Fighters who left you with a bitter taste for having totally or partially wasted their talent

Zab Judah

 

Edwin Valero and Joan Guzman
Terrence Crawford --- Top Rank will deny him of the big fights at WW.. Bad choice.. --- Sorry getting ahead of myself since i know Top Rank too well.

 

Nice post, i enjoyed it. I'd just like to add to the bolded part.

The dangers were two guys he'd already beat, and one other if he went for the big glory.

Benitez actually would have been a tougher proposition at 154. He'd filled out a bit and gained confidence and strength. The timeline would likely have seen them fight right after Benitez beat Duran, the fight prior to being beaten by Hearns. Benitez fought brilliantly against Duran and he would have been very tough. Mouth watering matchup.

Hearns too improved up at 154. He learnt quite a bit from the Leonard loss and in particular how to clinch and fight hurt. It would have been another fantastic match and those two were always destined to have life and death struggles.

Hagler of course would have likely been the toughest given his size. Leonard would have been a live underdog agaisnt Hagler and i reckon a mild fave over the other two.

 

Lionel Butler!!! had no ring experience and his first pro fight was Riddick Bowe!, had a record of 6-10 when he was spotted and turned into a killer blasting out Tony Tucker in 1 round , Tucker said he hit harder than Tyson. Got a title shot , got back on drugs and showed up fight night actually on drugs weighing 260

 

Agreed, never really looked in tip top shape

 

True. But Leonard also most likely would've improved. And when you look at his body during the Kalule fight he looked like the bigger man at Jr middle. In fact he looked like a middleweight during that fight. And theirs also that old saying that fighting an opponent a 2nd time is usually much easier than the 1st. Its unfortunate we didn't get a chance to see what would've happened the 2nd time around while all those fighters were prime. As for Hagler. Hagler in my opinion is the Best Middleweight ever. But he fought only 3 great fighters in his long career. One he won a dec over but didn't dominate while he was prime and Duran wasn't. The 2nd one fought a dumb if not one of the dumbest fights in the history of boxing. The 3rd one beat him after being away for a few yrs. Whos to say if Leonard fought Hagler around the time Duran fought him Leonard wouldn't have won?

 

Grzegorz Proksa looked like a beast against Silvester
Dmitry Pirog
James kirkland
David Lemieux
Razor Ruddock
Larry Donald
Bruce Seldon
Buster Douglas

 

Cubans:
Juan Carlos Gomez
Odlanier Solis
Gamboa
Jorge Luis Gonzales
Rigondeaux
Ortiz (rematch pending)

Some did more than others. All could've done more.

 

Seems to be the consensus that he was a hot/cold on/off fighter.

 

I'd certainly not saying they win over Ray, he'd be a mild but sure favorite over Benitez and Hearns. IMO they'd be very live underdogs and i'd near make Hearns even money or a mild fave over Ray at 154. I don't see Ray improving post Hearns tho, he had it all sorted by then and was fighting at a very very high level.

I'd not count him out against Hagler, certainly. Good to see someone that doesn't. It would have been very tough if over 15 tho against the bigger man. As you say tho Duran had him thinking in there and underperforming tho truth be told the scorecards were embarrassing.

Those fights would have been incredible for sure.

 

The Snipes fight is really fascinating, it displayed Eddie’s arrogance and horrible judgement like nothing else. Total shame.

 

Will take a look at that fight, thx!

 

The best moment is when Snipes leans up off his stool and shouts at Eddie, "You ain't winning a round!". Or maybe when Eddie gets flash knockdowned and plops like a giant overstepped egg on the canvas.

 

I think guys like Hearns and Hagler and Duran did what they could. Leonard left us with what could have been more. I would have liked to have Hearns stay at 160 for a long time and get comfortable at that weight like he did at 147 and 154 and maybe developed knockouts there.. But when Hagler fought Ray he used that time to get the light heavyweight title.. Duran? I would have liked to have seen him at 140.. Hagler? maybe a jump to 168 or 175 to test him out.

 

Agree all those matchups would have been awesome.

Flash saying there was nothing for him to prove or no big matchups available in 82 is a head scratcher.