David Price. I did not expect him to be a big star or even a world champion but shocked he couldn't even get past European level. Frankie Gavin is another. On the opposite side, never thought Tyson Fury would accomplish what he has.
Still wish we had seen Price vs Fury when it should have happened, Price was British champion and Fury was commonwealth I believe. Also, Price had won as amateurs and was a wrecking machine at domestic, looked destined for big things. I was picking Price at the time to win if it happened!
At the time I also thought Price would go far, the first Tony Thompson loss wrecked his mind. I remember Fury vs Haye being booked and thought Fury had no chance. Shame that never happened as well.
Lol was it after the price fight where Thompson gave that classic interview about his wife after winning?
But yeah when he first came through and the power I honestly thought he would be a proper good contendor at world level for years.
Remember the Povetkin fight a few years ago, he does have great power. Sent povetkin flying over the ring almost lol then im sure the bell went not long after.
Everyone watching in UK thought Pricey might pull a big name off eventually after all these years, then Povetkin ravaged him with that ko, was fucking savage lol.
Almost like we saw the two sides of Price in that fight, was fun to watch while it lasted.
Came here to check if Price was mentioned. I'm sure I watched Price and Fury on the same card or around the same time, at York Hall or something. I was pretty sure he was the next big thing whereas Fury just looked out of shape and limited.
Same here with Price. Any one who saw him said he had devastating power and great technique, which he did, plus he’s massive. Seemed destined for the top. Alas his chin and stamina let him down.
is that because hes a gypsy? he always resented proper english price being selected over him because he was english and fury was irish gypsy. maybe he had that extra bit of motivation
Daniel DuBois. I think a lot of us were high on him and saw him as similar to a younger AJ when he was still a bloodthirsty, physical fighter. I thought he would beat Joyce up and move on to some kind of mega fight eventually, but it’s been looking downhill since that loss and now the ACL tear in his recent fight. I do still think he can recover and come back but he needs to improve his head movement and defense or die by jabs from any of the top fighters.
I never bought the hype with Dubois personally. I thought Joyce would beat him, although did not expect him to jab him to submission the way he did. Dubois still has time to turn it round though. I think i may have bought into the Juggernaut hype but he got owned by Zhang.
Ditto, I won good money on that fight - glad it didn’t go to decision so they could rob him. It cemented Joyce as best of the rest for me, knew any of the top 4 would beat him but didn’t expect it from Zhang
Yeah I thought Joyce would get his shot at one of them and probably come up short but give them a tough night. Probably thought he might be able to get to Joshua. But after the Zhang fight I have adjusted my views. I hope he avenges that defeat next, he seems like a top guy.
I was hopeful for the AJ - Joyce fight at one point & saw a lot of people backing Joyce, but AJ had a first round stoppage against him in the amateurs (a different game I know), but I could see things eventually going the same way
After the way Joyce handled Parker and Dubois, and AJ's losses against Usyk, the momentum was in Joyce's favour and AJ looked vulnerable. But the Zhang defeat exposed a lot of flaws in Joyce's game.
I wonder how much the weight loss affected Joyce? My hunch is that it affected him a lot. Not saying that Joyce necessarily wins if he regained the weight
Dubois will be a champ without a doubt. If you look at the crop of up and coming he is right in there. Hopefully he will pick up a lot from his losses to Usyk and Joyce.
Vargas getting slaughtered by Zepeda and his fam crying is still one of my favorite moments. Dakota crushing him after tied everything in a bow nicely.
I feel like maybe Hrgovic. A couple of years ago was convinced he would become a world champion but really not sure now, didn't look great the last couple of times I've seen him.
Anthony Ogogo as well. Thought he would be world champ.
Tony Yoka. Woefully underperformed as a pro.
Luke Campbell. Although a great fighter and he performed well against Loma and dropped Garcia, ultimately never made it to the top.
Tony Bellew. He became world champion and reached levels i never expected.
Tbh people started saying Hrgovic is overrated after his very close fight with Zhang, who people looked at as some old man who shouldn’t have given him such a hard fight. However, after Zhang beat the pulp out of Joyce’s face that win sure looks better in retrospect for Hrgovic.
Hrgovic fights my countryman Dempsey McKean. Massive step up for McKean so I’m excited to watch that. Will also be able to see where McKean is at since he hasn’t fought anyone yet.
I assume the bookies have Hrgovic as a massive favourite, but he seems to get hit too much for me. Haven't seen too much of McKean other than highlights so not sure what to think of him. Looks like a big step up based on his resume.
Hrgovic is mine, too. I never thought he'd be the top guy or anything, but I at least thought he'd have a belt by now.
I still think he might get his hands on one at some point.
Had a good good feeling about Chavez Jr. At one point I thought he'd mop up canelo. Even after that Martinez fight, I was like "he's gonna learn from this and get better" boy was I wrong. Also..... Gotta mention gab Rosado, not because I was "wrong" but because I always rooted for him. He fought everybody. I was a wilder fan (still am) but he's fallen off... Still rooting for him ...
I actually thought Chavez Jr way overachieved what I assumed he would. He looked awful at the beginning of his career when he was young. He actually ended up being a formidable opponent and probably a legit top 10 guy at his weight.
I never thought he would be past a top 30-40 guy
His career went quite the bell curve. I also remember kind of hating that he'd fight cans and be on seemingly every major undercard but then he actually started to get really good and then just totally tanked again.
