Who has been the greatest beneficiary or worst victim of revisionist history. Here's a start: 1. Cinderella Man, the movie made a hero out of Jim Braddock who was plainly a bum. 2. People are starting to pretend that Mike Tyson never was any good. Your thoughts?
1. Bums don't put on boxing clinics against the baddest man on the planet in Max Baer 2. I dont think any serious poster says 'Tyson was never any good'
Braddock was garbage. Period. He improved later as a heavyweight because he boxed more trying to preserve his hands. He was a puncher as a LHW and he sucked. Watch his title fight with Loughran. He looks worse than amateurish. Its pathetic. I also think the Baer fight was close and could have gone either way. I have the complete fight and its not the boxing lesson its cracked up to be.
On this forum: Jimmy Young and Ezzard Charles. Just because you were underrated at the time, does not mean you should be overrated now......
Tyson is getting a bum rap especially from Teddy Atlas who hates him on a personal level, but has a microphone. Braddock's record was the record of a bum. He never should have had that title shot.
It was more a case of how good Loughran was instead of how bad Braddock was. Braddock s no bum...an average fighter perhaps, but no "bum" beats a Max Baer, even an unfocused, head-case, unmotivated Max Baer.
In his run to the title Braddock beat the #1 HW prospect in the country, the #1 contender, an ATG LHW (Braddock's original division) and beat the incumbent champion, also a very good fighter, Max Baer. He then lost to one of the greatest HW's of all time, having given him a good fight, before beating another top contender in Farr. This thread is for ****.
I must say that this forum has a very balanced view IMO. If anything the tendency is to correct the somewhat undeserved reputation of fighters like Dempsey while lifting up those that undeservedly has been denied the spotlight like Langford, Wills and Burley. Some hero worship that still persists of guys like Jeffries, Sullivan and Dempsey can annoy me, though. I'm not saying they weren't good, but I can't say anything conclusive about guys that have ducked as many good fighters as they have.
Love the avatar, McGrain. One of the baddest characters around. As for the topic, i'll support the mention of Primo Carnera.
I for one can say that I'm actually glad that Ron Howard directed Cinderella man. There were some falacies from what I have read. For one thing, Max Baer was not the brute in real life that the movie depicted him as. He was actually known as a fairly nice guy. But as for Braddock getting too much appraisal? I don't see what's wrong with the telling of man's life story, especially one that was as fascinating as his, and no, I don't think that his legacy was revised through history. Mike Tyson gets a lot of flack for his loss to Douglas, especially when compared in head to head fantasy matchups. I don't however, think that most fans, historians, etc. view him " never being any good "
I made a big mistake by starting this thread with a statement calling someone a bum. Sorry. I do think that Cinderella Man boosted Braddock's stock a lot more than is usual in boxing history. One reason I know that is because I collect autographs. If I may rephrase I'll just say that that one movie revised and rehabilitated Braddock's reputation more than I've ever seen one's reputation rehabilitated by history. As for Tyson, I mean to say that he's getting a bum rap. I think Riddick Bowe is being treated the same way. Bowe really did beat Holyfield twice. Anyway, sorry for the bum remark.