Fighters you were all wrong about...

FMJ

Hate everything about his style. Thought for sure he would be beat.

But he is an ATG

 

Vitali K. After watching him retire against Chris Byrd despite being way ahead on the scorecards, I thought he was simply a quitter. Then after the Lewis fight and the way the rest of his career turned out I became one of his biggest fans, and I'm from the USA, not Germany or the Ukraine.

 

Me too! I thought ,with his get out of jail power Price was the next best thing,then we found out what happens when he gets tagged!Win some, lose some!

 

Never been a Wlad fan , all that cynical laying on, but he showed an appetite for battle against Joshua that I didn't think he possessed!

 

I underestimated Wlad

 

Guys who had much better careers than I expected: Wlad, Mayweather and Pacquiao (didn't think either FMJ or Pac would fare that well at 147-154)

Guys who I'd expected to achieve much more: Zab Judah, Vivian Harris, Jermaine Taylor, Allan Green (some of it was health-related but still), Jameel McCline, Danny Jacobs (some of it was health-related but still)

 

Hector Lopez after the Bernard Taylor KO in '87. He looked like championship material at 126 lbs. He then went to prison for a couple of years and when he resumed boxing, he did so at 135 lbs. and was never quite as good as he had been at 126 lbs.

 

Hatton had a much better career than I expected him to

 

Actually thought hatton could have done more. He was fantastic in the early days. Fought for three minutes a round. Drowned a lot of opponents back in the day. Relentless. Body shots we,re up there with the best of them.

In hindsight tho a combination of the opponents skill levels going up, his lifestyle starting to catch up with him. Plus after tyszu he lost his style a bit. Thought he could bulldoze everyone. He didnt achieve all he maybe could have for me.

Tyson fury. In the beginning thought he was terrible before becoming a decent boxer as he went on. But didnt imagine for one minute he could beat klitchko.

Carl froch. Rated him a bit but after watching him at decent british level. Thought he,d get tucked up when he went on to world level. Got hit too much even at british level. But continually proved me wrong.

Joshua to an extent.

 

Oddly enough, the first name that comes to mind is Butterbean. Mind you, my expectations were never that high, but he fought far better than I would expect of a guy who looks like he couldn't skip rope. He could punch and even had quite fast hands -and I don't mean that with the qualifier "for a fat guy".

 

David Ried- I thought he was going to be the next big Philly Thing.

I was not excited when he was pitted against Trinidad a couple of fights earlier than I would have like...but I still knew he was destined for greatness...and that he would beat Tito. Then in Rd 3 Tito goes down, and I knew the world would soon know, what I already knew...and then....well....you know....sigh

Fernando Guerrero recently out of Salisbury MD (lived there for 9 years). Watched him at the Cuvic Center in Salisbury and other locations and knew he was going to be great. He was up and coming along with Daniel Jacobs, and I knew Fernandos star would soon eclipse him. Alas I was blinded to his defensive liability because of my fandom.

A cool Fernando story, he is really a great guy and still my sons favorite fighter. We met him in Salisbury mall, and he posed with my son for some pics and gave him an autographed shirt that still hangs on his wall. Then we got to talking with him and he agreed to come and share about focus and purpose with the teens of our church and community. It was awesome connecting with him his brother Alex, and watching them set an example of giving to the community. The following day he was giving out truck loads of supplies to needy students and families in our area. He may not have hit it as big as I thought or hoped, but he as classy a guy as you could hope to meet

 

James Toney. I thought he just got lucky against Nunn, lost against Reggie J and just caught McCallum at the right time, and after the Tiberi fight thought he was sh*t. He went on to put in truly sublime performances against McCallum II, DeWitt and Barkley and showed greatness with his back against the wall (Littles, Williams, Jirov) and even won the title at heavyweight, wow.

 

Danny Garcia. Nothing he does is conventional. Low work rate, often throws single punches and when throwing his hands will be down not protecting his chin and has very average hand speed and on top of that he's a counterpuncher. Typically all those tools would spell disaster for a counter puncher. Likes to throw super wide hooks (literally his head tilted down near his waist and as he arches the hook (look at the Khan KD and ending flurry). More often than not he's on the backfoot and giving up ring space.

But he makes it work. Very physically strong fighter. I think he's underrated in that aspect of how strong he is (and I don't mean in terms of punching power). He has a tough hide, good chin and takes shots well. Plus its more the placement and timing of when to throw. Sometimes (ala the Judah) fight he might only throw 3-5 rights in a whole round but still win it because he has slowed the pace down. We saw in the Mattysee fight he can jab and move. Overall I thinks he's excelled with his package. Not an ATG but a guy that did the most with what he's got.

 

Acelino Freitas
I thought he was going to be a future atg.... I was wrong