Best USA heavyweight prospect? apart from Anderson & Torrez

That's a great list you put together. I'll add a couple names of my own at the bottom.

Hines, I'm convinced, is going nowhere. A featherfist and he hasn't looked good w/ his last couple opponents. Destined to become a camp body.

Steven Torrez did not look all that great in his rematch against James Evans for the first two rounds, but he landed a heavy shot on James early in the 3rd and finished him. He had a lot of personal stuff going on before this fight that led to a long layoff. Not sure how committed he is or can be. He needs further development but has some obvious physical tools.

I'm not sure what exactly Top Rank is doing with Sonny Conto. He's shown no progression in his opponents since the onset of COVID disrupted things.

Jeremiah Milton does have some power but fails to put together his shots. Not much of a Ring IQ, either, considering he had lots of experience as an amateur. I'm not totally writing him off yet, but I'm not optimistic.

Skylar Lacy is just starting to step up. I haven't seen him fight yet, but if you've ever seen a photo of him...well, let's just say he's probably never going to have to worry about suffering an eye injury. He certainly has the size, but I know nothing else about him.

Brandon Moore has had his career side-tracked by the Probellum disaster. He just got back in the ring a couple weeks ago by TKO'ing Elijah McCall who hadn't boxed in about a decade. Prior to his inactivity he had put together a dominant UD over Curtis Harper that included a knockdown. Could be a decent fighter, but I suspect he lacks the power on his punches to get him near the top of the division.

Antonio Mirles is a hype job, IMO. Poor timing & balance (he's been sent to the canvas twice in his career already), not much hand speed or power. Apart from having a decent motor, his superpower is being tall. He should already have lost his 0 to Patrick Mailata, but the judges gifted him a decision. There was nothing particularly impressive about his recent stoppage of Dajuan Calloway. If you've haven't seen the footage, Mireles unloaded about 25 unanswered punches on Calloway, who remained very much upright throughout. Like I said, no power. I think Steven Torrez is almost certainly a better prospect and none of Mireles' opponents have been as dangerous as James Evans.

I don't know anything about Martin Parades. I did see that he had a fight scheduled with Terrell Jamal Woods (he's usually the first guy US fighters face when they start to seriously step up) in July - but this fight was canceled for some reason.

Lorenzo Medina. Looks like the love child of Canelo and Andy Ruiz. I haven't seen much footage of him yet, but he seems to be focusing on targeting new-ish prospects rather than low-level journeyman fighters. Probably doesn't have the size, but I suppose he's still growing! I think he's worth keeping an eye on.

So here are two fighters that I would add to your list.

Fernely Feliz Jr (Age 26, 6-0, 5 KOs). A smaller HW (6' 2") but has fast feet and hands. Good combination thrower and good motor. Power is unknown given the relatively low-level of his opponents so far. No defense to speak of. Questionable commitment, seeing as he describes himself as both a boxer and an actor. Definitely has a fan-friendly style. But, otoh, he seems very fit so maybe his commitment is not all that bad. Might be worth keeping an eye on to see if he develops, but his small size will likely hurt him.

Deontae Pettigrew (Age 34, 11-0). A larger HW @ 6' 6" & 290 lbs. Probably isn't going too far, but he remains undefeated and they are now moving to step him up. He recently fought Devin Vargas (twice apparently) and Terrell Jamal Woods and though he didn't stop them - he won with total or near-total sweeps on the cards. I haven't seen him fight, but looking at his record he doesn't seem to have all that much power for his size. A longshot and we should know the verdict on him pretty soon.

 

@BVA and @BeantownAll

Thank you both for the above. Very helpful.

 

Here's a clip of Fernely Feliz Jr from his last fight. Not many people are familiar with him, so I thought this might be helpful.

He's raw and he's certainly showing no defense, but he clearly has quick hands and that's a really nice combination he threw to end the fight.

