Fighters who could have had a better career

Rodrigo Valdes, well trained and managed, but would have had a longer reign had not been against Carlos Monzon. Aaron Pryor longer reign had not been for the drug abuse and if he would have had better management. Salvador Sanchez, had he not met an untimely death in a car accident.

 

Aaron Pryor. The guy had some people giving him horrible advice. Lost out on massive paydays with both Leonard and Duran.

 

You'll all have to forgive me for repeating myself, but Reggie Johnson is always a standout for me when I think of fighters who'd be held in much higher esteem if they'd had a bit more luck with judges. The fights against Toney, John David Jackson and Castro x 2....I'm not saying he won all of them (though I though the first Castro fight was an absolute highway job, and the Jackson verdict was dubious), but the point is he seemed to get short-changed in every single close or debatable fight, whereas you'd expect the luck to even itself out over a series of fights like this.

Yes, he got the verdict in a close fight against Collins - but he did beat Collins. Whereas there's no way he lost all four of those fights against Toney, Jackson and Castro, yet his record says he did. Switch that 0-4 to something like 3-1 or at least 2-1-1 in his favour, which seems a lot more accurate for my money, and his whole standing would be elevated and he'd have been a bit more of a money spinner throughout his prime years.

Sean O'Grady might fit the bill here, too. Very strange career hampered by both being shafted by officials and bizarre management decisions. Runs up a massive winning (mostly KO) streak against journeymen, but gets unfortunately ripped off in his first title shot against Watt when in a just world he'd have likely taken home the WBC title that night. Then wins the WBA against Kenty and, with a big-money unification showdown against Arguello seemingly on the horizon, is for some reason encouraged by his old man to ditch the WBA title and accept 'recognition' for the WAA, which none other than his old man himself created. Instead of Arguello, he takes on the largely unheralded Ganigan for relative chump change - and promptly gets knocked out, with Ganigan going on to fight Arguello instead. All this by the age of 22, by which point he was more or less finished at a high level.

 

Harry Simon. Think about it, Winky Wright has never complained about losing to him. Meanwhile, he complains bitterly about his losses to Vargas and Hopkins.

 

Some of his problems were possibly self inflicted, lifestyle etc. That is what l meant by controversial. Thanks for your comment though.

 

Herol Graham: Most of his losses came in fights that he could have won. This isn't to say that he should have won or deserved to win them, but they were fights in which he gave himself a chance to win but couldn't finish. He lost Kalambay I by an average of two points per card, and I assume all three judges scored the final round 10-8. A better twelfth and maybe he wins. He'd famously have gotten a draw against McCallum if not for a point deduction. He was dominating the fight with Jackson and seemed on the verge of stopping him. Kalambay II was a poor decision that went against him. Then after the Frank Grant debacle he couldn't get licensed for a few years, and when he finally got that last world title shot he was doing well before suddenly getting stopped late. Some of it was misfortune, some of it was his own fault, and some of it was just the level of the competition, but these were all winnable fights for him, and with the possible exception of Kalambay II his career is much different if he wins any one of them.

Marlon Starling: Like Reggie Johnson, Starling struggled to get the decision in close fights, and stuff like the sham against Bumphus and the Molinares non-KO also set him back. Afterwards he moved up to middleweight, lost, moved back down to welterweight, lost, and promptly retired even though he by no means looked finished. Just an enigma, with the big difference between him and Johnson being that a good deal of his bad breaks seemed avoidable. He was a bit fortunate in that in one of his worst pure boxing performances he was able to push through and get the KO of Breland. That was a lose-able fight that he managed to win.

 

Barry McGuigan. Riding high, looking like a potential atg then he fought in the daytime Vegas sun against a fighter used to that climate. Now he's afterthought in the top 20 British fighters of all time. Maybe a top 30 or 40 feather, Good career and he made some money but it could have been so much more than a 12 month title reign if his team had not agreed to fight in that heat.

Benitez and Rosario as well. Chapo gets the nod v Camacho and who knows? There was no bad decision as such that derailed Benirez and he had a great career but he is still a big could've been for me.

 

Golota

 

According to his fans they both ducked him

 

I've never seen the Tarver fight, funnily enough, so can't comment much on that one. Going from what I've seen others say about it, that one wasn't particularly controversial and Reggie can't have any complaints. Will have to get round to watching it when I can.

But in any case, he fought Tarver right at the tail end of his career when all the damage had already been done, and the result wasn't really going to have a big impact on how he was seen or rated. Whereas two or three wins in those other fights I mentioned would really have given his career a boost during his prime years, and got him the plaudits he deserved when he most needed them.

And yeah, the first Castro fight is the worst of the lot. I thought Castro won four rounds at the absolute best in that one. His team were allowed to get away with being up on the ring apron during rounds, and the crowd was pretty hostile, with a few things thrown into the ring. Johnson was always going to struggle to get a decision there.

 

Riddick Bowe. If he had commitment and maturity he would have been unstoppable.

 

Yeah I think his dads ego got the best of him. Should have fought Noel who was beatable and then big money fights against Mancini and Arguello loomed. I am sure the disapointment of bein stripped affected him