Which contenders came closest to winning a championship without succeeding? I don't mean people who were ducked and never had a shot, or perennial contenders who kept getting comprehensively beaten, but fighters who came extremely close to winning their title shot (or shots) but just couldn't quite clinch it Earnie Shavers - the knockdown on Larry Holmes would've been enough to win vs 98% of fighters, but he was unlucky to be facing the granite-chinned Holmes. Also gave Ali a scare, again if he'd been facing a normal champ he could have taken the belt that night. Herol Graham - a very slick and talented boxer, was dominating Julian Jackson then got taken out with one of the sickest one-punch KOs ever. Also had two other title shots but could never close the deal. Any others?
spider webb against fulmer. jock mcvoy kod the world champ in a non title fight. My favorite has to be philelphia jack o brien who drew with both tommy burns AND jack johnson for the HEAVYWEIGHT title, and also fitzsimons for the LH title! He later beat fitz for the LH title but as soon as he did the title lost so much luster evryone stopped recognising the division so he abandoned the title without ever defending it!! He qualifys because the title he won ceased to exist once he won it.
Howard Davis, Jr. came agonizingly close against Rosario, but he just couldn't take the punch some of his former Olympic teammates were able to stand up to. Billy Graham and Ty Everett are popular mentions here. While I don't think Everett was robbed as outrageously as he's popularly described as having been against Escalera, I do believe he deserved the decision. I only saw Torres-Cotton on videotape, and it looked to me as though Eddie took it, but Carlos Ortiz was ringside and indicated otherwise. (He also pointed out that there's really no substitute for viewing a match in person during the broadcast.)
Whats quite ironic in that fight, is to get the title fight he stopped Charley Zivic who had a good lead on Dauthille and Zivic just had to stay on his feet to win.
"OOOOOOOOOOH WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT!? WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?!" Before I die, as I slowly fade towards the white light, my only hope is that this is the last thing I hear Rocky Juarez- Lost a close decision to Soto, lost a tough decision to Barrera (got crushed in the rematch), got cut up in a war with JMM, had two opportunities to beat Chris John and failed twice.
No matter what the film suggests (indeed the Giardello family sued and got an apology/edit in the DVD from the makers of the film), the vast majority of the press had Giardello a winner.
Reading through this thread, A question probed my brain of sorts and I'd like to get to get a different opinion on it: Non-champions, guys like Herol Graham, Rocky Juarez and Ruben Carter, are they viewed as choke artists or just victims of circumstance?
