NAME some fighters who gave everyone a tough fight. I'll start off with... Bennie Briscoe, Juan Laporte, and Shawn Porter.
Bad Bennie Briscoe gave a lot of great fighters a tough fight, drew with Carlos Monzon in 1967 before he was champion, lost in a title bout against Carlos in 1972, gave Rodrigo Valdes 3 tough fights, even though Valdes kayoed Briscoe in 7 rounds for the vacant WBC Title in 1974. Juan La Porte gave Salvador Sanchez a good fight despite losing on points, eventually became champion upon the death of Salvador. Shawn Porter gives anyone a tough fight, defeated Danny Garcia, gave Errol Spemce a tough fight despite losing.
great call on Bika. I tried to start a thread about him a couple weeks back, but none of the Casuals on here know enough about boxing to post any replies it would seem. it's a damn shame because he was a legit throwback, not afraid of no one, took fights under any type of circumstances, and was a true gentleman in and out of the ring. I attended several Andre Ward fights in Oakland, but sadly I dont think the Bika fight was one of them. the thread I started was about his fight with Calzaghe. I saw the fight at an Irish bar in San Francisco, there was some soccer game, or tiddlywinks or something (something euro) going on that night, so the Calzaghe fight wasnt the main sporting event people were there for...it was relegated to one small TV in the corner of the bar, with no volume, and I was drinking heavily and playing pool and using cocaine, but I remember watching the fight and thinking that Bika was absolutely taking it to Calzaghe to the point where I thought he had won the bout. I should probably rewatch the fight, that was almost 20 years ago now, but that's the impression I came away with on fight night
Reggie Johnson? Outside of Jones, which is why that win is so impressive, everyone had massive issues with him. Ayub Kalule?
Stan " Kitten " Howard Marcos Villasana Kevin Finnegan Fred Apostoli Armando Muniz Solly Krieger Henry Hank Art Hafey Chuck Wiggins ( with knobs on )
Evander Holyfield, at least until the late 2002 Chris Byrd fight. I think that's why Evander has so many good names on his record. Other fighters looked at him as a "small heavyweight" and weren't "afraid" to fight him. For instance, he's by far the best name on Foreman's comeback record, with Moorer in distant second (and who also moved up from Lt. Heavy).