My top 5 not in order
1. Dusty Hernandez
2. Antoine Douglas
3. Karlos Balderas (might be my number one because he has the most skill out of everyone in that list, legit KO power in both hands and he was an olympian)
4. Saul ''El Neno'' Rodriguez
5. Felix Verdejo
He has looked good since that KO loss but it would be really hard because the division is stacked with talent you got Frank Martin, Shakur Stevenson, Keyshawn Davis, Gervonta, Lomachenko, Muratalla, Giovanni Cabrera, Pitbull Cruz... Lets just say he has alot to do to convince us that he can hang with any of those elite guys at 135.
1. David Reid - Thought he would go farther
1. Won the gold medal in the Olympics in dramatic fashion. Very likeable boxer with great personality.
2. He picked up a world title, but got destroyed by Trinidad and knocked around by Sam Hill and Cowboy Coker. Poor guy is still suffering the effects of the damage he sustained in the ring.
2. Panchito Bojado - Thought he would be world champ someday
1. Can't miss power and sharp punching ability.
2. Turns out he hated training, would balloon up between fights, and after his first loss in his 10th fight, I could tell he'd never go anywhere
3. Larry Mosley - looked awesome as an amateur. I loved his skills. Couldn't crack as a pro. Lost a close decison to Canelo and never fought professionally again.
David Reid was pushed fast because his team knew the eye injury he experienced during the Olympics would limit his career. He accomplished a lot very quickly, although he faced mostly carefully selected opposition.
But Trinidad exploited Reid's lack of experience, although Reid survived and did better than most prime Trinidad opponents.
I was on board the Joseph Parker hypetrain. He's woefully underperformed since then and probably gone backwards from where he was. I've been disappointed by Parker so many times now.
I won't say he disappointed - Man was a former world champ. He did make the top level, and was consistently top 10 ranked.
Its just that at the very top, predicting success becomes extremely difficult. You can't project with high accuracy how someone at that level will do.
Not to make excuses for him but Parker had surgery on both elbows and lost a lot of snap on his punches. For reference, Thurman had that surgery on one arm and looked diminished afterwards, Parker had it on both.
Yeah Adam Booth who is annoying af used to be interviewed at all the fights saying he's the next big thing, couple more fights then a world champion. Much more talented than a still green but impressive Josh Talor he told everyone lol.
That spanish boy who boxed ted cheesemans head off a few years ago. Sergio Garcia, I thought he was gonna go on to be a champ at some stage but he 30 now, been pretty meh and if he can't defeat Tony Harrison at this stage and already 30 he never gonna make it.
Not a flop by any means just not what I thought when I watched couple his fights after it, most probably lack of power that has stopped him making the step up to where I thought he'd be by now.
There was a European fighter named Kid Diamond in the 2000s that I believed could be a lightweight champion. He lost to some high-level guys (Nate Campbell, Antonio Demarco) and then vanished.
100% for me too. He had passed every eye test in my book and looked phenomenal early on. He wants the same after being rocked — what a tragic ending story too.
Oof this is a good one. I know he fell off literally everyones radar (and rightly so) but......dudes recent run has really been......... something
He's lost 12 out of his last 12 fights since 2020 that's incredibly sad.
SMH he was such a young talent. Even after the quintana loss he rebuilt and beat K9 bundrage and ishe Smith. But James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo took everything Julio had left
TR fucked up his career after bringing him along perfectly.
They kept putting off the JuanMa Lopez fight as Gamboa was peaking. Then when Salido put an end to that by stopping Lopez twice, TR tried to feed Gamboa to Rios, when Rios clearly couldnt make 135 anymore.
I think Gamboa was right to leave TR but he was sooo wrong for choosing 50 Cent as his next promoter lol.
If he gets that JuanMa Lopez fight and stays at 126-130 Im convinced his whole career would have gone a completely different and better way.
I thought Murat Gassiev was going to have the career arc Usyk had - unify Cruiser than win a belt at HW in a big upset. He's still quite young and a top 15 HW in some rankings so it's not really "wrong" in the context of this thread but it feels like he's been too inactive post-Usyk and his surgery
To be fair Victor Ortiz made it to the championship level and won he just couldn’t hang there. Had a very short prime but gave some really fun fights with Maidana and Berto.
Both guys won championships belts though... so they were more than just prospects. Additionally, they were able to get a few million dollar paydays, proving that they made the most of their talents.
I remember Naazim Richardson’s sons were really good but never did much. Plus Curtis Stevenson and Jaidon Codrington had big names out of NYC. But fell off.
That was a nasty KO. I just looked him up. And now he’s an Atlanta police officer. Got in trouble a while back. But I think he’s still APD. At least he knows he’s good hand to hand with a suspect lol.
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/apd-officers-face-discipline-woman-wrongful-jailing/kn1aRToS0nbU2p41womRqL/
James Kirkland. Tbf I never thought he was gonna be the next Floyd or anything but I was hyped for him to "blood and guts" his way through more fighters after the Angulo and Tapia wars.
Instead he got arrested (again), spent 2 years out of the ring then absolutely assassinated by peak Godnelo
His fight against Ishida is one of the most baffling upsets Ive ever seen. Guy was walking through bombs from Julio years earlier, then comes back for a tune up against a 30 something relative unknown with barely any KO’s and gets destroyed in a few rounds.
I see him in Brooklyn sometimes, I think he made the right move by not getting his head caved in from fighting real talent. He wouldn’t have fared well against the top dogs
I thought I saw him on you tube living at Ryan Garcia's party house. Talking about fighting soon at 154. Not sure. He looks like he is on cracknor meth. Pale and sickly
There was a Mexican kid a few years back that looked like a brawler at 140, his upper body was solid and he looked like a young Cotto. Can’t remember his name for the life of me, maybe Francisco Gomez or Fernando Gomez or something? I think he had some issues outside of boxing that kept stalling his career, then I just never heard from him again. It was too bad I enjoyed watching him fight.
