Fighters who should have been GREAT but fell short

Ike Ibeabuchi

 

Naseem Hamed.

 

Hamed should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.

 

loads of greats never got their chance for what we deem great based on achievements, though many, many of them were actually better boxers & fighters than many of those who did!

 

Yeah but only because of the standard of fighter thats already in there.

He still fell short of the other great Feathers of his era Barrera, Morales, Marquez.

 

I thought of one. Edwin Rosario. I always loved his power and his jab. He didn't take the punches as well as he delivered, but he was special and top notch. His fights were great to watch, and I loved the way he pivoted on his feet in a rather robotic way.

 

Mustafa Hamsho

 

Max Bear
Riddick Bowe
Don Curry
Razor Ruddock
Meldrick Taylor
Herol Graham
Kirkland Laing (if more dedicated)

 

Mark Breland. He dominated so thoroughly in the amateurs, and did it by physical domination as much as technical prowess.

 

That one punch will haunt him forever.

 

Auturo Gatti.

Solid power, great chin, pure heart, good skills. There have been fighters with a lot less to offer who put it together and became great fighters.

Zab Judah.

He should be given Kostya a hard fight instead of being KO'ed. Baldamir...come on Zab. He should have give Floyd more of a fight. Honestly he has more talent then most fighters in history but he could never turn that corner.

 

agree, but Zab is still a great fighter nothing changes that.

 

Vitali?

He always looks so dominating yet got outboxed against Byrd, quit like a *****.
Then he got soundly beaten by Lewis.
Retires to duck Rahman.
And in his comeback he only fights men who are stylistically easy to handle for him.

 

Aaron Pryor. He did touch greatness up through the second Arguello fight but just went off the rails.


Bert Cooper comes to mind. I believe he had the tools to be a great heavyweight. In the Joe Frazier mold. He had the power and the chin. Ofcourse drugs robbed him of his desire to prepare and get into the kind of condition that he woudve needed to be in.

As it was he almost won the heavyweight title on short notice Crack Pipe in hand.

 

It sounds like you are saying Aaron Pryor was great "but". I have to say that I see Aaron Pryor as maybe a top 30 fighter all-time. Maybe higher.

I think he is completely an all-time great. KO'ing Alexis Arguello twice put the exclaimation point on it. He retired after the second fight undefeated. However he decided to fight again. After that he won 5 out of 6 fights with 3 win by way of KO.

His loss to Bobby Joe Young was after 29 months of being out of the ring and on hard drugs.

Aaron Pryor in my mind was the greatest fighter at 140 where he ruled for at least ten years as the best fighter. Defended his title 9 or 10 times, KO'ing just about everyone he faced.