BoxRec

Mike Tyson.

Mike has been called overrated so much now that he may be starting to get underrated actually

It's hard to say who the most overrated would be. Most boxers who are generally considered great in some form or another deserve the praise.

Rocky Marciano is fairly overrated by some, underrated by others.

I knew someone would say that!

1) Ken Norton
2) Henry Cooper
E) Jack Dempsey

writehooks wrote: ↑14 Oct 2025, 19:52 1) Ken Norton
2) Henry Cooper
E) Jack Dempsey

I almost said Ken Norton as well. So he definitely is in the conversation I think.

Henry Cooper, maybe at one time. I doubt he'd be rated all that highly even by British fight fans at this point.

Was Cooper really rated that high on the world level? He was popular in the UK and a decent Euro level HW but invariably lost when he fought the very best.

Controversial wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 08:01 Was Cooper really rated that high on the world level? He was popular in the UK and a decent Euro level HW but invariably lost when he fought the very best.

No he wasn't.

Macho Camacho, by you. "For me he is the number one of all time."
He's not even the best Puerto Rican fight of all time

giacomino wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:24 Macho Camacho, by you. "For me he is the number one of all time."
He's not even the best Puerto Rican fight of all time

No man, he is number one.

JackSprocket wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:44

giacomino wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:24 Macho Camacho, by you. "For me he is the number one of all time."
He's not even the best Puerto Rican fight of all time

No man, he is number one.

giacomino wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:24 Macho Camacho, by you. "For me he is the number one of all time."
He's not even the best Puerto Rican fight of all time

Yeah, not the greatest Puerto Rican of all time. Probably not in the Top 20 P4P of the last 40 years to be honest. I've never really broken it down, but I don't think Camacho would be very close to the top.

He was very entertaining for a time though.

giacomino wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 12:46

JackSprocket wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:44

giacomino wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 10:24 Macho Camacho, by you. "For me he is the number one of all time."
He's not even the best Puerto Rican fight of all time

No man, he is number one.

For me he is always numero uno.

Everybody has their favorites. My all time favorite boxer is Arturo Gatti. I don't make a habit of pretending he's the best of all time, but he's the fighter who's fights I've enjoyed watching the most.

I liked Gatti too. He was very good, certainly not great. Fun to watch. Some people overrate him and some underrate him.

No idea how in the world Ken Norton of all people is overrated. What is the highest anyone has ever rated him?

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 19:30 I liked Gatti too. He was very good, certainly not great. Fun to watch. Some people overrate him and some underrate him.

No idea how in the world Ken Norton of all people is overrated. What is the highest anyone has ever rated him?

That's a fair point I reckon. You never see him in anyone's Top 10 or anything.

It's hard really to say who's the most overrated. Usually once someone gets called overrated a couple of times the mere mention of that will make the opinion of them slowly start to shift.

Hurricane Carter comes to mind.
Big puncher and a contender, but he’s been elevated a bit.
I don’t know about most overrated ever, but he was not robbed against Giiardello.

Expug wrote: ↑15 Oct 2025, 21:36 Hurricane Carter comes to mind.
Big puncher and a contender, but he’s been elevated a bit.
I don’t know about most overrated ever, but he was not robbed against Giiardello.

Yeah he seems to be a case where a journeyman was made into a contender through the power of a movie.

And that song by Dylan put his story on the map.
He also wrote a book called the 16 th round about his case , life , etc. I’m sure that’s been talked about here frequently.

The song and the movie may have made him overrated him by some people.
However, he was not a journeyman. He fought very tough competition, and his win/loss record is deceiving. He was a serious contender in the middleweight division and at the time the division was pretty deep and remember only one champion. He had a win over Florentino Fernandez, George Benton, Jimmy Ellis, Joey Archer, and of course Emile Griffith. Even if the Giardello fight was not a robbery, he was at the least very competitive over 15 rounds against a great fighter.

Funny thing about the Giardello fight. The movie portrayed him getting robbed.
Giardellos family sued and collected money because they claimed it was not a robbery and either a judge or jury or whomever oversaw the claim, possibly arbitration , agreed.
Boxing fans and insiders also put forth that Giardello won it handily.
I watched that fight recently and I thought it was very close.
The truth of that fight was somewhere in the middle.
It wasn’t “ Carter was robbed”!
It also wasn’t “ Joey won easily “.

Nevertheless Giardello's family had a fair point that portraying it as a robbery in Joey's favor was a definite slap in the face to his legacy, and an unnecessary one.

I agree. For sure and I’m glad anytime Hollywood is held accountable when they embellish things.

That was at least the third or fourth time that Hollywood embellished something.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑17 Oct 2025, 18:29 That was at least the third or fourth time that Hollywood embellished something.

Yeah the family of Max Baer also sued for his portrayal in The Cinderella Man where they made him a vicious brute who had no remorse for an opponent he'd killed in the ring.

I'm pretty sure his family won their lawsuit as well.

I think it was in Ring magazine where I read a review of “ Raging Bull” whoever wrote the review had a problem with the way the movie had Jake completely destroying Tony Janiro. He beat him handily but didn’t rearrange his face.
I don’t know, I’ve never seen the fight but the depiction fits the Hollywood pattern