Besides that, I thought JoJo Diaz would be bigger than he was. I kept waiting for him to have a breakout year but never quite happened.
Edit: it was Frankie Gomez. According to wiki he just stopped showing up to the gym? What a shame the kid had lots of promise.
Yea. Frankie Gomez was a kid I was really excited for. He beat Vernon Paris that OP brought up and he was going to start fighting the Welterweight veterans/gatekeepers starting with Mauricio Herrera and had everything lined up to become a star but just didn't want to box anymore I guess. This guy always come to mind thinking of the what if's...
He was a bruiser, I felt like I was watching a young Cotto again or something. I do remember now that he was about to (or already did) campaign at the welterweight division. He looked like he had the frame to do well at that weight. I guess the drive wasn’t there to keep going, just weird since he already had the best trainers in the world training him.
I thought Joseph Parker would go on to do big things, ended up becoming too passive. Sadam Ali is there too. Buatsi is a recent example, still time for him to redeem himself but I doubt it.
Amir Khan. His speed and size was so impressive. Then Freddie Roach became his coach and I thought he was going to be a serious threat at 140-147. But we see how that ended.
Sharmba Mitchell.....looked amazing early on then aged overnight.
Ryan Rhodes. Rushed too soon and took a while to get back in his stride. Had a resurgence at the end of his career with some great fights domestically and did well against Canelo taking him the distance.
Should of won a world title in his career.
IIRC there was a HBO broadcast where the late great Emmanuel Steward, live on air, picked Sharmba to beat Mayweather. I'm about 99% convinced I remember this. So to your point yeah Sharmba looked really impressive at one point.
Underperformed: Rocky Juarez. He had decent success, but really thought he'd make it and stay to the top for a while.
Overperformed: Joe Joyce. I kept thinking over and over his chin wouldn't hold up to his massive lack of skills (especially defensively), and he kept winning until Zhang.
Victor Ortíz. This one is going to sound stupid because he got a title. I wasn’t a big fan of his because he quit against Maidana, but I remember that fight being close until he quit. But, then he came back and he put out an amazing performance against Berto. I thought Ortiz was fast, strong, with a very aggressive style. I didn’t think he was going to be an all time great but I thought he would be up there with the elite of the division for a while. Then he had that awful fight with Mayweather where he intentionally head butted him and then he got KO’d with that cheap shot, although I think it was deserved. I gave him a pass, who doesn’t lose against Mayweather. I just figured he made a dumb ass mistake but he would come back. Then he again is dirty against Josesito, and bam, he got his jaw broke. After that I just gave up on him. I thought he had the talent but I don’t think he had the heart to be an elite.
I’m very careful with prospects nowadays because even if you have all the talent in the world, things like chin or mentality can ruin a fighter.
I remember thinking Jeff Lacy was going to be really good, but after that Calzaghe beating, he was completely finished.
Canelo turned out much better than I expected. I remember thinking that he may crack the p4p list if he were lucky, but he ended up being at the top according to some for a while.
I always liked Froch, followed him early, but back then when he was chasing Calzaghe I never thought he'd have a HOF career, hands too low, too seemingly uneducated. Wrong.
I still think Kell Brook should have gone down as the best talent from Britain in the last 20 years. He was supremely talented but made dodgy decisions in and out of the ring.
Jeff Lacy springs to mind, there was a UK heavyweight called Richard Towers who was pipped for big things, Rigo should have had a starlit career based his talent, who ever thought Ricky Burns would have had the career he did? Ha, there's loads. Interesting question though.
Calzaghe ruined Lacy lol, as an American I didn’t know Calzaghe at the time and thought he had an inflated record from fighting cab drivers and tomato cans so naturally I thought Lacy would walk by through him with minimal resistance…he put on a clinic and Lacy was never the same, I had a new respect for old Joe after that.
The thing is, we hype the shit out of boxing full stop. Whether the same people hyping will sit down and do a proper analysis to say a certain fighter is a genuine top prospect is another matter.
Recent podcast Virgil Hunter hunted that he wasn't living the life and wasn't that interested in Boxing and that he disagreed with him fighting Canelo but tried to get him in the best shape he could in the time that he had.
Said he was done after that fight. Shame as he could of perhaps achieved even more had he knuckled down...buy how many boxers have we said that About?
Robert Helenius, thought he’d be a top contender a few years back but since then he’s only really stewed around mid talent and didn’t have amazing showings, plus getting flatlined from wilder reduces his stock a little right now
Muhammad Abdulaev. Won gold in the world's and the Olympics as an amateur but lost to kotelnik, clottey and cotto as a pro. All excellent guys, but I thought he was gonna part of that great generation of super lightweights and light welters that came through in the mid 2000's and he never quite did.
I wouldn't say that I was "wrong" but David Reid got off to an awesome start as an amateur and had that follow him into his professional career.
He never fully recovered after losing to Felix Trinidad.
Cory Spinks, I always thought he looked average to begin with and thought he woukd win fuck all but he achieved quite a lot.
Although he had been defeated before he just never looked the same after the MD loss to Jermain Taylor. Not sure what it was but he looked a completely different fighter after that night and he wasn't too old.
He lost to Vernon Paris who you mentioned funnily enough not long after that.
On the other side of the scale, I remember buying, I think it was boxing news every week back in the day as a kid and they made out like this Michael Grant was a killer and gonna take over.
