Obscure Boxing Bad Asses

Antonio Esparagoza-great pick.Was an excellent boxer/puncher.
Luis Mendoza-very underrated
Juan Jose Estrada-Had a pretty good run.
Bernardo Pinago-2 time champ
Frankie Duarte
James Page-could hit like a ton of bricks.
Nana Konadu-Excellent champion
Jesse James Hughes-had an excellent run until he was murdered.
James Carter-good lightweight champion

 

Mustapha Hamsho- tough Sirian took all of Haglers best shots and never went down. Beat Benitez in an upset, tough as nails decent fighter who had a granite chin. Early 80's fighter largely forgotten now but tough and pretty good in his time.

Mathew Saad Muhammed. Exciting fighter IN THE 80'S, scored many come from behind dramatic KO'S.

Dwight Braxton later changed name to Muhammed Qawi only 5'8" at light Heavy but built like a tank gave Holyfield and Geroge Foreman all they could handle. The Camden Buzzsaw was his nicknmae a true badass.

Danny little red Lopez- tough little redhead with Dynamite in his punch. featherweight champ mid to late seventies would get knockedown or be behind and would still get up or come back and win by KO. It all ended when he met an unknown at the time named Sal Sanchez.
deliver the KO to save the day.

 

A few more from recent times;

Nazarov. He was definately on that Mike Mccallum "who needs this guy" opponent list for the big named guys.

Galaxy. At the time, you had to send away for his bouts & he certainly mowed down a lot of guys. Rarest of breeds too--southpaw brawler.

JC Gomez at cruiser. He had that nice run and was another guy on that who needs this guy list when guys were moving up in weight.

Brian Mitchell. Road warrior and another guy that never got the big matchups or got a high profile fight that would've seen him shine.

 

Being TRULY obscure would mean not ever winning a title, like the two guys I mentioned, Nardico and DePaula.

 

Tony Ayala would fit. He was so promising back in 1981-82, went to jail and became nothing more than a bad memory.

 

Thanks to you tony is no longer obscure in the classic section.....:smoke

 

LES DARCY: excellent Australian middleweight and heavyweight champion boxer/puncher during the Great War period. Badass who was never stopped in 50 fights and strong contender for greatest Australian fighter ever.

BILLY PAPKE: held his own against the fierce Stanley Ketchel; a true brawler.

CEFERINO GARCIA: very powerful Filipino world middleweight champion; credited with inventing the "bolo" punch.

 

Freddie Pembleton came out of the school of hard knocks and there was a fighter named Art "the Dart " Kettles who fought Cyclone Hart in his pro debut became a tough guy on the short end of some tough fights...Tom "the Bomb" Bethea was another tough guy....Bob Stallings owned a prime Earnie Shavers...and Trail horse Mike Weaver became a new fighter after his title loss to Holmes, Mike was a 19-8 clubfighter....Ross Purity another sleeper

 

Jose Luis Lopez.

 

Bump

 

I have three to throw out there.

Eddie the Animal Lopez-- insanely tough undersized heavyweight that damn near beat a prime Tate and drew with a revitalized Leon Spinks in two classic slugfest. The guy gave every ounce of himself when he fought and was never an easy out.

Leotis Martin-- another undersized heavyweight that fought in arguably the toughest era of the heavyweight division. He had a dynamic straight right hand that could turn a fight on a dime. He knocked Sonny Liston cold and gave a prime Osacar Bonavana all kinds of hell in Argentina. Poor guy lost his shot at the title against Frazier due to a detached retina.

Masiello Masoe-- technically he had an alphabet title but he still is a pretty obscure guy. He was a small Samoan middleweight that had dynamite in both hands. Too bad for him he didn't have much foot speed and had pretty short arms for 160. God help you if he got inside on you, his left hook was hellacious.

 

Hector Lopez. Never won a title. Was a borderline contender but he sure could fight as Kostya Tzyu learned one night. Lopez was consumed with the gang life wasted some of his career. I believe he could have been a champion under different circumstances

 

Tsuyoshi Hamada. Absolutely monstrous puncher from Japan, was also stylish and gangster as ****. Destroyed Arredondo to claim the title. Suffered hand injuries throughout his career and eventually retired after losing a rematch to Arredondo after his first defense. Is now a big part of the Japanese boxing scene, apparently.

Watch some of his fights on YouTube. Quick and you wont be disappointed.

A similar description is also viable for Akinobu Hiranaka, another monstrous puncher. He also destroyed an older Rosario in 1 round.

 

Don’t hear a lot about Harold Brazier these days. More than 100 wins in 127 fights in a two-decade career that started in 1984. Old-school career. Lot of skill, only stopped twice. There’s some ham-and-eggers on his ledger for sure but he also gave a good go to some of the top guys of his generation.

 

I'd add Sergio Palma.

Guy was a beast. Maybe forgotten because of Gomez's dominance at 122.