Horrendous Matchmaking Decisions ..

Lightweight Dave Charnley's greedy manager putting him in with reigning welterweight champ and ATG
Emile Griffith.

 

You aren't. That was abysmal match making. There was no way even prime Meldrick could have beaten Norris whose kryptonite was power not speedy boxing. Poor Meldrick literally couldn't possibly win.

Others that come to mind are Bruno v Bonecrusher. Frank was only 22, had had an alarm bell with Jumbo Cummings a year earlier. He didn't need a durable man with power at that point.

Billy Hardy v Hamed was bad unless Billy got very well paid. He was slower, not as strong. He had no advantage to speak of.

Rock Newman choosing Andrew Golota for an overweight and unmotivated Riddick Bowe was the kind of poor decision that characterised his handling of Big Daddy.

And Barney Eastwood pitting Barry McGuigan's pale skin against Vegas' afternoon heat seems quite the brainfart, too.

 

Young vs Shavers I was a strange choice.

 

6-0 Fred Apostoli against 93-2-11 Freddie Steele. According to all reports Apostoli put up an admirable fight but there was only one way it was going to go. I blame management more than anything for this. What were they doing, trying to ruin a great prospect? And I read that it was the ref who stopped it. You would think the corner would pull out their blue-chip prospect before he gets killed.

 

If they were preparing him for another run at Ali, then didn't it make sense to take on somebody like Young?

they couldn't shelter him from that style forever!

 

Boggis always got top money for Dave who never complained. Nice to see a shout for Charnley though. Nice one Mac.

 

I'll see McVey's Charnley v Griffith and raise him Jack Bodell v Jerry Quarry.

 

Some of the fights mentioned only look stupid in hindsight.

John Tate's people were looking to get him back on the horse, so to speak, and Trevor Berbick, who had no notable wins at that time (and a 1 round loss to a previous Tate victim, plus a draw against Leroy Caldwell) and seemed like a very safe bet.

Michael Grant was a golden boy when he fought Lennox Lewis. Sure, the gold had been tarnished a little against Golota, but Grant was a legitimate challenger when he fought Lewis. It was only after the Lews-Grant fight that we realized that Grant wasn't "all that."

Chris Byrd - David Tua definitely had an air of "can Tua catch him, or will Byrd totally outslick him." I was a big Chris Byrd fan, but I never got the feeling that he was really going to be a top-5 heavyweight until he was actually there. It seemed like a real even fight going in.

 

Easy to say knowing the result, but Kenny could have been blasted out by someone else for less money in a fight that wouldn’t have gotten him in the title picture if he had gone a different route.

As his age (and mileage) he wasn’t going to go on a 2-year tour fighting hand-picked fringe contenders. It was a bid for one last shot.

 

Norton got paid.

Moorer could still fight some and probably figure he could outbox Tua.

No idea why Marvis decided to take the fight.

 

That fight and his fight with Nazarov ended in serious KO's.

 

It seems to slowly be getting phased out, but the dumbest matches to me are when a decorated am turns pro and ends up fighting the guy who changes oil in some hick town after fighting world class ams in the years before.

 

Sweet, conversely, I was a huge Tua fan. Ever since his 8th pro fight, which was televised over USA I think. Loved and rooted for every fight he had. But the Byrd fight made me physically cringe when it was made. Funny how two fans view things parallel but different.