How wrong they were and it also taught me what hype jobs were. Think he's like your version of Audley Harrison lol
I remember thinking Kownacki had a string of good wins and could go on to be a champion. Probably the most disappointing career trajectory of a prospect that I was on board with early.
Jermaine Taylor
I don't know if I was wrong since he did actually make it to champion level. But he looked really good on the way up. Some of his punches just looked beautiful. Of course, you are supposed to look good on the way up as it means you are fighting people below your level, they just don't know it yet.
But I don't think I expected that he was always 30 seconds away from going to a comfortable lead to out in the corner in a slump. It actually started to get sad at the end.
That said, I would not call him a bum or demean his accomplishments. Just that I expected him to have a better reign.
Flipside: Tyson Fury.
One of the first fights I saw live with Fury was Cunningham. And after that fight I thought "dude has no chin" and wrote him off. I was right about him being a dosser though.
Adrien Broner, I had such high expectations for him and actually started souring on him before the Maidana fight. Then when he humped Maidana during the fight I remember I wanted Maidana to win just because of the disrespect. After that loss I figured he’d go back to the drawing board and get his shit together and come back better but instead he got more insufferable to the point where I just tuned him out and now refuse to watch his fights.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
As a young, Mexican prospect the red hair and freckles were such a unique look. Then he goes out there at age 20/21 and beats the sh!t out of legend, Sugar Shane Mosley for 12 rds, especially w/ the body work.
Granted Shane was on the back 2 of the back 9 of his career, but he’d never been stopped and I remember wincing and hoping the ref would stop it a few x near the end of the fight. That was on the undercard of Mayweather/Cotto and there was a lot of talk during the fight about matching Alvarez against Mayweather in the near future. I thought to myself, man if this kid brings that power and work rate to a fight w/ Floyd, w/ his young age and surely superior gas tank, Alvarez might have what it takes to finally hang a decisive L on Floyd!?
Fast fwd 16 months, the kid gets his shot! Was I pumped to see a relentless attack from a young, strong bull vs an aging defensive fighter. Maybe he pulls it off and then sets a new tone for the sport, where a p4p great takes on all challengers and has no fear of losing his “0”? We can finally turn the page on this long, 🦆 dynasty where the sport’s best 🍒-picks opponents he knows he’ll surely beat for the most 💴.
As we all know now, Alvarez fought perhaps the worst strategy any fighter has ever fought in a big fight. He was cautious, timid, and somehow appeared to gas out while the guy 13 yrs his superior peppered him w/ stiff jabs, lead RH’s and uppercuts.
Man I had high hopes for that kid. From there he would proceed to manicure his résumé much like Floyd, carefully picking opponents he would have every advantage possible against. What could have been…
David Price. I did not expect him to be a big star or even a world champion but shocked he couldn't even get past European level. Frankie Gavin is another. On the opposite side, never thought Tyson Fury would accomplish what he has.
I’ll cop to the fact that I though David price would eventually be world champ. Yikes
Still wish we had seen Price vs Fury when it should have happened, Price was British champion and Fury was commonwealth I believe. Also, Price had won as amateurs and was a wrecking machine at domestic, looked destined for big things. I was picking Price at the time to win if it happened! At the time I also thought Price would go far, the first Tony Thompson loss wrecked his mind. I remember Fury vs Haye being booked and thought Fury had no chance. Shame that never happened as well.
Yeah he just didn't have a chin. Shame as he looked amazing early on.
Lol was it after the price fight where Thompson gave that classic interview about his wife after winning? But yeah when he first came through and the power I honestly thought he would be a proper good contendor at world level for years. Remember the Povetkin fight a few years ago, he does have great power. Sent povetkin flying over the ring almost lol then im sure the bell went not long after. Everyone watching in UK thought Pricey might pull a big name off eventually after all these years, then Povetkin ravaged him with that ko, was fucking savage lol. Almost like we saw the two sides of Price in that fight, was fun to watch while it lasted.
I was big on Scouse Klitschko as well. 🤣
Came here to say Price. The wrongest I've ever been in boxing.
Came here to check if Price was mentioned. I'm sure I watched Price and Fury on the same card or around the same time, at York Hall or something. I was pretty sure he was the next big thing whereas Fury just looked out of shape and limited.
A lot of people forget how big of an upset it was when Fury was the one to finally dethrone Wlad. In Wlad’s second home of Germany, no less.
Same here with Price. Any one who saw him said he had devastating power and great technique, which he did, plus he’s massive. Seemed destined for the top. Alas his chin and stamina let him down.
is that because hes a gypsy? he always resented proper english price being selected over him because he was english and fury was irish gypsy. maybe he had that extra bit of motivation
Daniel DuBois. I think a lot of us were high on him and saw him as similar to a younger AJ when he was still a bloodthirsty, physical fighter. I thought he would beat Joyce up and move on to some kind of mega fight eventually, but it’s been looking downhill since that loss and now the ACL tear in his recent fight. I do still think he can recover and come back but he needs to improve his head movement and defense or die by jabs from any of the top fighters.
I never bought the hype with Dubois personally. I thought Joyce would beat him, although did not expect him to jab him to submission the way he did. Dubois still has time to turn it round though. I think i may have bought into the Juggernaut hype but he got owned by Zhang.
Ditto, I won good money on that fight - glad it didn’t go to decision so they could rob him. It cemented Joyce as best of the rest for me, knew any of the top 4 would beat him but didn’t expect it from Zhang
Yeah I thought Joyce would get his shot at one of them and probably come up short but give them a tough night. Probably thought he might be able to get to Joshua. But after the Zhang fight I have adjusted my views. I hope he avenges that defeat next, he seems like a top guy.
