The nights spent listening to Radio 2 of all the big fights and imagining just being there. Thanks for bringing back some great memories RTR...
My pleasure sir, we were spoiled rotten lol The Ali years, the middleweight years then the super middleweight years, what a time to be a boxing fan... superb!!!!!
I just watched the You Tube of the fight... the cameraman in the corner in round one must have been crapping himself... imagine being that close and feeling and hearing every punch for what must have been 30 seconds...
I'm fairly certain it was Vito Antuafermo (or some similar spelling) .. thats who Minter beat to gain the title but of course it was on home soil.
Agreed I didn’t mention his view on that result as it had already been mentioned, but yes that was why he walked away. (and yes I thought he’d won) Still took a strong character not to get drawn back for a big payday though. Made his decision and stuck to it.
That was no excuse for the disgusting scenes which at the time I thought was a case of bad losers not being able to accept their man was well beaten. but looking back on it was a lot to do with racism.
He was also robbed against the unpronounceable bloke who Minter then took the title off when they called it a draw.
As Mark Twain said " “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Minter had the clean cut look that made you think he was respectable but he was a bit of a wrong un. Along with The Finnegans. I worked with a cockney lad a long time ago who had dealings with them and they were scary, my mate went in a boozer in South London to drop their wages off. Said he thought he was going to die when he walked in. As soon as he said he was dropping the boys wages off he was ok and was told to leave it on the bar and go. My mate said will it be ok on there?? Said the look the barman gave him told him it was fine!!! No one would dare touch it.
Spot on. The fight might have been in Italy. On the riveria. Hagler hammered him, but couldn't stop him. The champion got an iffy draw. Minter beat Antifermo, then had a couple of easy regulation defences, then met Hagler at the old Wembley arena. I think Minter boxed once or twice after then retired when Dave Boy Green stopped him.
Back in those days when you fought away from home, especially in Italy, you needed a death certificate to get the win.
Henry Cooper got floored by an Italian heavyweight in Italy by two shots to the family jewels. Then got up and whacked him with the hammer. He didn't get up until next week.
Was it in Italy where Nigel Benn, (who Hagler once said before Benn fought Hagler's brother "The way that guy fights I'm glad to be retired - he's more brutal than I was") left his opponent (Galvani?) refusing to get off his stool and still lost, at least initially as it was overturned? I think it was the fight he ripped his license up and binned his manager, Ambrose Mendy. I recall the interviewer (I think Jim Rosenthal) asking him at ring side "how do you feel". From Benn's face. it looked like he was one split second decision away from killing him. EDIT: Sorry if this detracts from Marvelous Marvin for a moment, but I had to google. It was Gary Neubon at around 24 minutes, and they were trying for a draw when he wouldn't get off his stool.
It was - I remember reading a Ring magazine article quoting where judges of some fights were told the result of bouts by Mafia fixers well before the fight; basically they were told ''so and so wins ....... or else''
Boom Boom never fought Dave boy green Different weight class. It was sibson and hagler fought antuofermo in Vegas apart from that...
A golden age of boxing when boxers had proper monickers ‘Marvellous Marvin Hagler’ - what a legend and an absolute master at his craft. RIP
