The Biggest Underachiever in the History of Boxing is......

ssx said:
A few of those guys won titles though. Howard Davis Jr. maybe? Guys like Prince Naseem didn't do all he could. Mark Breland won titles but failed to live up to expeactations. Then there are guys like Ike Ibeabuchi and Edwin Valero.
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Zab had the most potential and accomplished the least. Was his high point winning the rematch against Spinks? He won the decision against Mathysse but seemed to lose the fight. Had terrible showings like the Pineda fight.

Ike and Edwin are good responses but those guys had mental health issues. They were more underachievers outside of the ring.
 
Shoemaker said:
James Toney probably could've achieved more if he took his diet seriously and stayed at SMW/LHW.

Ortiz is a good call. If he wasn't such a basket case he might be remembered better and certainly wouldn't have an embarrassing KO loss to Floyd on his record. Not that losing to Mayweather is embarrassing, but it is if you get knocked out trying to kiss him.

I guess I don't know enough about Judah to say whether or not he underachieved. People might've expected more, and he was definitely a front runner, but I think he did about as well as he was going to. But I might be missing something.
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I thought Ortiz showed his mental limits early on so his potential wasn't as great. Floyd had him flustered but he's also quit when the going got tough in other fights.

Judah may have gone wrong in giving his father such a big role as a trainer and also in his matchmaking. Instead of taking fights that would strengthen him for bigger fights he'd face guys he could overpower in a couple of rounds.
 
James Toney did alright for himself, obviously, but no one can say he wasn't a giant underachiever. Incredibly talented fighter, but like a lot of people with that level of talent (in any field) he had no dedication. Pisses me off to think what he could have achieved if he'd have the drive most fighters have.
 
JCC Jr.
 
nac386 said:
Riddick Bowe, maybe. He had the tools to have been one of the greats.
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This is a great answer....

then again, maybe his 2 wars with Evander Holyfield took something out of him..

but Bowe, at his apex was a great talent...
'
fantastic Jab, great power, had grit...

then after defeating Holyfield, he took chicken shit fights...like against Jesse the boogeyman ferguson, and Michael Dokes/Bert Cooper (I forgot which one, I always get these two guys mixed up)
 
I really thought Donald Curry was going to be special, but he never really did much after KO'ing McCrory.
 
Herol "oh noo that's what we were worried about" Graham
 
StickAndMove said:
Zab had the most potential and accomplished the least. Was his high point winning the rematch against Spinks? He won the decision against Mathysse but seemed to lose the fight. Had terrible showings like the Pineda fight.

Ike and Edwin are good responses but those guys had mental health issues. They were more underachievers outside of the ring.
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Zab was lineal world champ. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say he overachieved?
 
This is a pointless question really, how do you or anyone else know how much potential someone truly had
 
Sunfish said:
This is a pointless question really, how do you or anyone else know how much potential someone truly had
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That's a valid question

I think that people with the most insight would be those who witnessed how much of s monster some of them are during sparring and then don't really fight like that in the big stage

The rest is just opinion of course but it's a fun topic
 
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