Fighters you picked to be great, and you were wrong...

[Thread Stealer]

Zab Fu*king Judah

[bojangles1987]

I didn't really pick either to be great, but I was shocked to see both Taylor and Pavlik fall off so hard and so fast. After 10 years or so of having one man recognized as the best fighter in the division, having the two guys that came after be such flashes was crazy.

While he still has a chance, at one point I was completely sold on Chad Dawson.

[wmute]

ricardo mayorga and jermaine taylor...

judah is a good one

i thought edwin valero was going to be a great fighter as well so long as he stayed below WW. the best i've ever seen him look is in sparring matches, but the guy had some great moves and serious talent. i wasnt huge on the power, i was big on the other things he did well.


i thought jermain taylor was going to be the next big thing, but it never turned out that way.

meldrick taylor

david tua (he ran into a pretty good HW era, to his credit.)

Ike ibeabuchi (ran into himself)

celestino caballero too. at 122 and even 126 i thought he could have been the goods.

Herol Graham (still love Herol though)
Meldrick Taylor
Jermaine Taylor

jermain taylor for sure.

juanma lopez isnt done yet but getting beat by salido surprised me.

I didn't really pick either to be great, but I was shocked to see both Taylor and Pavlik fall off so hard and so fast. After 10 years or so of having one man recognized as the best fighter in the division, having the two guys that came after be such flashes was crazy.

While he still has a chance, at one point I was completely sold on Chad Dawson.

OK now you guys make me think I was wrong in being right. I never saw anything special in JT... what did I miss? bojangles I agree with you on one thing. Taylor did manage to surprise me negatively in those 2 fights I mentioned.

[wmute]

man i'm thinking about adding to my ignore list as well.


more harm than good comes from NSB
more harm than good.


i wouldnt even think michael nunn was real if he came into the divsion at MW today with all that size and fluidity
same with toney, to be fair. toney looked like he came from a time machine straight out of 1955

The solution is staying the f-ck out of nsb. Every time I step in there my ignore list gets fatter.

And yes 160 was packed with talent around that time. McCallum was there too. Kalambay was a pretty sweet fighter too.

And the brits!

You don't have to say anything about Toney. To me he is the most natural fighter since Roberto Duran (at least!). Literally born to fight. Out of modern fighters, toney is the one I watch more often when I have a few mins free, youtube available, and I want to see some boxing.

[New England]

OK now you guys make me think I was wrong in being right. I never saw anything special in JT... what did I miss? bojangles I agree with you on one thing. Taylor did manage to surprise me negatively in those 2 fights I mentioned.

in my eyes he had a ton of flaws that all looked like they could be corrected. obviously i was wrong. his style actually devolved. he never became a crafty boxer.


with all of his talent outside of those flaws, i thought he would be very hard to beat if he ever improved his craft a bit and plugged all the holes in his game


word is that jermain has never been motivated in the gym and at the dinner table (evidenced by the fact that he's looking to return to the MW division, and weighed about 163 for his recent "comeback" fight)


he was also a very likeable guy who was enjoying a huge push from HBO
i thought he was going to be a star // staple of the game


i was in college when he became the MW champion, and i really identified with the kid.

[T.Horton]

The most glaring: I told all my boys that Tokumbo Olajide would be the next Roy Jones Jr. just before his fight with the Colombian fellow who nearly decapitated him.

[T.Horton]

word is that jermain has never been motivated in the gym and at the dinner table

do you mean that he wasn't much of an eater?

[JAB5239]

Eddie Hopson

[The Surgeon]

Juanma Lopez someone said, couldnt agree more. He has time to turn things around but i doubt he does..... I'l enjoy watching him swing away as he tries though

[talip bin osman]

OK now you guys make me think I was wrong in being right. I never saw anything special in JT... what did I miss? bojangles I agree with you on one thing. Taylor did manage to surprise me negatively in those 2 fights I mentioned.

the rawness was there, a lot of potential that just needs some polishing... (or so i thought)... i felt that with a watchful eye of a good trainer, those looping hands and defensive lapses will be remedied upon...

those hopkins fights though he won, never really felt satisfying for me as a hopeful fan...