Which Boxers surprised you?

Choc, Gallen & possibly NAS, though that is for the future.

 

Marcos Maidana ended up being better than I expected him to be. I thought the Victor Ortiz upset would be his highlight, but he ended up being one of the best welterweights of the time. Giving Khan and Floyd some of their toughest fights, spanking Broner when he was still good, etc.

A shame we didn’t get to see him in there with Thurman, Brook, Porter, Garcia, or Spence.. All winnable fights for him, and probably would have been WARS too….

Thurman is probably a good pick for the other end of the spectrum. I expected him to take off after the Porter fight, instead, he fell off!

 

Daniel Dubois.

 

A world champion who can't keep his guard properly, falls in some fights after strange blows, and in others withstands unbelievable bombs. ;-) A true enigma...

 

Pacquiao
I would never have guessed he would go on to become as great as he did
I remember when he fought A Sanchez in what was a tough fight, ending in a Tech draw.
Sure he was already a world champion in more than one division but as we know he went much further.
I thought SBW was as high a weight that he would go and be strong and effective. Incredible how he went on to be a major player at WW

 

he seems susceptible to flash knockdowns from temple shots. Other than that, his durability seems proportional to his confidence. When things are going his way, he’s an absolute freight train and can ignore hellacious shots (see that uppercut Wardley landed that would have removed the head of most fighters). When he’s frustrated and things aren’t going his way, he can be KOd by a relative pillowfist (compared to Wardley) like Usyk.

On top of the weirdness in Ring, I’m convinced he’s autistic (no hate, if he is, he should come out as it and be an absolute hero to everyone on the spectrum for what he’s accomplished).

 

On a smaller non world level basis, Eggington has surprised me by beating a few fighters and still being about after his fight 6 years ago with Cheeseman where I was certain he should retire

 

Good - Hopkins. I remember when I wrongly considered him something of an alphabet titlist back in the 90s. Trinidad was his coming out party but, even then, I would not have guessed how much more he would achieve.
Bad - Audley Harrison. I was convinced, as a gold medallist, and charismatic, when he turned pro he would definitely be a world champ - maybe even an ATG.
Got that wrong.

 

Tyson Fury was treated as a clutz, a fool and a freak. Belittled and underestimated from the opening gates and yet he exceled and became a multiple time world champion opening up a new golden era for HW boxing by destroying the big stiff idiot himself in Wlad.

 

Also convinced, again no hate I’m 99.9% that is the reason for the take a knee/quit allegations-it’s all linked to this and I don’t for 1 minute think he has no bollocks or a glass chin its to do with what he can, or can’t process in those particular moments, IMO

 

Audley a strange one for sure! Should have been so much better! Incidentally I saw an interview on one of the YouTube channels with him at the Dubois/Wardley fight- he spoke well and seems to be content in himself and what he’s doing

David price for me, a shame his career derailed, and what a derailment it was!

 

Probably Carl Froch and Tyson Fury to a lesser extent.

Remember watching Froch back at British level. Dont get me wrong he was good....just remember thinking he got tagged far too much for that level to go on and do great up at World level. Usually its a bit of a telltale sign. Turns out his chin was ridiculously solid even at World level.

Tyson Fury as well. Again he had something but did not look capable of going on to do what he did. Remember telling people he,d get found out against Klitchko. One minute hes struggling against a no namer a few years later he was controlling big Klitchko. He did have talent but did not see that or what he went on to do coming.

Joe calzaghe possibly as well. Again he was really good but his hand problems degraded him to slapping for a large part of his career. Remember all the interest being on Hatton and little interest in calzaghe for a lot of years. Then calzaghe beat Lacy and Hatton lost to Mayweather and overnight calzaghe became the better fighter. Up to that point hatton was probably seen as the better fighter. In fairness to Joe a lot of it was down to his hands. Hatton was a better fighter than Joe with pretty severe hand problems. He wasnt if Joe had good hands tho.

I still think Rickys career could have been as good as Joes. Warren held him back for too long. Then they had to be careful with opponent choices when they realised they we,re onto a massive cash cow. Add to that he ended up fighting two generational talents bang in their prime. Their could have been some better wins on his ledger particularly when he was a bit younger that could have at least equalled Joes cv.

 

Tim Tszyu because in his first few pro fights I didn't think he looked very good he only had 30 amateur bouts.
When he easily destroyed Jeff Horn I was like ok this kid is the real deal.