fighter's that you felt would make it but flopped!

[Mick Gill]

Georgie Collins, Tony Collins

[Mick Gill]

Michael Smyth, beat a young Joe Calzaghe in the amateurs. Heavy handed but never really did it as a pro despite GB/Comm title challanges.

Wayne Ellis, iced Neville Brown in a round in the ABAs, signed with allegedly but got put in deep with Steve Collins and never really recovered despite giving a good account

[ERIC GUY]

So many it's heartbreaking! When Alan Temple beat Richie Edwards (RIP) in the ABA final I though he looked sensational. Then in his pro debut he got dropped by a kid who was making his debut who was something like 2-3 as an amateur! David Starie was an incredible amateur too - 3 ABA titles, beat Dean Francis, stopped Jason Matthews in 1, never improved enough as a pro. Benny May. Cham Joof. Danny Costello. Paul Miles, who stopped Richard Williams in the amateurs. Matthew Ellis. I agree about Adrian Dodson / Carew.

Paul Miles is a blast from the past, i remembering sparring with him at Foley when we were about 18, I thought he would do something, Neville Smith was down there too, another talented guy, has a few pro fights, all wins, I wonder what happened to him?

Nevilles a trainer with Foley, he is on Warrior Boxing as Nevster!!

[orbtastic]

paul ingle hit the heights, but peter richardson was supposed to be the guvnor :!: he had an illustrious hard am career & i dont know enough on him wether it wasnt there or wether his am career took it's toll??

Peter Richardson was a class amateur,beat Vernon Forest at the 1992 olympics,never really looked the same in the pros...

He had eyebrows made of rice paper.

[Wake up call]

I wouldn't say failed but certainly a guy I think underacheived was the Sheffield Fireball John Fewkes.

[Old bones Ian]

I thought Haider Ali could of done better, he was a good amateur. Won Commonwealth gold, and got signed by Warren. But pro career never really got going.

[Deserter]

I wouldn't say failed but certainly a guy I think underacheived was the Sheffield Fireball John Fewkes.

Good call. He had a lovely style and seemed to have a lot of potentia.

[rockyrandall2]

Richard Evatt for me, great puncher but never looked fit as a pro, came sooooo close against Junior Jones.

[CB]

Richard Evatt for me, great puncher but never looked fit as a pro, came sooooo close against Junior Jones.

Yeah I was going to say Rich. Another one whose life outside boxing runied his career.

Heavy handed and could box but was just never 100% focussed.

[Coco]

You can add Blue Boy Gallagher to that

[johnnygreaves]

George could have done so much better. Trained in the same gyms a few times & he really looked the part. Remember him fighting one of the smith brothers at York hall & he just messed about , took a few piss taking libs & only got the draw. Shame really. Talented boy , don't train or fight hard enough for me.

[Insider]

While I don't think he'd ever have been a world champion, George Hillyard is more talented than his record shows.

Great shout

[Matt W]

Two other hyped heavies spring to mind - Shannon Briggs & Jorge Luis Gonzalez. Briggs didn't have a bad career but was spoken of as the next big thing and was far from it.

Oh, and Michael Grant.

[Superheavy]

if truth be told, george is a natural. he just dont have a brain & messes around.

Agreed.

[Autobarn]

adrian dodson. he looked class, as a prospect. he was given a shot at winky wright, when the american was easily beating our top fighters for the WBO title. it was surely too early, and i feel that fight might have ruined him. he got picked apart by the more experienced man, and his own shots had no effect because winky bloody blocks everything with that closed doors defense that can be so infuriating. dodson was punished slowly in that fight, and how must it have affected him mentally as well with no target to hit?

i don't think dodson ever won a major title, even domestically or on the euro scene. he had the potential to AT LEAST do that. following the winky fight, he seemed to fall apart, looking more likely herbie hide in his less flattering years.

i really wanted dodson to do well but maybe he was given the big fight at the wrong time.

[Deserter]

i really wanted dodson to do well but maybe he was given the big fight at the wrong time.

I'm sure the Winky loss must have taken its toll, but based on what I've read on these boards, the biggest problem with Dodson appeared to be that he simply wouldn't listen to any of his coaches and always thought he knew best. Someone like Eric would probably be able to say whether that was the case or not.

[Deno1986]

So many good calls on here already and agree 100% with Chinny's comments on Vargas and Ed's references with regards to the likes of Dodson and Starie.
I'd add Toks Owoh to the mix - at one point I thought he was going to give Calzaghe a really stiff challenge, but the beauty of hindsight means we all know now how matching him against Johnson was a disaster.
Of course the term is relative, so I'll be bold and add Naz to the mix, purely because the Naz would picked Belcastro apart and then destroyed Robinson looked like he could go on to become an ATG, but he fell in love with his power, neglected both his training and his defence, and we all know how it played out....
And of course, we'd have to add Errol Christie to this list.
Finally, there's Michael Carruth, who'd won Welterweight gold for Ireland in the Olympics, beating a top Cuban - think it was 92, same games McCullough took silver in. While he was older when he turned pro, it was still a surprise to me that he didn't really get beyond domestic class.

