Underhyped Fighters

Jeff Chandler

 

Hagler.

 

It took Jose Luis Castillo several stoppage losses after very little in the way of an amateur career before he got going.

 

Jesus Chucho Castillo

 

Guys like Zaragosa came from nowhere. and they weren't expected to stay when they did reach the top. Azumah Nelson was another.

 

It's so much harder for underhyped guys to reach the top of the sport too. Makes you wonder how many other guys could have been legends (or at least champions) if they'd had the hype, training, matchmaking, and other resources that the more hyped fighters receive.

 

Marlon Starling, Aaron Pryor, and Matthew Saad Muhammad.

 

Sumbu Kalabay .nobody outside Italy had heard of him.They soon found out the truth

 

It might be a bit of a geographical bias, but 3 guys stand out to me.

Calzaghe was but a blip on my radar until he fought and beat Lacy.

Jeff Fenech was just a tough crude Aussie brawler until I saw him fight Nelson.

Brian Mitchell- I was a kid but didn’t know who this skinny dude with the funny looking mustache was till he fought Lopez...rest assured I have found and seen many of his obscure fights and researched him since. Under hyped to this day

All of the Philly Middleweights of the late 60’s to mid to late 70’s. Most could not secure high profile fights unless they fought each other, or Hagler who endured a similar fate.

 

Nikolai Valuev. I remember seeing a clip of him on tv early in his career during the mid to late 90s where he was brought over to England to fight a couple of British journeymen in some small low profile venues. Naturally the focus was entirely on his gigantic size and he was treated as some kind of freak show. He won both fights but no one who watched him thought that he had anything going for him apart from his size and would never amount to much once the novelty wore off. While he never did became a great fighter, he did prove a lot of people wrong and went on to have a pretty decent career, even managing to win a version of the world title and been involved in several high profile fights along the way.

 

Hopkins. What he accomplished with his career is simply amazing.

 

Carlos Monzon...just sort of came from out of nowhere to ko Benvenuti...in their 1st fight, Cosell kept referring to the "unknown, unheralded Argentine challenger" who was beating up and defeating Nino throughout the fight.

 

Kovalev has little support early on and won in the back yards of most of his opponents. Even against Ward. Sure hbo caught on eventually but he did it the hard way.

 

Dick Tiger at the age of around 27 or 28 was something like 20-9 at one point and lost four fights in a row in England. Kind of incredible he’d go on to be an all-time great and popular Garden attraction.