Basically, anyone who's prime started and ended before 25 - like a historical verison of the other thread. I vote: #05. Midget Wolgast #04. Packey McFarland #03. Fighting Harada #02. Mike Tyson #01. Wilfredo Benitez HM: John Henry Lewis.
I'm surprised your boy Harada didn't make the list. I was gonna say Gomez, as he peaked in his early 20s, but Gomez was still great when he was 25.
Awh, fuck. Complete spaced on him. He's in, Lewis is out. Gomez is a pretty good pick, but I don't think he was down and out at 25 like Benitez was. I wouldn't include him personally.
Rose and Chang are excellent mentions as well. Chang especially. Rose will always be a bit of an enigma for me, because he peaked for one fight and then was incredibly on the slide. Very talented fighter, that's for sure. We've missed one of the most obvious . We mentioned Gomez but not Sanchez. I suppose by the idea that Sanchez is eligible (and it's my thread, so I say he is) so are Oba and Villa.
Rose was also brilliant in the Rocky Gatteleri fight, right before he beat Harada - so two fights . Oba and Villa also count.
Always amazed me how schoolboys could beat up not just grown men, but grown men who were also boxers.
Does Ayala Jr. count? I know he never accomplished anything, but he was certainly considered by the entire boxing world a prodigy before he got rapey.
No, because even if he never got rapey, I don't think anyone would rate him alongside Tyson and Benitez.
He peaked at 25 and wasn't washed up till at least 4 years later. Bowe definitely doesn't make it IMO.
Carasquilla maybe. No great fighter and ruined early on by the disaster against Hong, but a real talent. Tae Shik Kim too, though he did win a title.
1. Nipper Pat Daly 2. Everyone else No one will ever, ever eclipse him as a Boxing prodigy. Never. His story is literally stranger than fiction, and I'd highly recommend reading the book on his life. Going pro at 10 years old and beating world ranked men at 14 / 15, being a sparring partner for Mickey Walker etc. makes him the numero uno Boxing prodigy imo.
Rose was mentioned earlier and as far as Aussies go, I was just thinking that Fammo, Carruthers and Darcy were all done or dead by 25, 24 and 21 respectively. In Fammo's case he squeezed most of his quality in between 23 and 25 tbf rather than peaking at 19/20. Carruthers from a slightly younger age but still hardly prime around 20 or so.
I didn't know this guy but I've just read his wikipedia page. It's totally crazy. As you've said, turned pro at 10, world ranked at 16 and declining and retiring at 17. He had 119 pro fights in a span of 7 years or so... If somebody told me that story I wouldn't have believed him. It defies common sense!
Quite a few photos of him available and he appeared very young. Has to be something more going on though. A 10 year old kid is not beating up adult men now matter how "prodigious" they are. This isn't chess.
He was fighting other people around his age and weight initially, since 1930s Britain had some of the highest recorded amount of pro Boxers ever, and lots of boys were so poor they would get onto shows with shady promoters to fill slots. 12 and 13 year old 'pros' were not unusual then. By 15 years old, Pat was legitimately fighting and beating Euro and World ranked men. His age was also apparent in the fact he would rarely KO or even hurt his opponents, just outclass them. Read the book. It's all explained and extensively documented. Not something you're gonna find on a short Wikipedia article.