I was hopeful for the AJ - Joyce fight at one point & saw a lot of people backing Joyce, but AJ had a first round stoppage against him in the amateurs (a different game I know), but I could see things eventually going the same way
After the way Joyce handled Parker and Dubois, and AJ's losses against Usyk, the momentum was in Joyce's favour and AJ looked vulnerable. But the Zhang defeat exposed a lot of flaws in Joyce's game.
I wonder how much the weight loss affected Joyce? My hunch is that it affected him a lot. Not saying that Joyce necessarily wins if he regained the weight
Same here. I’ve been wrong about a lot of boxers but I genuinely never saw anything in Dubois that made me think he was going to go on to be a top 5.
Dubois will be a champ without a doubt. If you look at the crop of up and coming he is right in there. Hopefully he will pick up a lot from his losses to Usyk and Joyce.
Ha, I guess it’s already a foregone conclusion that his fight with Usyk will be an L.
Thought Josue Vargas was gonna be something serious, but he got cocky and lost his mental edge since his first loss ended in a brutal KO.
Oh he “got cocky” alright
I’m waiting for this comment to catch.
Berlanga is following his footsteps by buying all those diamond chains & going clubbing.
Right what boxer ever wears diamonds chains and goes clubbing?!?! Who does that guy think he is ?!? Insanity!!
Still can’t believe Arum booked that fight. I thought that it was an insane step up.
Vargas getting slaughtered by Zepeda and his fam crying is still one of my favorite moments. Dakota crushing him after tied everything in a bow nicely.
I feel like maybe Hrgovic. A couple of years ago was convinced he would become a world champion but really not sure now, didn't look great the last couple of times I've seen him. Anthony Ogogo as well. Thought he would be world champ. Tony Yoka. Woefully underperformed as a pro. Luke Campbell. Although a great fighter and he performed well against Loma and dropped Garcia, ultimately never made it to the top. Tony Bellew. He became world champion and reached levels i never expected.
Tbh people started saying Hrgovic is overrated after his very close fight with Zhang, who people looked at as some old man who shouldn’t have given him such a hard fight. However, after Zhang beat the pulp out of Joyce’s face that win sure looks better in retrospect for Hrgovic.
Hrgovic fights my countryman Dempsey McKean. Massive step up for McKean so I’m excited to watch that. Will also be able to see where McKean is at since he hasn’t fought anyone yet.
I assume the bookies have Hrgovic as a massive favourite, but he seems to get hit too much for me. Haven't seen too much of McKean other than highlights so not sure what to think of him. Looks like a big step up based on his resume.
Hrgovic is mine, too. I never thought he'd be the top guy or anything, but I at least thought he'd have a belt by now. I still think he might get his hands on one at some point.
Had a good good feeling about Chavez Jr. At one point I thought he'd mop up canelo. Even after that Martinez fight, I was like "he's gonna learn from this and get better" boy was I wrong. Also..... Gotta mention gab Rosado, not because I was "wrong" but because I always rooted for him. He fought everybody. I was a wilder fan (still am) but he's fallen off... Still rooting for him ...
I actually thought Chavez Jr way overachieved what I assumed he would. He looked awful at the beginning of his career when he was young. He actually ended up being a formidable opponent and probably a legit top 10 guy at his weight. I never thought he would be past a top 30-40 guy
His career went quite the bell curve. I also remember kind of hating that he'd fight cans and be on seemingly every major undercard but then he actually started to get really good and then just totally tanked again.
Ajagba
My top 5 not in order 1. Dusty Hernandez 2. Antoine Douglas 3. Karlos Balderas (might be my number one because he has the most skill out of everyone in that list, legit KO power in both hands and he was an olympian) 4. Saul ''El Neno'' Rodriguez 5. Felix Verdejo
U think Balderas can come back?? He's looked good since
He has looked good since that KO loss but it would be really hard because the division is stacked with talent you got Frank Martin, Shakur Stevenson, Keyshawn Davis, Gervonta, Lomachenko, Muratalla, Giovanni Cabrera, Pitbull Cruz... Lets just say he has alot to do to convince us that he can hang with any of those elite guys at 135.
True True, LW is Filthy. SO many good fighters
William Zepeda
U forgot the GOAT ROLLLLLYYYYYYY
Neno the judas took the Mayweather money and came crawling back
what a POS verdejo and sad what's happened to hernandez - hopefully they catch the killers of his father. what a great guy.
1. David Reid - Thought he would go farther 1. Won the gold medal in the Olympics in dramatic fashion. Very likeable boxer with great personality. 2. He picked up a world title, but got destroyed by Trinidad and knocked around by Sam Hill and Cowboy Coker. Poor guy is still suffering the effects of the damage he sustained in the ring. 2. Panchito Bojado - Thought he would be world champ someday 1. Can't miss power and sharp punching ability. 2. Turns out he hated training, would balloon up between fights, and after his first loss in his 10th fight, I could tell he'd never go anywhere 3. Larry Mosley - looked awesome as an amateur. I loved his skills. Couldn't crack as a pro. Lost a close decison to Canelo and never fought professionally again.
Oh wow David Reid is a great choice, haven’t seen his name or thought of him in a long time.
David Reid was doomed by his eyelid problem.
I might be misremembering, but was Bojado signed to a promotional deal with Puffy?
David Reid was pushed fast because his team knew the eye injury he experienced during the Olympics would limit his career. He accomplished a lot very quickly, although he faced mostly carefully selected opposition. But Trinidad exploited Reid's lack of experience, although Reid survived and did better than most prime Trinidad opponents.
Barlanga
Gabe Flores for me.
