Which fighter in your lifetime exceeded your expectations?

Tyson Fury. Didn't think he'd get anywhere near the elite level after losing to John McDermott and getting a gift decision. Also lost to David Price in the amateurs. Even after getting dropped by Cunningham, I just didn't think he'd beat someone like Wladimir. He's had an amazing career, which I still think some have completely overstated, but I never thought he would reach the heights he has.

I'd include Wladimir in this as well. Even though he had an amazing amateur career, he picked up a string of knockout losses to inferior opposition as an early pro, so for him to go on and have a HOF career after 3 devastating losses to B-rate fighters is something that exceeded my expectations.

Clinton Woods and Anto Cacace, too; both looked very much British/Commonwealth level for years before going on to have fantastic endings to their careers. There'd probably be a few more in there if I sat down and thought about it, but they're the ones that spring to mind.

 

I thought Wlads career was over after suffering his KOs. Rare to come back from that type of stuff.

 

Pacquiao and Donaire. I'm not very good estimating a certain demographic, I guess. Men.

Flipside: Earmarked Mercer for greatness and Brad Solomon.

 

Masamichi Yabuki
Seigo Yuri Akui
Carlos Takam
Nordine Oubaali
Manny Pacquiao
Nonito Donaire
Takuma Inoue
Emanuel Navarrete
Brandon Figueroa
Erislandy Lara
Kenshiro Teraji
Rene Santiago

 

Definitely a few. Big George on his comeback. Hopkins who really came to the fore after dismantling Tito. Pac man who had an incredible career. And I don't rate Wlad as highly as some, but fair credit for coming back because I thought he was absolutely finished after losing to Sanders and Brewster.
In reverse, an incredible fighter whose career ended badly in a way I completely did not foresee is Roy Jones Jr

 

Brad Solomon was his own worst enemy. He was good but his style was boring. Nobody wanted to fight him because there was no upside to it. Nobody, as in the money people, wanted to push him because he wasn't exciting. Top Rank tried to use him to derail a fighter I was involved with but my fighter's manager had juice within that organization and Solomon didn't get the fight.
At this time Brad Solomon was 31-0 but his people had no juice and his style was not exciting so he got cut out of the picture. A guy that was 17-0, 18-0 who may or may not have been able to win a fight with Soloman ended up making some pretty good money that Brad was shut out of.

 

Pernell Whitaker. I thought he would be forgotten a year or two after he turned pro. And he had an alright career.

 

A lesser-known fighter, Gene Hatcher when he ko'd Johnny Bumphus while behind on the scorecards, the same night Livingstone Bramble stopped Ray Mancini.

 

I predicted he'd become world champion about 5 years before he did. But I could never have predicted he'd become this bad afterwards. He's been finished ever since.

 

Mayweather thought so too after Manny destroyed Cotto.

 

Pacquiao for sure, others have covered that better than I could.
But I will say Lennox Lewis. I thought he was cumbersome early on…I didn’t think he’d beat Ruddock and then he after that he didn’t seem to improve at all before McCall caught him.
I thought he was going to have a career more along the lines of Tony Tucker.

 

Sums it up for me.

There are still Mayweather fans to this day that insist upon degrading Pacquiao. Pretty ridiculous.

 

Bernard Hopkins. Not that he wasn’t good when he was younger. But the early version hardly projected the legacy that he would one day build nor the unbelievable longevity that came with it

 

Hopkins was the first person I thought of. It took him three tries to win a vacant middleweight title. And Segundo Mercado wasn't much.

But he really turned it around.

 

Greg Haugen.
He didn't do any one thing that stood out but he had boxing skills. The ability to avoid his opponents jab. Counterpunching, excellent conditioning, guts. After losing his IBF lightweight title to Whitaker i thought perhaps that would be it for him as a champion.
He pulled the upset against a Hector Camacho to become a champ again. Very determined fighter.