Just came upon this guy. A seemingly great career. I had always thought that Cerdan was the only prime Frenchman at the time. Any one have any info or insight on him?
Great, great fighter, tough & durable and surprised the hell out of all the Americans, a Welter cum middleweight and showed the Bull just how tough the French were! he was a small middleweight and from across the big sea, I call Villimain "the Proof Fighter", because he showed America just how good TOP foriegn fighters really were. the TOP ones!!! Cerdan Thil Villimain Best of France.
Good stuff, thistle. Villemain was a solidified solid contender, rated by the RING between September 1947 and February 1952, for a total of 46 months with a peak rating of being the #2 rated Middleweight in the world for a time, according to Henry's data. Fought Ray twice, with wins over Jake LaMotta, Kid Gavilan, Jimmy Beau, Laurent Dauthuille, Joe Rindone, Jose Basora, Ernie Roderick.
There's footage of his second fight with Robinson in France (as is most of his Euro tour) but I don't think it's currently uploaded. Maybe baltazarbrothers or sweetfights channel on YouTube.