when have you been the most wrong about a fighter?

If he has Saddler/Pep KO4 on tape he better FEDex me ASAP

 

I think Floyd is great. Notice how he doesnt fall apart in fights just becuz he reached 34 years of age?

 

I was wrong about Lewis for the longest time, but after he straight shellacked Tyson and after the fights he put up with Holy..Now Lewis is one of my all time favs...He was a bad Mother ****er People!

 

A caffeine boost seeing all those again, t.

 

I thought Breland was going to be a great pro.

He had such a huge amatuer career and buildup. and I've always been partial to those long armed lanky types that are a few inches talller than everyone else in thier division. The opposition just never seems able to reach them.

It's hard to imagine a comparison in recent times for just the early pedigree the guy had at such a young age. He exceeded DLH even & it just looked like the roads were paved with gold. The results were there early, but it was the top 10 opposition that changed things. He sure didn't look the same then and really the only A+ performance was probably against Honeyghan. And that Aaron Davis fight is an underrated seldom mentioned war.

The thing I was never sure of was the Duva management. Good, but great? they really were not that big of a player and just burst on the scene with that 84 olympic team. But they were not old true blue established power brokers in the sport. They had an ideal trainer in Benton, But I would have liked to have seen Mike Trainer take him on, along with his Leonard duties. And have Angie Dundee's tutelage and sculpting. Maybe that changes things and maybe it doesn't. Such a tough sport to have every facet be perfect for a boxer.

 

A pleasure to read, z. You sound a real student of the game. Your mention of Breland strikes a chord. Remember when every amateur in NYC who drew Breland as an opponent, walked to the ring on JELLO legs, as if it was their execution.

 

It started when I was a kid and expected Liston to kill that loud mouth Clay, never expected him to lose. Duran quitting against Leonard no way and Tyson losing to Holyfield and then the ear-bite incident....and Foreman who i thought was the new King Kong getting KO'd by Ali and Dope-Roped, shows you can never tell what is in a mans mind

 

I thought Pavlik was going to expose BHops as old. That's prolly the most the worst of my more recent choices.

 

I thought Juan Manuel Lopez was going to be the next Wilfredo Gomez during his super-bantam days. And to be fair by sparking PDL and looking great in his next couple of fights he lived up to my expectations early on. Then the Mtagwa, Concepcion and Salido fights came, and his lack of stamina, discipline and vulnerable chin became apparent.


His heart was never lacking though, and he still gives great value for money though, and might yet win a title again though.

 

Oh god margarito vs Mosley.

Actually thought there was gonna be ring death. Couldn't believe anyone would willingly get in the ring with the man who walked right through cintron and cotto.

 

In the early 2000's when a load of Junior Welterweight prospects were seemingly on the verge of special things, I did not pick Miguel Cotto or Ricky Hatton as the best of the bunch, no I went for Muhammad Abdullaev...

The new Duran:

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=37886&cat=boxer

 

I had Mosley pegged to beat Alvarez

Toney to beat Lebedev

Hopkins to beat Dawson the second time

 

Did nobody jump on the Judah bandwagon?

 

Paul Gonzalez. In that sterling 1984 Olympic lineup that featured guys like Whitaker, Taylor, Breland, Holyfield, Biggs, Hill and Frank Tate, it was Gonzalez who won the Val Barker award in the Games for being the outstanding boxer. I thought that might easily then translate into not only a very good pro career, but might also usher in an era of expanded interest in the lighter weights. Never happened. He just wasn't cut out for the pros, despite decisioning a very green Orlando Canizales early on.

 

When Vitally Klitschko made his comeback I thought that he would be shot, and that Sam Peter would beat him into retirment.

Oh well, we live and learn!