's thread. Should be pretty simple. I'd say my example is Michael Watson. Watson was the best Brit MW of that era imo, he absolutely pieced Benn, and deserved the nod in the first Eubank fight. In the dreaded rematch he was absolutely schooling Chris, and after 7/8 was plain beating him up. That 11th round is one of the best ever, and that uppercut was horrific. Had he not got brain damage, he'd have beaten Chris and then gone on to do better things. You can bring up the McCallum loss, but let's be real; Mike would've done that to any of those 3, and that showed how special he was. I'd have picked him over a few top guys at that time. McClellan and Graham being the best of them.
I think Kell Brook is underrated. I also think that Anthony Fowler is underrated too. Both are world class fighers who have not realised anything close to their full potential. I also think that Daniel Dubois will do alot better than people think he will.
Robin Reid... good win over nardiello for the wbc title. great win over Henry Wharton. Gave calzaghe all he could handle and definitely should have taken Sven ottke’s unbeaten record and his wba/ibf titles if not for some shocking refereeing and dodgy judges
Paul Hodkinson. There's no way in hell Michael beat Eubank in the first fight, he was absolutely schooled until Eubanks ran out of steam (they both struggled to make weight - Watson kept his weight down all camp looking gaunt and Chris didn't, choosing to lose all his in the last few days!) He did really well with ring rust against a sharp McCallum, and then fought far beyond what we'd seen from him before in the Eubank rematch; after learning body movement, attacking on the diagonal and combination clusters from new trainer Tibbs on pads. He looked carved from stone at White Hart Lane, huge!
I nearly smashed my tv when they announced the Ottke decision. Blatant cheating. Reid was a very good fighter.
Actually watch the fight, don't listen to celebrities and newspaper journalists at the time who didn't know boxing. Eubank won the first five on all three judges cards, Michael landing only one clean punch in those 15mins (long right lead in the 3rd when Eubank was in some weird posture) and not one single punch in the 7th, was wobbled a few times in the 5th and 9th from perfect shots but Eubank couldn't get his legs balanced to finish him. It was an awful performance from Michael in all honesty, he just plodded, was tentative to throw the jab with authority from the 2nd round on due to a stinging left hook counter from a smirking Eubank. He was really disappointing, it wasn't the great heroic performance he put in against McCallum.
Anthony Fowler is world class ? He is nearly 30 years of age and got beat in his only real test against a guy who is British standard imo.
Mad post. Brook is probably overrated if anything. Won a razor tight call against Porter and has done nothing else in his entire career except pine after a shot to bits Amir Khan. Stepped up once properly at welter and got schooled by Spence. Apart from GGG permanently rearranging his face for him he's done nothing else in boxing. Fowler is European level, Fitz was out every night boozing and still beat him in his back yard. And surely everyone think Dubois will be a world champion anyway? I know I do, he's only 22.
Come on, Brook didn't get schooled by Spence. Destruction is going based on his ability and he's right, given his ability he has been underrated. Shame his career has panned out as it has, but theres no doubt he was/is a true world class fighter.