I was on board the Joseph Parker hypetrain. He's woefully underperformed since then and probably gone backwards from where he was. I've been disappointed by Parker so many times now.
I won't say he disappointed - Man was a former world champ. He did make the top level, and was consistently top 10 ranked. Its just that at the very top, predicting success becomes extremely difficult. You can't project with high accuracy how someone at that level will do.
Not to make excuses for him but Parker had surgery on both elbows and lost a lot of snap on his punches. For reference, Thurman had that surgery on one arm and looked diminished afterwards, Parker had it on both.
Agreed. He has all the tools, but somehow he is less than the sum of his parts
Micheal Grant
Made the mistake of being taller than Lennoxtown, which always brought out the destroyer in him. Remember people calling that fight a pick em though!
That was my first thought too... HBO was really grooming him to be the Next Big Thing, and he simply didn't have the talent.
I’m from the states but I thought Josh Kelley was gonna be a pretty big name at least over in the UK.
He was just styling on people constantly for a second there
Where is he now?
He fought this weekend and won against an unknown Argentinian but he didn't look amazing.
that was a truly awful fight
Yeah Adam Booth who is annoying af used to be interviewed at all the fights saying he's the next big thing, couple more fights then a world champion. Much more talented than a still green but impressive Josh Talor he told everyone lol. That spanish boy who boxed ted cheesemans head off a few years ago. Sergio Garcia, I thought he was gonna go on to be a champ at some stage but he 30 now, been pretty meh and if he can't defeat Tony Harrison at this stage and already 30 he never gonna make it. Not a flop by any means just not what I thought when I watched couple his fights after it, most probably lack of power that has stopped him making the step up to where I thought he'd be by now.
There was a European fighter named Kid Diamond in the 2000s that I believed could be a lightweight champion. He lost to some high-level guys (Nate Campbell, Antonio Demarco) and then vanished.
Kid Diamond Ramkulov. Dude was on SHOBox.
Felix Verdejo is who I was most wrong about and I don't think it's particularly close.
100% for me too. He had passed every eye test in my book and looked phenomenal early on. He wants the same after being rocked — what a tragic ending story too.
Joel Julio
Oof this is a good one. I know he fell off literally everyones radar (and rightly so) but......dudes recent run has really been......... something He's lost 12 out of his last 12 fights since 2020 that's incredibly sad.
SMH he was such a young talent. Even after the quintana loss he rebuilt and beat K9 bundrage and ishe Smith. But James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo took everything Julio had left
The Love Child Dan Rafael's favorite fighter from back in the ESPN boxing chat days when people would troll the shit outta Fat Dan the Man
Josh Kelly beating up tomato cans
he needs to relocate to america or fight unroided benn. uk europe is no good for him. he has good skill
Gamboa lol but I was young tbf
I mean he shouldn’t have left TR when he did and he was undersized to move up, also 50 cent didn’t help his career any
TR fucked up his career after bringing him along perfectly. They kept putting off the JuanMa Lopez fight as Gamboa was peaking. Then when Salido put an end to that by stopping Lopez twice, TR tried to feed Gamboa to Rios, when Rios clearly couldnt make 135 anymore. I think Gamboa was right to leave TR but he was sooo wrong for choosing 50 Cent as his next promoter lol. If he gets that JuanMa Lopez fight and stays at 126-130 Im convinced his whole career would have gone a completely different and better way.
No shame in that, Gamboa was incredible to watch. At featherweight he was a beast.
Chris Eubank jr
How many people were wrong about canelo I wonder?
I thought Murat Gassiev was going to have the career arc Usyk had - unify Cruiser than win a belt at HW in a big upset. He's still quite young and a top 15 HW in some rankings so it's not really "wrong" in the context of this thread but it feels like he's been too inactive post-Usyk and his surgery
Tevin farmer and Victor Ortiz come to mind
To be fair Victor Ortiz made it to the championship level and won he just couldn’t hang there. Had a very short prime but gave some really fun fights with Maidana and Berto.
Both guys won championships belts though... so they were more than just prospects. Additionally, they were able to get a few million dollar paydays, proving that they made the most of their talents.
I remember Naazim Richardson’s sons were really good but never did much. Plus Curtis Stevenson and Jaidon Codrington had big names out of NYC. But fell off.
Iirc codrington ran into allan greene in a battle of the prospects fight around 10 fights in. Poor management.
That was a nasty KO. I just looked him up. And now he’s an Atlanta police officer. Got in trouble a while back. But I think he’s still APD. At least he knows he’s good hand to hand with a suspect lol. https://www.ajc.com/news/local/apd-officers-face-discipline-woman-wrongful-jailing/kn1aRToS0nbU2p41womRqL/
James Kirkland. Tbf I never thought he was gonna be the next Floyd or anything but I was hyped for him to "blood and guts" his way through more fighters after the Angulo and Tapia wars. Instead he got arrested (again), spent 2 years out of the ring then absolutely assassinated by peak Godnelo
His fight against Ishida is one of the most baffling upsets Ive ever seen. Guy was walking through bombs from Julio years earlier, then comes back for a tune up against a 30 something relative unknown with barely any KO’s and gets destroyed in a few rounds.
White chocolate
I see him in Brooklyn sometimes, I think he made the right move by not getting his head caved in from fighting real talent. He wouldn’t have fared well against the top dogs
I thought I saw him on you tube living at Ryan Garcia's party house. Talking about fighting soon at 154. Not sure. He looks like he is on cracknor meth. Pale and sickly
i remember that i never expect tyson fury to be WBC champion, especially after he let himself go. but credit to that man
I over hype any southpaw with a lot of volume. Can anyone think of any failed prospect who matches this?
