'Gifted' underachievers who were never all that gifted in your opinion

Honeyghan.The discipline he displayed in the Curry fight was never evident again.He lived up to his nickname the Ragamuffin man

 

Andrew golota

 

Tony Tucker

Benitez??? I wish I could underachieve like him...

 

John Mugabi

 

Edison Miranda's another one, although the kid could crack.

 

First name I thought of seeing this title was david tua.

Why people view him as some unstoppable monster that would be competitive with the likes of tyson, frazier and marciano i'll never know. He was just never that good.

 

I think that in football you have some teams that blow away sub par comatition with ease but cannot beat the top teams and always seam to fade and find a way to lose. Then there are teams that beat the sub par teams, but don't blow them away like the first eg' but always seem to win against the top teams.

One team in the world cup will beat one team 4-0, then the 2nd team 3-1 , then they will come accross a highly skilled team and lose to a team that just scrapped past their comp'
Some teams will look world class vs comp' that is a level below them then look b grade vs a team 1 level above them.

I think that this is the case with some boxers and why they get overrated at times during their carrer and others get sleep on. Their style suits to looking great while others never look that great until you see there carrer as a whole.

 

Probably James Broad, Jerry Martin, Irving Mitchell, and Alvin Hayes.

 

Tua isn't an unstoppable monster.

But he is very dangerous to any fighter who decides to slug with him.

Brutal puncher Tua destroying smaller come-forward Marciano is a possible scenario.

 

Riddick Bowe.

He's seen as this unbelievable talent who at his best would've been more than a match for nearly every other heavyweight who ever lived. The excuse is he was just lazy and greedy but whilst he had the size and some definate skills there were numerous holes in his make up that would've been exploited sooner or later no matter what.

For one his defense was just ****. You couldn't miss him with a punch if you tried. He didn't move his head,tuck his chin in and was hopless at catching punches on the gloves. This lack of defense is the main reason Holyfield fell into brawling with Riddick where he was at a huge physical disadvantage imo. Evander could land at will on him in close but Bowe could land at will on Holyfield as well and he hit harder and was better inside which was why Evander struggled against him. When Holyfield stayed mid range and used movement and angles he handled Bowe much better (as shown for portions of fight 2 and early in fight 3 before he gassed).

Riddicks punching technique was poor as well. I'll concede his jab was good and his uppercut was a peach but he looped his right hand badly (which possibly led to his problem with rabbit punches) thus reducing it's effectiveness for a guy of his height. If he could've straightend it and punched through his target (since he usually punched downwards) it would have increased his power,accuracey and effectiveness and been a serious weapon instead of the ugly clubbing thing it was.

I'm not all that sure his chin was all that either. Whilst it was definately good I doubt it was good enough to withstand the thunderous punches the likes of Lewis or even Tyson would land on him with his crappy defense, especially in light of how badly he was hurt by Holyfield,Golota and even Herbie Hide who to be fair weren't in the same class of puncher as the aforementioned. This is one reason I think he was never matched with big punching contempories like Morrison,Mercer,Bruno,Moorer,Tyson,Lewis or even Foreman. Not that he couldn't win just that he would have been seriously threatened and it wasn't worth the risk.

So whilst Bowe was a good fighter I don't think he was the potential elite heavyweight that people think his laziness stopped him from being. He just had too many holes in his game imo.

 

True about Bowe's right hand.By the time of the Golota fights it was as bad as the comical overhand Eubank would often throw(though Eubank could throw pinpoint straights to offset that unlike Bowe)

 

Yep.

He was the very definition of a one dimensional fighter. Great left hook plus a great chin but nothing much else. He had too low a punch out put for a fighter of his size (the Ibeabuchi fight aside), couldn't make mid fight adjustments,was poor at working his way inside against a half decent jab, didn't punish the body as much as he could've and could never decide ( or train himself) at what weight he was best suited to fight at.

If he didn't get someone early he generally just plodded forward getting outboxed and hoping to get lucky and land something late. I will say this though,he never seemed to get discouraged (maybe because he never cared that much either) and he carried his power late so thats a gift in a way I suppose.

 

Some have labelled Tony Tucker an underachiever. Other than lasting 12 rounds with Tyson, I don't recall watching any fight where he looked anything more than a good fighter with physical advantages over most of his peers.

Danny Romero was hyped as the next big thing early on in his career, but other than a good punch and a solid chin, he didn't seem to have much going for him. He was wide open to right hands, even against average opponents.

 

Three fighters that have yet to be mentioned:

Ed Hopson: (quick fisted, but technically deficient fighter who probably wasn't going to hold onto a title for very long, even had he not been blasted out by Tracy Patterson)

Billy Costello: (Good fighter, but I could never figure out why his torching at the hands of Lonnie Smith was considered that big of an upset. He never had the look of being a truly dominant guy at 140, even as a champion.)

Darrin Van Horn: (Was touted by many as being a potential super-star. Won titles in two divisions, but like Costello, never really looked talented enough to dominate at any point in his career.)

 

Don't remember the exact numbers but Tua-Izon had some pretty high punch stats too.