Doug, sad story of Del Fontaine...He fought in thetime when the middleweight division was so DEEP in talent...I just read a piece about Frank Moody of England who fought Del Fontaine and other great fighters.Moody had 203 bouts koing Kid Norfolk, lou Bogash and many top contenders.Frank Moody ,a great fighter, described one of his contests thusly," It was like fighting a dozen men, or an OCTOPUS with gloves on ", describing Harry Greb who knocked out Frank Moody in the 4th round...Del Fontaine followed two other middleweights who killed their wives. Kid McCoy and Billy Papke...,b.b.
well, your reply is the reason i am posting these articles recently burt.....someone like you adds to articles like that in your replies....you've got a wonderful knowledge of the history of the sport that i wish i had. love hearing quotes like that one from moody. papke killed himself along with his wife, didnt he ?...did mc coy definetly kill his wife? kinda related, in the 60's randy turpin shot his daughter before killing himself....when i was a kid, at 15, i did a little bit of amatuer and was trained by his brother jackie {former featherweight...he died recently} and he was always asked about it but wouldnt comment...mainly by young lads, adults had more manners than to ask.. another that took his own life was jock mcavoy who got a bad illness and commited suicide before it became too bad...and one who fought mcavoy, freddie mills, aparently killed himself after been accused of being gay......but i'm going off topic now... i must look up frank moody...203 bouts..wow.
you never hear about mcavoy commiiting suicide though, probably because he was very ill with polio.frank moody had a good series of fights in the states culminating in his 6th round stoppage loss to greb.
greb shows up on so many records back then...awful shame theres no video of him in action...my old grandad would get very defensive if anyone would dispute greb being best p4p middleweight of all times, albeit a dirty one who had to compensate for being blind in one eye...mind you, he didnt see him though...i'd love to talk to or hear someone who had seen greb fight, wonder if anyone is still alive who has??... must try and get myself a good book on greb.
yeah, thinking about it i suppose they would have to be... kid dundee died recently and he fought in the 20's...he was over 100..