Career Bridesmaids

Who are some fighters who had several opportunities to fight for a legit title but could never cash in?

Tam mentioned Rocky Juarez (loser of 4 title bouts) in another thread and that got the wheels in motion in my mind

some others...

Yaqui Lopez -- good fighter competing in one of the two best Light Heavyweight eras of all time, just couldn't ge over the hump... lost by decision in title fights against John Conteh, Victor Galindez (2x), and finally was stopped in the 14th round by Matthew Saad Muhammad in one of the best brawls of all time

Jorge Ahumada -- another tough fighter in this same era managed a draw with a fading Bob Foster, but lost decisions to Conteh and Galindez

Pierre Fourie -- yet another good boxing light heavyweight who lost two title shots at Bob Foster and two more at Victor Galindez

Eijiro Murata -- perhaps the strangest tale of all, in that he challenged twice for the title and didnt win it, but remained undefeated... Murata fought WBC champ Lupe Pintor (amazingly underrated fighter these days) to a draw and then challenged WBA champ "Joltin'" Jeff Chandler 10 months later with another DRAW!!! ... Chandler stopped him in the 13th in the rematch and pounded him silly in the rubber match... he never did get another shot at Pintor

Angel Manfredy -- good but unspectacular fighter who first challenged Floyd Mayweather for the WBC 130 title and was promptly annihlated in two rounds... he regrouped and later dropped a decision to Stevie Johnston in a WBC Lightweight title shot... later demolished by Diego Corrales in a bid for the IBF 130 belt before finally losing a decision to Paul Spadafora for the IBF 135 belt

Oba Carr -- another very solid contender who was unable to get by Felix Trinidad, Ike Quartey and Oscar De La Hoya in successive title shots

how about some others?

 

Two English Ones:

Michael Watson. Schooled Eubanks for 22 rouns and lost twice

Herol Graham. Kalambay and Jackson put paid o arguably the best British boxer never to win a bauble

MTF

 

Juarez and Carr were the first to come to mind.

Norton, although he was awarded the WBC belt.

McCline and Golota.

 

Omar Sheika had more than a couple of title shots. No wins.

Wayne McCullough sans his bantamweight 'reign' had a million unsuccessful title shots at higher weights.

 

First one i thought of was Golota.

 

Rocky Juarez already had 5 chances and is going for his sixth with the Chris John rematch coming up.

 

Which he will lose unless his mom is doing the judging.

 

Howard Davis Jr. Olympic Gold medalist that had three title shots against Jim Watt, Edwin Rosario and James McGirt but lost all of them. Ironically as an amateur he beat Aaron Pryor and Thomas Hearns!

Wilfredo Rivera had three title shots: two against Pernell Whitaker and one against DeLa Hoya although his first defeat against Whitaker was controversial so say the least.

John Brown Also disputed titles at least three times against Mosley, Corrales and Forbes.

 

Bennie Briscoe - Very good fighter who just couldn't win the big one. Lost once to Monzon & twice to Rodrigo Valdez.

Reuben Castillo - Lost title fights to Arguello, Sanchez, LaPorte & Chavez.

Clyde Gray - Lost title fights to Napoles, Cuevas & Angel Espada

Howard Davis, Jr. - Lost to Jim Watt, came thisclose to beating Rosario and then, at the tail end of his career was stopped in one by Buddy McGirt.

Ronnie Shields - Dropped decisions on the road to Billy Costello and Tsuyoshi Hamada.

Jerry Quarry - Beat many contenders in his time, but came up short in title fights against Jimmy Ellis and Joe Frazier.

Andrew Golata - Failed in title shots against Lewis, Byrd, Ruiz.

Terrence Alli - Came up short against Harry Arroyo, Jose Luis Ramirez, and Julio Cesar Chavez.

Richie Kates - Lost two title fights to Victor Galindez.

Eddie Davis - Lost title fights to Spinks, Qawi & Donny LaLonde. He gave both Spinks & Qawi good fights before losing.

Jerry Martin - Lost title fights to Saad Muhammad, Qawi & Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Martin was a good fighter, as evidenced by his win over James Scott, but he was like Oba Carr...a level below the best around.

Danilo Cabrera - Lost title fights to McGuigan, Chavez & Nelson.

Juan Roldan - Lost to Hagler, Hearns & Nunn at Middleweight.

Mustafa Hamsho - Had the misfortune of being the 2nd best Middleweight when the best was Marvin Hagler. Lost two title fights to Hagler.

Armando Muniz - Lost two title fights Napoles & two title fights to Palomino

Hedgemon Lewis - Lost twice to Napoles & once to John L. Stracey.

Mario Martinez - Lost once to Chavez & twice to Nelson.

Colin Jones - A draw and a loss to McCrory and a loss to Curry.

 

For Some Reason, REED's Always Thought of Mike McCallum as Sort of a "Bridesmaid", Even Though he Doesn't TRUELY Fit the Definition that C-Dogg Set Forth...

Whether he was Legitimately "Ducked" or Not, McCallum ISN'T Thought of as Highly as he Could've Been, had he Managed to Get a Fight w/ANY of the 80's Superstars (Leonard, Hagler, Benitez, Hearns, etc.)...N THAT Sense, McCallum is DEFINITELY a Bridesmaid...


REED:kidcool:

 

Actually, REED...I see where you are coming from. And like the Bridesmaid who can't/don't capitalize on their opportunities...McCallum had a couple of chances to get himself in the superstar picture and failed to do so.