With the proper training, he could be something like the fighter that Jermaine Franklin could have been (but isn't quite). I don't think that gets him to the very top, but you could probably make some good, entertaining fights with a fighter like that.

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Javolov not listed.

He's good, but I don't think he will get far into top 10.

I only mention this since he is fighting in 2 weeks

 

Have only heard of a handful of these guys, but haven’t seen any of them fight yet aside from Conto. Come to think of it, I may have seen a Mireles fight as well, if he’s that super tall/gangly chap.

Looks like you gentlemen just gave me some fights to research/watch this weekend. I’m always on the lookout for talented up and coming heavyweights. I appreciate the list and the breakdown guys, thank you!

 

The only ones on this list that I had paid any attention to are Sonny Conto and Steven Torrez. Both of them have flaws that will prevent them from moving up to the top of the division. The others could be worth looking into, but (and this is a big BUT) their ages don't do them any favors in regards to them being prospects. I get that most American heavyweights now tend to get a late start on the sport, but that very, very rarely translates into success. Unless some of these guys had long and impressive amateur careers, it's probably a safe bet that few to none of them will make any kind of a splash. So my question is...how many of these guys had amateur careers worth mentioning?

 

Thanks, that was a legit question as I really haven't seen any of these fighters or even heard of them before. I need to start looking up any vids of them. The eye test usually doesn't fail me.

 

Just to give a quick update here...

• Antonio Mireles fought to a draw against Skylar Lacy (two names from above) in a 6 round fight on the Ajagba v. Goodall card. Lacy was in control early landing his jab and the occasional hurtful-lookin body punch while Mireles did nothing other than wear a confused look on his face. But Lacy gassed and did nothing but hold Mireles the last couple of rounds, thus letting Antonio even the score on the cards. As I've said before - Mireles hasn't got it. Lacy looked OK - but needs better endurance.
• Steven Torres got exposed by Australian HW prospect Jackson Murray in a 6 round fight on the Stevenson v. De los Santos card. Murray swept the cards and Torres didn't win many admirers with his conduct in the ring, either.
• Roney Hines continued to underwhelm by winning a 6 round fight against nobody Jonathan Gruber. Hines won a wide decision by outboxing Gruber in a fight that featured very little action. Gruber had already lost his '0' in 2022 in a Rd 5 TKO loss to Belgian prospect Michael Pirotton.

 

Two heavyweights discussed in this thread fought this week and earned stoppage victories over their opponents.

Lorenzo Medina advanced to 9-0 w/ 8 KOs by stopping his opponent Joshua Temple (12-3-0) in the 6th and final round of their fight on the Jake Paul vs. Andre August card. Temple was the #2 USA amateur heavyweight (200 lb limit) circa 2015. He immediately had trouble staying at the 200 lb limit as a Pro and dropped a couple fights to journeymen early in his career. He then moved up to HW where he's looked more comfortable. Anyhow, his skill gave Medina some trouble and he was mistakenly awarded a knockdown when he stepped on one of Medina's feet and tripped him. So it was an even-looking fight through four rounds. Medina nailed Temple with a huge right hand early in the 6th round which turned his legs to jelly and then quickly unloaded a barrage of unanswered punches which caused the ref to step in.

Medina is just 19. He needs to tidy up his game and lose 12-15 lbs (his weight of 244 lbs for this fight was at least a dozen too many, IMO) - but I think he's the most promising HW listed in this thread.

Fernely Feliz Jr moved to 7-0 w/ 6 KOs by stopping little known Raphael Carolina (now 2-4) in the final round of their 6th round fight on December 16th. I don't know much about Carolina except that he's 29 and it appears his losses (all on the cards) came at the hands of inexperienced HW/CW prospects who still had their 0s when they fought Carolina. Apparently, Feliz Jr dropped Carolina in the 4th and 5th rounds prior to the final round stop.

 

The guy with the bad haircut.

 

Joshua Edwards

 

I see none of them become champion.

 

Joshua Edwards from H-Town. He's outside.