Which title holders, throughout history, were constantly inconsistent in their performances as a champion? Which fighter would would knock a top contended out in one fight, then struggle with a journeyman in the next? Which fighters had the talent, but not the dedication or desire to perform consistently from fight to fight? One that comes to mind, is James Toney. Superb skills; Speed, defense, power, amazing timing and a very good variety of shots. Toney impressively stopped undefeated, P4P ranked Michael Nunn, dominated and destroyed durable Iran Barkley, outfought top contender Mike Mccallum and came away with an unlucky draw, and stopped undefeated Tim Littles early. Yet, Toney also struggled badly in a draw with sanderline Williams, won close SD's with both Merqui Sosa and Reggie Johnson, and also won a razor thin decision over Dave Tiberi. Which other fighters have also been inconsistent in their title reigns? Winning handily one week, then struggling badly the next?
You wouldnt call him inconsistant but Erik Morales sometimes did this. For example how do you lose to Zahir Raheem then go and outbox pacquiao? Another time i remember him making very heavy weather of a fight with Injin Chi
Joe Louis. He would look brilliant against former champions and top contenders one week, than the next week he's getting floored by the likes of Tony Galento.
He had a close win over Guty Espadas jr as feather weight champ aswell. I wouldn't say he was too inconsistent though. Just a few close scraps. Certainly not as inconsistent as someone like Toney or Jermain Taylor though.
That's a good one. But back then, fighters fought more frequently, had less time to prepare for opponents, studied opponents less etc....So were more likely to have close fights with lesser opponents. It is far less understandable for modern fighters to do the same.
In Jin Chi gave Morales a tough fight aswell. Morales could be inconsistent sometimes, but a great fighter all around
Michael Nunn is another good one. Iced iron chinned Sumbu Kalambay in a round, TKO'd Frank Tate and Donald Curry too. He struggled badly with Iran Barkley and journeyman Marlon Starling in between this wins though.
Only the Honeygan fight. Journeyman was a bad word to use. I just don't think he was someone Nunn should have struggled with. And considering he jumped 2 weight classes in between the honeyghan and Nunn fights, and lost his fight after Nunn, 'Second to' should really have done better against him. Bad shout on my part though, I apologize.
Nino Benvenuti. When he was motivated he could be brilliant like against Griffith and Rodriguez, if he wasn´t, well, he performed poorly and lost to inferior fighters like Tom Bethea. Very underated these days too.
Starling was a very good (though) inconsistent fighter. Bringing his "A" game, he'd be hell for any of the WWs since then. But yeah, Nunn shouldn't have struggled so much with the smaller Starling.
I'm struggling to think of anymore.......... I suppose Steve Molitor is quite inconsistent, scraping past Ndlovu (whom he beat easily 3 years earlier) and a close fight with a returning Nicky Booth wasn't exactly great for Molitor considering how good he looked before the Caballero fight.
