Heavyweight contenders who you thinks should have been better

That was a good win. Also he was ahead on points against Oquendo when stopped in 10 I think. Man, he had potential.

 

For those that don't know or need reminding, Joe Goddard was a 6 foot tall, 180-200 pound Aussie who could punch like there was no tomorrow. He generally disdained training and his record is a bit unbalanced by a late career, alcohol-fueled losing streak.

As it stands, he KO'd Joe Choynski twice, Peter Maher twice and Denver Ed Smith. He KD'd and drew with the great Peter Jackson in a give and take affair.

If dates are to be believed, he debuted well past his 30th birthday. What he could have done had he started earlier, trained a bit more diligently and stayed off the sauce would have been pretty outstanding given what he actually achieved.

 

Tyrell Biggs

 

Gerrie Coetzee...Gerrie Coetzee...Gerrie Coetzee....yes, I know that he was the WBA champion, but I think there was a mental thing of some kind that kept him from being SOOOO much better.

 

I think Gerrie overcome those hurdles, albeit late in his career and certainly later than he should have.

Against Dokes he was a much different fighter to the one plagued by self doubt and a confidence crisis earlier in his career.

Fighting away from home against Dokes also released a lot or pressure on him. Jackie McCoy did a mighty job too, with Ceotzee suddenly showing left jab and hook to go with the vaunted right hand. Granted Dokes may have came into the ring high on coke but Cetzee looked great.

He was unlucky to run into a motivated and well trained Greg Page. Coetzee fought hard and aggressively and landed enough right hands to knock out most fighters but Page shipped them well and came back to KO him.

It was strange too that the newly found hook and jab were just as suddenly shelved again. I'm pretty sure before the bones in his right hand were fused together (and he suddenly had KO power) he was more of a boxer.

I do agree with the premise tho, Gerrie should have got it together a lot sooner and been a bit more of a force. He needed to get over to the USA a lot sooner i reckon. His big fight record at home is no good at all.

 

I just don't know about that. First off, I definately think Knoetze deserved the decision in their fight. I'm not sure how big of a setback it would have been, but it may have shelved that Weaver fight. That was a brutal ko and the first time off his feet. Quite a rebuilding project to come back from that.

Speaking of which, that was always an Angie Dundee theory---a guy giving his all and then getting ko'd badly late was the toughest kind of loss to overcome. And lots of heavies really aren't the same after.

So I think his matchmaking is different depending on which way that decision goes in that K-man fight. He probably gets the Tate fight becuase both were with Arum. what would maybe be different is going the DKP route.

I also think the America move was crucial. Probably just for hand surgeries alone. Didn't he have like 12 or 13 hand operations? You would think that amount would have been cut in half, or more, if Arum or lets say King, were promoting him.

Man, all those heavies back then all seem to have that missing ingredient that raised its head.

 

My top 10 in no order

1/ Gerry C00ney ... a giant with a killer left hook and wasted potential left for drinking and drugs. Holmes stated he almost lost to C00ney had he followed up after a body shot in round two.

2/ Buster Douglas.. A under achiever with excellent basic boxing and good footwork ,powerful jab and good puncher,never gave 100% in all but one fight ,we know which one.

3/ Razor Ruddock.. a huge puncher with all around natural abilities a former Holmes sparring partner who abandoned his gifts with one shot punches, he could have been the guy to beat in the 80's pre Tyson had he not involved his pown family managing him.

4/ Riddick Bowe.. a great technical big man over 230 who had great inside fighting .he was lazy and had a knuckle head of a manager in Rock Newman, wasted potential at its max and perhaps the shortest prime anyone's seen at HW.I considered Bowe a contender he was not the major champion as I see Lewis was.

5/ Tommy Morrison.. A under rated talent ,arguably the best left hook ever and a two handed power puncher,his lack of commitment gave him stamina issues and was a big womanizer and partier, he never reached half his potential and had two solid fights with foreman and older Ruddock, I blame most on his trainers as incompetent and contributed to his downfall.

