Name some fighters turned pro and were not expected to do anything but ended up good?

Cruiserweight Johnny Nelson.. Lost 9 fights at beginning of his career, then became a multi world Cruiserweight Champ and beat some very respectful Heavyweights in the mix.. Took Henry Akinwande the distance in his prime, and imo beat Adilson Rodriguez in Brazil easily...

 

Jimmy Ellis.

 

Ingemar Johansen would be the obvious answer.

He was derided for his performance in the olympics and was not expected to amount to much as a profesional fighter.

Nobody who saw the olympics that year would have dreamed that they were looking at a future champion.

 

Rocky Marciano comes to mind. I saw a documentary about him and when he first started considering to be a boxer many people thought he was too stiff and had two left legs to be a good boxer.

 

Right. I was gonna say, who puts low expectations on a fighter just starting out,but Ingo is the answer to that one based on his negative performance against Ed Sanders..great call.

 

oliver mccall ? (tyson's sparing partner)

 

Larry Holmes .

 

Depends what you call good I guess.

Jimmy Thunder appeared ruined after the thrashing by Mike 'the bounty' Hunter, yet established a pretty good name for himself in the States with some crushing KO's.