Which Heavyweight had the worst resume prior to getting a title shot?

Maybe Mike Weaver.....good fighter though...

 

Lee Oma had a poor overall record but at least he had beat some good fighters among there. He'd fought and beat, or gone the distance with, top fighters, had a pretty decent spell leading up to challenging Charles. Maybe he tanked and/or loafed and got himself suspended, but he was a decent 10-round fighter, a decent professional journeyman.

Compared to a guy like Alfredo Evangelista, Oma was accomplished.
Evangelista was a 22 year old novice, had fought middling European competition, all 8-rounders, had a record of 14-1-1, his most recent fight a LOSS over 8 rounds to Lorenzo Zanon.
Go check his record prior to fighting Ali, tell me if I'm missing something.

Evangelista went 15 rounds with Ali.

 

Mike Weaver can't be considered as having the poorest resume going into a title fight. He had won 13 out of his last 15 bouts, which included some fairly decent fighters, plus had not been Ko'd in some 5 years.

 

okay but he was already beaten 8 times before he fought Holmes....

 

This is misleading though. Of those 8 losses, 6 of them came in his first two years in the sport between 1972-1974, and were likely a result of having poor management as well as a limited amatuer career. From 1974-1979 when he fought Holmes, his record was 13-2-0-9, and he had beaten several fighters who were respectable. What's more, he had the experience of having gone both the 10 and 12 round distance on a number of occasions, which was something that a lot of first time challengers had not. He was also in remarkable physical condition.

Unfortunately, in 20 or 30 years, a 17 year old kid will probably look at Weaver's career record and draw the conclusion that he was an underacheiver or even a bum. Anyone who actually followed his career, and more importantly saw him during his best efforts, will know that this is a drastic misconception.

 

Well, he was perceived as a no-hoper at the time, and apparently network TV weren't interested in the fight for that reason.

 

I'll be willing to bet that they later regreted not being the one's to broadcast that fight. Weaver was an unpolished gem...

 

Yes, but he had quite a poor resume going in to the Holmes fight.

I think he was a quality fighter. I dont go much on patchy records, I think Walcott is an all-time great. Weaver was like a lot of those old school guys, he didn't have orchestrated career or starting from a springboard of good management, and was thrown to the wolves (or at least talented prospects) early on, and admits he didn't train properly esp. when he started out. He proved himself a quality fighter eventually. But few would have known his ability pre-Holmes, Weaver himself probably didn't know.

 

First, you have to consider the sports landscape at that time of history. Amateur athletes often competed against pros in a variety of sporting events...golf, tennis, a college football all-star team beat the NFL champions in that era.
Radamacher was bigger than Patterson, 7 years older, with a fantastic amateur career behind him (think a 1950's Teflio Stevenson-sort of a career amateur) Olympic Gold, multi-victories over Zora Folley, the last one in 1953. (Ironically, Folley became Pete's second professional opponent after Floyd) He was actually calling out Patterson publicly before the fight.
Have you seen the Radamacher fight? Yes, Floyd went down but, like so many of his KD's, it was a flash shot with Floyd again off-balance given his lunging style. He had a bemused/embarrassed look on his face when he went down but got up and one-sided Pete to death! One of the most one-sided HW title fights ever! He could fight Pete 20 times and the result would be the same.
It still amazes me that so many boxing fans bring up this fight as some sort of barometer in an attempt to show that Patterson was somehow less than an ATG.
Sorry for rambling, you regs know what a Floyd nut-hugger I am... :bbb

 

I understand what you're illuding to. We can't label Weaver as a credible opponent going into the Holmes fight based on what he did in hindsite such as in the Tate, Coetzee, Tillis fights, etc. I do feel however, that his recent winning streak between 1974-1979 was actually fairly good, and as I stated before, he was a proven distance fighter who had gone 10 and 12 rounds on a few occasions. When we get down to the truth, Witherspoon, Berbick, Williams, Frazier, Frank, Bey, ocasio and a few others were probably less tested to some degree, or so I think.

 

Scott freaking Frank, and maybe Leon Spinks and James Tillis.

 

Very well,

I won't use the Rademacher fight as a measure to bring down Patterson's legacy, but on the topic of challenger's credentials, Rademacher really had no business in there. Yes he was a large heavyweight with more maturity than Floyd, and had an extremely impressive amateur career, but never having fought a single round in a pro ring is too unjustifiable when giving a man a title shot. It would be different if he was given a chance at a 15-0 prospect for some regional or state title in his first bout, but we're talking about the heavyweight championship of the world here, and during a time when there were too many qualified opponents.

 

Weaver had LOST two 12-round decisions in 1978, ( a mere 10 and 15 months prior to facing Holmes). And those were the only two times he'd gone 12.
He'd avenged one of those by KO over Stan Ward, probably his best win. And had a win over Bernardo Mercado, who was good.
But I dont think that record stretches as far towards being credible as you do.

Of the fighters you mention I'd say Bey and Berbick definitely had more resume credibility going in against Holmes. (Ocasio, Witherspoon, and Frazier are debatable)

David Bey had a win over current WBA champ Greg Page, and had apparently turned down the shot at the WBA title Page ended up given (to win the title against Coetzee), on moral grounds over Nazi regime in South Africa.

Trevor Berbick had knocked out John Tate in 9 rounds. Tate was freshly deposed champion by then and still considered in the top flight (his performance for 14 1/2 rounds against Weaver had been mostly impressive).