Name some fighters who had great potential but wasted it away..

Sounds like he was already having it to me. :good

 

Forgot the Hilton Brothers...

 

Duran. As great as he was, what might he have accomplished if he had the discipline of an SRR or Hagler?

I disagree with the selections of Cooney and Laing. Kirkland had been taken out twice by Colin Jones at the time he upset a dismal version of Duran (who would have easily kayoed Laing if properly motivated for a rematch). SRL was never in less than top physical condition for the key matches of his career, and I think he actually surpassed what most expected he'd accomplish. As for Cooney, the fact is that he couldn't take a solid shot to the temple, and was too slow to be any kind of substantial champion. For my money, Dennis Rappaport and Mike Jones belong in the IBHOF for selling the limited Cooney to the public as a viable challenger for the title.

If SRL was contributing to this thread, he might name Roger Stafford. After Stafford upset Cuevas, Ray was certain that he would inherit the undisputed WW Title SRL was vacating. (Ray abruptly retired on the brink of defending that championship against Stafford.) Leonard's guess was that Stafford was irreparably demoralized by not having the opportunity to challenge Ray.

Dwight Davison. (How many dozens of times has HE been cited on previous threads about this?)

Macho Camacho. He could have been boxing's first world champion to reach 100-0-0. If he made the most of himself, he might still be undefeated today.

I think Greg Page did as well as he could have. At 220, his losses were dismal. I don't think he had the quickness, interest, or temperament to go beyond what he achieved. Aaron Pryor is a popular choice, but there were realistically no more worlds for him to conquer after his sensational victories over Arguello. I consider their first match in Miami to be the fight of the last quarter of the 20th Century anyway. (The greatest bout after Manila in '75.) The Hawk simply never would have matched that achivement with anything remaining available to him.

Jimmy Young. The SD loss to Norton broke his spirit, and ultimately cost him a premature demise.

Bobby Chacon. I think Schoolboy's a worthy IBHOFer, but his career could have mirrored Arguello's own glittering accomplishments. The coke which messed him up early was cola, not powder, but soda.

Dwight Qawi, and of course, Eddie Mustapha Muhammad. If Eddie was in peak condition, instead of struggling to make weight, would he have repelled the challenge of Mike Spinks successfully?. As for Qawi, how long could he have continued if he'd kept his appetite under control?

Pernell Whitaker. Sweet Pea should have been 42-0 when he took on DLH, and if he'd kept himself clean, he might still be on top today.

 

Mitch Green

 

:rasta gwud mon

it be relaxing da muscles
tyson did aswell for the tyson galota fight

jah leaves works it seems


bless

 

Mike Tyson
Hector Camacho
Tony Ayala
Gerry Cooney
Mike Ibeabuchi
Aaron Pryor

 

Anybody remember Rodolfo "Gato" Gonzales, a dynamite Mexican lightweight from the early 80's? He was knocking guys out right and left and getting a lot of coverage in the boxing magazines. He KO'd Vilomar Fernandez, a very good lightweight, in 1 round. Fernandez said Gato punched harder than either Roberto Duran or Alexis Arguello. Gonzales got a title shot against Claude Noel and looked listless and very unspectacular in losing a 15 round decision. After that fight, I never heard from him again. It looked for awhile he was going to be the next big thing in boxing.

 

In that bout, Gato continually retreated, trying to lure the 34 year old Noel into one of his counter right hand bombs. Being a solid veteran, Noel understood what Gato was tring to do, and pursued him diligently, but with due caution. Gonzales was reported to be a major force with his right, but Noel's experience was simply too much for the prodgy to handle.

Noel came out of that match with a nasty swollen eye, but he inflicted the far greater damage, fracturing Gato's jaw. Nonetheless, Rodolfo courageously finished the match. He had a couple more title shots later in his career, but the luster was gone after Noel blemished his record, and he never did become a champion.

 

Personally i never thought Dwight was all that. He got a lot of milage out of the Scypion win but was exposed later. Scypion himself was very inconsistent.

