Tommy Ayers - The ferrari that misfired !!!.

Not many Boxers that held the USBA and NABF titles simultaneously..Beat contenders like Stafford..Finch..Santana.... never fought for a World Title !!!...Probably the "Welterweight Ezzard Charles" is the only one...The three fighters above did.

Dubious distinction for sure..

Ohio's Tommy Ayers was no1 with the WBA and WBC at the same time....Unfortunately had a habit of losing on his way to the ball..

Born in 1963 he was NABF champion at 19...When he lost a close decision to Starling (Simon Brown underrated him too) when it seemed he would face Curry for Leonard's vacant WBA belt...Hwang stepped in and lost.

He then put together another bunch of wins and then lost to a journeyman in a warm up for a WBA shot at Breland..

Put some more wins together and lost a title eliminator against Mcgirt...Then quit at 27ish with a record of 28-4..

Classy..sharp punching Cincinnatian it is kind of shocking and sad seeing the likes of Larocca...Rodrigues...types fighting for the title in that era when he was a hundred times better.

Before Starling...Curry v Ayers would have been 60-40...and I'd have picked him to beat McCrory...

Ayers had class and potential but as is often the case..Potential is a dirty word..

But I and others remember him..So he made his mark in what I think is Boxing's greatest decade.

Rock on Tommy..

Good stuff, Truss. Interesting to me as Ayers is a bit of a blind spot of mine. Only ever seen his fight with McGirt as I've watched a lot of Buddy over the years. Obviously not a great showing for him there, but his record is better than I'd imagined.

Also stopped another future champion in Santana....Although Santana was one of the worst of that generation to have champion status, and you'd have to say his world title comes with the mother of all asterisks next to it!

Hard to believe that even in the three (later four) belt era a guy with Ayers' record didn't get a title shot, but there you go. Even someone like Randall who was clearly gifted and had a solid record didn't get his first title opportunity until he was 32, even if some of that was self-inflicted because of his prison term. But he'd looked in line for a title shot before then, as he had before he lost to Rosario, and in between that watched someone like Pendleton get a shot before him despite being 1-0-1 against him.

Who knows, maybe if he hadn't retired so young Ayers might have done the same as Randall and finally got there at a more advanced age?...But I guess those back-to-back early stoppage losses at the end of his career suggested he was on the wane regardless of how young he still was.