Most overlooked fighters?

[Dynamite Kid]

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.

[oldgringo]

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.

[Steak]

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.

[Dynamite Kid]

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.

[Davros?]

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.

[portuge puncher]

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 **** out of tommy morrison, and lost to lennox lewis on a MORJORITY DECISION, some even say mercer won.

[Alibata]

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

[KnockoutTheFat]

Tim Witherspoon
Jimmy Young

[Spray_resistant]

I say this all of the time but...... Felix Sturm.

[Dynamite Kid]

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.