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Here is new Ring Magazine article, it goes on talking about current prospects, etc. At the end they have a list:
The top 10 boxing illusions of the last 10 years:
10. Jeffrey Resto
What he was supposed to be: According to Larry Merchant in 2003, the best prospect around, as meaningful an endorsement from as high an authority as you’ll find. The Bronx-born junior welter also had a New York media push behind him, and one amateur referee called him the best he’d ever seen.
What went wrong: Resto lacked the over-the-top mental toughness to make it in boxing. He admitted to being unfocused at times, and in his first loss, against Carlos Maussa, he was having vision problems, got scared and quit. A half-hearted comeback fizzled last December when he got blown out in two rounds by Victor Ortiz.
9. Anthony Thompson
What he was supposed to be:As the 2001 USA Boxing Athlete of the Year, big things were expected of the hottest amateur prospect to come out of Philadelphia this decade. The bidding for his promotional rights made headlines, and Bernard Hopkins called him a future world champion just eight fights into his pro career.
What went wrong:To be fair, the 27-year-old “Messenger” still has some potential. But Hopkins’ prediction coming true is an extreme longshot. Thompson got caught and KO’d by Grady Brewer in a shocker in his 16th fight, and though his two subsequent losses were highly controversial—a decision to Yuri Foreman and a cut-induced stoppage against Ishmail Arvin—this blue-chip amateur prospect looks unlikely to be any more than a fringe-contending pro.
8. Kid Diamond
What he was supposed to be:One look at the ponytail, body type and straight-up style was all you needed to get excited about Almazbek Raiymkulov becoming the next Kostya Tszyu. A draw in his 20th fight against possible future Hall of Famer Joel Casamayor only added to the illusion that Kid Diamond would go all the way, since most observers thought the draw should have been a victory.
What went wrong:Suspect defense and a decreasing desire to tough it out when the other guy hit back have knocked the Kyrgyzstan native out of contention, probably for good. He got stopped by Nate Campbell, needed an atrocious decision to get past trialhorse Miguel Angel Huerta and surrendered three weeks ago against relative neophyte Antonio DeMarco.
7. Derrick Jefferson
What he was supposed to be:Maybe not all that much considering the late start he got in the sport, but who could ever forget HBO’s Merchant exclaiming “Derrick Jefferson, I LOVE you!” following the Michigan heavyweight’s jaw-dropping knockout of Maurice Harris in November ’99?
What went wrong:He punched himself out against David Izon two months after the Harris win and was never all that good again. It seems crazy now that we were once so excited about this guy, but he gave us a brief taste of a heavyweight Arturo Gatti, and we fell for it. Part of the problem was that his confidence and drive were never the same after he lost the zero on his record. And part of the problem was that he was never close to good enough to be a heavyweight savior. Merchant and the rest of us simply got caught up in the moment.
6. Angel Vazquez
What he was supposed to be:The guy who was going to decapitate Naseem Hamed. A tall, vicious-punching featherweight who was destroying fringe contenders and sturdy trialhorses with alarming ease in 1996 and ’97, he was Diego Corrales a year or two before Corrales hit the scene.
What went wrong:Vazquez’s career suddenly stalled out just when it should have been taking off. He wasn’t active enough in ’98 and ’99, and before you knew it he was in his 30s and the hunger was gone. He fought listlessly in losing his “O” against Victor Polo in 2000, and a third-round knockout loss to Ivan Valle in ’03 spelled the end.
5. Dominick Guinn
What he was supposed to be:Like so many others just before him – Shannon Briggs, David Tua, Michael Grant, Andrew Golota, Kirk Johnson, Lance Whitaker – he was supposed to be a future heavyweight champion. With skills, power, poise and an extensive amateur background, “The Southern Disaster” seemed to have it all.
What went wrong:What seemed like a positive attribute, poise, turned out to be a major hindrance. Guinn was too calm, too passionless, too willing to go round after round without throwing punches. After a 24-0 start, he’s gone 6-6-1 in his last 13, not because he lacks talent, but because he fights like a guy who doesn’t particularly care if he wins or loses.
4. Ricardo Williams
What he was supposed to be:The breakout star of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team. If you asked anybody after the Sydney Games who was the best fighter on that American team, you weren’t going to hear Jermain Taylor’s name or Jeff Lacy’s name or Rocky Juarez’ name. Williams had the most natural talent, the smoothest skills, was only 19 years old and would have been a gold medalist if not for some questionable scoring.
What went wrong:Money and youth can be a dangerous combination, and in this case they resulted in a lack of discipline in the gym and a couple of losses to ordinary fighters. Soon afterward, Williams started a 31-month stretch in prison for drug trafficking. Maybe he was never quite as fast and talented as the hype suggested. But he was gifted enough that he should never have lost to Juan Valenzuela and Manning Galloway.
