Biggest Recent Underachiever in British Boxing..?

Reading here about the subject of  British over-achievers, I wondered who might be seen as being the exact oppposite. Fighters who just didn’t fulfil anywhere near their potential.

So rather than going off on a tangent for the nth time on another thread, thought that  I’d posit this myself; as I don’t think Scottish fighter Scott Harrison  has been mentioned even in passing on this board.

He held the WBO featherweight title twice between 2002 and 2005. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth featherweight title from 2000 to 2002 and the British featherweight title in 2001.

It seemed to me that his career was ideally placed as a WBO  title holder,  and I assumed along with the pundits (McGuigan once tipped him as the next big thing) that he would have a really decent career, surely good enough to see off domestic challengers for a considerable stretch of time to come at the very least.

He quickly lost however on his second defence but did regained the title (from ‘evergreen’ Mexican Manuel Medina), along with roughing up Wayne McCullough along the way ( no easy feat) but subsequently failed to make weight for an Alexander Arthur scrap which never materialised, Harrison citing depression as a cause.

Sadly he seemed to go on a downward spiral over the course of the next decade and beyond, getting dropped by promoter Frank (now Kelley) Maloney as a result.

He seemed to permanently on the verge of a big comeback, but his latter fights were sporadic and increasingly minor affairs. In April 2013 Harrison challenged Liam Walsh for the WBO European lightweight title. Harrison lost the bout in a unanimous decision, scoring 98-92 and 97–93, 97-93 from the three judges.

Surprisingly, he was still active in 2020, and as far as I know, hasn’t announced retirement.

Not sure anyone will ever beat Herol Graham...

A guy who impressed me early in his career was Scotty Cardle...Thought he had plenty of talent but then he struggled with the willing but limited Dodd and went downhill...

Disappointment.

Tyson Fury? Beats long reigning HW champions in Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder but only ever defends his title(s) twice - once against DW (third fight - which he tried to avoid) and once against Dillian Whyte before retiring. After beating Klitschko has some sort of mental breakdown and balloons up in weight - misses over two years in his prime and then returns to face two non-entities.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Not sure anyone will ever beat Herol Graham...

A guy who impressed me early in his career was Scotty Cardle...Thought he had plenty of talent but then he struggled with the willing but limited Dodd and went downhill...

Disappointment.

Ah, wasn’t aware of Cardle at all. Sounded tasty and certainly achieved something in the game. I was expecting good things from Gary Stretch, a light middleweight  early nineties. He did well on a domestic level and ( getting mugged off by the ref in his fight with Eubank Senior)picked up an international bauble but went on to better things in acting, particularly  the excellent Shane Meadows film, Dead Mans Shoes.

Bertie I think that's a really good point. Given that he has beaten both Wilder and Klitschko (the number 1 and 2 in the division) he could have been SO much more, but hasn't really done much else.

James De Gale might be a good shout. Chunky was touted as being brilliant after his Olympic Medal. Instead he lost a close decision to George Groves after under-estimating and insulting him in a frosty build up, which put him back to headlining fights at leisure centres nobody went to.

He eventually won the vacant IBF SM title but didn't really do much with it before drawing against Badou Jack in a unification bout then losing to Caleb Truax of all people. He did win the belt back in the immediate rematch, but he then just meekly gave up the belt without much in the way of reasons. The much-touted unification rematch once Groves got a belt never happened. His final fight was of course against Chris Eubank Jr, a fight in his prime he should have easily won.

He was a switch hitting southpaw with a good dig, which should have made him an issue for some fighters. Instead, he was just a bit "meh".

I lost a few quid on the Eubank scrap, Bounce.I just couldn’t see him losing it but James really lost his mojo. Can’t help but wonder that there was some behind the scenes stuff going on with him as he edged fights that he should have been way ahead in, in my opinion. He certainly liked to take his foot off the gas and thinking about it now perhaps there’s a comparison with Andrade to be made there? Definitely didn’t do what he could or should have. Nice shout.

Obviously hard to look past Bomber Graham, as Truss has already mentioned. He found a different way to lose them all from positive or winning positions, but the McCallum, Jackson and Kalambay (rematch) fights all stick in the craw.

I was massively disappointed with how Groves' career panned out, too. Those losses to Froch virtually emptied him - he regressed horrendously in the ring after them, but to be honest I was always taken aback by how much they seemed to impact him psychologically as well as physically. Always seemed to be a slightly unnerving and odd feel to his interviews, appearance and demeanour after that night at Wembley. I guess he really was 'Cobrad' as Froch liked to brag! Got his hands on a WBA title eventually, but even that had to be achieved by a little bit of careful manoeuvring and manipulation.

Spoke about him on another thread recently, but I'm still annoyed with Kevin Mitchell, too. Just wouldn't take his career seriously until it was too late. The Mitchell who showed heart and application against Linares could (and probably even should) have easily beaten guys like Katsidis or Burns.

Could there be a case for Brook? was touted and talked about as if he was going to be absolutely huge, looked very very good coming up through the ranks and always seemed just on that cusp of super stardom, and then for some reason accepted the GGG fight and that for me is what finished him.

Still a good career but thought he would ahve been a lot more.

Ryan Rhodes for me; always felt he was the real class of the British middleweight scene during the late 90's and throughout the 00's but inexplicably lost to Otis Grant, Jason Matthews and whoever Lee Blundell is before drifting for years. He seemed to commit fully again later in his career, winning a barnstormer against Jamie Moore, that victory aside though his whole career seems a waste.

Awkward southpaw with decent power.

Rhodes made a bit of a lovejoy of himself by hyping himself during  up post match interviews very much on the style of Nas. The old BrendanIngle style only got Nas so far until his ego took over, Rhodes was slick for sure, but made the same mistake as his mate from Sheffield. As you say, he did at least address his mistakes and made a decent fist of it latterly, so credit to him there.

@Derek, was going to say something similar myself on Rhodes. It's the pitfall of a certain trainer or certain gym becoming synonymous with one style of fighting. Ingle's guys were so wedded to that style that it often came at the expense of developing the fundamentals to match with the natural talent they all had. Good as Rhodes was, he wasn't Bomber or Naz.

Have said it before, but reminds me a little of guys like Josh Kelly and Anthony Fowler these days. Obsessed with looking 'slick, stylish' or whatever, but not having the tools to succeed with that style (so far at least) anywhere past high domestic / Commonwealth level. Watching them you wonder if they've ever actually worked on the basics in the gym at times.

Am I being unfair in thinking that Ingle would place more emphasis on the latter part of the maxim, Hit and don’t get hit…?
Also, I’m not quite sure if I don’t find “the Method” a bit too negative.
Graham had the whole package-except a hard punch. Rhodes was caught short at the top level and re-educated himself. Johnny Nelson insists that he was taught from scratch by Ingle and in fairness he did get some success eventually. Naseem clearly believed that Ingle only had a minimum influence to his success. Having grown up admiring the Method, I see it as a bit of a curate’s egg.

And I wasn’t the only person to wonder if two fighters who worked with Adam Booth, Haye and Groves, tried a bit too hard to impress on occasion instead of actually doing something constructive.

Personally I would like to see more of a hands-up defence make a return. I know there’s a benefit from swinging from the hip, but it’s really only for the truly gifted stylist in my opinion.

Lewis Ritson............I don't think he has been matched very well but when he destroyed Cardle...Hyland...and looked good against others......I thought Hello.

He looked compact...Had power...A decent attack.......and I honestly thought he could do something but I've been surprised how much he has fallen back..

Felt the same about John Murray who flattered to achieve....