Who was the best heavyweight prospect you can remember before Itauma?

Mitchell popped into my head randomly recently(might have been a doppleganger I saw or something) Yeah he was actually the US HW hope at one point in time. Mitchell, Scott, Hanks, Hamer etc. So many US HW prospects over the last 20-25 years who have been totally underwhelming. I bet no one expected a beanpole and a morbidly obese man to be the best American heavyweights of a two decade long period.

 

Nofire is the most unfortunately apt name ever...

 

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Abell was a solid journeyman.... glass cannon southpaw. Wish he had gotten more winnable fighs. Lots of other HW prospects he could have exposed if given the opportunity. Browne would have been a good slug fest while it lasted. Szpilka? Mollo? Walker? Those would have been fun fights,

 

Not for Vitali.

 

AJ, Dubious, Yoka, Joyce. All Olympic pedigree, amazing genetics, rightly invested in.
Somehow a cruiser from the farmyards of Ukraine just beats them all.
But that might be to do with all the privilege he had in a European economy.
Most things are about socio-economicalisms.
Of course there was a time when Ukraine was pretty poor in European terms.
Some might ask why the English didn't drag in poor Ukrainians/Russians to turn into prospects.
Honestly, it's kind of strange! I wonder why they didn't. Maybe lack of flights from EE on British Airways or something.

 

The biggest hype job I remember was Michael Grant. He was being hyped as the future of the division until Andrew Golota raised some questions about him and then Lennox Lewis completely burst his bubble. Grant was little more than a journeyman after this but Ring Magazine actually tipped him to beat LL going in. Ridiculous in hindsight but people bought into his size and physical attributes without closely watching his boxing skills and paper mache chin.

 

Price had a 3 stage career, looked average, phenomenal and shite. His early fights, he looked a bit like a plodder then he stepped up his opponents and looked phenomenal, bringing out the huge power. Then when he reached the gate keepers, he got caught and there after completely fell apart. In my opinion, the initial hype was warranted, of course he proved to never be a proven commodity. Purely because he simply couldn't get over his first loss to Thompson. He developed extreme anxiety, he would gas after 3 rounds. He had the tools but he didn't have the mental strength to compete at the highest level in the pros. He remains the biggest hype job in modern heavyweight history for me.

 

About Itauma remember that the legendary poster John Garfield predicted that Ali would be “another Olympic bust” I for one am always ecstatic when there’s any promise in the division I hate the old heads that wanna be boxing experts and say “oh he’s bad, he’ll be EXPOSED etc” it’s a lot easier to guess who is not going to be great lol you aren’t smart you are announcing something with a 99% success rate.