Fighters who proved to be way better than you initially thought

Fury is the obvious example for me, when I saw his first few fights I thought British/Commonwealth title at best, even in what was a dire heavyweight scene.

Froch I could tell had the ability to pick up a world title belt, but whilst he was never #1 in the division, his career and some of the names he ended up beating far surpassed my initial summation of his prospects.

 

Danny Garcia- Prior to the Khan fight I wasn’t too impressed.

Kell Brook- Thought he was average after the Carson Jones fight but he turned out to be a very good fighter.

 

Yeah I definitely wrote Garcia off too early. First fight I saw of his was the Theopane fight, which was very close. Didn't think he'd amount to much.

 

I couldn’t understand why anyone was giving Khan a chance going into that fight.

 

I think most of us figured Garcia was just too slow to catch Khan. That’s why Amir was such a big favorite.

 

I thought it was dangerous, not because I rated Garcia, but because anyone is dangerous against Khan if they can land

 

Gotta be canelo. Not much better but definitely better. Thought GGG would wipe the floor with him..

 

Yeah that's a great shout. I thought he was one of those typical good, solid, but nothing spectacular guys you see all the time in boxing. He is still overrated but he's definitely much better than I originally thought.

 

Cotto. Wasn't impressed early on. Thought Panchito Bojado was the better prospect (97% of us did).

It wasn't until he took apart Ceasar Bazan that he started to look legit.

 

Same here, I jumped on the bandwagon only after the Bazan fight (on whom I had bet on foolishly). but to he honest, not sure it qualifies for this thread as this was way early in his career...

 

For me it's definitely Pac, didn't see him as a potential ATG untill he wiped the floor with Hatton and Cotto (yeah I was quite late to the party)

 

Ricky Hatton....a small cut prone guy who was not too hard to hit.....

John Ruiz...I couldn't see past the 19 second blow out by Tua.

 

Pac is a great choice. We all obviously knew he was great after the featherweight years but when he went up in weight, some of the names he was beating and the way he was beating them, it just went into another stratosphere I never saw coming.

 

Weirdly, and I say this as a guy who hated Hatton fron the off - I always picked him to beat Tszyu. He hit hard enough, had a nasty streak and the workrate would always be a problem against a skilled guy who likes to fight at a measured pace, with a selective output from a particular range. I was never a big Tszyu guy either to be honest so it probably helped in making that prediction.

 

Yes but in 2000 i never felt he'd do that. By 2005 i felt he deffo could.

 

I think for me it was the way he tore through the domestic scene at the time, good solid guys like Rowland and Smith were dispatched with ease, the only one who was able to get in some return fire was Magee, who I always felt was a talented underachiever anyway. He basically did what a guy who is far above the domestic scene is meant to do against domestic opposition, and to his credit he did it with aplomb.

 

Not a fan of either so I have no dog in the fight, but the 99 Tszyu would have fucked Hatton up.

 

I'm not so sure, I think Hatton's footwork and willingness to fight up close is always a big problem for Tszyu, but like you I don't care enough about either to really debate it with any passion

I can see your point though, in the UK at the time we didn't get a whole load of US-based fights as Sky didn't deem it necessary to broadcast them, so we probably missed Tszyu's best years.

 

Hatton was only the third UK fighter to get exposure over here. Well, I kinda exclude Lewis cause he's different.

Naz was the first with his HBO contract.

Then Showtime started covering Calzaghe fights. Subsequently, they started covering Hatton.

 

Yeah Lewis, Naz and Hatton were definitely the big three from here during the 90s/early 2000s. Calzaghe should have been among them but lack of ambition and a risk-averse promoter meant he (deservedly) took a back seat.

You know what's weird? I knew about Roy because of SecondsOut but his fights were only ever shown here a week later at midnight on ITV3, which is a channel NOBODY watched. It was disgraceful how badly that guy was promoted, he should have been huge worldwide but UK fans hadn't heard of him, and I know an irritating amount of casuals here who only know him as "that guy who lost to Calzaghe".

 

Should also be pointed out, whilst imo Calzaghe had a lot more talent, he was an awkward guy who seemed fine where he was. Hatton to his credit was a funny dude, with lots of charisma and most of all, ambition. Hatton was always destined to be a bigger "star" I felt.

 

For me it was the exact opposite....it was Warren's fascination with Micky Vann refereed bullshit contests Vs Stephen Smith and Thaxton and the near disaster Vs Magoo that made me think Warren knew something we didn't.

But once he turned over Ray Oliveira in late 2004 I was convinced he really had a shot. Oliveira was a legit slick American fighter who wasn't some block of molasses like Ben Tackie or totally ancient like Vince Phillips..

 

Even after going up I was still shocked when Pac, a former bantamweight, beat the SHIT out of Margarito, an enormous WW who was the poster-boy for weight cheating ( among other cheating).

 

An amazing diet will do that for ya.

 

And prayer. Never forget prayers!!

 

Pac put it all down to hard work and medication.

 

nigel benn?

 

Benn and Eubank were massive stars over here but I don't think either really crossed over into the US market as far as I'm aware.

 

he headlined at least one showtime card

 

Yeah, I do think Showtime was featuring Benn. I mean, they definitely televised McClellan-Benn.