BOXING's COULD HAVE BEEN GREATS!

[theclawoftheTiger]

McClellan ..

[kallsop]

If he just fought and beat Tyson or Lewis (which I am not sure if he could) he would have been the best fighter of the times, instead of fourth

He threw away a belt rather than fight Lewis, who would have Golota'd him even worse. I would put Bowe on a list of overachievers. He got one classic fight - Holyfield I - and then he lost to Holyfield when Holy fought his usual style instead of trying to overpower the much bigger guy. A neverwas contender like Golota totally beat him to a pulp.

A true 'underachiever' has to be someone who never got the chance in the ring for whatever reason, like say, Ike Ibeabuchi or Muhammad Ali. Ali never fought in what would have been his best years. He's still great in my book, but wow, what could have been and maybe he wouldn't be a walking corpse now.

All the guys that fought achieved what they were capable of. For example, some say that Meldrick Taylor was robbed against JCC and lost a chance at greatness. C'mon, it didn't matter what the ref did, the guy took his beating already and was never the same afterwards no matter what the decision was in the fight. Maybe you could argue Taylor would have been great if JCC was never born or something. Fact is, it was JCC that emerged as great because of his body of work over his very long career, not just one fight.

I do agree that some fighters appear to be on another level and then fall apart quickly, ala Donald Curry. You just have to accept that they fulfilled their potential and they lacked something that would have kept them at the top. They weren't that great after all.