Camacho lacked the intestinal fortitude to be up on the absolute top rung. Talent to burn, but when push came to shove he was found a little short. Against the greatest he lacked the x factor required to lay it all on the line and risk all for that ever important "W"

Great question, totally agree with your line of thought.

If he kept clean Pryor had a much bigger trophy on the potentiasl horizon, streaking Donald Curry. The match wasn't far of being made. Curry was the consensus number 2 P4P not long after Pryor went off the rails. Tho great wins Alexis was in the final stages of his career and well up in the weights.

Quickness? Page at his best was in the top 3 fastest heavies on earth with Dokes and Holmes. He was freakishly fast for a big man in his younger years on song. Interest and temperment i'll agree on, but quickness no way Jose. By the time Page fought Orlin Norris, Mark Wills and co at 220 (the fights you speak of) the man was washed up. He found some short term serious motivation, but alas too late. His best two efforts ever were at 227 and 236 1/2. I would have liked to see him fighting in the high 220's but it was never going to happen in his younger day. He fought brilliantly at 227 vs Snipes then 2 fights later for the title vs Witherspoon he;s cruising at 239 1/2. Wasted talent abound due to motivation and lack of fire, which is exactly what the thread is about. A real shame.

 

Corey Sanders. This guy had a powerful short left hook that was deadly. But the ******* never seemed to come into a fight in shape. I remember Larry Merchant saying that Corey Sanders was the greatest underachiever in the heavyweight division of his time.

 

JT, here's my thinking about the selections I made which you commented on.

My introduction to Dwight Davison was against Curtis Parker (as it was for most everybody else). The undefeated Parker had made a tremendous impression against David Love and Mike Colbert, then Davison stopped Curtis in his tracks. (If you recall, one ringside observer who was very impressed was Ali.) Next time I saw him, he did the walking tank job against Tony Sibson, and I had no interest in Davison after that performance. (If he'd tried at all, I'm convinced he would have challenged Hagler, as nothing Sibson did could hurt Davison, and it looked to me as if Dwight could manhandle Tony as he did Parker.)

I don't think a Pryor victory over Don Curry would have carried the historic significance his stoppage victories over Arguello has. Alexis did go on to kayo Billy Costello, a perfectly competent former champion. Going into the first bout with Arguello, there was a serious question of whether or not Pryor could win. But the general consensus after his rematch kayo was that Aaron would overwhelm Don Curry. When Pryor was commenting on Leroy Haley's rematch win over Bruce Curry, Pryor didn't mention any interest in facing Bruce's brother, only Ray Mancini. (It was believed that Boom-Boom might be strong enough to stand up to Pryor, while questions about the Curry family chin may have hampered the marketability of a Pryor/Curry match against either brother.)

Regarding Greg Page, in his post-match evaluation of Greg, Stan Ward made the distinction between speed and quickness, when he said, "He's fast, but he's not that quick." Ward indicated that he could see Page's punches coming, and that a more defensively skilled boxer might make him miss more easily. (Dokes was easily the quickest handed young contender in HW boxing at the time. He delivered shorter punches than Greg, and without telegraphing, especially with his lead hook.) As we've discussed previously, I wasn't impressed with Greg's performance at 220 against Berbick, and felt he was at his competitive best against Marty Monroe, and when Coetzee lit a fire under Page by calling him a jerk. (I only remember Page's win over Snipes because of Camacho's heckling from the ringside audience.)

I'm sure boxing fans all over the world were tearing their hair out over Eddie. Even when he dethroned Marvin Johnson, he could have ended it in the early rounds. Eddie may be the biggest underachiever of boxing's last 35 years.

 

Bernard Mays

John Conteh.

 

Never heard of Ricky Womack... how good was he ?

 

What about max baer?,i know he held the title,but he liked to dick around, and after seeing two men he fought against die in the ring,he was said to have lost his killer drive,imagine if he had trained like louis or marciano do you think he may have dominated the division?,as he sure had a big dig on him.

 

Tyson, in a way. I think it's unfair to say he 'wasted' his potential, considering his accomplishments, but he certainly could have done a lot more given the talent he had.