Peter Maher In The Modern HW Scene

Regurgitated ****.



















Seriously ,Maher had the punchers disease dodgy chin , he was nowhere as durable as Fitz.
The bottle beat him very early on , sad to say.

 

For a start he would be verry marketable. An Irish contender with a huge punch.

You could match him against weak opposition and fighters lacking durability to build him up. You could probably also build him up to about 195 lbs if you wished to do so.

Does anybody have his tale of the tape to see exactly what we are working with?

 

With modern training and diet I imagine he'd be a decent Cruiserweight. If anyone thinks he could compete with even the contender level heavyweight fighters of the past 30 years then I honsetly don't know what to say to you.

 

J ,there was a lhvy from Belfast who finished up at cruiser, Darren Corbett a natural right hand puncher, Ive allways thought of Maher as being something of that ilk ,though of a higher class.

 

Could he perhaps be another Herbie Hyde?

 

Having only ever read up on Maher, I've no way of telling you what his speed, footwork etc was actualy like. Hide had both of these in abundance and despite being small for a modern heavyweight, was still considerably bigger than the 5'11" Maher. I guess in a H2H match up there's always a chance of a huge puncher like Maher sparking Herbie but I imagine Hide would blow him away.

 

He basicaly comes across as the Earnie Shavers of his era for whatever that is worth.

 

It would be intersting to know exactly how refined the guy was, clearly his punching power is legendary.

 

This is how I see it. A big puncher for his time, with suspect chin. Maher was not known as a tricky boxer. When someone asks how would so and so do today, you have to assume they would pick up some techniqe.

 

Maher was the same in any era. A very good fighter, but not quite at the elite level.

At 19 years he won the Irish Middleweight championship (at a time when the Irish scene was as strong as anywhere in the world). This is at least the equivalent of a modern alpha title.

At just 20 years, he faced Peter Jackson (a far better opponent than Holmes or Ali ever fought at that age), but he was soundly beaten and knocked out. By his 21 birthday he had won the Irish heavyweight championship and within a year unified it with the Canadian title and KOd his other opponents within 2 rounds. In his 22nd year, he faced his best tests. He beat Joe Godfrey, but was KOd by Fitzsimmons and Goddard who were definitely top 5 fighters.

He then had another 2 good years, with wins over decent contenders like Craig, and O Donnell where he actually won a split world heavyweight title. This is about the same as what David Haye has at the moment. He then ran into the Phenom that was Bob Fitzsimmons, which would be like running into a modern day Klitchsko, Tyson or Lewis. He did follow this with wins over Slavin, Choynski, O Donnell, CAC Smith. That is as impressive a list as any challenger ever put together after the 80s, with most of these being top 10 material. He then lost to Joe Goddard, who was a great fighter (definitely top 3 or 4 of the decade) and arguably not that far off an evander Holyfield type fighter (depending on how you view holyfield) but probably somewhere in between Holyfield level and Moorer level. Maher split the series against him.

Maher then drew Ruhlin in 20 and KOd Joe Kennedy in 2, both legitimate top10 fighters. Ruhlin was probably a top 5 and in ability about the same class as a chris byrd or John Ruiz. But his decline did start here, as he lost fights to Choynski and McCoy both top 10 fighters (McCoy was probably the equivalent of a Moorer, or toney type level ie great at the lower weight and pretty good as a heavyweight).

The decline had clearly started here, and Maher laboured on for thenext 10 years. But, although the decline started here, it is worth noting that Maher, past his best would only lose to legitimate top 10 fighters. He would still beat the low level fighters, when he fought them. This is no different to what holy is doing now, (except he is folding a lot easier to the top fighters than holy is). But he was still dealing with the Botha's of his time. It is impressive to be competitive against decent fighters, given his poor condition for such a long period of time, imo.

So after reviewing all that, i believe that in the 80s, Maher would win a lower tier title and be a very good fighter at this level (though maybe a Spinks, Jones Jr or Toney type might actually beat him there) At heavyweight, i think that he gets himself definitely in a position to win the world title but doesnt quite win the undisputed crown. i think the Shavers analogy is a good one, but i think Ken Norton is probably a better one. In the 80s, he is probably a Tim Witherspoon type level with his accomplishments. So i think he does about as well as tim. In the 90s/00s i think maybe he would reach chris Byrd level accomplishments. Which is a pretty good match since both were middleweights in their teens before concentrating on different types of training.

 

Maher's chin was not as suspect as claimed, from 1890 to 1900 he was near the top with hundreds of fights, seldom knock down and only ko'd by Fitz and Goddard. Sharkey, Choynsky, and Fitz -the first time- Ruhlin were top rated punchers who never looked like ko'ing Maher at his prime.Apparently he was fast, with ko power in both hands, a straight puncher, not a brawler but not scientific in setting up his man, so the very best boxers troubled him. Big guys like Morris Harris,Yank Kenny(6-2,220) Klondike (6-0, 190), Fred Russell(6-3,215), Dunkhorst(6-3 1/2 220+), Kennedy(6-2,220), Jim Jeffords(6-4, 200)and others were meat and drink to him.
Other big guys like Ruhlin 6-2 , O'Donnell 6-1, Slavin 6-1 1/2 and Joe McAuliffe 6-3 were also handled easily. In his time punchers like Fitz, Choynsky, Sharkey, etc were rarely rated close to Peter in power but he lacked fortitude and also sucummed to the demon drink. He was pretty lean muscled and ripped (see my avatar)with measurements of 5-11 3/4, reach 74, bicep 13 3/4, neck 17 1/2, chest 40(42) waist 31, thigh 23 1/2, calf 15 1/2.

 

Boilermaker, excellent summing up, just one clarification Maher was not knocked down or ko'd by Jackson, he just quit after two rounds when a virtual amature against the best fighter in the world at that time in Jackson, he was simply outclassed.
One other point in Maher's favor no early fighter matched as many of the top blacks as he did. He beat Godfrey, Craig, CC Smith, Klondike, Harris, Stevenson, Butler, Ike Hayes etc and was matched at various times with Armstrong and Childs.