Missed opportunities against great fighters in their prime.....

Conn vs Louis........

Probably the greatest 12 round performance in the 20th Century.......Max Baer's corner said they couldn't get him out of the dressing room against Louis before his fight...Most fighters were beaten before the fight started and Louis is still some observers number 1 Heavy.......So a guy weighing only 170 pounds schooling him for 12 is quite incredible......Conn - "Back up...make him follow you and then keep punching straight...If you are quicker you are going to get there first".....

Conn's biggest mistake was wobbling Louis and going for the finish......"I hurt him....I lost my head and if it wasn't for that I win easy...


Johnson vs Pryor.......

Most people haven't heard of Dujuan Johnson from the Kronk gym......He got a cocaine habit after losing to Pryor and ended up dying by the hands off his dealer at the age of 23 over a debt.......

But for six rounds he decked and repeatedly wobbled a prime Pryor who suspiciously looked really fresh at the start of the seventh (Black bottle ??).......Wonderful fight go watch it.....Tommy Hearns rated the previously unbeaten Johnson really highly and he sparred with him regularly.......

But he blew his shot at Pryor (He was only 20/21).........Emanuel Steward never really forgave him......."He stopped punching and it should have been the easiest title win ever"...

Rest in peace Dujuan


Dauthuille v LaMotta

Dauthuille had already beaten the raging bull over 10......So he naturally expected to take the title back to France when they fought a few years later......and he did for 14 rounds...Two minutes and Forty seconds.......Before LaMotta pulled out a miracle barrage....

Agonising...

Have a good weekend.

Nice work, Truss.

Interesting you mention how Johnson "stopped punching" against Pryor - reminded me of Herol Graham against Mike McCallum, which was another time someone blew a great opportunity against an all-time great. McCallum struggled most of that fight and Graham had full control of it for long stretches, but he just stopped working and switched off in the second half. Much easier to live with being sparked out of the blue by Jackson than that.

Could argue that it wasn't against a truly great fighter, but Dirrell blew it badly against Froch. Just threw it away by not fighting rounds 6-9. After he got that point deduction in the tenth it sprang him into life, and Froch looked totally out of ideas and outclassed once Dirrell stepped it up. Basically the only time Froch wasn't on top in the championship rounds. But too little, too late. Can't spend one-third of a championship fight running, holding, falling to the floor and moaning to the ref and expect to get a decision.

88Chris05 wrote:Nice work, Truss.

Interesting you mention how Johnson "stopped punching" against Pryor - reminded me of Herol Graham against Mike McCallum, which was another time someone blew a great opportunity against an all-time great. McCallum struggled most of that fight and Graham had full control of it for long stretches, but he just stopped working and switched off in the second half. Much easier to live with being sparked out of the blue by Jackson than that.

Kind of disagree....Graham losing to a one eyed Jackson is unforgivable...A kin to Jackie Smith screwing up an easy Touchdown in the Superbowl..(Apologies to any Cowboy fans).....Graham only needed to play it safe and he wins easy....McCallum was a more live opponent.....Thought Graham was schooling Brewster too...

Hadn't seen Graham around 87 but had heard much about him....Some observers even thought Hagler was avoiding him.....Saw an interview with a young unbeaten Olajide who rated Graham as the best of the prospects...Considering Tate and Nunn were around it's a big compliment..

Lost to Kalambay didn't he while waiting for his shot...A guy he didn't really need to fight, which cost him a WBA title shot against the beatable Barkley who was made for him.....Then he peed about with McCallum and blew it against the Hawk....Think he just got nervous on the big occasions sadly....

Yep scandalous a guy of his talent in the alphabet stakes....didn't get one.....

88Chris05 wrote:Nice work, Truss.

Interesting you mention how Johnson "stopped punching" against Pryor - reminded me of Herol Graham against Mike McCallum, which was another time someone blew a great opportunity against an all-time great. McCallum struggled most of that fight and Graham had full control of it for long stretches, but he just stopped working and switched off in the second half. Much easier to live with being sparked out of the blue by Jackson than that.