3. Tokunbo Olajide
What he was supposed to be:The junior middleweight champion of the world and quite possibly a pound-for-pounder. That’s how much talent Michael Olajide’s kid brother had. He could score spectacular knockouts while backing up, and truly appeared to be playing above the rim when matched with mere mortals. Everyone who saw him fight was convinced he was going far.
What went wrong:One punch from previously unknown Epifanio Mendoza led to a broken fibula and a dislocated ankle as Olajide crashed to the floor, and though his leg healed, mentally, he was never the same. He lost a close decision to Ian Gardner four fights later and hung up the gloves for good in 2004 at age 27. A deep thinker, a talented jazz trumpet player and an aspiring writer, he just wasn’t as eager to punch people for a living as we were to watch him do it.
2. Audley Harrison
What he was supposed to be:The heir to Lennox Lewis’ throne, if not undisputed heavyweight champion, and then at least Britain’s best big man of the post-Lewis era. A 6-foot-5, 250-pound southpaw who’d just scored the super heavyweight gold in the 2000 Olympics, Harrison was a star before he’d even turned pro.
What went wrong:The “Fraudley” insults were hurled before he even started losing, so you can imagine how bad it got when he did start losing, to the likes of Danny Williams, Dominick Guinn and, most astonishingly, Michael Sprott. Last December, Harrison lost a fourth time, to 37-year-old Martin Rogan. In retrospect, maybe beating the likes of Paolo Vidoz and Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov to claim an Olympic title just didn’t mean all that much.
1. Francisco Bojado
What he was supposed to be:If you were willing to get completely caught up in the hype, the next Roberto Duran. One prominent boxing writer, who shall remain nameless so as not to embarrass him, even listed Bojado in his Top 10 pound-for-pound when he’d been a pro for less than a year. That’s how captivated we all were watching this 18-year-old kid blow out his first nine opponents in a total of 14 rounds.
What went wrong:It’s one thing for the press and the fans to believe the hype, but it’s another thing for the fighter to become convinced he’s Superman. Bojado got ****y, his training habits slipped and, somewhat like Zab Judah, he stopped learning and completely plateaued at a young age. Purely on veteran ring smarts and desire, Juan Carlos Rubio, James Leija and Steve Forbes all beat “Panchito.” Now he’s 25 years old, has an 18-3 (12) record and hasn’t fought in 16 months. But maybe his little brother Angel can still be the goods.
The top 10 boxing illusions of the last 10 years:
10. Jeffrey Resto
What he was supposed to be: According to Larry Merchant in 2003, the best prospect around, as meaningful an endorsement from as high an authority as you’ll find. The Bronx-born junior welter also had a New York media push behind him, and one amateur referee called him the best he’d ever seen.
What went wrong: Resto lacked the over-the-top mental toughness to make it in boxing. He admitted to being unfocused at times, and in his first loss, against Carlos Maussa, he was having vision problems, got scared and quit. A half-hearted comeback fizzled last December when he got blown out in two rounds by Victor Ortiz.
9. Anthony Thompson
What he was supposed to be:As the 2001 USA Boxing Athlete of the Year, big things were expected of the hottest amateur prospect to come out of Philadelphia this decade. The bidding for his promotional rights made headlines, and Bernard Hopkins called him a future world champion just eight fights into his pro career.
What went wrong:To be fair, the 27-year-old “Messenger” still has some potential. But Hopkins’ prediction coming true is an extreme longshot. Thompson got caught and KO’d by Grady Brewer in a shocker in his 16th fight, and though his two subsequent losses were highly controversial—a decision to Yuri Foreman and a cut-induced stoppage against Ishmail Arvin—this blue-chip amateur prospect looks unlikely to be any more than a fringe-contending pro.
8. Kid Diamond
What he was supposed to be:One look at the ponytail, body type and straight-up style was all you needed to get excited about Almazbek Raiymkulov becoming the next Kostya Tszyu. A draw in his 20th fight against possible future Hall of Famer Joel Casamayor only added to the illusion that Kid Diamond would go all the way, since most observers thought the draw should have been a victory.
What went wrong:Suspect defense and a decreasing desire to tough it out when the other guy hit back have knocked the Kyrgyzstan native out of contention, probably for good. He got stopped by Nate Campbell, needed an atrocious decision to get past trialhorse Miguel Angel Huerta and surrendered three weeks ago against relative neophyte Antonio DeMarco.
7. Derrick Jefferson
What he was supposed to be:Maybe not all that much considering the late start he got in the sport, but who could ever forget HBO’s Merchant exclaiming “Derrick Jefferson, I LOVE you!” following the Michigan heavyweight’s jaw-dropping knockout of Maurice Harris in November ’99?
