Chubby Don wasn't always chubby, his Glandular Disease FORCED him up long before 1954. many, many people have stated, Coc kell might well have won the L-HW Title had his weight not troubled him, he could NOT shift it once it showed itself. Of course it was discovered a few years later he had developed Glandular Health Concerns. anyway he came into British Contention by 1948, he was on the radar for World Titles by 51. Now of course Boxing was much different then, TOP UK Fighters ALWAYS campaigned up, especial in pursuit of the bigger divisions, MW & L-HW shooting for HW, such was Britain's unrelenting need for the World HW Title. So Don would have had catchweight meets at HW anyway, But the EQUAL Push would have been to chase the L-HW title first, like Mills. So HW matches win or lose only add to the L-HW credibility, given that you are a L-HW first & foremost. So would the Don have succeeded, WHO would he have had to meet and beat circa those years or in 1952/53? btw, there are plenty of Picture of Coc kell up to 53 showing him a well built, strong and muscular L-HW and as we know he was a very good skilled Boxer. could he have done it?
He would have needed to beat Maxim or Moore at 175. IMHO, he would not have been able to pull either win off.
i think this was not necessarily a british preserve, until Mate Parlov I don’t think there had ever been another light heavyweight champion that had never fought a heavyweight.For the longest time the lightheavyweight division was really a stop off for big, older middle weights or younger, underweight heavyweights. A division within the heavyweight class open to lighter men within the ranks. So LH was barely a real division made up of men who fought exclusively against other LH opponents until about the 1970s. Regarding Don. My uncle was involved in boxing and lived until the 1990s, he swore that Don Cockell was the best british lightheavyweight he ever saw live…and he saw just as much of Harvey, Conteh and mills as he had seen of Don. He never let on to me what particular bout he witnessed that had made that impression on him, and without film, it’s difficult to find much to support this. But he knew his boxing, he saw it with his own eyes and could not be convinced that one particular performance he witnessed Don would have beaten any British LHW.
Cheers, good point on the Division in general, I certainly knew that L-HW understanding from bygone days, but your right it probably wasn't a true career division for too many fighters really, especially given the Greatest Prize in Sport, the HW Division being the Golden Fleece. Your Uncle wouldn't have been alone in that analyses, I think by the early 50s many UK Boxing Fans and people were having similar sentiments. I've always felt Sorry for Don Coc kell, I perhaps better than most, know first hand and by research, the goods on a lot of this period of UK fighters, but Coc kell 'might' have down it. I haven't checked the Rating for years as to Who Don would have meet in the Early 50s, certainly Moore would have been a hard ask for most fighters, Maxim, I wouldn't rule Don out, in fact that might have been a very good fight. Anyway I'll check the Ratings tomorrow, but it would be still good to get others thoughts on "the Don".
His only chance would have been if he got to Mills before Maxim. Even then, I think he was too green for Freddie. Freddie may have been on the downgrade, but he would have fought ferociously to keep his title. I think Don really came into his own after the first Matthews fight in 1953 when Don had fully committed to the heavyweight division. In addition to gaining enormous confidence, he picked up a lot of pointers from Harry and adopted many aspects of his style. Matthews himself said after either his second or third fight that Don was a much better fighter than he was for their first fight. Don also said as much in a filmed interview.
the Ring's Annual Ratings for L-HW, 1950s... so these are some of the Fighters Coc kell would have fought 1950-53 before he really became Chubby Don. The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: Light Heavyweight--1950s - BoxRec so outside of the fighter's he did meet, safe to say Moore, Johnson, and as already mentioned Maxim, would have been the expected fights I think. thoughts?
Don lost to Slade, as you know. As a light-heavy, he wouldn't have defeated Moore, Maxim, Johnson, Murphy (prior to 1953), or Matthews. I doubt that he could have defeated Satterfield or Bucceroni either. Nardico-Don would have been a close fight. Don probably would do okay against Bascom, Williams, Rux, and Pompey, but victories over those guys wouldn't have landed him a title shot. He still would have had to defeat at least one of the top-three contenders to warrant the go. And at the time, Jack Solomon was singing the blues about how Great Britain's high 35% post-war taxes were making it impossible to promote any major fights. He apparently hadn't made much money on the Savold-Woodcock fights even though they were well attended because of the tax situation. And Don as a light heavy would not have been the attraction that Woodcock was as a heavyweight. Remember that when he fought Matthews, Don outweighed him by 30 pounds in each of their fights. There is a film of the second fight which took place in England. Don won only by 1/4 of a point on the referee's card, the thinnest margin possible. There's no way he could have beaten Matthews at 175, but with Don checking in at 210 plus he was just too darn big for Matthews to handle. Also, as I said in my prior post, Don became a better fighter technique-wise a few years later when he fought as a heavy. As a light-heavy his full skill set and confidence hadn't yet arrived.
