Well considering he was almost killed by Jirov who was not a legitimate Heavyweight after a near beating by Monte Barrett I don't think he would have ever gotten very far. However, he would have gotten some nice paydays if he didn't have the brain injury because he was a TV friendly fighter and would have been a stepping stone for more promising fighters who wanted to cash in on Mesi's fanbase.
dsimon writes: Just another in a long line of great white dopes. Some of them could punch like Morrison, some of them could bleed like Gatti, but they all were entertaining enough and gave the black guys who could box some good tune ups. ::
He had a real nice following in Buffalo and that allowed him to be more of a name than his talent suggested. Mesi did manage to have a spectacular debut on HBO when he blitzed Williamson on that watered down version of NOTYH, and that led to a brief little run of hype on HBO with the Barrett and Jirov fights.
REED Actually MISSES Ol' Sloppy Joe...REED Didn't Get Nearly Enough MILEAGE Out of that Nickname... REED
If "schooled" is some sort of Serbian metaphor for being rendered unconscious by your opponent........................then yes Mr. Gatti, I agree with you. :bears:
I think Mesi got as far as he ever was going to get by the time of his "First" retirement!! I also don't exepct him to even beat a "Top 30" HW on his comeback trail that he's doing now.
Yeah I remeber that night where Dave Chapelle got KTFO in the first round and all of Buffalo went wild.
I don't think he was ever talented or skilled enough to get past the fringe contender level. I've heard some disturbing things about his injuries and how dangerous it is, so I hope he gets out of the sport with his health intact. He could have a good career as a fight commentator.
