Billy Graham - Beautiful Boxing

Such concise, intertwined movements with his hands and feet. Such awesome mind - muscle connection from pure skill training, and not just ultra elite genetics.

 

6 years older, 10 pounds lighter. Absolute class.

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My Dad was friends with Billy Graham back in the 50s-60s. I don’t remember the circumstances by which they met but perhaps some sort of a business deal. Unsure.

I met Graham as a kid in the early 70’s. My father surprised him pulling up in front of his home in NY as he was doing yard work. He had a very modest (small) but well maintained home from memory. They chatted for a while and that was that.

 

Not the best quality, but here is coloured footage of the awesome Graham in action. I think you would like this @red cobra

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1922-1992...Stylish fighter...beat Sugar Ray Robinson in the amateurs in NYC. In his first 58 fights...he was 52-0-6...fought all of the top lightweights and welterweights...was robbed in his title fight against Kid Gavilan for the welterweight title in 1951. His last fight was in 1955. He ended up at 102-15-9.

 

Although I new of him had hardly ever seen any footage of him, some of that stuff was beautiful.

 

His fights with Joey Giardello (who was also a skilled operator himself) is also worth a look as well, beautiful stuff from both guys.

 

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I don't know, why I didn't notice, when you posted this last year… but several of those old-timer KO percentages are way off.

Tommy Gibbons 77, McFarland 67, Walker and Langford both 50... all much too high. Not to mention Benny Leonard, who stopped less than 1/3 of his opponents!

 

Both Billy Graham and Rocky Graziano were managed by Irving Cohen. Graziano was far more popular and exciting than Graham, but I feel that Graham was the better fighter of the two.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Has to be one of the best welterweights never to win a world title. When you think of some of the fighters who have held world titles in the last 20 years, it's a travesty that Graham was never called a world champion.

The Ws on his record - Gavilan, Basilio, Giardello - world champs all. There aren't many fighters with a resume like that who never won a world title.

 

I think you are right. Although they appear on Leonard's record lower down the page, I don't think boxrec is counting the newspaper decisions. According to them, he's only got 97 fights with 70 KOs.

 

Yeah, that's the problem - for some reason they don't include newspaper decisions in the KO%. Which in many cases results in some strange numbers. Greb, for example, is listed with a KO% of 40... when, in reality, it's only 16! Completely misleading, of course.

 

Class fighter, class thread and class poster. Thanks again RC