horice notice {the thread that started about horice notice :-) }

I was always impressed with McCormack. He reminded me a little of Francesco Damiani, the blubbery Italian whose build belied his undoubted boxing ability. McCormack could really box but was involved in biting incident in a bout (I cannot recall the details) which may have cost him a pro licence.

 

Not sure about Sykes as an amateur. As a pro he had the talent but not the temperament. He was a very disturbed man, in truth, and died quite recently of alcoholism.
"Zammo" won national titles in the schoolboys or juniors. You would have seen him on the box when, as you say, he featured in Henry Cooper's Golden Gloves event on Channel 4 in the 1980s. He could undoubtedly fight but a car crash cost him his career (I think it messed up his back) and he now runs his own locks and latches shop.

 

Yes they were but he stopped Ossie Ocasio (who also quit like Sykes) who went on to become a very successful cruiser. Gardner was a superfit, non-punching heavy who ground the ambition out of his opponents but ran into a peaking Mike Dokes and was destroyed. He lacked world class ability but dominated a poor domestic scene prior to Bruno.

 

He was a quality amateur who should have gone to the 1980 Moscow Olympics but for the fact - always very much his own man - he refused a box-off with Liverpool's Joey Frost, whom he had already licked on the way to the ABA welterweight title in 1980. He would definitely have medalled in Moscow. Brian Schumacher, Terry's fellow boxer and compatriot in the Royal Marines, said Marsh could achieve anything he set his mind on and that Marsh would have won gold. He went all the way to the top as a pro, so why not?
Marsh stayed amateur for another year and played with Chris Pyatt in the 1981 ABA welterweight final before signing with Frank Warren. He was Warren's first signing and first world champion.

 

Didn't Gardner get beaten up in the street and it affected him mentally, made him afraid to leave the house or something like that?

 

I am from Portsmouth & remember Schumacher from his Navy days he was a freak of nature he was so tall and skinny.I trained at Fareham ABA and we used to spar the Navy team they put me in with Schumacher and it was like fighting an octopus I dont think I laid a glove on him.If my memory is right he lost to Virgil Hill at the Olympics.He beat Jonny Nelson as a pro I think aswell.

 

An early, petrified Nelson, who still managed to floor Brian. Nevertheless, Schumacher was a fine amateur who beat Henry Maske in the unpaid ranks.

 

[. He was Warren's first signing and first world champion.[/quote]

Nearly his last aswell :gun



ps alledgedly

 

Horace was quite light for a heavyweight today, quite a technical fighter, George Francis rated him highly ( above Mason ) and really thought he could go all the way, unfortunately the eye damage happened and that was the end. Gary mason at the time was always considered overweight in those days as heavyweights were always round the 16 stone mark, George took him to a Health Farm to train and lose weight and he weighed in heavier. Looking back Terry Lawless had 3 good heavyweights in its stable but really odd that all had the final curtain called on their careers ultimately by eye damage