Biggest underachievers in heavyweight history

Leon Spinks
Audley Harrison

 

Ibeabuchi is a fair call

 

bowe
ibeabuchi
witherspoon

All 3 of them could have been ATGs.

 

Jerry Quarry. Lost the 'big one' regularly.

 

Mike Tyson .... seriously

I know, I know he is an ATG, no discussion on that. But I have always felt that regardless his impressive achievements, Tyson could have been even greater.

A focused and disciplinated Tyson, with D'Amato alive, without all the behavioural and law troubles ... who knows how far he could have gone?

So, weird as it sounds, I have always felt that Tyson was a "underachiever"

 

All solid shouts.

I could add Luther McCarthy though it wasnt his fault.

Henry Flakes is another possible call.

Andrew Golotta (obviously)

 

You are absolutely right.

I would add that the same might be said to a lesser extent of other dominant champions such as Sullivan and Dempsey who also significantly shortened their primes.

 

He just wasn't good enough to win the big one. He had neither exceptional skills nor physical attributes.

Golota anyone?

 

I'm not sold on Max Baer being an underachiever. To be at the top you need more than power and a great chin. Might just as well call Shannon Briggs an underachiever, too, then.

 

Well he proved that he had the tools to beat anybody around except Louis so he should have gone a lot further on that basis alone.

I also doubt that his resume could have been anything but better given superior training habbits and willingnes to comit when an oponent was hurt.

 

Well he didn't prove to have the tools to beat James ****ing Braddock. Focus or not, his skillset was garbage and his defence was non-existent. No boxer is going to get far that way, even with the biggest physical assets.

 

Max Baer, Corrie Sanders, George Godfrey, Andrew Golota, Ed Sanders, Ike Ibeabuchi, Nino Valdes. Too many to name. There are lots of guys who could have been better if they took boxing more seriously and had better focus in and out of the ring.