Moore vs Bonavena

He should have been a little earlier. He was a self promoter and self promoted the heck out of himself. 14 years earlier wouldn’t have happened. Not sure you quite understand his career arc. It’s plain to see when his prime actually was. This isn’t an argument you can look at boxrec yourself and watch his fights. His early 30s was when he was best. It’s when he developed as a defensive fighter. There are two different Archie’s as far as style goes and the old mongoose one was the dominant fighter that we remember. There is some early footage of Archie and he looks like a different fighter that relied on his athletic ability and power. Much different then the smart slick puncher he became

 

Don’t think you realize the social dynamic. These guys almost exclusively couldn’t fight for the titles till after WW2. I m telling you a quote Moore said he should have won the title 14 years earlier. He knew he was the best all those years earlier. But Blacks didn’t have a chance and the managers and promoters treated them as such. They didn’t develop as they would have had they had all the attention a title contender would get. Why do you think suddenly Ray Robinson wins the title 1 year after WW 2. He was the best right ? Not just suddenly good enough to win a title he could have a few years earlier. You need to do some reading about the black boxers when they went into the service during WW 2 and right afterwards and their battles against discrimination and how things began to change. Don’t be fooled by the very few who were allowed to like Louis who had special ties to the numbers racket plus he was so much better then everyone around. Took so many years after Jack Johnson till they let a black try and they handled his PR very carefully. Remember even Johnson and Louis never defended against blacks. Don’t count the LHeavy Louis fought who was not a real contender he did it as a favor cause he was blind in 1 eye and had to retire so he needed the money. How were all the defenses against whites and then after WW 2 all the top heavyweight contenders and champs became mostly all black. By the late 50s the champ and all the top rated fighters were black. That never seemed odd to you?

 

14 years earlier he was losing to people like Teddy Yarosz and Shortie Hogue. Honestly takes two seconds to look at boxrec not even asking you to read any of his books on him. He wouldn’t be the dominate fighter he became till 48.

 

Archie takes him to school ...

 

Fighting on short notice and getting home town decisions. After WW 2 he’s a serious contender and gets the benefit of that in how he’s matched.
At any rate Archie disagrees with you. He knew he could have been champ 14 years earlier if he had the opportunities.

 

Styles make fights, fights make money, but style costs money, and sometimes money costs you fights. Gotta go with Moore or Bonavena on this one.