Boxing's Wasted Talents......

[ejk22]

Wasted talents?


Andrew Golota
Tommy Morrison
Razor Ruddock

[puppy_dogg]

aaron pryor is probably the biggest wasted talent. he was amazing in the ring but he got into drugs and never came back to boxing. i really wish we could have seen how far pryor could have taken his career.

[urdaddyinAZ]

I'm gonna throw one out there that I might get blasted for.......Tito Trinidad.

In his only loss, he moved up in weight and lost to the best fighter in the world (as proven on Sat). Then he retires and doesn't fight for 2 years, when in my opinion he was still in the prime of his career. If Trinidad stays in the lower weight classes and doesn't retire, I think he is undefeated still and likely mentioned in the top 20 P4P all time. Just a theory.

[baya]

only one name comes to mind and thats .... and i'm shocked that no one has mentioned him .... ricardo williams jr. i think hes the epitome of wasted talent. silver medallist in the 2000 olympics, sick hand speed, really good power, really nice technique and foot work and can't deal w/ it cuz of too much responsibility, or atleast thats my own opinion. to think, w/ all of his talent, had he more responsibility we'd be debating today as to who is the better youngster in the 140's, he or cotto.

daniel santos, one time i read while he was giving an interview said that he felt horrible about what he did to david reids eye in the amateurs, this after the tito loss. santos was a real accomplished boxer-puncher early in his career and he met up w/ reid in competition, a perfectly placed right hand from santos killed lots of nerve endings in reids eye. just an FYI for those of you who didn't know why his eye was like that.

[neils7147933]

Boxing is a sport where it's not all that uncommon for someone's career to be wasted because of incarceration, unlike the NBA, where if Kobe had been convicted, would have been huge headlines and some would have called it an irreparable damage done to the sport.

So I nominate Ike Ibeabuchi.

And Johnny Tapia, who's been clinically dead a handful of times. If he spent more time alive training than doing drugs, he might have accomplished more. I'm respectful of his terrible traumatic childhood; I just think that once he overcame it through boxing, he should have kept boxing as his focus and left all the hard drugs alone.

[Jazzee]

aaron pryor is probably the biggest wasted talent. he was amazing in the ring but he got into drugs and never came back to boxing. i really wish we could have seen how far pryor could have taken his career.

The fact that he was avoided by Leonard and Hearns didn't help his
career either. Fortunately, Arguello had the balls to step up to the plate and made a classic out of it.

My list also includes:

David Reid
Gerald McClellan
Ike Ibeabuchi
Meldrick Taylor

[cple]

There are so many. Most have been named, but i thought i'd throw out Wilfred Benitez.

Possibly the most naturally gifted boxer of all-time. Everything he did in the ring was so intuitive and smooth. He made it look easy. But he didn't like to train. If he had the dedication of a Bernard Hopkins, he could've gone much further.

[Jazzee]

The 2 that come to mind for me are Ike Ibeabuchi and Tommy Morrison!!! We all know about Ike with the **** thing. Tommy had so much talent and power!!! If yoy ever watched any of his fights you would see that in every one he would be gasping for air after the first round!!! Look what he did to Foreman too!!! That was the one fight where he looked to be in really good shape for him but he was still just gasping for air after the first round in the corner!!! Later on after it came out he had hiv he was on a talk show telling his story. He said that he basically partied all the time and had different women every night. Even during training!!! It was really sad!!!

Damn, it's too bad Morrison's career was cut short. This guy had power. We could only wonder how he would've fared against the likes of Holyfield, Tyson, Bowe, etc. I still remember his fight with Mercer. When Morrison got brutally KO'd I thought that was it for him. But he just kept knocking guys out after that.

[TheGreat1]

Hey man I know everyone is entitled to their opinions but how can you say that Kirk Johnson could have beaten Vitali, it was not even close and believe me, being 25 pounds lighter would not have made that big a difference. Kirk himself said that he fights better when he is heavier (whatever that means).

Kirk was slower than he thought, When in shape Kirk would have avoided most of thse punches, and out boxed VK. but he just couldn't move like 230 lbs Kirk.

[ghostbear]

Ike Ibeabuchi and Zab Judah. I think Judah could have beat Spinks but Judah always screws around like hes bored when he fight. He needs to focus.