Who is the boxer you thought had the potential to become "The BEST Ever".... but didn't?

I thought Nunn was on his way to becoming 1 of the very best mws ever after he flattened Kalambay in a round. Ironically, it would be the last time he ever looked truly great.

 

John Henry Lewis and Ketchel are the ones who could have been the actual GOAT of boxing if they'd fought to just 30. Neither made it to 25 and are arguably the GOATs at LHW and MW. Lewis was forced to retire by the health authorities and Ketchel was killed. Lewis was able to overcome Gastanagas 88 inch reach and knocked out Elmer Ray without being able to see. Ketchel at 23 was having a close fight with prime Langford. Space was really the limit for these 2 and they only ended up in the sky.

Stribling. Its had to tell because boxing recs fight totals are wrong for old fighters but when Stribling died at 28 he either had all the longevity records or was on the verge of surpassing marks set by Langford and Greb over a full career. Stribling is the only featherweight to win a HW belt which the NBA retconned. Stribling also won two LHW title fights but didn't win the belt due to a judge changing his mind the first time and newspaper decisions not counting the 2nd time. So thats 3 fairly signifigant P4P feats he was robbed of. Theres also heavy room for his career to be handled differently given how many fights he had in such period of time. At FW and MW he was fighting for Southern regional titles. And theres also the whole not dying thing.

If not for WW2 Louis could have been the HW GOAT by a wide margin. Given the divisions depth at the time the fights existed for him to double his defenses.

I have Foreman as the HW GOAT because hes responsible for 70s>90s, how he did with Ali common opponents and because I think Foreman would beat Louis and Ali would not. But Foreman left like 12 potentially dominant years on the table during his first retirement. Foreman could have been a top 5 HW for a whole quarter century and while his comeback was impressive its a shadow of what he could have had in the 80s. In the 90s Foreman was a top 5 guy who won the belt. In the 80s he could have dominant double digit defenses champion. Despite everything Foreman has 80 fights. Imagine if you give him 12 additonal years of title contention?


Loughran could have lucked his way into the GOAT conversation if things went a little bit different. He would be the LHW GOAT in the eyes of more people if he'd stayed at that weight class. He is the best HW of that era to not win the belt and it really comes down to the chips not falling the right way. Was fighting P4P ATGs as a 20 year old and almost winning.

Hearns is a guy whose career was split into pieces by tweener divisions preventing him from having an ATG case in any one division. This is a widespread thing but hes the example that comes to my head whenever I think about it.

I feel if Mosley never went up to 154 he could have been the guy at 147. Mosley technically knocked down both Floyd and Manny at nearly 40. He almost beat Cotto at 36. Mosley didn't fight much either twice a year not a brisk pace. Much was left on the table. Same with Trinidad but Trinidad more has like half of the career he could have had while Mosleys is more an awkward state of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Miske lost as many as 4 LHW title fights and was probably better than everyone he lost to in those fights. His fights at HW against Fulton, Dempsey and Morris cast him in a P4P ATG light that level didn't carry over to his smaller ATG peers who weren't as successful at HW.

Kabayel could have been the greatest HW of the 21st century if he'd gotten his title shot in the late 2010s and no matter what he does going forward he will have underachieved. He spent nearly a decade waiting for an interim title shot and will likely wait a full decade before fighting for a non interim belt. Since the 40s or 50s there hasn't been a HW this good to be deprived of any form of a shot this long.


Tunney wasn't trying to duck anyone but he could have ended up fighting and beating a deeper roster of opponents that would put him more plainly in the Foreman, Louis, Ali, Wlad, Lennox tier. Many of his good wins did not "age well".

Joe Goddard could have taken John L Sullivans place in history if he A)started earlier and B) lived in the US.

Braddock could have been the best HW between Tunney and Louis with better management though not in the GOAT conversation a level down from that. After he lost to Loughran he was totally mishandled should have put on 25 pounds and was constantly outweighed by smaller men he was trying to knock out.

 

I have wondered how Foreman would do if he stuck around rather than retiring for 9/10 years.

But there was a reason he retired because he got into religion and felt his mind wasn't on boxing so perhaps it was a good thing for Foreman.

 

Ezzard Charles should've gotten the light heavyweight title shot and nobody will question his greatness in the top 5 P4P rating.

 

Tyson or RJJ. Incredibly dominant against good fighters.

 

Not thinking about best ever I think that's hard to measure but I think we never really saw how much further Vitali Kiltschko could have gone.

He was constantly injured throughout his whole career and he had a massive interest in politics which took many years off his career. I think he could have done/achieved everything his brother Wlad did and possibly even more and history would have been much kinder to him.

 

I thought Carl Williams had a lot of potential - gave a faded-but-still game Holmes a tough night, seemed to have all the right tools to become a force in the HW division in the 80s pre-Tyson, but never lived up to any apparent potential

 

All speculation I guess.

 

I made a similar thread not that long ago, about boxers who looked like hall of famers but faded.

I never thought anyone could near Muhammad Ali.

But I thought Francisco Bojado had the makings of an all timer. He fell way short in the end. Juan Carazo who was my gymmate , had the power of Wilfredo Gomez and the speed and reflexes of Wilfred Benitez. Sadly he did not have a chin and his fight with Julio Guerrero marked the start of a slow but steady decline, even when he won it handily. He was floored in round seven.

Jesus "Ernie" Gonzalez, whom I met a few times and was almost like me friend, was another one...

 

I started following boxing around 2004 so RJJ's peak was before my time but people must have thought he was destined to be one of the GOATS.

In my lifetime, i would say Mayweather Jr. I thought after the Hatton performance (which i thought Hatton had a good chance in), he would go on to dominate. And while he did dominate, he was so selective with this matchmaking, i don't see any case for him being the GOAT.

 

I wish Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe stayed dedicated to the sport all their career.

 

Roy Jones

 

I think definitely Roy Jones. Unfortunately he spent too much time fighting with fighters like Rodney Frazier. Certainly the decisions to jump from one weight to another were also a mistake.

The second is Mike Tyson, for obvious reasons.. The third is Lomachenko who became a professional too late and managed his career strangely.

I don't think they could become the best in history, but you could expect more from R. Bowe, L Spinks, N Hamed, S. Liston, H Camacho. ,G Foreman

 

Mike Tyson is the first to come to mind. if Cus hadn't died who knows?

Duran for sure although I think he's top 5 p4p all time, his inconsistency in the 80s hurt him.