First...he fought on the Hagler-Hamsho II undercard which was Hagler's last fight before the Hearns fight. This was McCallum's opportunity to shine and maybe get himself mentioned as a possible next opponent for the winner of Hagler-Hearns. But then he turned in a pedestrian performance against Sean Mannion and impressed few. I remember the concensus being "this is the guy that we have been hearing so much about??" Granted, McCallum won a vacant title that night and won most of the rounds...but he should have won more impressively against the limited Mannion.

The next missed opportunity came when McCallum made his jump from 154 to 160 and lost to Kalambay. So now McCallum had given up his 154 lb title and was now at Middlweight with no title and therefore no clout and had lost the momentum his wins over McCrory and Curry had gotten him.

P.S. - I am fully expecting Trplsec to appear out of the thin air and bitch at me in Jaws-like fashion for not totally kissing McCallum's behind and for not saying that everyone from Hagler to Leonard to Hearns to Ray Robinson ducked McCallum due to their fear of him.::

 

For Herol, don't forget Charles "The Hatchet" Brewer.

 

lovemore ndou

 

:bears:

 

well done, joewillienamath

 

Disputed? Are you saying that Brown arguably beat Mosley for example?

 

Thanks! I'm sure there are even more from the 1960's and before....but these were the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

 

Isn't Juan LaPorte the poster boy for this thread?

Chavez
Gomez
McGuigan
Molina
Pedroza
Sanchez
Nelson
Charles Murray
Zak Padilla (see Boxrec)

 

I would say no....since he was a world champion. When LaPorte lost to Gomez...LaPorte was the defending champion.

Also...the McGuigan fight was a 10 round fight at a time which neither fighter held a world title. And the Molina & Padilla fights were for WBO titles.

 

By that time the WBO was about as legitimate as any other. My bad though. I didn't know Gomez beat him for the title. I thought he never "did" win a title.

Still, the guy got a lot of title shots and performed very well against some great fighters, just coming up a split hair short of winning.

I thought his fight with Chavez in particular was very close and could've gone either way.

 

He fought Molina in 1989. Do you really think the WBO was as legitimate as the other titles back then? The WBO was first formed in 1988 and Molina won the vacant title making him the first ever WBO Jr. Lightweight champion in 1989. The WBO still had a long way to go before it was considered "legitimate".

And even the Padilla fight was in 1994...which is when the WBO just barely started getting some respect. I don't recall Padilla getting much love as a "World Champion" while he held the WBO title.

Think of it this way...do you consider Francesco Damiani, Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrision, Michael Bentt & Herbie Hide to be legitimate heavyweight champions? Because these guys were the some of the WBO heavyweight champions in the time frame you consider the WBO to be "legitimate as the other titles".

And I am not disputing LaPorte's worth as a fighter. He was a good fighter who was competitive against the very best of his time...and in some cases...some of the best ever.

 

The WBO was a joke back then. Tommy Morrison fought Tim "The Doughboy" Tomashek. Tomashek had 3 hours notice. It was originally supposed to be Morrison's first title defense after he won the vacant title by running from George Foreman.

The WBO then decided to make it a "non-title" fight, not realizing that heavyweight champions DON'T HAVE NON-TITLE FIGHTS. Each fight for a heavyweight champ is a title fight.

The WBO was not as legitimately recognized as the IBF, WBA, or WBC at that time.

 

Juan LaPorte is my favorite Puerto Rican fighter ever

one of the greatest chins of all time

if he ahd only learned to let his hands go more

the Chavez fight is the only one where I really felt he went for broke and as a result it was a close, exciting fight

he should have crushed Gomez

 

Yeah the Chavez fight was a really good one. If Laporte fought like that more often he would have had a lot more big wins on his resume.

 

Definitley... he had the tools and the toughness in spades

but, he seemed to sometimes freeze up and get into this mindset of trying to land one huge punch instead of just working and letting his hands go

against Gomez, he seemed starstruck, like he couldnt believe he was in there against a national hero... he just didnt throw punches

He was a little green when he fought Sanchez but gave a fine account of himself and that ultimately led to his shot at Pedroza where he was punched in the balls 75 times, LOL

The Chavez fight was the best I ever saw him fight, he never stopped working in that fight

Nelson basically ran from him

 

Yep. And I also think LaPorte could have beaten McGuigan as well if he just let his hands go a little more.

 

agREED, McGuigan was very busy and just outworked him while LaPorte kept trying to land one perfect shot

McGuigan did later say that LaPorte was one of the hardest punchers he ever faced

 

I have wondered if the Rocky Lockridge fight kept LaPorte from becoming more complete fighter. I know folks like to use "fell in love with his power" as an excuse (as in the case of Trinidad's lack of skill being exposed by Hopkins)...but it really did seem like LaPorte wasted a lot of time in fights waiting for a big shot to materalize after his KO of Lockridge.

 

good point.

That was a remarkable KO because nobody else ever did that to Lockridge who was quite tough and it was a sweet shot, perfect counter and BOOM! lights out

But its one of those things where a guy like Lockridge is almost never going to lose in that fashion and I'd bet that LaPorte could not have duplicated that result in 10 tries... but the seed was planted, and perhaps LaPorte started to fancy himself a one-shot killer

 

In Terms of IMPORTANCE, LaPorte's KO of Lockridge is VERY Underrated...Like C-Dogg Said, NOBODY Else Did that to Lockridge (& he Fought Quite a Few ELITE Level Guys), yet LaPorte did it to a PRIME Rocky Lockridge...


REED:mj: