Beat James Borad, beat Biggs before Bowe beat him, was winning with Mercer until he got clipped, beat over the hill Page and lost to McCall. How do you rate him?
I rate him highly. He was big, had an all-round skillset, was pretty tough and kept up a good pace during a fight. In my opinion his biggest problem was having too few fights, he should have been kept busy and in shape by his team, one fight after another. Most of his fights he won without problems and taking little damage.
He was a very good talent and one who I’m not sure reached his full potential. He medaled in the 1984 Olympics in the super heavyweight class. Won his first 27 pro fights against mostly winning opposition and was the first holder of the newly formed WBO title. Ring magazine had him highly ranked in the late 80s. Damiani possessed decent footwork, punching power , jab and cross. The problem is he was somewhat on the older side when he turned pro and wasn’t terribly durable. But if he had managed to get into better condition and started fighting slightly better comp a little earlier than he did he might have gone a tad further. Of course from the late 80s to the mid 90’s winning a linear title probably would have been beyond his reach. Too many greats in their primes who were above his abilities
I was interested in him in the late 80s .A European HW making progress in the top ten was unusual. He didn't look much but was a good fighter. A European fight with Mason or Bruno would of been interesting.
Damiani was better boxer than he looked. He quite comfortably beat Biggs inside the distance in Biggs' next fight after Tyson. He scored some other good wins, and looked good against young Mercer. Seems like Damiani quit vs Mercer after that uppercut broke his nose, and he quit (turned his back) vs McCall when got hit to the chin in round 8.
Who really nose? He sniffed a legit world title shot when he was supposed to fight Evander Holyfield but got injured in training and Bert Cooper stepped in on iirc less than a week’s notice.
So many of the heavies look really good until they suffer their first loss. And lots of them are never the same and their subsequent bouts see them like at 75%. And that 75 is just not a good enough number to be at. But the heavies that can handle a loss--or a bad loss---are not quite and endangered species but very few improve. Nope. We see subtractions and not additions.