Is Michael Dokes overrated?? I think he is

I’m not sure that I can call someone overrated who never really received much appraisal to begin with. I don’t recall him getting a lot of coverage back in the day frankly. His name comes up semi-frequently in this forum but then again so do a lot of fighters who aren’t common with the general public. That said I think he was “ decent.” A fast handed boxer who could go fifteen rounds and could punch when he had to. His losing effort to Holyfield was probably my favorite fight of his...

 

All classical boxers get overrated on this forum meaning boxers from 2000 and under and the further back you go, the more overrated they get

 

Dokes was one of those hot and cold guys that looked great when he was on form but bad when he was not. Furthermore, he had durability issues.

 

No, I think he’s remembered well for what he was. I’ve actually never seen anyone on here overrate him

 

This. Who among us has ever called him great?

 

Great potential, but drugs ruined his career like so many other fighters. Sad.

 

No.
No one really rates him highly at all.

 

Where and which thread have you seen Dokes overrated? And by overrated, what does thou mean of Dynamite Dokes??

I loved watching the guy fight. As others have stated he had tremendous speed and KO power when needed. His bout with Holyfield is my favorite Heavyweight Slug-Fest of all time!!

 

Quite a few had him losing the second fight by a point. Even if you score it mildly for Weaver (and one can't really score it anything but close) it's a good performance against a good solid heavyweight in Weaver.

No-one see's him as a great fighter - ever.
He has a 78" reach the same as Evander Holyfield. His reach is longer than it appears.
He was aggressive in various fights. you might want to watch the first Weaver fight. Seldom has a heavyweight been so aggressive so early.
I'm not sure what slow without punching is. He had the quickest hands in the heavyweight division at one point.

He is short on the win column for sure. He has a couple of superb draw/losses but indeed they aren't wins.

Trouble is as soon as he was hitting the big time he went ballistic on cocaine and whiskey and was in a haze when he fought Coetzee. The loss to Holyfield when way past his best hints that he was a pretty good fighter.

 

Who overrated Dokes?

 

A lot of boxers did when past it. Dokes was plenty durable at his best.

 

He changed his style early on. He used to fly around the ring and had a style like Holmes. Terrific footwork and the ability to throw while moving those feet. But he put on some pounds and became a stationary fighter.Or some of those early stoppages convinced him he was a hitter. But a big style change prior to the Weaver bouts.

And he had a top notch amateur career and was a known commodity turning pro. Very highly regarded. But he fell off a cliff after that Weaver draw. He was fortunate the Cobb bout got stopped on the cut or he was well on his way to losing that fight too. And a guy like Cobb should be a made to order opponent for a guy like Dokes.

 

IMHO Dynamite Dokes is just PROPERLY Rated

 

I like Dokes, and I tend to think he gets the short shift around here. But, that said, in going over his record, his victories over ranked competition tended to be against guys who were in the 11-15 range (per Ring): Young, Rodriguez, Cobb, Gardner, Ball. Ocasio was there for the first fight, too, but rose into the top-10 by virtue of his draw with Dokes. So his only top-10 victories are over Ocasio II and Weaver I, which is suspect.

On one hand I give him credit for losing only to Coetzee, Holyfield, and Ruddock up to his bout with Bowe. Holyfield and Ruddock were certainly on hot streaks, and Coetzee was in the best shape of his career. By contrast, his contemporary Greg Page lost a lot more. And he had a serious rebound in the late 1980's after kicking cocaine. Both going into and coming out of the Holyfield fight, he was thought of as the third best heavyweight in the world, behind Tyson and Evander.

But, unlike Page, he never fought guys like Trevor Berbick, Renaldo Snipes, Page himself, Tim Witherspoon, James Tillis, Tony Tubbs, and later, Orlin Norris. Guys who were in the top-10 mix.

Now that I think about it, he probably would have been one of those guys who would trade wins and losses with each other had he fought stiffer competition. As it stood, he ran into trouble when he did face upper level competition: Weaver, Coetzee, Holyfield, and Ruddock.

Maybe y'all are right. Maybe Dokes is overrated.