Everyone Eat Some Humble Pie and...

[Dart340]

I'm definitely on board with the Lonnie Smith thing. He was so fast and seemingly unhittable- a Roy Jones before his time, and then he was injured and then stopped in a hastily arranged fight with Arrendondo and then really nothing afterwards.

I was really convinced Joe Lipsey was a top-tier Middleweight and that Kirk Johnson early on was headed for a title and great success.

Sean O' Grady did a great hype job as I remember on Ed Mahone that was very, very convincing.

Good thread and some great stuff here.

[Ezzard]

After he crushed Milton McCrory, I thought Donald Curry would wax Marvin Hagler and go on to become the next Sugar Ray Robinson.

At the time he looked great BUT I thought the US media were very premature in the way they hyped him. His win over McCrory did not match Hagler's over Hearns but still Don got a joint award from The Ring for fighter of the year.

Seemed to me that the US media couldn't wait for someone to beat Hagler.

[Counter-puncher]

well it can't get much worse than picking hatton over Pacquiao, which no amount of loophole rhetoric at the time ('its just a hunch i know its not a rational choice' ) should cloak the embarassment of....

i thought a birmingham fighter Thomas Costello would be riding towards world glory by now. i think he's something like 7-1-1

not too far in the past and i'm sure a common one but- i genuinely feared for Mosley's health against Toni

umm i am sure there are many more i may add later

[gregor]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Golota so far.

On my part, I was quite sure about his win over Grant. Then after seeing his comeback performances against Nix and Terrence Lewis I was certain Byrd would make a fool of him. Then after two good fights against Ruiz and Byrd (both could be easily seen as Golota wins, despite judges decision) I thought he should have no problems with Brewster either. I was wrong all the time, the only thing I predicted well with Golota was his farewell loss to Adamek.

[Mr E]

After he crushed Milton McCrory, I thought Donald Curry would wax Marvin Hagler and go on to become the next Sugar Ray Robinson.

At the time he looked great BUT I thought the US media were very premature in the way they hyped him. His win over McCrory did not match Hagler's over Hearns but still Don got a joint award from The Ring for fighter of the year.

Seemed to me that the US media couldn't wait for someone to beat Hagler.

For me, I just loved the way he looked--kept those elbows in tight, great balance, went to the body and head so well with both hands, lightning reflexes, power on both sides. I thought he was close to perfect, ha, shows you what I know.

[palooka]

I'm too good an expert to have ever been wrong but my brother (with my enthusiastic backing) lost a fortune on BetFred with Ricky Hatton against Floyd Jnr. (I mean a fortune )

[Seamus]

I'd rather listen to some Humble Pie.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKh2TBDu9L4

[dajuggernaut]

Mosley losing to Margarito. Margarito loses the first couple rounds and I tell my buddy he is a slow starter, no way in HELL he gets knocked out, and then BOOM, he gets knocked out.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

John Meekins is another up and comer I thought was going to be a champ.

[Punchesnbunches519]

Thank you Robinson! I thought I was the only one walking the face of the earth that, in hindsight, was delusional enough to board the Michael Grant train. Epic fail

[jaclem2]

..if you look at the number of posts boxbuzz has submitted you'll see that he obviously has no social life...no time for anything else. then if you read them, you'll see he is going for quantity instead of quality. in a way i feel partly responsible for the ridiculous number because he always posts something after i do...and here the quality really dips.

as for pie....make mine pizza....

[Goodnight, Irene]

A fella by the name of William Guthrie (anybody remember him?) had me bragging to my mates for a while how he was the next big thing...embarrassed the hell out of me, he did

It was a tentative selection, but a selection on my part nonetheless to take Hatton over Pacquiao. Went down like a lead balloon, that one

Guthrie...was it Johnson who laid him out cold and he was stretchered out of the arena?

He always reminded me a little of Eddie Hopson.

Tyson/Holyfield seems a common one, but I'll admit to thinking that due to poor performances from Evander that Mike would walk through him (despite the fact his post jail oppo had been pretty poor).

Ole Klemetsen for me looked a mortal lock for a portion of the world title but it wasn't to be. Same with Eddie Smulders.

That's, ahem..."my boy"

[sweetsci]

There are so many heartbreakers in boxing. In the heavyweight division alone I was really high on Greg Page, Gerry Cooney, Riddick Bowe, Shannon Briggs, Jeremy Williams, Kirk Johnson... These guys didn't have bad careers, but they didn't pan out the way I expected them to. I thought Briggs was really going to be something, being trained early on by Teddy Atlas and all. Although he "won" the lineal title and later an organizational belt, he's been a huge disappointment to me and I now wish he would just go away.

I was shocked when Larry Holmes came out of nowhere to box circles around Earnie Shavers in March 78. You never heard anything about Larry before that and all of a sudden he looked like the best fighter in the division. John Ruiz had a much better career than I expected after seeing him get blown out by Tua. And I saw an early Buster Douglas fight, and I don't remember which one, on cable TV and he just looked HORRIBLE. He was a completely different fighter a couple of years later vs. Tony Tucker.

I thought Carl Williams would be the one to pull a Buster Douglas vs. Tyson. I thought Donny LaLonde was too much of a step up in size for Sugar Ray Leonard. I thought Gerry Cooney would blow away Michael Spinks. After that fight I thought Spinks had what it took to beat Tyson.

One of the greatest things about boxing is how wrong we can be in predicting how a fighter or fight will turn out.

[Nile4000]

Was a huge Greg Page fan, also liked Alex Ramos, Milton McCrory, Howard Davis Jr, Bernard Taylor, Ray Mancini, and Marlon Starling.Most of those guys, unfortunately, never took it to the level they were possible of, and unfortunately, one of them is no longer with us.

[BoxBuzz]

.. boxbuzz always posts something after i do...
....

Wrong.

[JC]

-Fighters you were sure would be champions who turned out duds.

Worst case for me was probably Jeff Lacy

-Fighters you were sure would be duds who went all the way.

Arthur Abraham, thought he was lucky to get the nod v.s. Eastman and was a typical protected guy

-Horrible fight predictions.

Kessler to stop Clazaghe

Pavlik to stop Hopkins

The one I'm most bitter about - I'd been saying for months leading up to the fight that Mayweather would bust Hatton up and stop him around the 10th. Then when it came time to lay money down a few days before I let the hype get to me and instead of Mayweather KO 10 (which would have been one of my biggest wins ever) I went for Mayweather pts instead.


My tip at the moment is Grzegorz Proksa, watch this space