Agree, and it amazes me when people talk about Steele (and rightly so), they always, always neglect to mention McAvoy with him... at that time too Mac beat 4 other American fighters, one being the L-HW cum HW Al kid McCoy, who fought Joe Louis, and then finished with a full 15 round tilt against none other than John Henry Lewis. you didn't see any of the other Top middleweights do this! McAvoy is Britain greatest middleweight, H2H, and Jock McAvoy verse Freddie Steele should have been made.
Lloyd Honeyghan v Donald Curry definitely no 1 for me it was an awesome performance.Nobody gave him a chance of winning
Not a title fight but still, Kirkland Laing’s victory over Roberto Duran in Detroit was unanimously named 1982’s Upset of the Year by all the leading boxing publications of the day including the Ring, Boxing Illustrated and KO/ World Boxing Magazine.
Walcott defeated West a couple months later. Not to take anything away from West, but he had only a dozen or so fights when he fought Walcott. Was it one of those pre-arranged fights? You know, you beat me this time, I'll beat you next time? West fought Walcott again in 1902 and lost. (Read your article in the Sweet Science about West). How many times did West fight Walcott? 5 times?
West had many more than a dozen fights. It certainly wasn't pre-arranged as West was a very late substitute. What did happen was Walcott carried West early. West had a weird reaction to the big event and looked lost in the first three rounds. I suspect Walcott could have buried him, though of course it's impossible to know. What then happened was West was revealed to be among the most durable fighters of the most durable era and held himself a very fine swatting punch. He hurt Walcott in the middle rounds and Walcott was unable to get him under control. The modern equivalent would be something like Chris Jenkins stepping in as a late substitute and beating Terence Crawford. It was a mad mental result.
I meant West had few fights for his first Walcott fight. And was later Walcott's sparring partner so they got along well I guess. West seemed to be a very tough guy. And Walcott...Jesus he was amazing. KO'd Joe Choynski!
Yes. but he is neither a middleweight and many people state quite categorically that in Terms of Boxing - England/Britain have NO Claim to him.
Didn't he start as a middleweight, and although he changed his nationality wasn't he born inCornwall?
what you've never heard this before... he left Britain as an Infant. NZ, Aus and even the States have more claim to his BOXING Career - Britain have NONE!
Yes, I know - what i'm saying is his record is incomplete. None of his British contests are in there. He didn't get off the boat, turn pro, and take on Smith, Choynski and Johnson. So he was a lot more experienced than his Boxrec record would suggest. Hard to say how much but given his background my guess is a lot.
Jones had already been blasted out by Johnson and Tarver and was shot. Calzaghe knew it himself and even wrote it in his autobiography years before that. That was not a great victory for Joe Cal and he knew it