Heavyweight fighters who never fulfilled their potential Part 1 – Joe Mesi

By Boxing News - 02/13/2015 - Comments

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By John Stevens: In this series of articles I want to look at the careers of some recent heavyweights who, as the title says, never fulfilled their full potential in the ring and have left us all with a ‘ what could have been’ scenario

First up is ‘baby’ Joe Mesi. The pride of Buffalo, New York, Joe first appeared on the scene in 1997 after claiming the New York state golden gloves title. His first 18 fights were against journeymen opposition whom he dispatched with ease, scoring 16 KO’s. He then had his first step up in class against the huge Cuban Jorge Luis Gonzalez, an inconsistent fighter who lost to Riddick Bowe and Michael Grant but also had victories himself over the likes of Renaldo Snipes, Greg Page and Alex Stewart. Mesi totally dominated Gonzalez, knocking him out in the 4th round and setting himself up for a meeting with the aging, but still dangerous, Bert Cooper. Again, Mesi dominated the fight scoring a TKO over Cooper in the 7th round

A few fights later Joe stepped in with the very dangerous David Izon, a contender in his own right who had previously given David Tua a torrid time before getting stopped late. In a very exciting encounter, Mesi finally caught up with Izon in the 9th and stopped him. The following year Joe came up against another decent prospect in Davarryl Williamson who a few fights later would shock Wladimir Klitschko in a world title fight by dropping him before getting stopped in the 5th.

Mesi came out and totally obliterated Williamson, who up to then had looked very solid, knocking him out cold in the first round in a very impressive performance indeed. Next up came a hard fought victory over a peak Monte Barrett in a give-and-take battle which saw both men hurt. After that Mesi had the pivotal fight that more or less ended his career. Vassily Jirov was a very dangerous cruiserweight who was coming off an epic battle with James Toney a few fights previous.

The steel-eyed Jirov looked very solid as a heavyweight and was up for this fight and ‘in the zone’. Nevertheless Mesi dominated the action throughout until he got careless and was floored in the 9th round. Hurt, Mesi was to fall another 2 times before clinging on to win. Some people argued that Jirov should have got the nod in this fight but Mesi totally controlled and dominated him for 8 rounds until he was caught and for me it was a deserved points victory. However, he suffered a subdural hematoma as a result of this fight and his future was suddenly in doubt. The Nevada boxing commission suspended his license as a result of this injury and Joe was blacklisted from fighting anywhere in the states as a result. He finally was allowed to box in certain parts of the country and scored 7 more victories before retiring in 2007 with a very impressive record of 36 fights, 36 wins (29 KO’s) making him one of the longest active undefeated professional boxers in the world for a heavyweight

How far could Joe Mesi have gone? Joe was active and at his peak just at the cusp when Lennox Lewis retired and Wladimir Klitschkos reign began. Whether he could have beaten either of these men is open to debate but for sure he would have been a worthy contender. A solid 6’2 and averaging 230lb Mesi was a highly skilled boxer with explosive punching power and also was a very humble, well mannered and respectful individual. It would have been interesting to see just where and how far he would have gone. Alas we will never know. But Mesi has left us with an undeniably very good boxing record indeed and if his career had not been cut short he would have been a handful for anyone out there at the time. I’m not sure what Joe is up to these days or whether he’s active in coaching or anything else to do with the sport, but wherever he may be, I wish him all the best and say thanks to him for some very memorable fights.



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