Which glorified British amateur ended up being the biggest underachiever in the professional ring

[olij999]

Don’t know if the Collins brothers have been mentioned yet, Tony and George, I think George only had 1 amateur defeat in 70 odd bouts which was his last one v Gary Stretch.

Good call, and that's right about the Gary Stretch fight. George had that long run to get to 35-0 as a pro before losing to Gary Jacobs in a close one and then being taken apart by Kirkland Laing. Was brought along very cautiously in the early days of his pro career - his fifth pro fight was 4x2s. Wonder if that was part of a careful rebuild after the Stretch loss?

PS - was there something funny going on about his date of birth? Boxrec has it as 7 Oct 1967, with his pro debut being 20 Feb 1985, which would make him 17 at that point. Will have to have a look back at the old BNs on that one.

Can see the Stretch v Collins ko at the beginning of the Stretch v Eubank ITV broadcast on YouTube

That's interesting - thank you - I'll have a look.

[brilo33]

on the irish side, quigley was rated as a super talent after his world silver + 2x euro champ + many other titles am career, got signed by golden boy when they were still big time, saw plenty of talk about him beating high ranked middleweights.... but ended up pretty disappointing once the opponents got a pulse

never seemed out of shape or off the rails or anything, but lacked hardness and strength, which is a common thing with the am stars who dont do as much as expected as pros

dont know about hardness ingles son let him take a pounding against Tureano Johnson he wasnt finshed after that, i thought he alawys looked gassed even before johnson fight

[brilo33]

Tony Jeffries.

i think injury stopped him,

[bennie]

Don’t know if the Collins brothers have been mentioned yet, Tony and George, I think George only had 1 amateur defeat in 70 odd bouts which was his last one v Gary Stretch.

Good call, and that's right about the Gary Stretch fight. George had that long run to get to 35-0 as a pro before losing to Gary Jacobs in a close one and then being taken apart by Kirkland Laing. Was brought along very cautiously in the early days of his pro career - his fifth pro fight was 4x2s. Wonder if that was part of a careful rebuild after the Stretch loss?

PS - was there something funny going on about his date of birth? Boxrec has it as 7 Oct 1967, with his pro debut being 20 Feb 1985, which would make him 17 at that point. Will have to have a look back at the old BNs on that one.

I'm pretty sure he did go pro at 17.
I imagine the regs changed at some point because for sure you had to be 18 in the 90's in the UK

Yes, you could turn pro at 17 back in the 1980s but you were confined to four-rounders and two minute rounds until you reached 18. Tony Collins had a nasty habit of taunting fighters after flooring them and one reader wrote into Boxing News to express his disgust. George Collins had a nasty habit of boring the pants off spectators.

[Verdi]

Simon Vallily, David Dolan and Courtney Fry

[wrighty]

Simon Vallily, David Dolan and Courtney Fry

What was the issue with Valily? I thought he would be the mutts nuts as he won the commonwealth games. He turned over late and was taking the randomest fights!

[mickey1975]

Simon Vallily, David Dolan and Courtney Fry

What was the issue with Valily? I thought he would be the mutts nuts as he won the commonwealth games. He turned over late and was taking the randomest fights!

He went to jail for a bit.

[wrighty]

Simon Vallily, David Dolan and Courtney Fry

What was the issue with Valily? I thought he would be the mutts nuts as he won the commonwealth games. He turned over late and was taking the randomest fights!

He went to jail for a bit.

Any idea about Courtney Fry?

[polecateddy]

What was the issue with Valily? I thought he would be the mutts nuts as he won the commonwealth games. He turned over late and was taking the randomest fights!

He went to jail for a bit.

Any idea about Courtney Fry?

At a guess I’d say he was burned out by a long and decorated amateur career. Slightly underpowered for the pros.