Looking good to flopping

[MC Paul Barman]

who are some fighters that looked promising only to crap the bed?

Ismayl Silhakh:

Has an impressive beating he gave to Daniel Judah.
Beats undefeated Cuban Yordanis Despainge.

Then gave one of the most uninspired performances I have ever seen against Denis Grachev. Silhakh was coasting early against his overmatched opponent.... crowd starts booing and then to stick it to the crowd Silhakh does even less which allows Grachev back in the fight. Gets cocky with Grachev and then finds himself TKOd.

Then it was only downhill from there.

 

[Seano]

Amir Imam, I suppose.

Adrien Broner.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Argenis Mendez ko'd Salgado and had a ton of hype behind him. He's been fairly decent but nothing special since.
The guy you mentioned, Paul, Despainge was another guy who had pretty high expectations and ended up sucking pretty bad.
Edison Miranda broke AA's jaw and got robbed the first time out then kind of withered away into journeyman status only a few years later, iirc.
Fernando Guerrero fits the bill pretty perfectly as well, imo.
David Price.
Mike Jones (Who?)
Audley Harrison
Leon Spinks is probably another one.
edit: Thomas Dulorme might be another one. I was completely sold on him but then had to give up on the guy. And I almost never bail if I get on a bandwagon.

All I got for now but I'll comeback and edit this is i think of more later.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

Good list.

Linares was on the road to becoming one. Impressive how he has been able to turn it around when others weren't able to.