It's funny....some guys eat bombs and take them. Then they get clipped, just grazed,and they're fucking GONE. I mean Queer Street from a basic clip around the head. James Kirkland kind of got exposed like that Vs Ishida. Kirkland was a KNOWN quantity...we knew he was very average but you had to fuckin beat his ass down to stop him. Ishida looked like he was just throwing regular shots and Kirkland was going down like Hearns had just hit him. Wayne Elcock was a British prospect 20 years ago with the physique of Young Studly. He was being touted as future British,European, possible World challenger. Fought a guy called Murphy who was described by the commentator as "Unknown outside and inside Scotland" ...who barely clipped him and that was it. Career done. Got fed to Arthur Abraham, Macklin etc soon after. Speaking of Abraham ...remember Edison Miranda? Did that guy EVER win a big fight? EVER? This is Elcock, for whom big things were touted. WBU champ.
Was this in front of Patrick Henry High? You know Ricans shotgun people there just to see them fly into the air.
This younger generation has no respect for chuman life. But mira, you know me. I take to the streets with any of these motherfuckers.
Berlanga pretty much got exposed. His power made people think he was better the he actually was. It's hard for me to get excited over guys that have less than 20 fights. Morrel is another guy who might be getting exposed soon. With only 9 fights I think he's too inexperienced to bear a guy like Benevidez and that why turned that Benevidez fight twice..
"Look at you. You got everything. Me i got nauthing. I got deez dypers man. I can't walk. I caaaant hawwwmp. "
Some guys get exposed even when they win. Hatton was kind of exposed by Magee. You knew after that that Hatton was in love with his power and aggression and that slick movers with pop would bother him.
The word "exposed" for me should be associated with a fraud; a fraud like Grant or Camacho Jr. Hatton wasn't a fraud. He was a good fighter. He was simply no match for Floyd or Pac.
Some guys are decent but always fall apart when faced by a certain type of opponent. Whereupon they become total frauds. Mundine beat Danny Green and Echols. But a smart feather fists like Ottke and Geale took him out. If Mundine had only fought stupid plodding ko artists we'd have said he was a great boxer. Same with Bute. Fight plodding powerful guys and never lose. Grant was clearly capable vs Izon, Savarese, Golota, etc. But against Lewis he looked clueless. Like Bute vs Froch, Grant was eaten by the moment.
Lance Whitaker was a special case. Decent amateur who as a pro was ridiculed by The Ring for being 'a slapper' and his loss to Savarese seemed to define his level. Then he KOd Maskaev in two on Mosley's undercard. The Ring made a six-page piece on him where he was compared to young George Foreman and named as the fighter of the month. Then he changed his name to GOOFi and lost his very next fight and his hype was gone as quickly as it appeared
Khan was 'exposed' in the sense that he never was the guy we we're told at the start he was. I remember ITV describing him as 'the new Sugar Ray Leonard' FFS. But aye, considering his limitations and his hilariously poor chin, I think he did pretty well in the end. MTF
I don't know if Audley fits actually. He began to struggle already when he was fighting medicore euro-level guys. Tomasz Bonin, who was wiped out inside a minute by Haye, troubled Audley a lot. So he was exposed already before gaining hype
I think he's a good example to be fair. He was mega hyped in the UK after his Olympic win. You would have gotten very long is on his career turning it the way it did back in 2000/01 MTF
I get the point about his reputation as an amateur, but unlike with other examples mentioned, it is difficult to pinpoint the fight where he was exposed, because he never got going.
Lance Whittaker was a reputable amateur?? Are you sure about this? I remember a story that he started boxing because a trainer marveled at the size of his arms while waiting for a Whopper Edit: just looked at his wikipedia page and yes you are right. He had a decent amateur career it seems
Sounds like his trainer cooked up a good story to hype him up. "Discovered at burger king by a world class trainer". You could make it into a movie. Lol
Bonin was on his way to getting the decision before the ref helped Audley out with a stoppage so premature it was virgin.
Ali took up boxing because some guy stole his bike. Whittaker took it up because some flomo was waiting on a burger.
His pro debut says a lot about how he was managed. The opponent apparently refused to leave the dressing room at the last minute after reading his contract and deciding he was entitled to more money. The Arena was packed with genuine A List celebs like Dame Kelly Holmes and others. They were fucked and had to pay up. I think Denis Harding was the promoter. He'd guided Spencer Oliver from day 1 only for it all to fall apart when Oliver nearly died vs Demakov. Be hilarious if it wasn't tragic.
I remember this. Elcock beat Farnell decisively for that WBU belt which was all the rage back then, and dropped him a couple of times too. Then he had this supposed easy defence against Lawrence and got sparked. I believe Farnell then beat the crap out of Lawrence in the next fight.
Dont know if this really counts as "exposed" as Pickering was clearly in over his head, but it was definitely a brutal introduction to world class...
Something like that. It was a great scene back then. It seemed there were loads of flawed good fighters domestically.