- RJJ faced Glen Johnson just 4 months after he was KO'ed by Tarver and this time he was knocked out cold in a scary fashion; - John Tate fought Trevor Berbick in less than 3 months after he was brutally KO'ed by Mike Weaver and was knocked out; - Oleg Maskaev faced Lance Whitaker 5 months after being brutally KTFOed by Kirk Johnson and, of course, was brutally KO'ed again Any other examples of such a poor management of boxers' careers by their promoters/teams?
It didn't actually happen, but Whyte was supposed to fight Povetkin in a rematch about 2 months after he was absolutely starched by that left uppercut.
Meldrick Taylor being thrown in with the comparatively huge and big punching Cristanto Espana 5 months after being brutalised by Terry Norris rates up there for stupid match making in my opinion.
I'd say Tate-Berbick has to be the big one here, just an utterly terrible bit of matchmaking that ruined Tate's chances going forward.
I remember when Eusebio Pedroza was blown away in 2 rounds by hard-punching Alfonso Zamora. Again, ease him back a bit against a journeyman just to get his confidence back, but instead they put him in with hot prospect Oscar Arnal (14-0 10 KOs) who was coming off a KO over veteran Bernardo Carraballo. Same result, but in 6 rounds. Fortunately for Pedroza, he did regroup and rebound.
David Price going back in with Tony Thompson would be one. Going back a bit Stracey v Green straight after Carlos Palomino stopped Strace and going way back, how about Billy Walker fighting Karl Mildenburger then Jack Bodell after being stopped by Henry Cooper ?
George Foreman facing Ron Lyle after nearly a year following his loss to Ali. Foreman went life & death, was hurt several times, and was on the verge of getting KO'ed before he rallied to earn a hard-fought KO victory. I guess it paid off in the end because he won, but it was a very risky move coming off an over a year layoff to face a dangerous top 5 (correct me if I'm wrong) heavyweight and almost lose.
That's the fella. Terrible idea matched only in walliness by the guy/girl/Gawdknows who chose Meldrick's trunks for each fight. I thought the tiger print mini skirt for Norris was unwise but it was nothing next to the leather budgie smugglers he treated Espana to.
I don’t agree here. We have a lot of information in retrospect that wasn’t on the table at the time. Berbick was 3–1-1 in his last five fights before Tate. Starched in one by Bernardo Mercado and a draw with barely-over-.500 trial horse Leroy Caldwell, who was basically a sparring partner. Two of the wins were over guys with a losing record. The other was against a 16-5-5 guy who never beat anyone and had twice recently been stopped — a professional opponent. Trevor, in fact, was coming off a split hometown decision over a guy with a 5-13 record. He had zero wins of note on his record. Now today we know Trevor became something, but at the time he had a decent-looking record (14-1-1) with no substance and had been KTFO in one round in his only step-up fight. There was nothing to indicate he was going to be more than a footnote on the way to a journeyman career.
I respect him for it, but Floyd Patterson taking on Sonny Liston a second time. But y'know, the strategy worked for Floyd against Johansson.
Fair points and I appreciate the essential reminder to adjust one's perspective properly when assessing past decisions in their own time, something that's too easy to forget to do.
How about Joey Maxim getting knocked out in 51 seconds by Curtis Shepard and fighting him again 3 weeks later?
I think Taylor’s team was shamelessly cashing out on him with the Norris fight. Espana was a mandatory and always going to be a nightmare matchup, so they figured they would make a nice payday against Norris. Besides the payday, I can’t imagine them thinking it was a good idea to have him go up in weight to fight Norris after the struggle with Glenwood Brown.
The Norris match up was baffling in hindsight and I’m not sure it made much sense at the time unless it was a cash out. Taylor wasn’t a puncher at 140 and didn’t even have much of a hand speed advantage against the much, much bigger and more powerful Norris at 154. He was on a hiding to nothing.