BoxRec

I was thinking about Ray Mercer and got to thinking. How could a guy that almost beat Lennox Lewis (probably should have got the decision) gave Holyfield a very tough fight, crushed Morrison, look so bad in other fights?
He looked awful in two fights with journeyman Jessie Ferguson and lost decisively against an ancient Larry Holmes. He had other fights in which he looked really good and others when he was mediocre at best. I have to believe that it was than just the styles of the opponents that he fought.
He was one inconsistent fighter.
Who are the most inconsistent boxers ever? I'm talking about guys who looked real good in some fights and are awful in others. What do you guys think?

Leon Spinks, Floyd Patterson, Jack Sharky, Mike Tyson, Shannon Briggs are all names that I think eclipse Mercer in that Dept.

James 'Buster' Douglas

i dunno if buster was inconsistent, i think he just never was a really goood fighter, he just fought the best fight of his life, 99 out of 100 times he loses to tyson...

Agustus (Emannuel) Burton. Check out his record.

Golota.

BROZO wrote:Golota.

even better example, thanks Brozo. Golota is so infuriating. I thought he was really going to be something while he was giving Bowe a lesson for the first 5 rds of their first fight. Then he got himself DQ'ed. Un - fricking - believable.

Rachman,not the worst of course but definetly on and off.

Evander Holyfield. Were we going to get the Holyfield who fought Dokes, Douglas, Bowe II, Mercer, Tyson, or Rahman; Or would the guy who fought Holmes, Cooper, Moorer I, Bean, or Ruiz? Maddening!

Greg Page could be brilliant or horrible.

Ron Lyle and Jerry Quarry probably fit in here, too.

One could almost put a mirror to Holyfield and Golota - they lose to guys their supposed to beat, and win against guys who were supposed to beat them.

Styles make fights so a lot of times that's the problem and not necessarily one of the fighters being inconsistent. Note one of my all-time favorites Ken Norton, he beats Ali, Quarry, and Young but gets creamed by Foreman, Shavers, and Young. Why? Because his style was effective against boxers more than against big punchers.

sweetsci wrote:Evander Holyfield. Were we going to get the Holyfield who fought Dokes, Douglas, Bowe II, Mercer, Tyson, or Rahman; Or would the guy who fought Holmes, Cooper, Moorer I, Bean, or Ruiz? Maddening!

Greg Page could be brilliant or horrible.

Ron Lyle and Jerry Quarry probably fit in here, too.

If Greg was smart, and had better business sense and a sense of destiny, he would've done better.It's bad enough that the man didn't take interest in his training habits, but like Tony Tucker, seemed to be too much of a nice guy for his own good.

Doug DeWitt

Jimmy Braddock was quite inconsistant.

I had no doubt you were going to work him in here Rory. And though he was both inconsistent and inconsistant he was never and I repeat never....incontinent.

heres a good one

jersey joe walcott

BB no doubt he was King of "which Joe is showing up today?"

Joe "Old Bones" Brown was pretty inconsistent.

Iran Barkley has to up there. Nigel Benn also.

the jersey joe walcott who lost to rocky marciano, beat ezzard charles, and lost a controversial decision to joe louis could make any heavyweight of all time look silly in their fight whether he won or lost. he had that style that would make anyone look silly.

problem is, he only brought his A game in the most important fights.

Rory McCloskey wrote:i dunno if buster was inconsistent, i think he just never was a really goood fighter, he just fought the best fight of his life, 99 out of 100 times he loses to tyson...

I couldn't disagree more. If you've ever seen his fight with Tony Tucker, he showed the same skills in that fight for about 6 rounds before he started getting gassed. This was the story of Buster's career. His problem was always training, or a lack of training. When he was prepared, he was very good as he showed aginst Tyson.

I do agree that he fought the best fight of his life against Tyson, but with a little conviction and heart, Buster could have done the same thing on other nights as well. Unfortunatley, it took the loss of his father to give him the motivation needed to really get ready for this fight. If you are unable to see that Buster's style was perfect to beat Tyson, then you really should payt more attention to the sweet science.