Would you classify Tony Tucker as an underachiever?

My bad I thought McCall held the lineal belt at one point.

 

We have no idea what might've happened if Tucker had not entered the ring against Tyson with a broken right hand. It's like speculating on how Liston-Machen could have been different if Eddie's injured right had not been rendered useless by training injury as an offensive weapon (the same right Machen decked big Nino Valdez with through a single body shot).

Still, Buster Douglas had all the best of it until TNT's abrupt stoppage win.


Yeah, Tony's very clearly an underachiever, who really let his body and conditioning completely go by the end. He wasn't the revered Mike Weaver, making the absolute most of what abilities he had. What was his best dominant win? It's a sparse resume.

 

Yeah I think Tony Tucker was probably an underachiever. He actually showed he had good boxing skills to go along with his physical tools. He just wasn’t much of a risk taker in the ring and he was also kept away from quality opposition for too long. That and his lifestyle choices may have hindered his potential. With that said, how far could he have gone ? I honestly have no clue. You can only give so many points for potential without actually seeing it happen. Especially in this game.

 

It's been decades, so I'd have to review his use of his right hand with Tyson, or lack thereof.

Eddie Machen, interestingly, did NOT use it as an excuse for losing to Liston. Boxing orthodoxy holds that the right is used for NOT LESS than 80% defense, and he was using his own upheld right to stymie Sonny's hook. Sometimes, Joey Archer went entire bouts without punching once with his right, and he had a good one, even decking SRR with it in Robby's final bout (which was actually a good fight - Archer believes that was only the second career knockdown he ever scored, though the notoriously and comically unreliable BoxWRECK credits him with two count out wins early in his career).

 

Probably so. I think a lot of Tony's problems started early in his career, when he got injured around the time of Leonard-Hearns l and missed around 7 months, then had that knee problem with after Danny Sutton. Took a lot of developing time away from him.

 

Yes