6/ Tony Tucker.. Another big athletic 6'5 guy with all around skill and great chin,he did everything right but get his father involved in his career where it hurt him because he was never lined up with guys to get him title shots and when facing Tyson and Tucker was not at his top level he could be,minus Tyson he should have been fighting holmes/Spinks (avoided him) / and the Tubbs of that era and such.He fell back to drugs etc...going the distance with Lewis tells how much he wasted in the 80's.

7/ Mitch Green.. A super quick handed guy that stood 6'5 and could take huge shots.He was on drugs in and out of the ring,no one knows how good he actually could have been but he ate Tyson bombs for ten rounds.

8/ Andrew Golota.. a big hitting, long range jabber with solid skill sets.His former trainer Duva stating he could have went undefeated if he wasn't a head case sums it up,after Bowe it was a circus act of a career.

9/ Corrie Sanders .. a gifted southpaw with a crushing left.He never took boxing seriously until he was past his prime,another what if fighter who could have at least made a big run had he put full time in boxing.

10/ Bert Cooper...a Tyson like style fighter who Frazier trained until a fallen out.Had Cooper stayed focused away from substance abuse he may have defeated Holyfield and kept with Fraziers teachings and maybe got by foreman instead of being a gate keeper because he had the power to k.o anyone.

 

I was all systems go driving the Guinn train! After he smashed Michael Grant and then decisioned Dokiwari I was certain he was on the fast track to a title shot.

In March of 2004 me and of bunch of my boys made them trip from Missouri (which is where we call home) down to Arkansas specifically to watch Guinn as he fought on the undercard of a Jermaine Taylor HBO title defense. Guinn was throughly beaten that night by Monte "two gunz" Barrett and that was pretty much all she wrote for him as a serious contender.

Most of the contenders mentioned thus far in this thread fall in line with my opinion as well, I just thought I'd share the Guinn story.

 

Good thread. #1 Tucker. He always maintained that his hand was broke against Tyson and would have beat him otherwise. It was a close enough fight that, if it was a big problem, I think it's 50/50 he would have beat Tyson. Then, if he avoids the coke problem, he could have been the dominant champ of the late 80s. 2 Corrie Sanders. bad matchmaking, management, luck, discipline. Think he could have been Foreman to Vitali's Ali if things had worked out better (for both of them). 3. And probably the only one not mentioned, Buddy Baer. He was 6'5, a top contender and knocked Joe Louis through the ring, probably earning a tko in modern era. I think there's a 30%ish chance that if he'd had Manny Stewart to teach him to utilize his height and gifts he might have become the most dominant hw of his era.

 

Tim Witherspoon

 

Tillis suffered from some food allergies which he didn't really learn about until late in his career.

He lacked stamina because of that.

Against Tyson he had adjusted his diet and it showed.

But I guess it was already too late for James by then.

 

No one was more carefully managed than Lastarza.lol.


Look at the guys he missed.
Henry
Baker
Walcott
Charles
Moore
Valdes
Satterfield
Walls
Dunlop
Bivins
Maxim
This is a guy who, 3 fights before he got a title shot lost to 14-9-2 journeyman light heavyweight Rocky Jones, being floored into the bargain.
He got his title shot on the basis of a split dec over Rex Layne whom Marciano had ruined and a revenge win over so so Dan Bucceroni who had been ko'd by light heavyweight Bob Murphy,these wins and his close loss to Marciano early in their careers was parlayed into a title shot. Lastarza was very well managed!

 

Crooked/biased/incompetent referees and officials were Jimmy Young's problems.

 

I think Tony Tucker could've had a much better career if he stayed focused and on top of his game. "The Truth" Williams also looked to have tremendous skills early on especially in his bout with Holmes unfortunately his career went downhill after a few bad losses.

 

Corbett didn't want to know him,Jim Jeffries took him on and beat him but Goddard was 3 months off of 41 years old by then!