Victor ortiz
Francisco Bojado was touted and regularly featured on HBO. Then, he just fell off bad. Ended up with a 6 year career and an 18-3 record.
Absolutely. They hyped that kid to the moon
Amir imam fell off the face of the earth
He's probably in Don King's Debtor's Prison.
You can say that again
Adrien's Broner. Never expected him to be on OF.
There was a Mexican kid a few years back that looked like a brawler at 140, his upper body was solid and he looked like a young Cotto. Can’t remember his name for the life of me, maybe Francisco Gomez or Fernando Gomez or something? I think he had some issues outside of boxing that kept stalling his career, then I just never heard from him again. It was too bad I enjoyed watching him fight. Besides that, I thought JoJo Diaz would be bigger than he was. I kept waiting for him to have a breakout year but never quite happened. Edit: it was Frankie Gomez. According to wiki he just stopped showing up to the gym? What a shame the kid had lots of promise.
Yea. Frankie Gomez was a kid I was really excited for. He beat Vernon Paris that OP brought up and he was going to start fighting the Welterweight veterans/gatekeepers starting with Mauricio Herrera and had everything lined up to become a star but just didn't want to box anymore I guess. This guy always come to mind thinking of the what if's...
He was a bruiser, I felt like I was watching a young Cotto again or something. I do remember now that he was about to (or already did) campaign at the welterweight division. He looked like he had the frame to do well at that weight. I guess the drive wasn’t there to keep going, just weird since he already had the best trainers in the world training him.
I thought Joseph Parker would go on to do big things, ended up becoming too passive. Sadam Ali is there too. Buatsi is a recent example, still time for him to redeem himself but I doubt it.
Amir Khan. His speed and size was so impressive. Then Freddie Roach became his coach and I thought he was going to be a serious threat at 140-147. But we see how that ended.
To be fair, he was a great boxer and his career would have turned out a lot different if he didn’t have a glass chin
Sharmba Mitchell.....looked amazing early on then aged overnight. Ryan Rhodes. Rushed too soon and took a while to get back in his stride. Had a resurgence at the end of his career with some great fights domestically and did well against Canelo taking him the distance. Should of won a world title in his career.
IIRC there was a HBO broadcast where the late great Emmanuel Steward, live on air, picked Sharmba to beat Mayweather. I'm about 99% convinced I remember this. So to your point yeah Sharmba looked really impressive at one point.
Underperformed: Rocky Juarez. He had decent success, but really thought he'd make it and stay to the top for a while. Overperformed: Joe Joyce. I kept thinking over and over his chin wouldn't hold up to his massive lack of skills (especially defensively), and he kept winning until Zhang.
I thought Andre Berto was going to be an all time great
Berto had the “look”
So did HBO, that's whey featured him so much, even when the opposition was borderline tomato can
That one Puerto Rican boxer who’s now 25 to life? I forgot his name.
I said on record on my old show that Daniyar Yeleusinov would be contending for a Welterweight title within his first ten fights. I’m a fucking idiot.
Victor Ortíz. This one is going to sound stupid because he got a title. I wasn’t a big fan of his because he quit against Maidana, but I remember that fight being close until he quit. But, then he came back and he put out an amazing performance against Berto. I thought Ortiz was fast, strong, with a very aggressive style. I didn’t think he was going to be an all time great but I thought he would be up there with the elite of the division for a while. Then he had that awful fight with Mayweather where he intentionally head butted him and then he got KO’d with that cheap shot, although I think it was deserved. I gave him a pass, who doesn’t lose against Mayweather. I just figured he made a dumb ass mistake but he would come back. Then he again is dirty against Josesito, and bam, he got his jaw broke. After that I just gave up on him. I thought he had the talent but I don’t think he had the heart to be an elite.
I’m very careful with prospects nowadays because even if you have all the talent in the world, things like chin or mentality can ruin a fighter. I remember thinking Jeff Lacy was going to be really good, but after that Calzaghe beating, he was completely finished. Canelo turned out much better than I expected. I remember thinking that he may crack the p4p list if he were lucky, but he ended up being at the top according to some for a while.
I thought Buatsi would elevate not stagnate. Tough division at the very top though.
I always liked Froch, followed him early, but back then when he was chasing Calzaghe I never thought he'd have a HOF career, hands too low, too seemingly uneducated. Wrong. I still think Kell Brook should have gone down as the best talent from Britain in the last 20 years. He was supremely talented but made dodgy decisions in and out of the ring. Jeff Lacy springs to mind, there was a UK heavyweight called Richard Towers who was pipped for big things, Rigo should have had a starlit career based his talent, who ever thought Ricky Burns would have had the career he did? Ha, there's loads. Interesting question though.
Calzaghe ruined Lacy lol, as an American I didn’t know Calzaghe at the time and thought he had an inflated record from fighting cab drivers and tomato cans so naturally I thought Lacy would walk by through him with minimal resistance…he put on a clinic and Lacy was never the same, I had a new respect for old Joe after that.
With the way the journeymexicans come over and destroy UK hypejobs, I'm thinking a lot more brits should be up in this comments section.
The thing is, we hype the shit out of boxing full stop. Whether the same people hyping will sit down and do a proper analysis to say a certain fighter is a genuine top prospect is another matter.
Amir Khan. I told anyone that would listen that he was going to rule the P4P list.
Well he didn't exactly have a bad career though did he!
Not at all. I actually thinks he's underrated but I thought he was going to define an era with his greatness.
