Ranking the Most Overhyped Fighters in Boxing Today
We’ve all seen the type. The fighter who gets on television early on in a career amid breathy commentary that all but ensures a bust in Canastota—even before he advances past sub-.500 opposition.
Then, once the fighter discovers the next tier, the promise quickly evaporates.
Of course, that’s not the only available definition of overhyped.
Some who were oversold actually have good careers against the flotsam and jetsam—some even win title belts—but ultimately they fall short when finally matched with the true elites.
Click through to take a look at our selections and drop in some of your own in the comments.
7. Zou Shiming
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All the stars were in perfect alignment.
Chinese amateur phenom Zou Shiming turned professional, rode shotgun on a pair of Manny Pacquiao's pay-per-view excursions to Macao and was ready to step out on his own and win a professional world title in just his seventh paycheck fight.
But that's where the Top Rank-orchestrated fairy tale ended, at least temporarily.
Instead of downing 30-something Thai veteran Amnat Ruenroeng to capture a belt at 112 pounds, Shiming found himself on the losing end of a fight in which Ruenroeng was knocked down but still managed to win nine of 12 rounds on all three official scorecards.
And in the aftermath, Shiming's glitzy confidence suddenly turned to quiet introspection, while both his trainer and his promoter began eyeing other Asian sensations.
"It is part of life," Shiming said. "Without losing you cannot fully enjoy the sweet taste of victory. This is the beginning of a new journey."
6. Chris Arreola
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Californian Chris Arreola was a made-for-TV entertainer.
He talked a lot of junk, loved to go in the ring and mix it up with no pretense and seemed ready to become the first Mexican-American to capture a heavyweight title.
Then, Vitali Klitschko happened. A 10th-round stoppage loss resulted when the two met for the WBC crown in September 2009, and Arreola has yet to regain anything resembling similar status in the six years since.
He dropped a majority decision to former light heavyweight champ Tomasz Adamek in an eliminator two fights after the Klitschko loss, and he was beaten by previously unknown Bermane Stiverne over 12 one-sided rounds in 2013. A second match with Stiverne a year later, this time for Klitschko's vacated WBC title, resulted in another loss—this one by stoppage.
The tattooed Californian has fought twice since against tuneup-level opposition, but a majority draw against 18-3 Fred Kassi in July indicates the sell-by date on the Nightmare might have arrived.
5. Andre Berto
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HBO was hot and heavy for Andre Berto and his strong familial connections to Haiti as he climbed the contender ladder, and it broadcast his entry to championship status with a stoppage win over Miguel Angel Rodriguez in 2008.
The win earned him the WBC title that Floyd Mayweather Jr. had vacated during a brief retirement, but that’s where the comparisons between Berto and the best of the best at 147 pounds come to a screeching halt.
He racked up five title defenses against a steady stream of former 140-pounders or flat-out fringe challengers, and then Victor Ortiz outhustled and outpointed him in a 12-rounder that gave the Californian the shot at a Money superfight that Berto had craved.
Four subsequent fights yielded two particularly brutal losses to Robert Guerrero and Jesus Soto Karass, which left Berto’s face a swollen mess and prompted some to say he ought to call it a career.
But this is boxing, so of course Berto is getting the Mayweather shot now.
A $100 wager on him will earn $1,600 in the event of an upset, according to early lines set at Bovada.lv, while a $10,000 outlay is required on Mayweather to return a $100 profit.
"Considering how big a favorite Floyd is in this fight, it will not come close to the money we saw in the Pacquiao fight, which was our biggest bet fight ever," Kevin Bradley, Bovada.lv's sports book manager, told Bleacher Report. "We do expect the average casual bettor to throw a few bucks hoping for the upset at 16-1, and even though volume will not be as high, our exposure on Berto will probably be pretty big at those odds."
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4. Tyson Fury
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Take a heavyweight fighter who actually stands three inches taller than the consensus champion, add a respectable but hardly awe-inspiring victims list and you have yourself a Tyson Fury.
