Who had the most potential?

Douglas actually wanted to be a basketballer, his dad forced him to be a boxer.

After the Tucker disgrace, Douglas' father walked out on him

 

Gerry Cooney, gave Holmes a hell of a fight and Holmes was in the best shape possible for the fight, His biggest problem was management. Had the size and power to give Tyson trouble.

 

Could have been any number of those guys frankly. Hard to tell who led the pack in potential as some of them were only good for as much as maybe one or two fights before one thing or another ruined them. Tim Witherspoon, Gerry Cooney and James douglas probably lead the pack for me. Tony Tucker had talent, but he was non aggressive in nature - something that had nothing to do with drugs, shady promotors, etc....

 

The most telling thing here, is that a number of eminently plausible answers have been offered up.

 

Would loved to have seen a prime Tucker vs Bowe in the late 80s early 90s

 

I don't think Tucker was prime anymore by the early 90's. A fight between him and Bowe in the late eighties wasn't really plausible given that Tucker had taken some time off after Tyson and Bowe was just getting out of the amateurs in 88-89. But when both were at their best it might have been a decent scrap. Bowe might actually have forced Tucker to bring the best out of himself but in the end Riddick prevails.

 

Put a chin on him, and Carl Williams may have been truly special.

 

Therein lies the rub with Sanders though...he was not an endurance fighter. To me that spells trouble in an era of the 15-rounder.

Great for 5-6 rounds, mediocre otherwise.

 

Agreed there. I always liked him. Good speed, power, movement, & an all time great jab. I haven't seen much of Thomas but Williams impressives me more with his jab. Big flaw with Williams was he didn't fight like a guy who knew he had no chin. Had he protected himself more & fought safer, he'd have won more.

The heavyweight division in the 80's was pretty deep. Page, Thomas, Tubbs, Witherspoon, Dokes, Coetzee, Tate, Berbick, Weaver, Williams, Bruno, & Tillis make up a nice list. Most just lacked drive I guess. I think Weaver & Berbick did the best with what they had. Neither was a great talent but both gave pretty good effort inside the ring. Coetzee could also be in that group. Bruno & Williams also I think gave the best they had but were held back by flaws they couldn't overcome. The rest of those fighters just lacked the fire to be great fighters.

The fighter that catches my eye most is Dokes. Just blazing handspeed & he knew how to throw combos. He makes me go "Wow that guy is fast!" Page shows talent but I've never seen him in great shape. Tillis always seems lazy. Always looks like he's sparring. Tubbs has handspeed & smarts but how much better would he be at 218. I really haven't seen enough of Thomas. His jab thrown from the waist doesn't grab me. I remember reading at article at the time about how refreshing it was to see Tyson hold his hands up high. The Ali hands low thing carried over to a few 80's fighters.

****ey always looks good when I watch him. The Holmes loss was respectable. The Spinks loss, not so much.

 

They all had potential and they all had weaknesses (Drugs were a big factor and lack of conditioning) even ****ey had some serious issues leading up to Holmes. If I had to make a pick of wasted talent Pinklon Thomas going back to drugs before the Berbick fight and the hot and cold Greb Page who was lazy but when in good shape could do an Ali impression, low hands and all but could sneak in a solid right hand as well.

Like they say in Bronx tale, nothing worse than wasted talent

 

I think Page and Tucker. Tucker was too inactive from 82-86. Page seemed to lose motivation. Page looked really good in 80-81 when we weigh under 230. He looked pretty good against Snipes in May 83 when he came in at 228. After that he was always overweight.

 

WTF does ape factor mean:huh

 

Page had a little bit more than Tucker, but both were tremendous talents.

 

Well newbie, you could have Googled it, but "ape factor" simply means the degree to which your wingspan exceeds your height.

Most folks are around Davinci's golden mean, height = wingspan, like me, 6' X 6'. boxers often are somewhat longer. 3'5" is common. Avergae NBA guy is 6' 7" with a 7' reach.

Then there are the 7" +. Lewis, Ruddock at +7", Shavers +8", Rahman +10". Liston listed at an insane + 11" & maybe 1/2"

Obviously hige hands help, as does naturally broad chest/clavicles,, which are bone structure, not developed muscle. Marciano was ~ a -3".

 

I'd say Greg Page without a doubt, Tucker didn't have the killer instinct or the punch IMO, an in shape Page was a force to be reckoned with.