Carruth is the first name that came to my mind aswell. He never fitted into the pro ranks although he did nearly snatch Michael Loewe's WBO Title in Germany.

[Bricks]

a lot of the guys mentioned here, did actually make it....Ingle was a world champ . sure it ended tragically soon but realistically ingle might have made a couple more defenses before one of the hispanics beat him. he did look a star though the whole look and image. who knows. It was tragic it ended so soon and we'll never know. but paul can be content he was a bona fide genuine world champion.

I was shocked herol graham could not win a version of a world title after the hagler-leonard shake up.he should have beat jackson, and barkley or olajide and tate would have been no problem for him.

Harrison was a huge disapointment.

Naz hamed was a total failure as a boxer. he won 4 world titles but will be remmebered for being a huge financial success out of the ring but only fighting 1 guy in an era of 7-8 golden guys.

[Old bones Ian]

So many good calls on here already and agree 100% with Chinny's comments on Vargas and Ed's references with regards to the likes of Dodson and Starie.
I'd add Toks Owoh to the mix - at one point I thought he was going to give Calzaghe a really stiff challenge, but the beauty of hindsight means we all know now how matching him against Johnson was a disaster.
Of course the term is relative, so I'll be bold and add Naz to the mix, purely because the Naz would picked Belcastro apart and then destroyed Robinson looked like he could go on to become an ATG, but he fell in love with his power, neglected both his training and his defence, and we all know how it played out....
And of course, we'd have to add Errol Christie to this list.
Finally, there's Michael Carruth, who'd won Welterweight gold for Ireland in the Olympics, beating a top Cuban - think it was 92, same games McCullough took silver in. While he was older when he turned pro, it was still a surprise to me that he didn't really get beyond domestic class.

Carruth is the first name that came to my mind aswell. He never fitted into the pro ranks although he did nearly snatch Michael Loewe's WBO Title in Germany.

I wouldn't put Carruth in, as he never said he'd do much as a pro. And to be honest no-one expected him to be a world champion , he turned pro because the offer was there, and at the time amateurs didn't have the payments they do nowadays, if they did i'm pretty sure Carruth would never of turned pro.

[johnswan1]

Joel Julio.

[Crease]

I was convicned that Eamon Magee could have been a major World Champion (4 main belts).
I still think he had the tools to do it, but a bad lifestyle runied it for him.

[Deno1986]

So many good calls on here already and agree 100% with Chinny's comments on Vargas and Ed's references with regards to the likes of Dodson and Starie.
I'd add Toks Owoh to the mix - at one point I thought he was going to give Calzaghe a really stiff challenge, but the beauty of hindsight means we all know now how matching him against Johnson was a disaster.
Of course the term is relative, so I'll be bold and add Naz to the mix, purely because the Naz would picked Belcastro apart and then destroyed Robinson looked like he could go on to become an ATG, but he fell in love with his power, neglected both his training and his defence, and we all know how it played out....
And of course, we'd have to add Errol Christie to this list.
Finally, there's Michael Carruth, who'd won Welterweight gold for Ireland in the Olympics, beating a top Cuban - think it was 92, same games McCullough took silver in. While he was older when he turned pro, it was still a surprise to me that he didn't really get beyond domestic class.

Carruth is the first name that came to my mind aswell. He never fitted into the pro ranks although he did nearly snatch Michael Loewe's WBO Title in Germany.

I wouldn't put Carruth in, as he never said he'd do much as a pro. And to be honest no-one expected him to be a world champion , he turned pro because the offer was there, and at the time amateurs didn't have the payments they do nowadays, if they did i'm pretty sure Carruth would never of turned pro.

I agree with you, Ian but my response was made with the thread title in mind. At the time I was young and stupid and I hopped on the Irish press hype train and felt he was going to be a success in the pro ranks. I always wondered how it would have panned out for him if he had got that decision against Loewe.

[Finn]

Nas was a disappointment, not through his acheivemnts but the way he delt with with the barrera fight. The guy hit so hard that in a rematch he could have won. Nas could win any fight with one punch.

Its common knowledge that he looked past the fight, i even saw manny.s. say it the other month on ringside. Didnt bother training properly or even at all. I really think he should have gone back and fought barrera again.

[whicker]

Jamie Moore is a good shout. Not that he flopped, but could have gone further.

True. Before the Rhodes fight, people were talkign seriously about a World Title challenge.

Ryan Rhodes. I know I'm being harsh but come on...he looked...wow as a youngster...then...failed to really reach the heights (sadly).

Possibly- indeed, as a younger boxer he was a mega prospect.

I think now most people will remember them for that great fight with each other.


Another one - Paul "scrap iron" ryan- He was blasting people out left, right and centre - http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer , and won the British Title in round 1.

Then his chin was exposed!

Bomber Graham could have done more, too.

[reggaereggae]

While I don't think he'd ever have been a world champion, George Hillyard is more talented than his record shows.

Great shout

George has had loads of out of ring issues. I saw him spar aged 16 and he looked sensational. Still young enough to do something. Like Ed I remember being v impressed by Alan temple. And if you believe the ingles, khaliq shafeeq!