Limited fighters who ended up having good careers?

No not a heavyweight and nobody who was main eventing on TV (although I’m pretty sure he fought on TV sometimes). He was from Florida, maybe a junior middleweight or middleweight.

I remember what he looked like — saw him fight live several times on cards where I had guys fighting or was there to help out in some corners or whatever — but I can’t remember his name to save my life. I didn’t really get to know him but I was friendly with his manager. He was handled by Jim Waldrep, who was matchmaker for Christie Martin for a time (before Arum scooped her up).

There’s another guy whose name I can’t remember who was determined that he was a puncher and a slugger and he had a terrible chin (not same stable but they were around the same area at the same time). He racked up a few wins (I’m guessing 12-1 or something like that) and then stepped up in competition a bit and got knocked out in a couple of rounds his next three or four fights.

Finally his manager and trainer sat him down and said, ‘OK, you’ve tried it your way and you didn’t want to listen and you see where it’s getting you. But you’ve got good legs, fast hands and you KNOW how to box. If you’ll do it our way, you can make a good living at this. You do it your way and you’re going to end up on permanent suspension for getting KO’d so many times in a row, you’ll get brain damage and you’ll be out of the game.’

He took a few days off from the gym, came back and said, ‘you’re right, let’s do it your way.’ He still got KO’d a few times but he also went the distance with some decent fighters and had a good journeyman career making main event money in a lot of cases fighting guys on the road and giving them good rounds.

 

Floyd Mayweather Jr is the best example here

 

Renaldo Snipes.

 

Juan Laporte, Ossie Ocasio and Dennis Andries.

 

Chris Byrd