At Middle: Charley Burley Nate Bolden At Light-H: Ezzard Charles Archie Moore LLoyd Marshall Anton Christoforidis 2x Teddy Yarosz Oakland Billy Smith At Heavyweight: Clarence Henry Lee Q Murray 3x- 6'3 210lb Turkey Thompson- 5'9 222lb Bob Pastor Mike DeJohn- 6'5 194lb Sid Peaks- 6'4 210lb. Coley Wallace- 6'3 200lb Johnny Haynes- 6'4 216lb Joey Maxim Lee Savold Melio Bettina Pat Valentino 2x Hatchetman Sheppard 4x Tami Mauriello 2x Buddy Scott 2x Johnny Flynn 2x Rusty Payne Unbelievable Resume. Bivins defeated top fighters in 3 different weight classes, and ATG's in two of the three. At heavyweight, he beat an incredible list of top 10 Quantity ranging from slick boxers to big punchers. Bivins Style: Bivins was a very smooth, calculating boxer. He loved to slow the tempo down and you make you play into his rythm. Very intelligent, A complete technician. He was an excellent counterpuncher and had some pop in his fists. He had a terrific chin. Fought a long list of big punchers and was hardly ever stopped. Bivins despite being only 5'9 made up for it by sporting and incredibly long 79" reach allowing him to outbox many of the larger heavyweights of the day from a distance. I would say he is a top 50 middleweight of all time, 12 lightheavyweight of all time, and top 50 heavyweight of all time. This content is protected
I actually think Bivins may be slightly overated,a cursory look at his resume show wins over top/great fighters ,but deeper inspection shows some flies in the ointment. A win over Charles looks good ,but Charles was what 21 ? Just about to go into the service,he emphatically put the record straight in subsequent fights. Moore too, beat Bivins 4 times. Bivins was too inconsistent to be labelled an ATG , imo.
I always thought he was number one of the Row. I do kind of keep it in reserve that Burley was likely the best in a strict p4p sense though.
Then again there aren't too many fighters who were as consistent as Bivins from 1942 to 1946. Bivins was obviously not as great as Charles and Moore but he does hold wins over both, which is impressive, even if they weren't prime. He also beat Burley while still a relative novice, only 19 years old, not to mention many other very good fighters. He became more inconsistent after Walcott beat him but he still managed the occasional big win every once in a while and always gave his opponents a difficult time.
I think Bivins should be rated very highly. I dont think he's been overrated at all. It's apparent that his prime years coincided exactly with when the championships wre frozen, and most of the contenders were going in to the armed forces. Bivins was one of the best light-heavyweights ever, possibly deserving of a place among the top 10. And certainly one of the best heavyweight contenders to never get the title shot.
I see Bivins as two fighters. Through 46 he's an ATG, after that he's just very good. Comparison with Charles cuts two ways. Yes Charles was probably not yet at his peak when he lost to Bvins, but Bivins was past his best when Charles beat him. I rate him as top ten LH. Top 50 sounds right for HW. I don't hink he has enough fights at MW to rate him there.
I only know of Bivins beating Scott once. 1945-06-12 185 Jimmy Bivins 188 44-5-1 Griffith Stadium, Washington, District of Columbia, United States L KO 4 10
