The other option was getting his ass kicked by Spence without the GGG payday first. I guess he could've let himself be stripped in order to fight Khan or Cotto.
agree. For all his shortcomings David Tua was at least an exciting fighter to watch. Why people paid money to see Ruiz in multiple title fights is beyond me.
Was expecting a long illustrious career from Goyo Vargas after the convincing victory over " Hoko " a good fighter himself, he looked like he had the tools and skills to reign for a long time, but not to be sadly.
Jose Luis Lopez. The man had toughness, talent and serious power. He had a lackadaisical commitment to the sport that saw him fall short of what he could’ve achieved. Actually a guy who López gave fits to in Ike Quartey fits this bill too. His underachieving was more caused by management issues and inactivity than anything else. He was an elite fighter for a time but sadly didn’t do as much as he could’ve in my view.
Sugar Ray Seales was solo USA Gold medalist at Munich. The tragedy at Munich loomed over his accomplishment's and rather than hire a big time manager SRS hired a local from Tacoma and only received $ 1 K. while four yrs later SRL received $ 40 K .
Andre Dirrell ...the Arthur Abraham cheap shot ...and too much inactivity hurt him ....but he was extremely talented....robbed against Carl Froch
Heres one kind of out of left field that most people probably havent heard of but Johnny Griffin. I dont get it. That guy had balls, could fight, and was a badass but his record sucks. Never understood it.
Barry McGuigan. He could have had five more years at the top of his game had Barney Eastwood not burned him out.
Gerald McClellan would have had a longer career and more opportunities to fight guys like Toney, Hopkins, or RJJ had he gotten himself checked out for brain injury after his first fight with Julian Jackson. Not just that but also moving up in weight class instead constantly draining his body to MW.
If Terry Norris had more discipline and self control he could have had a much better career, also knowing when he should have retired
Glen Johnson because he had the stigma of being the tough out of town fighter (Road Warrior). Though he certainly proved he was elite by the end of his career. I think with a different team he could have fought less and made more money. However he still had a solid career. Oleg Maskaev - Early in his career it appeared nobody on his team cared about his longevity as a boxer. However even if he had better management he would have needed a master trainer to hide his chin issues. I think he could have been a bigger player at heavyweight for longer with some of these things. Emmanuel Augustus - This one is tricky. He might have just always been the way he is. But when he was on he was really on. With the right team he could have probably scraped out a title or two and went on to have at least a few big paydays. I'm not sure he would have ever been elite. Years ago I took a deep dive into his record and there were 15-20 losses that were highly questionable or he was brought in with the only order of losing.