I love this Hugh McIlvanney quote on the second Laguna fight: "Most boxers, faced with the demand for such an adjustment, would make a respectable lunge at it for a few minutes, then sag into resignation. The Scottish world champion, whose blindingly sudden and confusingly flexible left jab is not only his most telling weapon but the triggering mechanism for all his best combinations, might have been forgiven if he had gone that way…far from wilting he gained in assurance and authority as the moved into the final third of the contest. Time and again he turned back the spidery aggression of Laguna.” I like the echo, too, because Laguna had done something similar in his victory over Ortiz.
One of my early favorites. The Laguna and Duran fights were both on TV so that is how I was exposed to him. RIP Champion
Roberto Duran always said that Ken was one of the toughest men he ever faced in the ring. Roberto "You have much balls" Ken "You should know. You hit 'em often enough"
Jack Kid Berg is my pick for the 2nd best LW from UK. He beat (and lost twice), to top 10 all time LW Tony Canzeroni, as well as 2 wins over the great Kid Chocolate, who was 55-0 going into their 1st fight. Buchanan's first win vs Laguna, in that heat, is one of the best wins by a Brit abroad, imo.
Freddie Welsh was an absolutely outstanding British lightweight. And the man did get the better of Benny frickin Leonard in America's capital.
How was Duran able to get out of the mandatory rematch that was ordered by the commission. It would have made up for the controversial ending to their first fight. Was Duran scared? RIP Champ
I've been really low all day since seeing the news, it's just taken watching David Gilmour live in Gdansk on the telly playing the end solo of Comfortably Numb to boost my mood a bit. Buchanan sort of took his time climbing the mountain and wasn't at the summit for overly long, but while he was atop it he was a ****ing special fighter. I'm off to watch a bit of the first Laguna fight and raise a tot of Drambuie to him and I don't even like the fecking stuff. RIP Kenny.
They give him the ten bells at AJ-Franklin. Put a lump in my throat. A heterosexual one though, right? I hope they don't forget out in Tulsa. RIP Kenny.
That's nice to hear, I'd have been choked up a bit as well. In all truth, when I saw that you'd quoted my post I thought it was gonna be to call me a fanny for drinking Drambuie, so the ten bells and hetero throat lump cheered me up.
Oh s*&t, sorry, you're right, Welsh is #9 in my all time LW list. Literally forgot he was British, which is embarrassing given his name is Welsh. Ken was the 2nd greatest ever British LW, imo. He likely had the greatest jab of them all.
No apparent order -Ken Buchanan -Jack "Kid' Berg -Freddie Welsh -Dave Charnley -Eric Boon -Arthur Danahar -Dave Crowley -Jim Watt -Ronnie James -Harry Mason It almost seems sacrilegious leaving out Owen Moran, but I always thought of him as a featherweight.