Which is the Greatest of All time among the War Veteran Fighters ?? Barney Ross ? Joe Louis doesn´t count because he didn[t really fought in war shooting enemies and all that crazyness... I had the idea for this thread when I learned that Mike Weaver was a Vietnam Veteran...
Barney Ross hands down. Max Schmeling was forced by Hitler into the parachute division but I don't know Max's war time record.
Lew Jenkins had an entire second career in the military after he retired from boxing - ironically, he displayed the discipline there that he lacked throughout his boxing career & became a highly decorated badass.
Georges Carpentier was sergeant aviator during WWI. He served 18 months before getting wounded and returning to civil life in 1918. He was awarded both the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille Militaire. He also served during WWII, as an instructor for the Air Force, I believe. That explains the popularity he enjoyed when fighting Jack Dempsey on US soil on 2 July 1921 (boxing first million dollar gate): Dempsey, who at the times was harshly criticized for being "a slacker" and having avoided the draft, was booed going in the ring, whereas Carpentier - hugely popular on both sides of the Atlantic, and hailed a war hero - was cheered by US fans.
Eugène Criqui won the world featherweight title in 1923. In 1915 during the first world war, a portion of his jaw was shattered by a snipers bullet in Verdun.
Ross, I think. He was a Marine on Guadalcanal, and apparently single-handedly staved off repeated attacks from the Japanese while protecting some wounded buddies one night. He ran low on ammo and resorted to throwing rocks at them at some point. He was wounded and while hospitalized got introduced to morphine, which he became addicted to and eventually recovered from. The film "****** On My Back" details his struggle.
Oh that's a great one! And the fact that he managed to fight around 60 fights after recovering from his injury is incredible! One of his last fights was against Panama Al Brown Well, that was before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq!
Yes, Dempsey was actually reviled for much of his title reign in the same way Holmes & Ali were - he was one of boxing's "champs you love to hate." It was only after he lost the title that he became a beloved figure.
If I remember rightly, two Canadian Champions were decorated War Heroes, the Welterweight Sonny Jones and the Middleweight Ray McIntyre, though Jones might have actually lost his life in the War, he fought Charley Burley & Ernie Roderick. also the top notch English Middleweight George Davis, I think it was, he lost his life in the War too I believe. Fred Apostoli, must be a good few.
Schmeling jumped into Crete and caught a very bad case of dysentery. He was then hospitalized for a while. I also remember he may have broken a leg in that landing. I don't believe he was ever at the front again.
