Overhyped fighters you still had a soft spot for?

I liked Mark Breland and had hoped he’d turned out like many experts had predicted….a blend of SRL and Hearns. Still had a good career, but I rooted for him to do more.

 

Audley Harrison
David Haye
Naseem
Amir Khan
Terry Norris
Herbie Hyde

Unfortunately, I cannot offer more classic boxers as I didn't live through their hype.

 

Big Frank. Even non-British posters know who I mean.

Him and our 'enery are the poster boys for this thread, imo.

 

Greg Page is one. Brewster another., but not hyped anywhere near as much as Page was. Followed both as amatuers. Thought Abdullaev was going to be really something.

Liked mentioned above--Breland was probably the best prospect and with his size for that weight, I thought he'd have an easy time even.

There was a lot of hype with Tshabalala and that great amatuer record of his. If true---he must have fought the same guy 71x.

 

I both liked and had high hopes for David Price. He was being hailed as a future world champion with that “unbelievable” power that he possessed.

I still believed in him even after his first
couple of KO defeats against Tony Thompson, but unfortunately those losses were a sign of things to come because Price was cursed with a far from solid chin, poor powers of recovery, a non existent defence and no survival instinct when he was up against it. The scales soon fell from my eyes regarding his future prospects.

I still liked him though…he was a game lad, who kept on believing in himself, right up until Chisora flattened him a few years ago and finally ended his career. But by then the world had realised that this Price definitely wasn’t right!

 

Ryan Rhodes was overhyped a bit by Sky in the UK as a youngster. Perhaps they saw a flashy southpaw from the Ingle camp score a few KO's against low level opposition and thought they may have a bigger version of Naz on their hands.

As it turned out Rhodes wasn't close to the level of Naz, but I always liked him and he had some respectable late career success.

 

John Mugabi. I never missed ANY of his fights on his way to being a top rated contender on NBC in the 80's. All of his fights seemed to be shown , all ended by him ko'ing every opponent he faced.
Than , he had that great showing against the "Marvelous One" that showed he indeed had the ability and toughness needed to become a very good champ if he could pick up the pieces and get back on the horse after he lost to him.
But the " Marvelous One" took his soul, and broke him.
He never demonstrated the fierceness and determination he showed against Hagler again.
His career was practically over after that fight.

 

Nice ending Vic. One for us Brits.

 

Yep. Seconded.

We loved him in Australia too. Was he overhyped though? With a better chin he’d have been in the mix against anyone.

If you didn’t love Big Frank then you have no soul.

 

Tommy Morrison had the Classic Forum trifecta: Puncher, left hook specialist, and muscular.

I was rooting for the guy in his fantasy fight against Joe Louis, but Joe got a lucky victory by dint of being much better than Tommy Morrison.

 

Just spat out my coffee.

 

t

Yep---definately. But those big ko guys have a way of never coming back > a loss. And they usually lose in devastating fashion as well.

He was ruining guys on the way up. Not just beating them. No way they should have put Elisha Obed in with the guy. Or even Guiden. But Duff did not have the power to get him a 154 title fight despite him being #1 ranked for so long. But at 160, Hagler would fight anyone anywhere and anytime.

That was the toughest path to go through for Mugabi---and not appreciated at all. Having to move up in weight to fight that guy.

 

I was big on 70's Chicago Heavyweight Walter Moore after he came back from Vietnam and partnered up with Ernie Terrell as his promoter. He ran off some solid wins and was moving slowly into the rankings. Then he got impatient and took a televised fight (which nobody has a copy of) against Tiger Roy Williams and got stopped. One more fight at the Aragon Ballroom and then disappeared into the mists, supposedly because of a detached retina but George Mostardini claimed to have kayoed him cold in a sparring session as the real reason.