Kallie Knoetzee, Big South African backed fighter. Used Duane Bobick and his #7 Rating to get noticed. It worked.
The sport is invented to make flops. To build up a fighter as a winner you match him against losers. Even champs are reared this way. when a guy hasn’t beat any winners its a risk stepping up because all there is to rely on is the kids amateur pedigree. Its just part of the process to step them up and the ones who get "found out" are considered the flops. The trouble is so long as a winner has begun to be built the general public buy into the kid before anyone knows if he can fight or not. the promoter is turning a profit against losers and is put off stepping him up. sometimes the exposure is too great to step up safely. there always reaches the point where a young hope is stepped up. The tricky part is finding "step up guys" with a low risk factor because you rely on the boxing grapevine to find guys who still have a name whose desire is ready to nose dive. All it takes is the unenthusiastic name guy to find desire..
Teofilo Stevenson..... People forget, after he demolished Duane Bobick in the 72' Olympics, he was labeled the greatest fighter ever seen. Nobody saw him in 1973, when Igor Vystosky decisioned him in an amateur meet. And in 1976, stopped him in the 3rd round. Igor walked right through him. When Teofilo fought men instead of kids, he crumbled a bit.
I don't recall Nick Wells beating Shavers or Lyle as an amateur. Also, Nick was quite short for a heavyweight (5'10"). Still, he lost professional fights which he should have won.
Some old school picks: Herbert Slade-a manufactured and heavily hyped fighter who crashed and burned. Perhaps one of the earliest experiments at this. Jack Munro-hard to belive, but many in the press saw him as a bigger threat to Jeffries than Jack Johnson. Sandy Ferguson-the heir apparent to Jeffries crown. His gambling problems caused him to take multiple back to back fights against the black dynamite crew with predictable results. Bill Squires-came in as the betting favourite against Tommy Burns when the latter was champion.
I do think that if he stuck around longer he would have racked up additional worthy wins , draws and maybe robbery losses too , just like his eternal victims Mike Weaver and Scott LeDoux did , but he did retire young .
What about Jim McCormick. I saw an old alcoholic Sullivan predicting him as the next big thing at one stage and a few years later, an older alcoholic Sullivan knocked him out in an amazing comeback.
True, but Sullivan often failed to pick the winners. He thought Kid Cutler could be something special for example.