Lovable Losers: who are your favorites with overall sub-.500 records?

Arturo Leon (25-30-2).

Light hitting but tricky fringe contender/journeyman got off the canvas to outpoint former (and future) champion Bobby Chacon in '78, which allowed him to get a title shot at the reigning 130lbs champion, who at that time happened to none other than El Flaco Explosivo, Alexis Arguello. He, of course, had absolutely no chance in hell of winning, but he remained the only one of Arguello's 130lb challengers to go the full fifteen.

Pretty impressive, all things considered.

 

Kamil Sokolowski 4-11 - much better than his record suggests.

 

I saw him on a podcast where he discussed the infamous Jeremy Bullock incident(may have been Sherdog radio actually) and he sounded surprisingly coherent. Another guy who was a lovable loser(although he has a winning record) Bert Cooper sounded pretty good too in an interview I saw with him that was fairly recent.

 

Oh geeze, I just had a Nam' flashback. I remember seeing that slam years ago.

 

Bob Stallings was 32-31, so 2 wins less (or 2 losses more) and he fits here.

Beat Chuck Wepner, Mac Foster, Alvin Blue Lewis, Chuck Wepner.

But he's a bit over 0.5

George Johnson from 50s - 70s - faced Liston, Foreman, Fraizer, Lyle, Quarry and others

Willis Applegate - one of the few fighters to last the distance vs Rocky without being dropped (Rocky had 34 wins), very tough with some good wins on his record

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Dereck Chisora 10 years from now probably fits with the record like 29-30 if he fades badly like Danny Williams

 

Wilson had great chin, no doubt about it, but he also was fearless and knew how to deal with punchers. He was small for a HW but still very strong - always fit and muscular with low fat% even in his late 40s. Knew how to box. I think he was great sparring partner for even the best guys, and surely the one who could check the young promising fighters if they are for real.

 

I don't think I like anyone with a record that bad. The guys with the bad records which I've loved all had a super exciting style and would wind up in wars like Salido, Gatti, Micky Ward, or Monty Meza Clay. Freddie Roach's record isn't horrible, although Emmanuel Augustus' is almost there.

 

• [url]William Warburton[/url]

24-127-9 Lancashire-based journeyman, getting on a little now as he hit 30 earlier this year, but no less game and awkward if his Bowlers bout with CJ Challenger is typical of his recent showings. Since debuting almost nine years ago, 'Warby' has provided testing workouts to a whole string of notable prospects and current domestic names (Sam Eggington, Tyrone Nurse, Tommy Coyle, John Wayne Hibbert and Glenn Foot among them), with his gangly but oddly crafty style taking some 0's in the process. His most notable result might still be his televised win over undefeated Warren hopeful Georgie Kean, on the undercard of Buglioni-Khomitsky at the Copper Box Arena in 2014. Notoriously tough to get rid of, with only two stoppages against him in one-hundred and sixty bouts, those coming early in his career. Also shared a ring with respected Scottish veteran Willie Limond along the way.


• [url]Andrejs Podusovs[/url]

Encountered this Latvian curiosity at a Kid Galahad card going on four years back. I was expecting Atif Shafiq's opponent that night to be typical, soft-bellied mobile heavybag fare, only to see this stocky, baby-faced guy enter the ring in lean, muscular shape with a winner's bounce in his step. Before a bell rung, I could tell he'd be unusually game, but he was better than that, easily winning the first round, moving cleverly in and out and skilling the rangier Shafiq with good defense and timing, setting the terms for the exchanges and winning them with accurate counters. Think I ended up scoring it 2-2 or 3-1 for the traveller, but Shafiq certainly didn't win the fight (although he got the decision in his back yard).

Turned out Podusovs was based in Scotland and had endured a run of alternately questionable and outright diabolical decisions, both north and south of the border, while providing ambitious opposition to regional prospects and hopefuls. He'd also suffered a weird, unlikely KO to a debuting Romeo Romaeo six months earlier, [url]falling asleep in Romaeo's arms during an extended clinch,[/url] which it transpired was the result of not allowing himself adequate recovery time after a reportedly attritional bout with an undefeated Ronnie Clark which had taken place only the fortnight before (Clark later challenged for the British super featherweight title).

He finally got a break a few months after I first saw him, upsetting unbeaten Matty F

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gan on a BoxNation Paul Butler undercard at Liverpool's Echo Arena (F

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gan's since gone on to share a ring with recognizable domestic names). Over the next two years he went 2-2 up in Scotland, taking the undefeated record of Jordan McCorry and eventually being retired by his corner after the 8th round of a Scottish area LW title tangle with Darren Traynor (who'd previously challenged for Ryan Walsh's British FW title). That was the end of his five-year British stint, as he left the UK for his native Latvia at the start of 2017, taking with him a very deceptive record of 8-10-1. He's since improved to 14-10-1 in the last year, feasting on Belarusians and Georgians in his own back yard, the Latvian capital of Riga.


• [url]Jody Meikle[/url]

12-56-3 Meikle is still best known for living up to his 'One Man Riot' handle in a BoxNation televised bout with 4-0 Warren pet prospect Frank Buglioni at Bethnal Green's legendary York Hall in 2012. Jody didn't win, but he took his chance to leave an impression nonetheless, foiling Buglioni's every attempt to get him out of there while uproariously taunting the Enfield man's already considerable fanbase between evasive maneuvers, a performance which took him from provincial obscurity to the verges of cult hero status among Britain's hardcore boxing nuts.

Having made this guy's acquaintance at events in Hull, I can confirm that the alias has its origins beyond the prize ring and far back down a dodgy path to the nightclub brawls and unlawful escapades of a distinctly misspent youth. However, Jody eventually got his act together (more or less, maybe a little more "less" than "more") and credits boxing as having played a major role. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that his, *ahem*, rehabilitation, has taken any of the gregarious, bawdy edge off his personality.

Stylistically akin to a very, very, very, *very* poor man's Bernard Hopkins, with extra lashings of slapstick and p*ss-taking, this 37 year old light heavyweight roofer from North Lincolnshire has shared the ring with a posse of prominent domestic names in his seven years as a professional, including Callum Johnson, Ricky Summers, Courtney Fry, Travis D

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ckinson, British title challenger Tony Dodson and aforementioned world title challenger and current British champion Frank Buglioni. Tough as old boots, he's only been stopped 3 times in his 70+ outings - most notably by currently undefeated Jack 'One Smack' Massey, and on an odd jaunt to meet Spain's Adasat Rodriguez in Arona early in his career.

After a highly prolific five-year run, he took 2016 off and has only returned to the ring once in 2017 (for another random overseas jaunt, this time to face Maltese heavyweight Billy Corito in San Ġwann), which seems to suggest his fighting days are winding down.

Read about him [url]here[/url], or [url]watch him fight here in a 2014 losing effort to Swindon's Tariq Quaddus and thrill to his version of fighting out of a corner around the 2:30 mark.[/url]

 

Just wanted to say there is some incredible posts/knowledge on display her e and that this thread is amazing, thanks.