Most overlooked fighters?

I would have to say Meldrick Taylor. So many people have written him off after the JCC fight, it was almost like he was the modern day version of the plague with no place in the history of boxing. It always irritated the hell out of me when they would mention great Philly fighters and Meldrick would almost never get mentioned. Peace.

I gotta say Mike McCallum. Does not get his props imo. He beat Don Curry who had two wins over Marlon Starling and who had beaten Milton Mcrory by devastating knockout. He beat Ayub Kalule up. He dominated Mike Watson who beat Benn, and gave Eubank so much trouble. He beat Herol Graham a very underrated fighter. He beat Sumbu Kalambay at the second time of asking. He beat Steve Collins who went on to beat Benn and Eubank. He knocked Julian Jackson out who knocked out Terry Norris. Norris went onto beat John Mugabi,Blocker,Meldrick Taylor,Curry,Castro,Brown etc. He had two very debatable losses to James Toney when he was just getting past his best if the truth be known. I believe he won the second fight and the 1st was very close and probably a draw was the correct decision. Spot on. McCallum would have beat Hearns if given the shot. Ricardo Lopez. Kawashima Rafael Marquez (a Hall of Famer even before the 2 FOTY's against Vazquez) Guillermo Jones

Little guys. They're ****in good.

I always felt that Bob Foster never got his props that man was a killer at 175.

thought i would bump this!!!! good thread!

a couple ingle fighters come to mind - junior witter & herol graham

Here are some more fighters who get overlooked in my veiw Gilberto Roman Elmer Ray Billy Papke Freddie Welsh Lew Jenkins Tom Bogs Luis Manuel Rodriguez Florentino Fernandez Will probaly carry on think of more, but this is a good selection of overlooked fighters.

isnt that sad? when it comes to ur question, there are almost no mentions at all for asian fighters lad... rolando navarette... pongsaklek wonjongkam... guy won like 50 + consecutive fights... daisuke naito the wbc flyweight champ... donaire would have fought him but the country of japan does not recognize the IBF which donaire represent with his belt... Like I said there is so many overlooked fighters .I did name one was Asian in Jung Koo Chang, but as someone said alot of the lower fighters get overlooked, and alot of the lower weight fighters are from Asia. There have been lots of brillant fighters from such as Veeraphol Sahaprom- Made 14 defences of his WBC Bantamweight Title.And held onto it for 7 years 1998 to 2005. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam is still active, but his best days are behind him. He made 17 staright title defences of WBC Title.And held onto the title for 6 years, all defences were made in Thialind and Japan which could hurt legacy. And as I mentioned Jung Koo Chang known as the ''The Korean Hawk'' has been eligible for Canastota for years now, as he he retired in 1991. He made 15 defences of his of his Light Flyweight Title, before losing it to another Hall Of Famer Humberto Gonzalez on UD 12 in 89. And would challage twice for the WBC Bantamweight Title losing both attempts, before retiring. And there are plenty more.

Not underrated, the ones that never get mentioned at all. Carlos Ortiz-One of the greatest lightweights of all time, and arguably the best Puerto Rican fighter of all time...yet no one seems to mention him. he certainly deserves to be named with Trinidad, Gomez and Benitez, if not rated higher than them. Jose Napoles-fantastic fighter, who has one of the most impressive Welterweight runs ever, and the best Cuban fighter of all time. No one seems to want to mention him alongside the other Welterweight greats though. George Dixon-People always go on and on about how impressive Jack Johnson was becoming the first black heavyweight boxing champ, yet he wasnt even the first black boxing champ at all. That was George Dixon. in fact, he was the first black man to hold an American title in ANY sport. Jack Johnson gets bucketloads of credit and publicity, yet Dixon does it 18 years earlier than Johnson and isnt mentioned whatsoever by anyone. thats bullshit, and Johnson is overrated.(by some) While Im at it, Ill mention Harry Wills...he shares most of Johnson's biggest wins(AND has a win over Firpo), yet never gets mentioned in heavyweight rankings, despite many people having Johnson as high as #3! thats baloney. isnt that sad? when it comes to ur question, there are almost no mentions at all for asian fighters lad... rolando navarette... pongsaklek wonjongkam... guy won like 50 + consecutive fights... daisuke naito the wbc flyweight champ... donaire would have fought him but the country of japan does not recognize the IBF which donaire represent with his belt...

Tim Witherspoon Jimmy Young Co-Sign Tim Witherspoon was an excellent HW. Lacked discipline though. He would be champ now if he was active and in his prime imo.

Tim Witherspoon Jimmy Young

Come this saturday it will show that Gerry P. was overlooked

pipino cuevas is deffinatly overlooked, he won the title with a record of 17-6, and defended it 11 times!! 10 by ko!! and the people he faced were great,he fought Miguel Angel Campanino 84-4-4, pete ranzany 40-2-1, scott clark 28-1. and knocked em all out, he dubfounded critics time and time again, but is never mentioned. rodrigo valdez 63-8-2 (42 ko's) is very overlooked, he knocked out bennie briscoe, and gave carlos monzon all he could handle. and ray mercer, he is almost never mentioned, he beat the shit out of tommy morrison, and lost to lennox lewis on a MORJORITY DECISION, some even say mercer won.