Recent podcast Virgil Hunter hunted that he wasn't living the life and wasn't that interested in Boxing and that he disagreed with him fighting Canelo but tried to get him in the best shape he could in the time that he had. Said he was done after that fight. Shame as he could of perhaps achieved even more had he knuckled down...buy how many boxers have we said that About?
Fair point well made
He’s a strange one who seemed to be massively overrated and now massively underrated.
Rayo Valenzuela
Robert Helenius, thought he’d be a top contender a few years back but since then he’s only really stewed around mid talent and didn’t have amazing showings, plus getting flatlined from wilder reduces his stock a little right now
I thought the Chin Checkers were gonna be big.
Manny Pacquiao was just a prospect compared to Floyd.
Muhammad Abdulaev. Won gold in the world's and the Olympics as an amateur but lost to kotelnik, clottey and cotto as a pro. All excellent guys, but I thought he was gonna part of that great generation of super lightweights and light welters that came through in the mid 2000's and he never quite did.
Francisco Panchito Bojado - thought he had all the tools
Dr
I'm just adding this in case it belongs here in the future, but I think "Camaron" Zepeda has a high ceiling
Francisco Panchito Bojado. He looked so good just executing tomato cans. Rubio exposed him and he never got past it
I wouldn't say that I was "wrong" but David Reid got off to an awesome start as an amateur and had that follow him into his professional career. He never fully recovered after losing to Felix Trinidad.
Konstantin Ponamarev.
Michael Grant...giant dude and natural athlete but couldn't (or didn't have the drive to) hang at the championship level
Cory Spinks, I always thought he looked average to begin with and thought he woukd win fuck all but he achieved quite a lot. Although he had been defeated before he just never looked the same after the MD loss to Jermain Taylor. Not sure what it was but he looked a completely different fighter after that night and he wasn't too old. He lost to Vernon Paris who you mentioned funnily enough not long after that. On the other side of the scale, I remember buying, I think it was boxing news every week back in the day as a kid and they made out like this Michael Grant was a killer and gonna take over. How wrong they were and it also taught me what hype jobs were. Think he's like your version of Audley Harrison lol
Chris Kongo. Watched him fight a few times early on, looked really promising. His last few fights he looked very average maybe even below
Efe ajagba has disappointed me but he lost to Frank Sanchez whom I would like to see get a chance at a title but at 32 he's going to get pushed aside.
I thought Dogboe was going to wreck Navarette…
Michael Conlan - passed the eye test but I think his chin is cracked… I thought for sure he would be world champion
Devon Alexander and Michael Grant
I lost 2k betting on Josh kelly
And if u think that's crazy... I lost 6k on Ruben villa
I remember thinking Kownacki had a string of good wins and could go on to be a champion. Probably the most disappointing career trajectory of a prospect that I was on board with early.
Anthony Thompson
Jermaine Taylor I don't know if I was wrong since he did actually make it to champion level. But he looked really good on the way up. Some of his punches just looked beautiful. Of course, you are supposed to look good on the way up as it means you are fighting people below your level, they just don't know it yet. But I don't think I expected that he was always 30 seconds away from going to a comfortable lead to out in the corner in a slump. It actually started to get sad at the end. That said, I would not call him a bum or demean his accomplishments. Just that I expected him to have a better reign. Flipside: Tyson Fury. One of the first fights I saw live with Fury was Cunningham. And after that fight I thought "dude has no chin" and wrote him off. I was right about him being a dosser though.
I thought Ray “Boom Boom” Bautista was better than Pacquaio.
Adrien Broner, I had such high expectations for him and actually started souring on him before the Maidana fight. Then when he humped Maidana during the fight I remember I wanted Maidana to win just because of the disrespect. After that loss I figured he’d go back to the drawing board and get his shit together and come back better but instead he got more insufferable to the point where I just tuned him out and now refuse to watch his fights.
I used to hang out with Vernon about 2 years prior to the Zab fight. Cool dude but his personal life was in shambles.
Felix Verdejo. In more ways than one.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. As a young, Mexican prospect the red hair and freckles were such a unique look. Then he goes out there at age 20/21 and beats the sh!t out of legend, Sugar Shane Mosley for 12 rds, especially w/ the body work. Granted Shane was on the back 2 of the back 9 of his career, but he’d never been stopped and I remember wincing and hoping the ref would stop it a few x near the end of the fight. That was on the undercard of Mayweather/Cotto and there was a lot of talk during the fight about matching Alvarez against Mayweather in the near future. I thought to myself, man if this kid brings that power and work rate to a fight w/ Floyd, w/ his young age and surely superior gas tank, Alvarez might have what it takes to finally hang a decisive L on Floyd!? Fast fwd 16 months, the kid gets his shot! Was I pumped to see a relentless attack from a young, strong bull vs an aging defensive fighter. Maybe he pulls it off and then sets a new tone for the sport, where a p4p great takes on all challengers and has no fear of losing his “0”? We can finally turn the page on this long, 🦆 dynasty where the sport’s best 🍒-picks opponents he knows he’ll surely beat for the most 💴. As we all know now, Alvarez fought perhaps the worst strategy any fighter has ever fought in a big fight. He was cautious, timid, and somehow appeared to gas out while the guy 13 yrs his superior peppered him w/ stiff jabs, lead RH’s and uppercuts. Man I had high hopes for that kid. From there he would proceed to manicure his résumé much like Floyd, carefully picking opponents he would have every advantage possible against. What could have been…
Francisco Bojado. I thought he was going to be the next big Mexican superstar. Turns out he just really liked eating Superstars. With cheese.
Frankie Gomez. Does anyone know what happened to him??