"Cuevas-Palomino" 1978.. "Holmes-Coetzee" 1984.. "Foreman-Holmes" 1999.. "Hearns-Mugabi" 1985.. MR.BILL
NO!! I was livin' them times... Nelson was all for it, but team McGuigan stalled the show... WORD! MR.BILLhat
so was i . Can you remember mcGuigan fighting a guy called charm chitule? That was an eliminater for the commonwealth title right? Who was the champ? thats right, azumah nelson. What did Nelson do? Relinquish his title. Thats fair enough, hes entitled to do what he wants, but he shouldnt ***** about mcGuigan avoiding him when the facts are there that he had the opportunity to fight him and didnt. Im not saying mcGuigan woulda beat him but can you imagine the **** he woulda got if it was HIM who did what Nelson did. These are facts bill WORD
I agree that Bowe would have been favourite in 1993. After '95 Lewis would have thrashed Bowe. This would have been due to Bowe's dramatic deterioration and Lewis' improvement under Emmanuel Steward's tutelage.
I agree with 3 of those picks MRBILL. Foreman-Holmes '99 would have been sad,imo. Two old men going through the motions.
Victor Galindez vs. John Conteh Roberto Duran vs. Rodolfo Gonzalez Ken Norton vs. Oscar Bonavena George Foreman vs. Jerry Quarry Tracy Patterson vs. Kennedy McKinney Scartissue
If Dempsey, Rickard, Kearns or anyone else in power to make that fight felt Dempsey would have knocked Wills out in 2 rounds they would have absolutely run to make that match. It was the biggest match next to the first Carpentier fight that could have possibly been made in a decade. Instead they chose to face a dying man, a man they had already defeated by KO, an overrated LHW that Rickard bought a title for, a LHW who had fought an elimination bout to face Dempsey and lost, a guy they literally imported from Argentina with the sole purpose of promoting to a Dempsey shot based almost solely on his size, and another LHW who actually beat him... The idea that Dempsey would have "sparked" Wills out in 2 rings a bit hollow in light of that track record...
The loss to Cruz is what wrecked the all thing with Nelson completely..... McGuigan was never the same after being hammered in Vegas by Cruz..... Nelson proved to be far superior....... Christ, McGuigan getting into the IBHOF was a political move..... Nelson is the Professor...... MR.BILLhat
"Foreman-Holmes" of 1999 had me going..... Too bad it fell apart........ I figured Holmes would win a decision over 10 rds with Foreman...... MR.BILL
I was born in 1948. Only saw Barry fight in the flesh once ,against Esteban Eguia European Title fight. My pick would be Azumah though.
WE've been over this a million times Klompton - Dempsey (and "THEY") did make the fight (beleive it was made twice actually:huh) but then it was scrubbed - the Miske thing was a favour to a mate by the way so please show a little respect to someone who died yeah - as I have intimated on numerous occasions now I wish the fight could've gone ahead - there's probably a million fights I wish could've gone ahead but didn't!! I wish Jack Johnson had've defended his title against Sam Langford but he didn't for whatever reason - the world was a completely different place back then - thing's happened for reason's that none of us can really comprehend - we really don't know how people were really thinking in those days - all the books I read - there's generally no mention of Wills particularly -almost like it was neither here nor there?? I don't know really because I wasn't around in those days so I don't know the general thoughts of the man in the street at the time -for instance these days if a guy has one defeat on his record it is considered a HUGE black mark against his name but back in the day guys could have multiple losses viewed as well he should retire - he just doesn't justify a title shot anymore?? You know Wills had already been beaten like 7 or 8 times (and sparked out cold twice - the kind of KO's that people never recover from these days) in his career and there were 5 draws there aswell - plus he was not exactly the type of fighter who inspired any kind of dread in his opponents - as say Firpo for instance - if nothing else people were in awe of his punching power and his general neaderthal aesthetic - people knew he was just about the crudest most raw fighter it's possible to get they just wanted to see him try and land that humungous right of his on Dempsey's chops