Boxing Perspective: The Biggest Letdowns Of 2008

ByRobert Brizel

Miguel Angel Cotto
32-0 welterweight champ Cotto backed away from Margarito when the punishment became severe.

Amir Khan
Popular but overhyped Khan’s 18-0 lightweight record fell to Breidis Prescott in only 54 seconds. Britain had to relive Jerry Quarry vs. Jack Bodell all over again.

Marcos Ramirez
Ramirez blew a 25-0 record against Yuriorkis Gamboa and was knocked down twice in the second round and appeared to have been ‘quick counted’ out at nine by the Germans.

Andrey Tsurkan
Tsurkan could not get out of the twelfth round in his light middleweight ‘step up’ bout against unbeaten Alfredo Angulo and took a good pasting along the way.

First Arslan
Beaten in his native Germany, Arslan lost his WBA Cruiserweight title to veteran Guillermo Jones, getting stopped in the tenth round.

Tye Fields
With a 24 bout win streak dating back to 2001, 6’6” heavyweight Tye Fields lasted only 57 seconds against Monte Barrett, exposing the poor quality of Field’s opponents.

Carlos Quintana
Down twice in round one and unable to defend himself, Quintana blew a lucrative payday with Antonio Margarito when he lost a WBO title rematch to Paul Williams.

Tony Thompson
After winning 25 consecutive heavyweight bouts, a tired looking Thompson got kayoed in the eleventh round of an IBF/WBO Heavyweight title bout against Wladimir Klitschko.

Johnny Ruiz
Twice Johnny Ruiz went into Germany, and twice he was controversially decisioned by Nicolay Valuev in a WBA Heavyweight title bout, both announced as split decisions.

Vladimir Virchis
Virchis saw his world heavyweight rankings go up in smoke when he was decisioned by ex-cruiserweight champion Juan Carlos Gomez in a 12 round WBC eliminator.

Roman Greenberg
At 20-0, Israel’s first and greatest hope for a heavyweight title was no match for Cedric Boswell, who knocked out the limited Greenberg in two lopsided rounds.

Albert Sosnowski
Despite a 43-1 heavyweight record, Sosnowski was unable to beat veteran Zuri Lawrence over eight rounds and lost a decision in Brooklyn to the underdog.

Alex Bunema
The overhyped and overrated Bunema took a beating from Sergio Gabriel Martinez for all eight rounds, and failed to win the interim WBC Light Middleweight title.

James Toney vs Hasim Rahman
Toney, 40, and Rahman, 35, fought a meaningless and bloody heavyweight three round affair that was ruled a ‘No-Decision 3’ by the California State Athletic Commission.

Alonzo Butler
Unbeaten in 27 bouts, Butler was decisioned over ten rounds in the United States by Nigerian heavyweight Friday ‘The 13th’ Ahunaya in a major career setback.

Chazz Witherspoon
After 23 consecutive wins, the second cousin of ex-heavyweight champ Tim Witherspoon got decked twice by Chris Arreola and was then disqualified in the ring.

Rob Calloway
In his 16 year career, cruiserweight Calloway has 70 wins, and was undefeated in his last 14, only to lose a big fight ‘again’, this time to Russia’s Alexander Alexeev.

Joachim Alcine
A left hand from challenger Daniel Santos put Alcine on his backside, knocked out in his native Canada , losing a 30-0 record and his WBA Super Welterweight title.

Zab Judah
Melees aside, it’s the same story we’ve known all along, that Judah has failed to win his last four welterweight title bouts involving the WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO.

Edison Miranda
Fighting at a catch weight of 166 pounds rather than at middleweight, Miranda was knocked down three times in the Arthur Abraham rematch and was never in the bout.

Kermit Cintron
Cut and knocked down four times by Antonio Margarito the first time, and knocked out by Margarito the second time, Kermit never realized his welterweight potential.

Joan Guzman
Guzman, overweight for his lightweight title bout with Nate Campbell, was rushed to a hospital, dehydrated and coughing blood. The scheduled bout never took place.

Dimitri Kirilov
Kirilov, ignoring advice from trainer Freddie Roach, stood in front of Vic Darchinyan as a stationary target, and lost his IBF Super Flyweight title when he got knocked out.

Ricardo Mayorga
Mayorga allowed aging Sugar Shane Mosley to KO him with one second left in their scheduled twelve rounder. Mayorga, as well as his career, were ten counted out.