Is Kovalev the best fighter to come out of nowhere?

Thabiso Mchunu? :think

 

GGG's rise was also out of the blue.

 

The way I see it his fights in 2013 was against stiffer and stiffer competition and his performance was outstanding. So the preparation leading to the Cleverly fight made it not surprising and I believe favored in that fight.

 

Amnat Ruenroeng takes the cake for me.

Thai fighters already had a rep for having extremely padded records and being simply "opponent" caliber.

Here comes a guy who, while serving a 15 year prison sentence, wins a national tournament a year after he steps into the ring for the first time. He gets released the next day. A year after that, he winds up on the Olympic team. That's two years of organized boxing experience.

Fast forward to 2012, and he finally turns pro at 32, an age where fighters in his weight class are typically either shot or retired. All he's done since then is win a world championship, upset the touted (and legit) Kazuto Ioka, and put together a Fighter of the Year worthy campaign, with a big fight with Shimeng around the corner.

I thought the guy was just more Pad(ded) Thai. I wound up being dead wrong, and he's a perfect example of a fighter that's come out of nowhere to make his mark.

Not bad for a former drug addict who dropped out of school in the 2nd grade.

 

Not really.

 

I feel like 2nd graders don't have the mental capacity to decide to drop out in the 2nd grade.

 

Good post.

I honestly didn't know any of that personal stuff about Ruenroeng.

 

Came in to mention Amnat. The emerging Japanese kids could maybe be included but most of them were MAJOR amateur stars at home (then again Amnat was a major amateur star in Thailand?)

 

Good point

 

for the pac****s,

pac came from nowhere too..
he was just a late substitute to fight ledwaba..

so, i believe he's the best fighter out there that came from nowhere..

how's that?

 

Pacquiao had already won, and defended, a Lineal title before he made his US debut