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

Indeed,

I'd very much like to see your fine repitoire of Wladimir coverage, as I'm sure your collection reaches monumental proportions.

 

This post is spot on per all points. Weaver was considered tripe going into the Holmes fight.

 

well you got to remember riddick bowe was seen as the best heavywieght at the time ...and galota was beating him horribly. even if he did get disquallified and has 2 losses on his record...you couldnt say that riddick won the fight.

after beatign bowe senseless. most fans and historians at that time considered galota was possibly the best heavywieght and i mean no joke. lewis may of been the best fighter but he had a horrible fight against akinwande before it and won not so convincingly against mcCall who to be honest had a mental breakdown.

it's one of his best wins i feel.

but i kinda got to agree there were guys who had fought there hearts out to break into the rankings...and galota just seem to get a pass becuase he looked to be winning.

 

john thomas, do you think leroy jones is underated? he was a 6'5 270lb fighter with good boxing skills on film. outside of holmes he lost to no one, drifted away into obscurity after title loss to holmes. but leroy did win a wide decision over mike weaver right around the time weaver fought holmes. I would have liked to see how jones would fair vs alpha champs

 

great call:good i felt sorry for the guy. totally unprepared for such a fighter.

the human yoyo joke must of been said he whole life.
or the "he went down more times than pam anderson"

 

Yeah, I thought Golota looked very good but we have to draw the line somewhere. He shouldn't really get rewarded for that **** he pulled. What kind of credentials to contest the best prize in the sport !? In hindsight I dont know if we should have even ranked him. I cant say Lewis didn't put him in his place though, restored a bit of decency.

As good as Golota looked, and as brutal as that second fight with Bowe was, at the time I thought those two weren't even the two best heavyweights in that ring that night.
Ray Mercer and Tim Witherspoon fought on the same bill and impressed me more.

 

To be honest i am not sure, haven't seen enough of him.

 

Leroy Jones certainly looked like a fighter who had potential. He was not an easy target for a man his size by any means. His level of upper body movement and use of his reach was quite impressive. The biggest problem he had however, was keeping his weight down and showing up in ideal condition. He started off great against Larry Holmes, but began to tire from about the 4th round onward, making himself increasingly slower and now easier for Holmes to tag. I speculate that a better conditioned Jones could have kept up the pace and hung in there with Larry longer, perhaps even gone the distance. Its a shame that Jones never fought a few better opponents, nor was more disciplined in the training department. The skill of a good fighter was definately there. Jones suffered a detached retina in the Holmes fight which more or less ended his career, though I believe he fought once more after.

 

SuzieQ49:

I didn't see the Jones-Weaver fight, but I remember reading in the boxing magazines that the decision was close. According to the article I read, Jones won by a margin of about 7-5 in rounds. He dominated the first seven rounds, but then Weaver took control and dominated the later rounds.

According to boxrec.com, the final scores were 55-53, 55-53 and 56-52 for Jones. That is very close.

My guess is that it is a myth that Jones beat Weaver easily.

 

:rofl

 

My personal opinion.. Tim Tomasheck........... he was like a bar room drunk when he boxed Morrison on a half hours notice..

 

Was it muscleman Mike Williams who refused to go in the ring that night ?

 

Yes indeed it was, Mike was Ring Magazines prospect of the year in 1987, his toughest loss came at the hands of Buster Douglas in NJ on the Tyson v Spinks card in 1988..

 

Scott Frank, Tony Tucker, and Alfredo Evangelista.

 

Tony Ross, 2-4 in his previous 6.