Sometimes a fighter can genuinely live up to their name and one such case is the rather unfortunate Ronnie Fails (0-6) a former Cruiserweight who fought between 1991 and 1997. Sadly, I believe in aptronym and as a result I assume if your name is “Fails” you are bound to suck at whatever you choose to do with your life and as Fails's record indicated he wasn't much of a boxer.

Fails made his professional debut in Augst 1991 and faced Bill Corrigan with Corrigan winning a decision, the two men rematched just months later with Corrigan again winning the bout. Amazingly Corrigan would later go on to fight a who's who of the heavyweight division including David Tua, Mike Weaver, Bruce Seldon, Frans Botha, David Izon, Wladimir Klitschko, Damon Reed and Joe Hipp.

Following the back to back loss to Corrigan it seemed as if Fails would try his luck against some one else, sadly that just gave the chance to Zeb Wilson to pick up a win, which he did over the 4 round distance. This was to be the last win for Wilson who was knocked out in a round in his next bout by the hard punching David Izeqwire (who later go on to win the IBO Cruiserweight title).

Fails returned to the ring just days after losing to Wilson and was stopped for the first (and only) time in his career by Steve Brewer. Brewer's win over was then followed by Brewer going 6-17 in a career that ended in 2000 and saw him facing a young and emerging Montell Griffin in 1994.

After the loss to Brewer Fails took a year and a half away from the sport before returning to the ring to face Rocky Graziano Jr (sadly no relation to the great Middleweight champion). Graziano, like Corrigan and Wilson managed to outpoint Fail over 4 rounds. Graziano himself had a bit of a bizarre career fighting his most recent fight in 2009 just 8 days before his 46th birthday and seems to have retired with a record of 4-1-0-1 (3).

Fails appeared to hang up his gloves after losing to Graziano and was out of the ring for over 3 and a half years before dusting off the old trunks and returning to the ring to face the wonderfully named Harry Funmaker. Funmaker would score a 4 round decision over Fail in what would be Fail's last fight as a professional. Amazingly Funmaker actually went on to have a trilogy of fights with Eric “Butterbean” Esch winning 1 of the 3 fights.

Whilst we do feel a little big sorry for Fail who seems to have been unluckily struck by nominative determinism it's interesting to see that a number of his opponents did fight in much bigger fights than Fail ever managed.

    What is in a name?

    Boxing nicknames (and even real names) range from the frankly stupid to the nonsensical. Here we hope to look at the best, worst and silliest names and the fighters who had those names.

    Archives

    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    2008 Olympics
    Adam Sandler
    Amateur Boxing
    Apollo Creed
    Aptronym
    Archak Termeliksetian
    Audley Harrison
    Best Nickname
    Boxing
    Boxing Nickname
    Boxings Most Stupid Nicknames
    Boxings Silliest Nickname
    Boxings Worst Nickname
    Candy
    Captain Cleopas Marvel
    Carl Weathers
    Darth Vader
    Denis Bakhtov
    Denis Grachev
    Derrick Chisora
    Derrick Murray
    Drago
    Dragos Son
    Evgeny Chuprakov
    Flyweight
    Funny Boxing Name
    Funny Name
    Funny Real Name
    George Best
    George Foreman
    George Strictly The Best
    Ghana
    Gun Hero
    Happy Gilmore
    Hard Worker
    Henry Buchanan
    Hiroyuki Hisataka
    Hitler The Killer
    Indonesia
    Japan
    Jerry Halstead
    Journeyman
    Jukebox Timebomb
    Lorenzo Parra
    Masaki Nakanuma
    Memorable Nickname
    Misleading Nickname
    Netherlands
    Nickname
    Nominative Determinism
    Octopus
    Oklahoma
    Olympics
    Orhan Delibas
    Pongsaklek Wonjongkam
    Prince
    Prince Octopus
    Prince Octopus Dzanie
    Proud Kilimanjaro
    Rabbit Tail
    Richel Hersisia
    Rick Repo
    Rocky
    Rodel Tejares
    Ronnie Fails
    Russian
    Sando First Son The Devil
    Sexy Soldier
    Shark Attack
    Sonny Liston
    Star Wars
    Strictly The
    Sugar Poo
    Sugar Poo Buchanan
    The Dutch Sonny Liston
    Trash Nakanuma
    Trenton Titsworth
    Turkey
    Turkish Delight
    Walter Ringo Star
    Whoop Dat Ass
    Wimpy
    Zimbabwe