Most talented 70's heavyweight underachiever

Jose Luis Garcia ( maybe )

 

Here's a left field one but if the title of the thread is 'Most talented underachiever' how about Ali? He had great skills but by the 70s his dedication was going, he struggled to keep his weight down, his personal life got messy and distracting and he often spoke about how he found training a drag.

I realise that he achieved a huge amount and his display against Foreman was stunning. I have said 70s Ali could be overrated and there was a bit of smoke and mirrors going on there. But I wouldn't say he didn't have the tools, as he showed in Zaire; it's just that at times in the 70s he wasn't always in the kind of mental or physical zone to showcase them. Marry that talent with the kind of discipline in his 30s of a BHop or a Mayweather and some of the other more lacklustre performances don't happen. Imagine how he would be perceived then, having achieved two decades of dominance without the below par displays against the likes of Bonavena, Lyle, Young, Norton. I know they are all fine fighters but they did better against Ali than they would have, had he retained his focus.

Ali is imo rightly considered the best ever heavy by many. Add dedication and focus, and the consistency they would bring, into the 70s mix and I think you remove any reasonable doubt that he was the no1 and by some distance.

 

Or Foreman? Given the physical tools he had and how he looked vs Frazier and Norton, a reign of less than two years with only two successful defences, followed by his close shave with Lyle and the loss to Young and retirement and you have to say his legacy from career one is nowhere near what it could or even should have been.

I suppose what I'm saying is that the 70s biggest underachievers might have been at the top of the pile rather than lower down. They just didn't pull away from the others as much as they could have.

 

Fair enough, dmt. I would counter though that a focussed Ali doesn't go to the wire with Oscar. And he did TKO Ron but a) that was not the most convincing stoppage. The ref of the Foreman-Lyle fight would have let that go. And b) speaking of the Foreman fight, Ron proved he could roar back from the brink. Without the ref stepping in, Ali might not have been out of the woods.

But, yes, I take your points absolutely. Good thread. Good opinions.

 

I was thinking along the same lines. Foreman if he defeated Ali
had the ability and timing to have gone on a very long and dominate
championship run. Other than Holmes (He would've been favored to beat Holmes) who
else beats a confident in shape Foreman during that time span?
Based on what could've been Foreman was the biggest underachiever
during that era.

 

Couple of obscure ones:

Walter Moore Jr. out of Chicago. He was a top amateur with national titles in the late 60's and early 70's and then ended up getting shipped off for a stint as a tailgunner in Vietnam. When he came back, he picked his career back up after a few years fighting for Ernie Terrell in Chicago and never really went full force into it. Terrell has stated that he was a great talent who didn't enjoy boxing anymore and he ended up running a string of decent wins over journeymen before going against Terrell's advice and taking a fight against Tiger Roy Williams and getting stopped. Moore retired soon after and disappeared.

Bunk Kelly was another guy who should've had a much bigger career who was a really good amateur and was heavily hyped. He had a handful of fights and just up and retired unbeaten and untested.