What went wrong:He punched himself out against David Izon two months after the Harris win and was never all that good again. It seems crazy now that we were once so excited about this guy, but he gave us a brief taste of a heavyweight Arturo Gatti, and we fell for it. Part of the problem was that his confidence and drive were never the same after he lost the zero on his record. And part of the problem was that he was never close to good enough to be a heavyweight savior. Merchant and the rest of us simply got caught up in the moment.
6. Angel Vazquez
What he was supposed to be:The guy who was going to decapitate Naseem Hamed. A tall, vicious-punching featherweight who was destroying fringe contenders and sturdy trialhorses with alarming ease in 1996 and ’97, he was Diego Corrales a year or two before Corrales hit the scene.
What went wrong:Vazquez’s career suddenly stalled out just when it should have been taking off. He wasn’t active enough in ’98 and ’99, and before you knew it he was in his 30s and the hunger was gone. He fought listlessly in losing his “O” against Victor Polo in 2000, and a third-round knockout loss to Ivan Valle in ’03 spelled the end.
5. Dominick Guinn
What he was supposed to be:Like so many others just before him – Shannon Briggs, David Tua, Michael Grant, Andrew Golota, Kirk Johnson, Lance Whitaker – he was supposed to be a future heavyweight champion. With skills, power, poise and an extensive amateur background, “The Southern Disaster” seemed to have it all.
What went wrong:What seemed like a positive attribute, poise, turned out to be a major hindrance. Guinn was too calm, too passionless, too willing to go round after round without throwing punches. After a 24-0 start, he’s gone 6-6-1 in his last 13, not because he lacks talent, but because he fights like a guy who doesn’t particularly care if he wins or loses.
4. Ricardo Williams
What he was supposed to be:The breakout star of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team. If you asked anybody after the Sydney Games who was the best fighter on that American team, you weren’t going to hear Jermain Taylor’s name or Jeff Lacy’s name or Rocky Juarez’ name. Williams had the most natural talent, the smoothest skills, was only 19 years old and would have been a gold medalist if not for some questionable scoring.
What went wrong:Money and youth can be a dangerous combination, and in this case they resulted in a lack of discipline in the gym and a couple of losses to ordinary fighters. Soon afterward, Williams started a 31-month stretch in prison for drug trafficking. Maybe he was never quite as fast and talented as the hype suggested. But he was gifted enough that he should never have lost to Juan Valenzuela and Manning Galloway.
3. Tokunbo Olajide
What he was supposed to be:The junior middleweight champion of the world and quite possibly a pound-for-pounder. That’s how much talent Michael Olajide’s kid brother had. He could score spectacular knockouts while backing up, and truly appeared to be playing above the rim when matched with mere mortals. Everyone who saw him fight was convinced he was going far.
What went wrong:One punch from previously unknown Epifanio Mendoza led to a broken fibula and a dislocated ankle as Olajide crashed to the floor, and though his leg healed, mentally, he was never the same. He lost a close decision to Ian Gardner four fights later and hung up the gloves for good in 2004 at age 27. A deep thinker, a talented jazz trumpet player and an aspiring writer, he just wasn’t as eager to punch people for a living as we were to watch him do it.
2. Audley Harrison
What he was supposed to be:The heir to Lennox Lewis’ throne, if not undisputed heavyweight champion, and then at least Britain’s best big man of the post-Lewis era. A 6-foot-5, 250-pound southpaw who’d just scored the super heavyweight gold in the 2000 Olympics, Harrison was a star before he’d even turned pro.
What went wrong:The “Fraudley” insults were hurled before he even started losing, so you can imagine how bad it got when he did start losing, to the likes of Danny Williams, Dominick Guinn and, most astonishingly, Michael Sprott. Last December, Harrison lost a fourth time, to 37-year-old Martin Rogan. In retrospect, maybe beating the likes of Paolo Vidoz and Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov to claim an Olympic title just didn’t mean all that much.
1. Francisco Bojado
What he was supposed to be:If you were willing to get completely caught up in the hype, the next Roberto Duran. One prominent boxing writer, who shall remain nameless so as not to embarrass him, even listed Bojado in his Top 10 pound-for-pound when he’d been a pro for less than a year. That’s how captivated we all were watching this 18-year-old kid blow out his first nine opponents in a total of 14 rounds.
What went wrong:It’s one thing for the press and the fans to believe the hype, but it’s another thing for the fighter to become convinced he’s Superman. Bojado got ****y, his training habits slipped and, somewhat like Zab Judah, he stopped learning and completely plateaued at a young age. Purely on veteran ring smarts and desire, Juan Carlos Rubio, James Leija and Steve Forbes all beat “Panchito.” Now he’s 25 years old, has an 18-3 (12) record and hasn’t fought in 16 months. But maybe his little brother Angel can still be the goods.
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