Any fighters come to mind when you hear the term "unfulfilled potential"?

[TintaBoricua]

I was watching a bunch of boxing matches today, among them Maidana vs. Soto Karass and I remembered Soto Karass fighting a young undefeated fighter from Philadelphia on the Pacquiao vs. Clottey undercard. His name was Mike Jones and he was steadily being brought up by HBO. He almost had Soto Karass out of there in the early going but then Soto Karass survived and made the fight a lot harder and grinding than Jones bargained for. They had a rematch later on and Jones beat him fairly convincingly and stayed very active throughout 2011 before running into what they probably expected to be their stepping stone in Randall Bailey. One giant uppercut from hell separated Mike Jones from his senses, and he suffered the first loss of his career. He remained inactive for 2 YEARS before fighting again and ended up retiring on his stool halfway through the fight in his comeback appearance in 2014. I'm guessing he's joining these ranks.

Seriously, whatever happened to him? Was he just mentally affected after his first loss or did he have personal demons outside the ring? I'm not implying he could've been an all time great but I remember some posters on this board saying that this would be Andre Berto's nemesis way back in 2008-2009.

[Ryn0]

Victor Ortiz
Jermain Taylor

Disagree about Taylor, I think he found his ceiling and capitalised.

Ibeaubuchi, never know how good he really way.

[Ryn0]

I was watching a bunch of boxing matches today, among them Maidana vs. Soto Karass and I remembered Soto Karass fighting a young undefeated fighter from Philadelphia on the Pacquiao vs. Clottey undercard. His name was Mike Jones and he was steadily being brought up by HBO. He almost had Soto Karass out of there in the early going but then Soto Karass survived and made the fight a lot harder and grinding than Jones bargained for. They had a rematch later on and Jones beat him fairly convincingly and stayed very active throughout 2011 before running into what they probably expected to be their stepping stone in Randall Bailey. One giant uppercut from hell separated Mike Jones from his senses, and he suffered the first loss of his career. He remained inactive for 2 YEARS before fighting again and ended up retiring on his stool halfway through the fight in his comeback appearance in 2014. I'm guessing he's joining these ranks.

Seriously, whatever happened to him? Was he just mentally affected after his first loss or did he have personal demons outside the ring? I'm not implying he could've been an all time great but I remember some posters on this board saying that this would be Andre Berto's nemesis way back in 2008-2009.

Dude, people know who Mike Jones and Joan Guzman are.

I never thought Mike Jones was that good, I remember he was meant to fight Kell Brook (who was an unknown at the time) if he beat Bailey. Kell would have wrecked him.