Fighters who have no one to blame but themselves

Even the Boston Blockbuster, James J. Sharkey might have turned the trick for him.

 

Nate Campbell vs Robbie Peden part one. Nate had noone to blame but himself showboating with his hands down. This is prizefighting, he got hit with a perfectly placed hook! Lights out plus a fast count= Nate Campbell destroyed , crying in the ring with his trainer holding his head.

 

Bert Cooper for most of his losses pre-holyfield

 

Johann Orsolics of Austria had a signed contract to fight Jose Napoles for the welterweight title in Vienna. The contract did not contain any clause that he had to have another fight. It was a solid contract. So what does he or his management do? I guess they wanted a tuneup before the big fight so they look around for someone old. Do you wanna know who they signed to fight? Eddie Perkins, that's who. Eddie flattens him in 4 rounds and Napoles' people exercise a clause that was in the contract. That they could bail out within 48 hours if he received a thumping. Bye-bye title shot

George Barnes of Australia was included in the eliminators to fight for the vacant welterweight title after Basilio's abdication. Whatever he was offered to fight in the eliminators couldn't have been much, but this was a chance at the big time. George stated he wouldn't leave Australia for less than $4,000. When the US Promoters balked, he stayed in Oz and lost his Commonwealth title to Johnny Van Rensbug the same month Virgil Akins was knocking out Vince Martinez for the title. George went 5-8-0 the remainder of his career.

 

Donald Curry - start listening to people who were not with you in the beginning and now all the sudden have all this "great" advise for you don't be surprised when their advise isn't in your best interests.

Mike MCcallum - price yourself out of fights because you feel you are not getting paid what you think you should don't cry years latter you didn't get your big shot.

Chad Dawson - bad move facing Ward.

Ryan Garcia - spend all your time mostly making videos of how fast you are instead of learning your craft then sign a contract that nobody made you sign then complain about it after you lose.

Joan Guzman - people never even mention him and at his best was freaking fast and slick. Lost ONE time.
Could never control his weight. Could have really been something.

 

Leon Spinks - after a craftily planned battle scheme formualted by Georgie Benton that worked in taking Ali's title, Leon populates his corner in the rematch with a bunch of hangers-on from the neighborhood. They shouted over all of Benton's instructions with words of wisdom like, "More Gusto!" to the point where halfway through the fight Benton threw up his hands and left the corner and the arena.

 

Very good point. Politics are a mother.

 

That was one of the funniest knockouts ever.

 

Ray Mercer - Mercer is next in line to fight Riddick Bowe for Bowe's title and takes on a tuneup with the Boogey-Man Jesse Ferguson. With a title fight in the offing, what does Mercer do? He shows up for the Ferguson fight with a behemoth-like waistline weighing in at 238. With a 1 million dollar purse against Bowe guaranteed and Ferguson thumping on him, Mercer gets scared and begins offering bribes of $100,000 to Ferguson in the clinches if he would lay down. The problem was that it was picked up by TV mic. I recall at one point Mercer making the offer and Ferguson responded with a left hook to the pit of the stomach. Almost as if to say, "Sure, let me sign here on the dotted line!"

Ferguson got the title shot against Bowe. As for Mercer, although he did beat Ferguson in a rematch later in the year (this time coming in at 223), he didn't receive another title shot for 9 more years when he was an old man and even then he was going against Wlad Klitchscko.

As for the bribe offer, I know there was a court trial on sports bribery, but I don't know the outcome of that, nor do I know if Mercer incurred a fine. But truly dumb and all that for coming in out of shape.