Fighters who could have had a better career

good calls on ogrady and starling. I would say jimmy young. also how bout yaqui lopez!

 

Lazy boxers: Almost every heavyweight during the 80's/90's, Joan Guzman, Jose Luis López, Francisco Bojado, Ricardo Williams, Michael Nunn, James Toney, Mike Tyson

Bad management: Mike McCallum (still a legend but missed some great fights), Diosbelys Hurtado, Nicholas Walters, Golovkin early on his career, Fernando Vargas (arguably)

Tragedy: Ike Ibeabuchi, Edwin Valero, David Reid, Jeff Fenech (injuries and being robbed against Nelson)

 

Gamboa.

 

I agree. Jumping two weight classes to fight GGG at his pinnacle was suicide. Sure Brook got big money but what a needless beating and dent in his record

 

This. I know that Brook was basically saving the show because Eubank Jr. and his people couldn’t come to an agreement for the GGG fight, but boy was that a bad decision. Brook sold his future for a quick payday.

 

Hector Lopez, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Rocky Juárez (he could have won a title IMO), Yuriorkis Gamboa, Kenneth Gould, Howard Davis, Alfonso Zamora.

 

Rocky Lockridge is essentially the trope codifier for fine margins between success and failure. A couple of rounds the other way in his major fights, and you've got an ATG resume with wins over Pedroza, Gomez and Chavez. As it is, he's most often talked about these days on threads like this, rather than for his achievements.

Darnell Boone is a curious example as he could easily have wins over Ward, Kovalev and Stevenson, while still having double digit losses across the board. It's difficult to know whether an alternate universe Boone could have been a pound for pound guy, or whether he was just a uniquely dangerous bogeyman without the rounded skills necessary for a sustained run at the top.

 

Bowe could have went into the 2000's if he had the Evander Holyfield heart.

 

Just spoke to @Jel about it, I think Iran Barkley could've been more successful.

 

I think Emanuel Augustus could have had a much better career if he had a better manager. He had the skills, talents, and entertainment value to be a star I think.

 

Plus it destroyed his eye socket

 

I think this was an extremely bad move on the part of Kell Brook’s people. There were plenty of fights at welter and jr. middle. Jumping two classes to face a particularly dangerous middleweight could have ended his career.

 

David Tua... only one title shot in a multi-belt era, especially galling considering John Ruiz got about ten consecutive WBA title fights, win, lose or draw.

 

I agree. It probably did. I remember thinking at the time that Kell had more guts than any of the middleweight contenders for challenging GGG

 

Pancho Villa, if he took better care of himself, he could have done so much more.