Unknown / forgotten fighters who fascinate you or that where special?

Ah...…...yeah that's a pity. They'll be back though. Always are.

 

i really liked watching Bernard Taylor, Kinda hooked me on the sport watching him on NBC and Espn in the early 80.'s. Great boxer

 

and I am repeating myself like I went 12 rounds with Liston-----but tommy Cordova, Robin Blake, Tyrone Crawley, Tony Baltazaar { spelling?}
OK done,,,,,

 

He was a good puncher for sure.

 

Does anyone remember a fighter that was featured in the boxing news- {around 1983-4}------he had an amputated leg. I believe a HW. Forgot his name and what ever happened to him. Always interested me. Any help?

 

Cruiserweight Craig “Gator” Bodzianowski, who fought for the WBA title. From the Chicago area. Tough guy.

 

A few come to mind:

Jimmy Heair — lightweight/junior welter who fought all over; for a time based out of New Mexico and then I think California, couldn’t quite get over the hump in the bigger fights but iron-chinned (until later in his career) and skilled but didn’t have any other exceptional physical abilities (like speed, power, reach, etc.). I got to know him a bit after his fighting days and he had badly slurred speech but a sharp mind … me and my brother actually co-promoted a fight with him in a small town where he was living and he seemed really touched that we kept him in the loop on every facet all the way up to the card and then sat down with him and counted every dollar and penny and split it right down the middle (as agreed, which came IIRC to several hundred dollars each).

Shig Fukuyama — Japanese feather/junior lightweight who relocated to the West Coast and fought just about everybody around. Noted for a bloody battle lost to Sean O’Grady that was televised, he ended with a long string of losses to top names but also beat Danny Lopez and a couple of other pretty good fighters along the way. A warrior.

Alex Garcia — a crude but powerful heavyweight from California who was a cable TV staple in the mid-1990s. Had some pop, beat the C-level guys and had some memorable scraps with B-level guys but wasn’t quite contender material (although he may have been ranked at some point). Landed a couple TV/movie roles IIRC … had the menacing tough-guy look down.

 

Tury "The Fury" Pineda!

 

Although not unknown, Hedgemon Lewis is somehwat forgotten. He was a really good welterweight who was often featured on the televised Thursday night fights from the Olympic Audtorium. Although he lost both of his title challenges to the great Jose Napoles, he did beat Ernie Lopez, Oscar Albarado, Percy Pugh, Johnny Gant and Billy Backus twice. He also fought to a draw with Carlos Palomino. Lewis finished his career losing a welterweight title shot against John Stracey.

Lewis always gave a good account of himself. He came to fight, was always entertaining and if you were going to beat him you had to work hard to do it.

 

I really liked Pineda. He came around at basically the same time as Bobby Chacon and Danny Lopez. While he wasn't on their level, his fights were really fun to watch until he seemed to get old overnight.

 

A gatekeeper of sorts.

 

Jesse James Hughes

 

Toluco Lopez
Bob Baker
Johnny Summerlin
Dario Hidalgo
Ruben Navarro
Dwight Hawkins
Curtis Parker

 

Harold Brazier
Tony Thornton
Freddie Pendleton
Wilbert “ vampire “ Johnson

 

Love that guy. Indomitable will.