Greatest waste of talent in boxing history?

He still did pretty well

 

I'd say Donald Curry

 

Names that immediately spring to mind

Kirkland Laing
Tony Ayala Jr
Bert Cooper

There's a whole long list of people who got sidetracked along the way. The 80s saw a lot of quite big name boxers affected by drug addiction.

 

Hector Camacho & Michael Nunn accomplished a lot and also underachieved.

Ricardo Williams
Ricky Womack

 

Kronk fighter Superbad Bernard Mays 26-1-1 15 KOs. Stories I've read is he used to always get the better of Tommy Hearns in sparing, Steward said he was the MOST TALENTED Kronk boxer of them all, his amateur record was 200ish wins, 2 losses. But then found beer and got hooked on it. His last fight was a loss but his pancreas was messed up because of all the drinking. Died of alcoholism at 33

 

I'm not getting this Donald Curry talk. The name of this thread is 'Greatest waste of talent in boxing history'. How does this pertain to a guy who wins the welterweight title, makes 8 title defenses including unifying the 147 lb. title, moves up to 154 and wins a version of that title as well. And he did that after that career-ending 1 punch KO by McCallum (he was done after that punch, much like Cuevas after Hearns and Tate after Weaver). So how is he a waste of talent? It would make more sense to add someone like Benny Lynch, who curtailed his career with alcoholism by the age of 25. Now that's a waste of talent, not one who achieves more than most.

 

As hittable as Bowe was by that point, would not have lasted long.

 

Greatest waste of talent was probably someone who never picked up a glove. Probably some dude dragging around the stones used to build the pyramids in ancient egypt or something.

 

Exactly. How can you become a world champion and be an example of wasted talent?

 

With Williams you need to include Chamuco Martinez and Jose Martinez. They are not related.

 

Womack is an interesting call. Fearsome amateur but wouldn’t give up the street thug life.

 

Benny Lynch is a great catch!

 

Scott Fitzgerald

 

I'm gonna go with Cooney. He made alot of money and fought for the title but he didn't come close to tapping his full potential.

Gerry was a weapon. At 6-6 225lbs, that lefthand was Nuclear-powered. In his losing effort against Holmes Cooney showed an excellent jab as well heart and chin.
This was after being inactive leading up to the title match. His managers short changed his development by not keeping him active. The Wacko Twins only seemed to care that he got the fight but didn't give him the best chance to win.

Afterwards Cooney short changed himself with Drugs and Alcohol, not fighting for long periods of time. Ray Arcel who worked Holmes corner said after the bout ended he remembered looking over at Cooney and thinking he gonna comeback and win the title.

He let all the politics and racial stuff get to him. If he could have shaken off the defeat and comeback he could have been a serious force.

 

I think Marvis Frazier would be a great Cruiserweight boxer. And this is how he had a solid career, in a category that IMO he should never have boxed in.