I apologize if this is old news, but I seem to remember a thread on this fight a while back and it said no footage of the fight was available because Minter had advertising on his trunks. Well, I stumbled on it on Youtube today, with foreign(to me!) commentary. Cracking fight while it lasted!
Both are strangely somewhat underrated by a lot of British fans today. Two of our best ever middleweights, no question.
I was thinking that when I watched it. Minter's punches were solid and his punching technique excellent. Sibson was an animal in that finishing sequence, really powerful. This is why I don't buy this "boxing has evolved" bull: Are people telling me that Eubank Jr or Billy Joe Saunders could live with them?
I remember a lot of the talk - After the Fight - was how Minter was past it and soft, i never bought into that, this was a fight for national pride, Alan was as well trained as he could be, The problem was really Simple , he got nailed by a Sibbo Left hook, Simple, I cant help thinking that if Sibbo was Black and come from Philly, he would be revered as a Philly left Hooker par Excellance ... Cyclone Who..? Nah give me the Sibbo left Hook every time.
I suppose Sibson's reputation suffers a bit from having been in his prime in an era of one world champion, one or the greatest MWs ever. If Sibson had come around 10 years later and peaked in the era of Benn, Eubank, Watson fighting for the "WBO world title" among the 4 splintered world titles, he might be viewed more favourably. Around 1980 to 1983 Sibson was a very good middleweight contender. Minter was probably a little past it, but it was Sibson who made him look distinctly "at the end of the road". Prior to the Sibson fight he'd done well against Hamsho, another middleweight who would have picked up a belt in later eras.
^ Not that I'd wouldn't prefer a return to one champion per division. I just notice that "contenders" who only held British and European titles are more easily forgotten nowadays than the ones who were hyped as "world champions". Then again, Minter was undisputed champion of the world, and still gets underrated. Again, that's due to prime Hagler's ridiculous dominance.
I can see this leading to a decent thread involving Benn, Eubank, Watson etc. I'm not sure they were better than Minter, Finnegan or Sibson. As you say, none of them suffered from Hagleritis!