I gotta say Mike McCallum. Does not get his props imo. He beat Don Curry who had two wins over Marlon Starling and who had beaten Milton Mcrory by devastating knockout. He beat Ayub Kalule up. He dominated Mike Watson who beat Benn, and gave Eubank so much trouble. He beat Herol Graham a very underrated fighter. He beat Sumbu Kalambay at the second time of asking. He beat Steve Collins who went on to beat Benn and Eubank. He knocked Julian Jackson out who knocked out Terry Norris. Norris went onto beat John Mugabi,Blocker,Meldrick Taylor,Curry,Castro,Brown etc. He had two very debatable losses to James Toney when he was just getting past his best if the truth be known. I believe he won the second fight and the 1st was very close and probably a draw was the correct decision. Yeah Mike McCallum was a great fighter.

from what I know, he modelled his style after Joe Louis, but he had a very high punch output. had an up and down career until he knocked out a faded Edwin Rosario, then he got the Chavez fights. Chavez would have won the first fight if it wasnt for the low blow point deductions against him(controversial calls), but its quite possible Chavez should have lost the rematch. close fight until a bad headbutt, and for some reason the WBC or whatever it was rules took away a point against Randall for the headbutt(unintential or not, same thing happened to Whitaker against De La Hoya). the scores up to that point in the fight without the point deduction were either a draw or a one round win for Randall. Randall then moved on and fought Juan Martin Coggi, who was the #2 140lber in the world, who was a hard southpaw puncher with a surprisingly good shoulder roll and a long list of title defences and good wins. their first fight was a war, although for the most part Randall got the better of it, dropping Coggi 3 times in the first 6 rounds(although he got dropped in the 2nd I think it was). because of all these consecutive wars with top level opponents and because of his age getting up there, he started to slow down after the 1st Coggi fight. still got some title defences, including another win over Coggi after suffering a controversial cut headbutt cut stoppage loss. once he turned 35 and older, he was mostly cannon fodder for up and coming prospects, getting worse as time went on. I have some highlights on youtube of the 1st Coggi fight, its a pretty good watch. Nice read. I will check the Coggi fight out. I thought Randall was excellent against Chavez. Thanks for that.

Hey blackirish tell me about Frankie Randall. I really like Randall, but i dont know too much about him and have only seen him against Chavez. from what I know, he modelled his style after Joe Louis, but he had a very high punch output. had an up and down career until he knocked out a faded Edwin Rosario, then he got the Chavez fights. Chavez would have won the first fight if it wasnt for the low blow point deductions against him(controversial calls), but its quite possible Chavez should have lost the rematch. close fight until a bad headbutt, and for some reason the WBC or whatever it was rules took away a point against Randall for the headbutt(unintential or not, same thing happened to Whitaker against De La Hoya). the scores up to that point in the fight without the point deduction were either a draw or a one round win for Randall. Randall then moved on and fought Juan Martin Coggi, who was the #2 140lber in the world, who was a hard southpaw puncher with a surprisingly good shoulder roll and a long list of title defences and good wins. their first fight was a war, although for the most part Randall got the better of it, dropping Coggi 3 times in the first 6 rounds(although he got dropped in the 2nd I think it was). because of all these consecutive wars with top level opponents and because of his age getting up there, he started to slow down after the 1st Coggi fight. still got some title defences, including another win over Coggi after suffering a controversial cut headbutt cut stoppage loss. once he turned 35 and older, he was mostly cannon fodder for up and coming prospects, getting worse as time went on. I have some highlights on youtube of the 1st Coggi fight, its a pretty good watch.

I'd also like to state that "Too Sharp" was rated among the Ring Magazine's 10 best fighters in the world in the latter half of the 1990's, reaching as high as #5 in the world. The only other sub-bantamweight fighters to be rated like that in his time were Ricardo Lopez, Michael Carbajal, Chiquita Gonzalez, and Yuri Arbachkov (sp?). 3 of those guys are Hall of Fame fighters. I may have omitted someone.

There are plenty of overlooked fighters...often times they are smaller men. Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson - One of the smoothest operators of his time...Too Sharp could hit, defend and he was a southpaw. He was a decorated amateur and an excellent pro. I rarely (never) see his name mentioned in NSB or in the history section. At his best he had no equal as a Flyweight, dominating all opposition he faced. Then he moves up a division and goes on to become a two-time Super Flyweight champion, beating guys like a young Fernando Montiel and Sor Vorapin. He defended his titles numerous times and he fought all comers young and old (ahem, Rafael Marquez). I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. The Montiel fight was soo boring.

There are plenty of overlooked fighters...often times they are smaller men. Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson - One of the smoothest operators of his time...Too Sharp could hit, defend and he was a southpaw. He was a decorated amateur and an excellent pro. I rarely (never) see his name mentioned in NSB or in the history section. At his best he had no equal as a Flyweight, dominating all opposition he faced. Then he moves up a division and goes on to become a two-time Super Flyweight champion, beating guys like a young Fernando Montiel and Sor Vorapin. He defended his titles numerous times and he fought all comers young and old (ahem, Rafael Marquez). I think he should be in the Hall of Fame.

rocky balboa