S.I. Article on 1980 Young Heavyweights on Scene: 3/10/1980 "THE FUTURE IS SOON" "With Muhammad Ali overweight as well as overage, the heavyweight division is the pits, but some young boxers could pull it out of the hole" https://www.si.com/vault/1980/03/10...me-young-boxers-could-pull-it-out-of-the-hole
I remember this article well. During that time, in my early teens, boxing was everything to me. To do a quick recap, S.I. attempted to rank the young heavies in order of potential. 1. Greg Page 2. Gerry Cooney 3. Michael Dokes 4. Pinklon Thomas 5. Willie Shannon 6. George Chaplin 7. Marty Monroe 8. Percell 'Magic' Davis 9. James 'Quick' Tillis 10. Jeff Podgurski "And then there are these" per the article - Lee Canalito, Lynn Ball, Floyd 'Jumbo' Cummings, Marvin Stinson, Randy Mack, Mircea Simon, and Mike Koranicki. They also looked at "Talented amateurs expected to turn pro" and listed Marvis Frazier, Tony Tubbs, and Jimmy Clark. Who'd they miss? I'd say Renaldo Snipes, Tim Witherspoon, and Randall Cobb. All guys who were pros by the time this article came out. Trevor Berbick, too, though he didn't start showing promise until later in 1980 and the Tate fight. Carl Williams emerged the following year in the New York Golden Gloves. Bernardo Mercado and maybe Scott Frank were better than some of those on the list.
But it was right on the money. Though I think Ken Norton lost his respect for Page, because he didn't mention him in an issue of Ring Magazine concerning this topic.
How was it right on the money? Mike Weaver won the WBA title three weeks after the article ran and held it for years? Where is he? Greg Page wouldn't win a belt for another four years, and he never made a successful defense. Gerry Cooney never won a title. Michael Dokes upset Weaver in one of the worst stoppages ever, scored a controversial draw in their return, and then got KOed by another guy who isn't on the list. Shannon, Davis, Podgurski (?), Mack, Stinson, Ball, Canalito, Monroe, Simon, Clark ... they never amounted to anything. And I've followed boxing since the 1970s, and I have no recollection of Jeff Podgurski at all. NONE. Was he the cousin of the guy who wrote the article? How the hell did he make the top 10 PROSPECTS list? The dominant champ for the next five years, and the only person mentioned in the article who became a Hall of Famer, was Larry Holmes ... And Holmes was the guy they were insulting at the start of the article. I think this is an article they'd chose to lose. It's kind of embarrassing.
Podgurski must have had a good press agent. I think he was profiled in Ring's up-and-coming prospects column around that time, too, but his record sure didn't merit such attention. If SI wanted another white guy on the list they should've featured 13-0 (13) Tex Cobb.
