First not on the list would be the great Jose Luis Castillo, learned from his years of sparring with JCC Sr. Made the best of it and sharpened his skills from it. Ray Beltran: this guy had a semi sad career. Most notably known as the chief sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao. That became the focus of his career instead of winning titles. Dude was dead game but he got robbed at least once (I don't have a reference check for that) but I heard he was getting bonuses for sparring in advance for like 5 thousand bucks at a time from Manny. The next one is not really fair, but Audley Harrison. Dude used to make girl noises when he got hit and he hit the deck often. Thought to be as the next Lennox Lewis but turned out to be Fraudley Harrison. Who else do you know of a sparring partner who never became great other than their work in gymnasium?
there is a lot of good names in Chris Eubank Sr. stories like Rod Douglas, Herol Graham, Johnny Walker Banks etc.. This content is protected
Martin Bakole will be on this list soon. I keep hearing how he is a beast in sparring etc but come fight night I haven't been impressed.
Tom Bogs, who challenged Monzon, could be very mean in sparring. He never had a KO-punch - but his punches to the body of sparringpartners often broke their ribs. After defeating Johny Frankham (1973) the two, a month later in the gymn, decided to settle their disagreement on the score - Frankham loudly claiming he had been robbed. Tom Bogs was angry, mean and ugly as he punished Frankhams body, following up with left hooks to the jaw. Frankham was humiliated. Tom Bogs chief sparringpartner, Ralf Jensen, often complained of his role as a punchbag. He was paid for his fights - but never for sparring. And as such he was always injured when he fought on the undercard. Tom was tough in the gymn. When Joe Bugner - the heavyweight champion of Europe - was in town Tom had no concerns entering the ring with the much bigger man. Absorbing Bugners jabs he suddenly ducked under the Brits arms and punched him to the body. A surpriced Bugner told him only Joe Frazier had hit him that hard. Tom Bogs was with no doubt marginal slightly better in the gymn than in his fights. He never became world champion. Still, he had a great career.