Then ratchet up the rhetoric, and Fury has himself a title shot.
The unbeaten 26-year-old gets a long-awaited audience with Wladimir Klitschko on Oct. 24, though the long-reigning Ukrainian kingpin seems to have a good handle on whether the imminent challenger is more style than substance.
"This fight with Fury is pretty much the same situation as it was with David Haye. Fury does have a big mouth and is more famous for that than his fighting," Klitschko told ESPN (via SkySports).
""Fury’s young. He’s a little bit off in his head, but he is going to come to fight. David Haye pushed me with all his talk and I had fun with it. It was very tense, but it was fun. I think with Tyson Fury, who knows what he will do. I look forward to it. It will be fun. The press conferences will not be boring. But I’ve heard it before and seen it before."
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3. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
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It’s almost a no-win situation for the son of a Hall of Famer, and to be fair, progeny Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has fared far better than the sons of similarly legendary dads.
He spent eight years working the novice circuit and hearing the claims that he was a fraud, before finally joining the belted class with a disputed majority-decision defeat of Sebastian Zbik in 2011.
Grudging respect began trickling in after defeats of Peter Manfredo, Marco Antonio Rubio and Andy Lee, but a one-sided loss to Sergio Martinez and an even more disputed “win” over Brian Vera turned public opinion back against him. An ill-advised move to light heavyweight yielded a resounding loss to Andrzej Fonfara, and a bounce-back fight against Marcos Reyes last month was talked about far more because of Chavez's big weight advantage than for anything he actually did with his fists.
Add in his past issues with post-fight urine tests, and it seems clear that Chavez is destined for a prolonged career with “overhyped” permanently attached.
2. Deontay Wilder
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Let's be fair. Deontay Wilder is a former Olympic medalist, and he's the first American in a long, long time to have the phrase "heavyweight champion" attached to his bio—even if his claim to the title will remain dubious so long as Wladimir Klitschko remains vertical.
He deserves credit for what he's achieved.
But, short of a surprising (to some) defeat of Bermane Stiverne that earned him the WBC crown, the Bronze Bomber hasn't done a whole lot to raise his profile beyond that of a well-connected wannabe.
His last two fights before Stiverne—against never-weres Malik Scott and Jason Gavern—were difficult to watch for different reasons, and his lone post-Stiverne defense against unheralded Eric Molina became more of an indictment with each passing round.
Wilder eventually dispatched a happy-to-be-there Molina in the ninth, but a rumored next defense against completely unqualified Englishman Hughie Fury (who's never had a scheduled 12-round fight, let alone won one) won't help move the perception needle anywhere near positive territory.
1. Adrien Broner
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The Cincinnati-born stylist, still precocious at age 26, has provided multiple glimpses of in-ring greatness while racking up title belts at 130, 135 and 147 pounds.
He often refers to Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a "big brother," and, when it comes to jewelry-copping achievements as a preposterously gifted 20-something, the comparisons are perfectly apt.
Both have unmistakable physical gifts. Both never fail to come to work in pristine condition. And both have the skills to not only win fights against credible foes but also to look spectacular in doing so.
But when adversity arrives, Broner's undisputed aura quickly fades.
His loudmouth act was initially silenced by Marcos Maidana in an upset loss that cost him a share of the 147-pound throne, and his latest attempt to regain lost status came in June, when a more willing Shawn Porter simply outworked him for the majority of 12 rounds en route to a clear, unanimous win.
Broner was still Broner in the aftermath, telling NBC's broadcast crew, "I'm OK. My kids OK. I'm financially fine. It's OK. At the end of the day, everybody in here will take my autograph and take a picture with me."
A career rebuild is unquestionably necessary, and Broner claims he'll be fighting again on Oct. 3. But unless a new dedication comes with the new incarnation, there's a chance we've already seen as good as it's going to get.
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