Was there ever a greater waste of talent than Tony Ayala?

I do not see what I said funny. Hearns would have probably controlled the action with his jab and stopped Tony, but Tony and Tommy might have been an exciting prefight. Two fighters who can punch. Had they fought in say late 1984, Hearns would have been 40-1 (34) vs. 22-0 (19). A pretty good matchup on paper. Hearns would have had the experience, but it would have been a nice matchup.

 

OK. Fair enough.

But in my honest opinion, it would have gone about the same way you could expect a Hearns-Hatton fight to go.... Nowhere but downhill.

 

i have watched tony fight from the time he turned pro until the time he went to prison the guy was championship material.what a waste of talent.the guy was a smaller version of mike tyson.the dude punched to kill you

 

Yea I remember Maestrito Lopez. He couldn't box on Tito's or Oscars level, but that guy clearly had more punching power than any welterweight of his time and was very incosistent in his training. I had heard something he wasn't your typical Mexican as he liked metal music like Metallica and he was a surfer too, so he wasn't all that well known in Mexico, but was on the verge. He dropped Quartey twice, was the only fighter to ko a prime Yory Boy Campas off his feet, something neither Oscar or Tito could do.

Ike Ibeabuchi had it all. Power, speed, chin, stamina, etc. He's the biggest waste of talent I know off that could of achieved greatness.

 

the same way a hearns-hatton fight would go paleeeeeeeeze.

you got to be kidding clay atsch

 

Yeah maybe. I think a Hearns/Ayala matchup looks better on paper than in the ring I agree, but it would have been hyped and sold well. But Hearns speed and right hand would have been too much. Ayala/Duran would have been good also, but Duran's style of inside fighting would have been bad for Tony. Terrible fight for Ayala. Duran would have had his way and stopped Tony in 6 -10 rounds. But I do think Ayala was destined to be a champion, I am not sure he was destined to be one of the Hagler/Hearns/Duran/Leonard caliber as some say. I don't think so. I can see all the legends beat him. But he was a good up and coming fighter I thought. I could have seen his career go along path like Matthew Hilton.

 

The problem is that Tony did not have the head movement of a young Tyson. He fought similar to the 1990's Tyson who lost to Evander.

 

Zab Judah was a worse waste of pure talent.

 

I beg to differ on Lopez' boxing skills.
He was imo way a better boxer than Tito, and he was'nt as fast of quick as DLH, but Lopez' technical boxing skills imo exceeded DLH's.

If you saw the Lopez-Campas fight, Lopez boxed the crap out of Campas before he stopped him.

......people tend to underrate the boxing skills of fighters like Maestrito that could crack........but this guy believe me had skills.

 

didnt say tony wasnt prospect cause he definitly is a could have been just adding another in same ballpark so to say ike no were in his leauge ludicrus because if ike"s indescretions did not take place whole landscape over last 7,8 yrs could have more likely whould be different in overall dull hw division

 

Ayala surely did look like a tremendous prospect, and his ferocity was awe inspiring. But remember he hadn't really beaten a top contender yet. Sure he was leaving everyone for dead , but they were opponent types, club fighters, has beens , journeymen. Who knows how he would have even fared against Davey Moore?
It's purely romantic to speculate fight results against Duran, Leonard , Hearns or Hagler, because who's to know if Ayala would have ever made it to that level?
Certainly, Ayala wasn't capable of matching Durans eventual performance against Moore. It might have been Davey Moore who destroyed the Ayala myth years before Tony going to jail enhanced it.

 

http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/2228/tony-ayala-best-prospect-all-time/

Virtually every boxing observer from that time period considers him the greatest prospect in history. Ayala won 150 amateur fights with zero losses, kicked Pipino Cuevas' ass at the age of 14, and wanted Roberto Duran baaaaaaad. He would have slaughtered a green Davey Moore, nearly beyond question.

But Fleabag says he wasn't ****, so I guess that's the way it is.

 

Life's hard. But it's much harder when you're a dumbass. It must suck to be illiterate.:?