Prospects that looked great but failed badly in their careers

Who remembers Christophe Mendy from France and Ramon Garbey from Cuba? I also always thought that Vasili Jirov would have a bigger career. Tony Yoka is probably also a disappointment, but I didn't really believe in him

 

Jose Baret blazed his way to 16 wins with 15 kos in the early 80´s in the welterweight division.

Marlon Starling was foolishly brought in to test him. Marlon absorbed Baret early bombs to batter him in 4 rounds.

Baret never recovered, stopped by Floyd Mayweather snr in his next bout and then by a 6-3 journeyman to send him into retirement.

Made a brief comeback going 1-1.

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Ricardo Williams Jr.

 

Bernard Mays and Tony Ayala are the greatest wastes of talent.

 

Not trying to be a pest here. I followed boxing properly basically just after when Price got found out, so I wasn't really following the sport enough to witness Price in his hype era. But, it does surprise me a bit how hyped Price apparently was, saying this honestly because he just really didn't live to his expectations at all, and they were pretty high expectations.

With Audley, I get more because of his Olympic Gold.

 

Panchito Bojado

 

I thought he had more potential before the Rocky V movie. He seemed to put on more muscle mass but did not really progress in any other areas and actually took a step backwards in my opinion.

 

I don't really think he qualifies for the thread. He looked pretty bad against Yuri Vaulin early in his career.

 

Yes, Moochie is wrong fighter to put your big puncher in with. A defensive wizard. They didn’t call it the Magic Show for nothing.

 

Hi Noel.
Good calls, I was at the Christie / Kaylor fight, in fact had sizable bet on Kaylor, another who might fit the bill was Vernon Sollas, a smooth boxing, hard hitting featherweight, I thought he was destined for a world title, but he didn't even get past European fighters, well remember his fight with Les Pickett, a dour, tough little scrapper, Sollas was a mile ahead and was boxing Picketts head off, but like the sand running out of a hourglass his stamina deserted him, and he was stopped, he seemed to have this issue with all his big fights, shame because at one stage he was compared with a feathweight Conteh, have spoke to him over the years at different boxing functions, and he spoke well, was articulate and very friendly, with no regrets.
stay safe buddy, chat soon.

 

Audley Harrison
David Price
These are 2 I remember well...also Micheal Grant. America were hyping him up, thought he was going to be a tough fight for Lennox. How wrong I got it.

 

Starling was terribly underrated for a time there. After he lost to Curry they threw Baret in there and he got wasted. Managers seemed to think Starling was the gateway to the title and prestige but you have to beat the guy and none of these prospects did.

After he beat Baret and Kevin Howard they threw the promising Tommy Ayers in with him and Starling beat him cleanly but very competitively. It was a good learning match for Ayers but for some reason they kept putting him in with low level opposition for years after that. At a couple of points he fell into drugs apparently.

Not long after Curry beat Starling in their title rematch but history tells us Curry had started to operate at an ATG in the ring level and Starling actually put forth a very impressive effort.

Not long after he lost to Pedro Vilella on one of his off night, then after treading water for a couple of fights was used to enhance Simon Browns career but Starling won again. As with Ayers it was a fine learning experience for them.

The Ring somehow had Ayers at #4 and Starling at #9 in early 85. Four years later he was destroying Loyd Honeyghan.

So Starling faced a quite a few promising up and comers but he pretty much repelled them all.

 

Great call Mike. Sollas was a very exciting fight,shame he didn`t reach his potential

 

Oba Carr. Might not have, "failed badly", but he never won a world title. Made the mistake of a lifetime dumping Emanual Steward, taking off for almost a whole year right in his prime, then came back with that clown team managing him.

Sadly, he's in a wheel chair from what I've read.

 

Louis Ortiz could have been great but they threw him in there with Sam Langford too quickly. It wasn't only the step-up in competition, but he wasn't ready for a 25 rounder, yet.