Good fighters that don't have many talents or special attributes for them

Eh I'm havin difficulty in finding this, Bonavena maybe? Oba Carr?

 

Carl Froch IMO. Even his much lauded chin was dented numerous times. I guess powers of recovery and his stamina were special, otherwise I think most people would agree he overachieved.

Hate to say it, but Myung Woo Yuh might fit the bill here too.

 

Alberto Dávila. Short stature, wasn’t much of a puncher, wasn’t the quickest, didn’t have the best physical strength or the tightest defense. But saying all that he was still a very solid fighter with great fundamentals who acquitted himself well despite losing to mostly the best fighters. It’s still astonishing how well he was holding his own against Carlos Zarate prior to getting stopped.

Alan Rudkin would also fit that criteria as well.

 

Marvin Johnson wasn't exceptionally talented in most departments but he was still a big puncher, that itself counts as a stand out attribute IMO.

 

Mike Hunter perhaps? His game revolved around his seemingly natural abilities, skill and instincts.

How about Zuri Lawrence?

 

Bonavena is a good example.

Others 70s HW coming to my mind are Young, Quarry and Shavers. Each one of them had some good stuff in their arsenals but they also were sorely lacking in other areas.

 

Jack Kid Berg - wasn't really a puncher & couldn't adapt to fighting from the outside, but developed an unorthodox inside mauling/brawling/smothering style & took that as far as it could go before a peaking Canzoneri finally figured him out.

 

Froch on the way up was probably the worst looking fighter I've ever seen that managed to go onto a decent career at world level. He looked like he had less potential than the average fighter that usually tops out at British title level...fighting in Roy Jones stance eating flush punches regularly with bad fundamentals, slow reflexes, not that big looking a puncher. He looked a bad KO waiting to happen. Instead, he became a god.

IMO guys like Kalule, Yuh and Davila are far too skilled to be mentioned here, unless you're narrowing it down to fighters that didn't have a lot of excellent basic/innate attributes (power, chin, speed)

 

High technique, smart ring-technicians like Rudkin, Davila, Kalule that didn't have too many very good/great natural attributes to easily fall back on ( chin/overall speed/power, plenty of height and reach for best weightclass, etc) could actually be a very long list and include a bunch of great fighters. especially if we discount stamina (because not having at least good solid stamina is usuall the outlier) but I think that's a bit different than just fighters who outright don't have many talents at all becoming good. Those sort of guys were all talented in most technical areas.

Fighters that just don't have many talents at all, that's not easy. i'd suggest looking at splinter-champs that made some defences in the three or more belt era ('80s IBF to present day super/regular bull****), lots of fighters without many very good qualities technically or physically that still put together good numbers and can be said to have had a solid world level career within the context of their own era. Someone like Omar Narvaez comes to mind right away.

 

Certainly wasn't 'numerous'' times, he got dropped just twice - once to Jermain Taylor and once to George Groves - and both times got up recovered and stopped them. To only be dropped twice for a fighter who non-stop faced the best world class opposition back to back most of whom where big punchers (and with him not having the best defence) - He definitely had an excellent chin.

I personally don't think he overachieved. I noticed from early he had a lot going for him. Power, chin, Stamina/endurance, underrated good skills ( he medalled at the world championships), toughness, iron will to win, physically very strong, confident, disciplined/lived the life. He didn't have too many special attributes but he had many very good attributes with made him excellent overall.