Could argue that it wasn't against a truly great fighter, but Dirrell blew it badly against Froch. Just threw it away by not fighting rounds 6-9. After he got that point deduction in the tenth it sprang him into life, and Froch looked totally out of ideas and outclassed once Dirrell stepped it up. Basically the only time Froch wasn't on top in the championship rounds. But too little, too late. Can't spend one-third of a championship fight running, holding, falling to the floor and moaning to the ref and expect to get a decision.

From what I remember of that fight, McCallum seemed equally to have a bit of an off night and was nothing like as outstanding as he was in his systematic destruction of Michael Watson some time afterwards. As for Jackson, Graham was an accident waiting to happen but irritatingly made Jackson look ordinary before the horrible KO. To me his most unforgivable lapse was against Charles Brewer where he seemed to be coasting to victory only to inexplicably give up and get stopped late on.

Yeah, McCallum tended to struggle a lot more in title fights at Middle than he did at Light-Middle, Mochyn du, albeit the opposition he was facing was absolutely exceptional. Absolutely beat the living daylights out of Watson, was competitive but clear enough against Collins, but outside of that every title fight he had at 160 tended to be an almighty struggle.

I'm a bit more sympathetic to Graham over the Brewer loss I guess. I think it was a good effort given his age and all the health problems he'd been having. It wasn't long before that the BBBofC were refusing to licence him.

You could always argue that he'd done the hard work against Jackson and should have just been clowning him until the eye gave out, rather than taking a risk like that, but I think Graham was just doing what came naturally to him. A knockout in those circumstances is gutting....But he was in there with arguably the greatest knockout artist of them all, who pulled several fights out the fire or ended them in a split second like that throughout his career. It's not as if he was unprepared or taking liberties to get himself knockout by a fighter who was never in his class, ala Lewis against Rahman for instance.

Still, I guess it's symptomatic of Graham's ultimately tragic career that you could look at any three of those losses and make a claim that they were the worst chance he missed. They all unravelled very differently, but all showed a chunk of those shortcomings which combined to make his overall career outside of those individual fights such a frustrating one.

Didn't help that he was in an absolute shark tank of a division, mind you. The Middleweight scene from the late eighties to early / mid nineties was absolutely insane, with a frightening amount of genuine talent passing through at one stage or another. Obviously a strong British and Irish crop with Graham, Benn, Eubank and Collins, along with a young Roy Jones, Hopkins, Toney, Reggie Johnson, Julian as well as John-David Jackson, Castro, McCallum, Nunn, Kalambay and then Gerald McClellan emerging near the end, too.

No average titlists to target there!

88Chris05 wrote:

Didn't help that he was in an absolute shark tank of a division, mind you. The Middleweight scene from the late eighties to early / mid nineties was absolutely insane, with a frightening amount of genuine talent passing through at one stage or another. Obviously a strong British and Irish crop with Graham, Benn, Eubank and Collins, along with a young Roy Jones, Hopkins, Toney, Reggie Johnson, Julian as well as John-David Jackson, Castro, McCallum, Nunn, Kalambay and then Gerald McClellan emerging near the end, too.

No average titlists to target there!

Most of them came later...........

Kalambay (WBA).......Dewitt....Barkley....Sims...McCallum
Nunn..... (IBF)....Tate....Barkley.....Kalambay...Roldan....
Tate.........(IBF)....Sibson....Olajide...
Dewitt......(WBO).....Sims....Hilton....
Barkley.....(WBC).....Duran.....

Plenty of defences there for a well managed Graham that didn't sleep walk against the inferior Kalambay and McCallum...

In a similar vein to the Dirrell-Froch fight above, Lou Del Valle threw it away against Virgil Hill. Great first two rounds, two good final ones - absolutely nothing in between. Had Hill beaten stylistically but just didn't put his foot on the gas when he should have. Again, could debate whether Hill was a true great or just really, really good (I'd go with the latter) but still a big chance wasted by Del Valle.