When Australia's Billy Dib fought a handful of bouts in the United States between 2006 and 2008, he quickly developed a well-earned reputation as an unwatchable fighter.
Although Dib was fast and talented, with a bit of charisma and an outgoing personality, it wasn't enough to overcome what fans saw of him in the ring -- a running style that was excruciating to watch.
He was dumped by Golden Boy Promotions and essentially blackballed by American television networks. In fact, when he was due to face Miguel Angel "Mikey" Garcia for a vacant world title, HBO refused to buy the fight because it wanted no part of Dib. Garcia (who would eventually win a title) gave up the opportunity to fight Dib for a belt, instead electing for a televised nontitle bout.
Plain and simple, Dib was the stinker of all stinkers. The ultimate indignity came in 2008 when he suffered his lone career defeat -- a decision loss in a horrendous featherweight world title fight against Steven Luevano on the Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik pay-per-view undercard in Atlantic City, N.J.
Without a prayer of making it in the United States with his style, Dib, who absorbed withering criticism, went home to Australia. Many fight fans hoped it would be for good.
Dib eventually realized he would need to change his ways if he wanted to make something of himself as a major draw in boxing. Although most in the U.S. haven't bothered to pay attention to Dib over the past few years, he discovered that he could still win while also pleasing the crowd.
So what transformed Dib from a human sleeping pill into a watchable top-10 featherweight?
He credits his hooking up with trainer Billy Hussein not long after his return to Australia. Hussein had trained his own brothers, former flyweight contender Hussein Hussein and former featherweight contender Nedal Hussein, as well as former flyweight and junior bantamweight titlist Vic Darchinyan. All three were crowd-pleasers.
a bit too young to know about nedal and pac
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at that KO
