I remember watching Juan LaPorta fight an incredible list of who's who's in boxing. (Gomez,Sanchez,Chavez,Pedroza...) His beard was more than enough for these guys, and when he seemed to try he did pretty well. I could never understand why this guy just couldn't seem to turn up the intensity. I think he could have had a remarkable career with the right motivation. Who else do you think has been an under-achiever?
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He may not have been the biggest under-achiever in history, but the first fighter that popped into my head, was the former highly touted middleweight prospect from the early 80's, Alex Ramos.
This guy was a regular on NBC's 'Tomorrow's Champions' and showed great boxing skills in the early part of his career, as he had plenty of talent to work from; great jab, good handspeed, patience, body puncher, footwork, and pretty good power.
Here, this is what one boxing ****zine I have said about him in the early parts of 1982, and I quote;
"Ramos is a prime candidate to succeed Ray Leonard as the sport's biggest superstar."
"May have the style to dethrone Marvin Hagler."
That gives you an idea what the boxing public thought of him and his potential, after seeing him display his skills on network TV a few times. From just those two comments, I'd say he was highly touted, wouldn't you?
The only thing is, somebody forgot to tell those writers that a fighter usually requires a decent chin to achieve much in the sport of boxing, which is something that they evetually found out Alex Ramos didn't have. -
Yeh, that's a good one. Funny you mentioned that ****zine. I believe that was the first one i ever purchased when i was around 13. It was a ko ****zine with Bumphus, Ramos, Cyzz, Ayala on it. I think this might be the one you've got also. It's caption read Tommorows Champions.Comment
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I remember that issue of KO ****zine, as well, but I got those quotes from the July '82 edition of the Big Book of Boxing, which had a similiar layout as that edition of KO you mentioned (features on all of the "Tomorrow's Champions"), except this one was published about six months later than that one.Originally posted by Colonel JonesComment
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Tyson is the biggest underacheiver. He could have been champ for most of 1987-2000 if he hadn't been such a head case.Comment
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Ri**** Bowe has to rank up there.Comment
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kirk johnson.
this guy has great skills good puncher fast hands. and in his 3 title shots he outboxed ruiz then gets DQ's. Has a shot at LL and gets hurt. then gets a shot at VK and comes in 30lbs overweight. i was a big fan of Johnson but he doesn't have the drive to be champ, but has all the tools, if you have ever seen him fight you would know that he has all the skills of Bryd only much more powerful.Comment
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bowe, kirk johnson, zab judah,Comment
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agree on Judah
and to some degree on Johnson but only because Johnson wasn't at fault when Ruiz pretended being hurt like a ***** so the ref would DQ KJ
it wasn't fair and any good soccer ref would have given a yellow to both Ruiz and his trainer.Comment
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even with all the point Kirk lost i still had him ahead, the only rounds ruiz could win was win kirk lost points.Originally posted by NovirasputinComment
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