Looking for tales, opinions & horror stories as to who were the most exploited fighters you can think of. We can run 2 catagories :- Those that were shafted by managers promoters and those that were thrown in at the deep end far too early to cash in or through bad matchmaking. Obviously Witherspoon springs to mind but looking for those that tend to stay under the classic forum radar.
Aaron Pryor .. His manager, Buddy LaRosa, got him to sign a contract taking 50% of his purses for life .. It handcuffed Pryor so much that he missed out on the SRL fight, etc.. I mean he could have taken the fight but Pryor held off so long waiting to sign a new contract, the fight was gone ... Always wanted to see that fight .. And then I think the fight came back but Ray got his injury and the fight was gone again ... sucks
Joe Louis, simply because he was shafted by his own government, especially his money raising efforts for the war relief, and then they chased him down, poor guy ended up working as a greeter at hotels casinos etc. Reagan stepping in and allowing him to be buried at Arlington was nice though. Sad sad story.
Benitez's dad exploited him as a fighter from the time he was a small child through his professional career, where he didn't pay his taxes and likely squandered hundreds of thousands of his earnings on women and gambling, while Benitez lost everything he had, including his mental faculties.
Nipper Pat Daly - his manager turned him pro at the age of 10 and after 119 fights was retired before he hit his 18th birthday. He was thrown in with some stars like Johnny Cuthbert and Seaman Tommy Watson when he was about 16. Naturally he was stopped both times. Had he been allowed to develop he could have been something. His manager kept putting him in one hard fight after another saying, "The lad thrives on hard work." What a guy!
Most exploited fighters? Jeez, get in line - it could be a long list! It would be harder to put together a list of fighters who weren't exploited. Pretty much every black fighter in the 1940s except Sugar Ray Robinson was exploited in some way. If you didn't have mob connections you weren't getting a title shot, and if you did have mob connections, you were getting shafted anyway. Both Beau Jack and Henry Armstrong (among others) were involved in Battle Royals when they were young, which is about as openly exploitive as it gets.
Ike was exploited. When you're complaining about demons in the air conditioner before a fight, and thr promoter solves the problem by turning it off, something isn't right.
David Tua lost the prime of his career to management problems. He never recovered his form and a protracted battle with two ex managers left him broke. Legal bills were 4.2 m and tax bill 2.2 m .