Fighters who were managed poorly

I always say Alex Stewart was a poorly managed heavyweight.
He went from fighting tomato cans in the Felt Forum to fighting prime versions of Holyfield (22-0) and Tyson (38-1).
There were no steps between D-level opposition and A+ level opposition.

1989, there were guys like fading versions of Biggs, Berbick, Thomas etc., he could have fought.
and a level below there were guys like Jesse Ferguson, Jose Ribalta, a faded James Tillis. Bert Cooper. etc. The established trial horses.

Instead he went from Dave Jaco and Terry Armstrong and Lorenzo Canady and Fernando Montes .... straight to Holyfield and Tyson.

 

Managers can only do so much. The fighter needs to step up and show discipline, especially if they are nearing the summit of the sport. Some guys cant handle the pressure, others just are not focused enough. My 2cents.

 

McClellan wasn’t greatly managed. Fought a lot bums while he was champ, don’t know why those fights were set up.

 

Jimmy Ellis - was thrown in with Hurricane Carter, Georgie Benton, Henry Hank, Don Fullmer, Holly Mims (twice), Rory Calhoun, Wilfie Greaves and Johnny Morris. And that was within his first 20 fights. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end of the pool.

Nipper Pat Daly - was turned pro by his wonderful manager Professor Andrew Newton before his 10th birthday and retired before his 18th birthday with 118 bouts under his belt. His wonderful manager kept putting the kid in with hard fight after hard fight with incredible rapidity until he was completely burned out. Newton justified this by saying, "The lad thrives on hard work." What a guy!

 

Regarding guys like Cooney and Biggs being maybe pushed into title fights, against dominant champions, before they were "ready", what about Alex Garcia, whose management turned down a fight with someone big at the time (George Foreman?) because he "wasn't ready"? Cooney and Biggs got their paydays and a certain degree of fame by being Holmes and Tyson title opponents, respectively. Garcia ended up being exposed by an "opponent", lost a few more, and never contended again. I'm sure far more people have heard of Gerry Cooney and Tyrell Biggs than of Alex Garcia.

As far as Mike Weaver, did he even have a manager in the early days of his career? I assume that someone in his position who decides to box for part of his living goes to a local gym, works out when he can, gets to know managers and matchmakers in the area, and gets a call to fight later in the month. And he takes it, because it's a few hundred bucks, it's exposure, and he needs to put food on the table. Hopefully he wins. If he doesn't, well, we've got a card in a couple of months and we need filler bouts. Maybe he wins several and attracts management and someone to invest in him. Maybe he doesn't and continues, when the phone rings, to take fights against whomever. Maybe he becomes a professional journeyman record-padder.

 

Goofi...I mean Lance Whitaker.

 

Think it was the Bruno fight.

 

On my shores, it has to be Freddie Mills.
Ted Broadrib was a very brave manager indeed, it bordederd on criminal what he did with fearless Freddies career, threw him in with big strong HWs such as Joe Baksi, Bruce Woodcock, Jack London, etc, not to mention punchers like Lloyd Marshall, and with not a great deal of time between each beaten, front teeth knocked out, concousion, blinding headaches, memory loss, thats what his legacy was after the pityfull managment of the disgracefull guidance of Broadrib. Sad, so sad.

 

getting 10 million for a fight near 40yrs ago is exceptional management imo

 

if memory serves me right, Brunos purse was 900k sterling. Tims was 500k dollars. After all the deductions he took home 95k

 

It was the defence of his title against Bruno.Scandalous!

 

I want to say any Duva fighter just because of the puppy mill mentality they seemed to have, and then they ditched any fighter who slipped up and had the temerity to go on a bad streak. Truth is though, it was a volume business for them and they had an excellent trainer in Benton, and they did get their fighters good-paying fights while they could. I dunno.

 

Marvis Frazier, put in with Holmes and Tyson, Cooney if the aim was to properly develop him as a fighter, Maskaev in the mid-90's, you could say Sanders up until he got the call to fight Wlad. Glad he got some late success.


- and poor old Joe Grim, thrown in with everybody

 

Fernando Vargas comes to mind.

 

Why Vargas?