Fighters with rough road to the top

the question was the "top" not from under some rockatsch

 

Hagler, Hopkins, JMM, Winky are the big ones that come to mind and all of them have suffered one way or another because they had to tough it out by themselves and didn't have a big promoter to watch their backs.

 

i guess it depends how high we are calling the top.
I felt A Dirrell was matched tough on the way up, before challenging for a world title away.
K Pavlik had to go through some tough comp before he got his shot at Taylor.
C Froch also had it tough on the way up.
T Fury, R Helenius, D Chisora are all fighting tough now whether they came it or not.

 

The Marvelous One, he was given no favours at all, which makes his accomplishments even more impressive. IMO 2nd greatest middleweight of all time.

 

i've always been a huge winky wright fan. but don't get all misty about his winding road to the top.

the man turned down 5 million dollars for a taylor rematch. wright demanded a 50/50 split with the champ "or no rematch." he also priced himself out of a pavlik fight more than once. a lot of his post taylor inactivity was due to his unrealistic monetary demands. it was frustrating at times to be a fan of his but he was awesome at his craft when he was in the ring.

 

Humberto Soto, scores an upset on HBO over unbeaten Juarez and it takes him like 2 yrs to finally get a title shot then when he finally KO's a guy to get a title he is DQ'd

 

Maidana, Martinez, Ortiz, Glen Johnson...

 

Kassim Ouma.

 

Adding to my previous post... He lost by decision to Fabrice Tiozzo in his first title fight, to Roy Jones Jr by RTD11 in his second try and To Glenn Catley by Tko 12 in a Title Eliminator for his third chance...Probably because he was giving Catley all he could handle before the late stopage he fought Catley again in a rematch almost two years later for the vacant WBC SuperMiddleweight Title and finally wins by Ko 7.