Although I have not seen him for a year or so I used to bump into Ken Buchanan in some of Leith's less salubrious rub-a-dubs. Really nice guy who liked to keep himself to himself unless you treated him like an equal. We had great conversations about his fights at Madison Square Garden including the time he shared a dressing room with the then Cassius Clay. You would love his narrative concerning the bout with Roberto Duran. Of special interest to me was his judgement on the competition between Duran, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and, my favourite, Sugar Ray Leonard. When you think that this weight division also had Alan Minter, Vito Antuofermo, Iran Barkley and others about at the same time it certainly was a golden age.
On the heavyweight division my 'man' will always be Joe Frazier.
Good morning, Cyc.
Yes, I have to agree that Ali transcended the sport and, sadly, we missed his best years through his draft dodging.
My father fought professionally and was mad on boxing. He was immensely proud that one of his best friends, Tommy Marren, a lightweight, was awarded the Jem Mace belt for his contribution to boxing.
Did you know that Jem Mace was really the first heavyweight champion of the world, although the distinction was given to John L. Sullivan?
More to the point, my father kept me up from when I was six years old listening to big fights on the relay radio. My earliest recollection was listening to Don Cockell fight Rocky Marciano for the title.
When we finally got a TV set, we used to watch the “Fight of the Week “ on BBC TV and, boy, I used to love some of those!
As a teenager, I read most of the life stories of the early heavyweight champions.
Fascinating, some of them.
My father worked with a man who went to Canada to watch the title fight between Corbett and Fitzimmons. He said that the whole experience was unbelievable.
Apparently Corbett dominated for most of the fight but Fitzimmons,who was really only a slip of a middleweight who didn’t train and ate and drank too much, just would not quit. Also, he had a devastating body punch to the solar plexus- and that gave him victory.
After the fight, pandemonium broke out and Corbett’s father, who had gambled all he owned on his son, put a gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.
Fitzimmons was certainly underrated and held world titles at three different weights.
No sport causes more disagreements as to who was the best boxer/fighter at different weights. For my money, I should rate Roberto Duran as the best pound-for-pound fighter I ever saw.
Sadly, he tends to be remembered more for his loss to Sugar Ray Leonard in their rematch than for his fantastic achievements. The only pro boxer to win fights in five decades, he was virtually unbeatable as a lightweight and held titles at four different weights. A fantastic fighter!
Close behind, I should put Carlos Monzon. Unbeaten in a thirteen year period, he was the complete boxer come fighter.
I never saw Sugar Ray Robinson, but he,Ali,and Jack Dempsey were my father’s favourites.
I should give a special mention to old Archie Moore. A great light heavyweight!
He was 38 years old when he fought Marciano for the heavyweight championship and, but for a referee’s blunder, would almost certainly have won the title and spoiled Marciano’ s perfect record. Moore put Marciano down with a terrific right (for only the second time in his career) but the referee gave him a mandatory count of eight- not introduced nor allowed at that time.
As an aside, Cyc, did you know that Moore had a fantastic method of losing weight? I remember his fighting an Italian called Rinaldi in a non-title fight. He was vastly overweight with spare tyres round his stomach- and lost on points.
A few months later, Rinaldi fought him for the light heavyweight title and Moore, fit and trim as a butcher’s dog, gave him a boxing lesson.
Apparently, the aborigines taught Moore how to lose weight by “chewing the cud.”
What do you think of that?
All the best, Cyc.
