Most undervalued heavyweight by decade.

Tucker was still good in the early 90's , he just didn't get the fights until he fought Lennox. After that he was on the slide.

 

Source?
It says 1.9 million here before the cuts.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/02/sports/tucker-seeks-to-cut-manager-from-pact-and-purse.html

Edit:

• Tyson earned approximately $2.5 million, while Tucker's purse was an estimated $1.9 million. However, according to HBO, Tucker made just $600,000 before taxes. The rest of his purse was owed to various people: Cedric Kushner, his former promoter, received $350,000; Josephine Abercrombie and Jeff Levine got $350,000 (They helped underwrite Kushner's investment); silent partners Dennis Rappaport and Alan Kornberg took $252,000 (Rappaport wanted $540,000 and unsuccessfully tried to stop the fight to get it); Bob Tucker, his father and trainer, picked up $228,000; and Emanuel Steward, his first manager, collected $120,000.

 

Mike Schreck is a good shout. 3 wins over Marvin Hart and a win over and a draw over Tommy Burns and you never hear of the guy. Bulk of his losses at end of career.

 

Bob Pastor was a borderline great heavy I don’t believe he is underrated. One of the few and earliest heavies To regularly cross the color line and he did it with tremendous success. Jimmy Bivins, Lem Franklin, Booker Beckwith, Roscoe Toles, Turkey Thompson, Unknow Winston, all fell to Pastor. He also gave Louis two solid fights and was only stopped twice in career. He’s more of guy who could of been champ in another era had he not had to climb over a peak Louis.

 

Good thread concept.

I do think Valuev gets sold short...as much as he's written off as a joke, he's not an easy out for much of the divisions history, where the average size of a heavyweight was a small Cruiser. Vs his peers, I think he accomplished about as much as he could've (his own disinterest in boxing probably left better performances on the table, but it is what it is). He didn't beat Haye or Chagaev, but nobody (sans Wlad & Vitali) was going to have an easy night against him.

 

A couple I was thinking of was Larry Gains in the 20s, Ernie Schaaf in the 30s, Bob Baker in the 50s and Howard Smith in the 70s (more outstanding prospect than finished product)

 

Gains is a good shout but when he beat Schmeling, Schmeling was only 19 years old and I believe Gains was considered by Schmeling as a title challenger when he defeated Sharkey.
Schaaf is a real good shout. Look at the number of fights he had and the age he was when he passed away. Guy was on a career trajectory of over 100 fights at heavyweight even if he slowed down some as a legit challenger. Only stoppage was to Carnera a fight he should of never have taken, remove that last bout and he does have a very respectable career.

 

Tucker says in the book ' The longest round's he got 27k . His father was busy selling non existent shares in him for upfront cash the night before the fight.

 

He was so slow.
I heard he got mugged by a gang involving a snail and a tortoise.
The police asked him what happened ?
He replied " I don't know, they were just so fast".

 

The problem with Valuev was that because he was so gigantic that you wanted to see him absolutely crush his opponents, not box with them. Had he beaten guys into the ground like Andre the Giant did there would be a lot more respect for him. And doing a chicken dance vs Haye was not a good moment.

And he was seriously hairy. Really gross.

 

Would have liked to see how his career would have panned out if not for the detached retina. It may have been interesting.