The fighters who didn't become the great champions because of the injuries or the mental issues ?

[Loki]

His record and status is tip-top, but had Calzaghe not been injury prone, he’d be remembered for better fights.

[Enlightened-One]

His record and status is tip-top, but had Calzaghe not been injury prone, he’d be remembered for better fights.

Maybe you’re right, but I feel that one of the main reasons for Calzaghe’s success was the way he adapted to having fragile hands. He chose volume over power and also threw slapping shots.

This unorthodox, but extremely effective style, was one of the main reasons for his continued success during the latter stages of his career.

So there was a huge silver lining to Calzaghe’s dark injury cloud.

[ValMar]

Pirog's injury happened close to his natural retirement, so he was running out of road anyway. Obviously a shame he didn't fight Golovkin.

For me, McCall could've been the greatest post-1990 heavyweight without his problems. With the best chin ever, serious power, and some decent skills, he had everything but the mindset to beat Lewis again, and then Bowe, Holyfield, Tyson, Tua, Ibeabuchi...

And yeah, I think a mentally healthy Ibeabuchi would've dominated the 2000s.

Disagree with Pirog comments. He had plenty left and had the ability to beat GGG and Canelo in my view.

X2...................

[jas80s]

Andrew Golota. Perhaps never destined to be one of the greatest but certainly had some mental frailties that sabotaged him at key moments...

This is the essence of what this thread is about to me. Golota was not an ATG waiting to happen, but give the guy the head of Tomasz Adamek (to keep it in country if you will) and it would have been interesting to see what transpired. I don't know that he would have had a substantially different record, but he would have given a lot more impressive performances.

[Loki]

His record and status is tip-top, but had Calzaghe not been injury prone, he’d be remembered for better fights.

Maybe you’re right, but I feel that one of the main reasons for Calzaghe’s success was the way he adapted to having fragile hands. He chose volume over power and also threw slapping shots.

This unorthodox, but extremely effective style, was one of the main reasons for his continued success during the latter stages of his career.

So there was a huge silver lining to Calzaghe’s dark injury cloud.

I might agree with you EO regarding the adapted style but I don’t think it changes him fundamentally - stamina, hand speed, footwork, finding a way to adapt mid-fight and win plus he had a good chin (or recovery) were also his biggest assets. He never had devastating power. But, he certainly would’ve had more fights, probably with bigger names at 168 if he wasn’t injured as much.

[Blodhemn]

Pirog would've exposed GGG's underwhelming and inaccurate inside game, but too hard to say he would've beaten GGG.

I'd say Kovalev tho, he was an established champ with rare combo of power and skill, but proved to be mentally frail when pressed and lost desire to train when big money came his way.

[Bandog]

Edwin Valero comes to my mind. 27-0 with 27 KO's. Him vs Pacquiao would have been a great fight back when they were at the same weight. Mikey Garcia sparred with both as a teen, and said he thought Valero would have destroyed Pac. Unfortunately his mental issues led to his death. Might have been an all time great, who knows.

[margaret thatcher]

Pac would have wrecked Valero, utterly savage beating

[Blodhemn]

Didn't Valero treat his sparring partners like garbage and just try to beat on them? Scummy guy all around.

[Bandog]

Mikey Garcia on sparring with Valero, and him picking Valero to KO Manny after sparring with both.

[Nile4000]

Andrew Golota. Perhaps never destined to be one of the greatest but certainly had some mental frailties that sabotaged him at key moments...

Golota would have made a nice champ. Though who knows how long he would have been champ.

[1okstcsb]

Korobov?