List some fights where a boxer was supposed to be something special but got exposed. Exposed meaning he was nowhere as good as people thought he was. Not just losing a competitive fight against a champ or something.
Jon Thaxton Vs Burton. Burton was brought in for Thaxton to feed on and Thaxton was exposed badly . They looked at Burtons record and not at his ability to fight.
Grant/Golota People forget Grant was literally on the cover of every boxing magazine for like 2 years. I've never seen anyone this bad so heavily hyped.
I saw Mike Grant trying his comeback or fighting Botha and I swear he looked like he'd never lifted a weight in his life.
Bute vs Froch. Some were hyping Bute as some kind of p4p talent. He was badly exposed by a guy who had very very few easy fights vs top notch competition
Zab Judah vs Kostya Tzyu: this fight had it all. Black Hebrews throwing stools at referees, Funky chicken disco dance moves, sissy crying, rap thug music, temper tantrums and finally Judah was exposed for the b level fighter he really was.
Was gonna say disagree cuz Zab turned out pretty decent nevertheless but then I remembered they used to call him Whitaker with power LOL so nevermind carry on
Pretty harsh imo. Sure Judah was overrated at that time, but he still managed to build a very good career afterward.
Ryan Garcia was pretty much exposed recently. I was going to mention Panchito Bojado, but someone already did. I think that the biggest EXPOSED in the last 10 years or so was Amir Khan. He never lived up to the hype.
This is fight beat. If somebody mentioned something ahead of you, ignore them and act as if you got there first. Amir Khan was indeed exposed by Prescott and had been partially exposed by Limobd, Gomez. But....he did build a good career and he kind of exposed Maidana too.....
Cliff Etienne was top-10 before he was destroyed by Oquendo. What is funny too is that both Etienne and Michael Grant had a reputation for having good chins
The writing was already on the wall for Ettiene. He had already been rocked by Cliff Couser, and badly hurt several times by Lawrence Clay-Bay (sp?). Grant was far more highly regarded.
I agree, but looking back Grant actually had a pretty good career despite being badly overrated. Golota, Izon, Savarese, Cole, Sullivan, Puritty etc isn't a record of a total scrub. E: In fact, I'd say that Grant at his best deserved to be ranked to top-8 or so (he was universally ranked 3rd). When he lost his confidence, he became useless, but at his best he wasn't pure crap. Etienne was ranked at #9 by The Ring, while his correct ranking would have been between 15-20. Dominic Guinn fits the topic btw
You reminded me of an article I came across in a boxing magazine highlighting the top prospects... including Dominic Guinn. The article recounted a childhood encounter between him and his mom with the great Ali... with the writer suggesting that even in Ali's later years he could see Guinn's potential. Obviously Guinn didn't live up to those high expectations.
Good call on Dominick Guinn. I remember as HBO had a showcase fight for their comebacking baby Grant, Guinn was beating the hell out of Grant and HBO was like whoa we have a new undefeated American great heavyweight!!!.... then Guinn ends up being the literal definition of a journeyman.
Shannon Briggs is another. He was the most highly touted young gun in the same night that included Tua, Golota and Ruiz. In the main event Briggs was KOd in 3
Yup, by Marion Wilson. Then Tua went on to show just how average Wilson was, when he iced him in 1. Briggs was obviously gonna be hyped. He came from the same hometown as Mike and Bowe. I know that Tyson and Briggs are friends to his day. I'm not sure if there's a relationship between Briggs and Bowe.
I would add here Camacho Jr vs Lejia, but Camacho Jr. only got mainstream and network hype, and obviously that hype was because of his who he is dad was. Even before the Lejia fight, the common feeling among us hardcores was that he was a fraud waiting to be exposed. In NYC at the time, there was particular hype around a possible Judah vs Camacho Jr. fight. Looking back... Zab would have fucking murdered Junior.
That was a shameless disgusting performance by Camacho Jr. He was jumping in to the air to make it appear like Leija's punches were low blows.
Once again disagreed. Yes Briggs might have been a bit overhyped before the Wilson fight but no one was hyping him as the second coming and he did manage to have a respectable career. Kind of like Bruno vs Bonecrusher. A bad loss do not mean exposed.
Agreed. Grant wasn't too bad before having his confidence shattered. Same with Etienne. Obviously not the same fighters afterward. But Grant definitely deserves the ''exposed'' label considering how hyped he was.
