Most Mismanaged Fighters

[orbtastic]

Laing was his own worst enemy. Went off to Jamaica for a year after that win, I believe.

[Cutman Scabbers]

Most Mismanaged Yet Successful Fighters!

[Bricks]

Gary Mason...he was just kept in Brunos shadow often fighting guys after Frank had finished with them but ran up a 35-0 32 kayoes record.His career is finally gaining some momentum at the end of 1990 since Frank semi retired 18 months earlier in 89 after the Tyson loss, and Mason has just beaten tyrell biggs, james pritchard and should be looking at America and 1 or 2 more "name" wins....and a possible fight with Tyson....so what do his clever management do.....they throw him in with a Olympic Gold Medalist who has made a slow start to his career and is 14-0.....Lennox Lewis....the meaningless at the time European title belt is on the line, and they fight for peanuts.....Mason at age 28 has his unbeaten record taken, suffers a detached retina and his career is over.......than when he tries to return 2 years later Mickey Duff one of his management basically plays Arnold Rothstein and ensures he never gets back a licence in Britain.....a sad sad waste.....in the post Tyson prison shake up....Gary should have been in the mix, he could punch like Bruno, had a good jab but carried his power late and had stamina...he earned nothing in his career and ended up working as a security guard. Mason was a very charasmatic and intelligent man out of the ring.

[Chuck1052]

Howard Davis, a stablemate of Gerry Cooney, was matched against some soft opposition, resulting in Davis not getting the needed seasoning.

Huh? Davis fought Vilomar Fernandez & Maurice Watkins before Watt. He froze a bit against a solid fighter is what it looked like to me. Davis was, at the time, the highest paid pro debut in history. That's good management.

Which fight of Burnett's was that? I never heard that story. His career was full of them. The British crowd boo'd when he whipped Conteh's ass and got robbed. I'd like to see his early fights with Lopez.

Very early in his pro career, Howard Davis was not getting sufficiently challenged by his opposition, resulting in him not learning enough to compete with the likes of Jim Watt. While Davis got a terrific deal when it came to money from CBS, it may have hampered his progress. On the other hand, Ray Leonard was fighting comparatively good opposition on the way up the ladder, which was one reason that he was ready to fight the best later on.

Jesse Burnett, who lived in the Los Angeles area, took the bout with Miguel Angel Cuello on short notice after John Conteh pulled out and was stripped of his title. According to his record on the BoxRec website, Burnett had a 24-hour trip to Monte Carlo 48 hours before the bout took place.

I have read that Burnett was working fulltime as a gardener or landscaper during his pro career. About a month ago, I was told that Burnett retired fairly recently from a landscaping job at U.C.L.A., a huge university in the Los Angeles area.

Burnett started his pro career fairly late. As a skillful boxer with a deliberate fighting style which was far from being crowd-pleasing, he had a tough time getting fights during much of his career, especially in the Los Angeles area where the fans liked bouts featuring smaller, aggressive fighters. When Burnett did fight, it was against top opposition under less than ideal conditions much of the time.

Despite having to work fulltime and facing top opposition in most of his bouts, Burnett piled up a fairly good record during the first part of his career. But he was losing on a regular basis during the latter part of his career.

- Chuck Johnston

[Chuck1052]

After winning the world heavyweight title, Leon Spinks went downhill very quickly. As a result, I don't think he was ready to fight for the title after having so few pro bouts. How many fighters would be?

- Chuck Johnston

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Howard Davis, a stablemate of Gerry Cooney, was matched against some soft opposition, resulting in Davis not getting the needed seasoning.

Huh? Davis fought Vilomar Fernandez & Maurice Watkins before Watt. He froze a bit against a solid fighter is what it looked like to me. Davis was, at the time, the highest paid pro debut in history. That's good management.

Which fight of Burnett's was that? I never heard that story. His career was full of them. The British crowd boo'd when he whipped Conteh's ass and got robbed. I'd like to see his early fights with Lopez.

Very early in his pro career, Howard Davis was not getting sufficiently challenged by his opposition, resulting in him not learning enough to compete with the likes of Jim Watt. While Davis got a terrific deal when it came to money from CBS, it may have hampered his progress. On the other hand, Ray Leonard was fighting comparatively good opposition on the way up the ladder, which was one reason that he was ready to fight the best later on.

Jesse Burnett, who lived in the Los Angeles area, took the bout with Miguel Angel Cuello on short notice after John Conteh pulled out and was stripped of his title. According to his record on the BoxRec website, Burnett had a 24-hour trip to Monte Carlo 48 hours before the bout took place.

I have read that Burnett was working fulltime as a gardener or landscaper during his pro career. About a month ago, I was told that Burnett retired fairly recently from a landscaping job at U.C.L.A., a huge university in the Los Angeles area.

Burnett started his pro career fairly late. As a skillful boxer with a deliberate fighting style which was far from being crowd-pleasing, he had a tough time getting fights during much of his career, especially in the Los Angeles area where the fans liked bouts featuring smaller, aggressive fighters. When Burnett did fight, it was against top opposition under less than ideal conditions much of the time.

Despite having to work fulltime and facing top opposition in most of his bouts, Burnett piled up a fairly good record during the first part of his career. But he was losing on a regular basis during the latter part of his career.

- Chuck Johnston

Losing doesn't necessarily mean he lost, Jesse obliterated leon Spinks. That was one of the worst decisions in Boxing history. I'm very familiar with his career, I just didn't know the Cuillo story. Jesse is one of my favorites.

Davis faced better opposition than Leonard early in their careers. Fernandez was a top contender and Watkins was formidable. He was very polished early on. No need to draw it out. Watt could fight and Howard froze. I can't blame that on management. Leonard was simply a much greater professional fighter.

[AngryGoon38]

Dynamite Davey Moore.

[flatnoseflynn]

Most boxers are mismanaged, apart from the lucky rare few I think it depends on the boxer as much as the manger if they get mismanged.

[Chuck1052]

I saw the bout between Miguel Angel Cuello and Jesse Burnett on television at a time when U.S. network television showed boxing bouts on a regular basis. After John Conteh pulled out of the scheduled bout with Cuello, Burnett was the late substitute for Conteh, as I noted before.

A big problem for Burnett was that the bout with Cuello took place on the same date as the bout between Cuello and Conteh was scheduled, which means that Burnett didn't have time to get acclaimated after flying for over twenty hours on short notice. As I recall, the bout wasn't postponed because of the original U.S. television commitment. Burnett had a very tough time getting bouts, so he was willing to be a late substitute under very adverse conditions for a good payday ( I recall that he was getting a purse of fifty thousand dollars) and a shot at a world title.

A young Jesse Reid was the manager and trainer of both Burnett and Bruce Curry at the time. To be sure, Reid went on to have a very good career as a boxing manager and trainer, but he did make some mistakes while managing Burnett and Curry.

Burnett had a highly competitive series of four bouts with Alvaro "Yaqui" Lopez, each fighter winning twice by decision.

It appears that Burnett was an inmate for seven years at Folsom State Prison in California before getting out and becoming a professional fighter. If that is true, I can understand why Burnett did not become a pro fighter until his middle 20s.

- Chuck Johnston