As the title says, who was your first boxing hero, who encaptured you into this bittersweet sport (if any)? I'm a young guy, but my first real boxing hero was Salvador Sanchez. There is something so inspirational and enchanting watching him box, beating ring animals with almost the rhythm of an artist. I rank him objectively now, as I try with every other boxer, but Salvador was my first hero of the sport. Who was yours?
Golovkin Edit: He's the first fighter I asked to watch live. I had just had my ass handed to me in a kickboxing class and I thought **** it, I'm much better with my hands than I am feet. So I'll try boxing. So I ask my dad to get the Jacobs GGG fight and we watch it, I loved it. I thought it was very exciting and wanted to learn more and slowly GGG became my favourite fighter for a time. I leaned how to score a fight after reading that people fought that GGG lost and so I scored the fight and I'm to this day convinced that there is no way Jacobs did any better than a draw. Anyway I watched all of his fights on day on sky whilst I was waiting for my dad to get back from work and he was my favourite fighter, still is one of my favourites today.
Marvin Hagler, in 1980 I saw my first bout, Hagler v Minter and I was hooked, I was 4 years old and watched most of Hagler`s bouts during the 80`s.
Rocky Marciano. I found reznick's video after I heard about him when I was rewatching "Rocky". I instantly fell in love with the aggressive style, the punching, the conditioning. Then I watched Marciano interviews and documentaries. And I realized "this man is a gentleman". He immediately became someone I wanted to be. An undefeated blue collar champion who respected every opponent and spoke kindly of everyone.
probably Chuvalo, I was 9 or 10 when I first paid attention to a Boxing match and everybody was tuning into "the Chuvalo fight". I don't know who he was fighting, but I seem to remember they were both white, therefore excluding Clay, though I soon became aware of him. But I lived in Toronto at the time and it was kind of surreal to know that this man lived there too I had already met and seen numerous Ice Hockey Legends, so the possibility of meeting Chuvalo was real. Oddly at the time one of my childhood friends was Nicky Furlano and as we know Nicky turned out to be a top & noted fighter, whose life was deeply connected with Chuvalo ad his unfortunate and tragically lost sons. I was into it then, through the 70s, 80s and 90s... falling away in recent years, except for a the really good pairings. Been championing Josh Warrington for 6 years now, I hope he cements his history!
I was 10 when my friends and I saw the Ali-Frazier fight, we all hated Ali then, because we thought he was a jerk. We all went out and bought boxing gloves and had our own tournmanets, evenyone wanted to be Joe Frazier.
Foreman. The kos of Frazier and Norton completely amazed my pre-teen mind at the time (luckily my Dad watched a lot of boxing too so we saw a bunch of great fights on closed-circuit). Ali was a close second, even closer after he knocked George out. I was thrilled by the Lyle and Frazier fights, too. In fact, Big George remained my favorite This content is protected Up to that time I hadn't really checked out much Larry Holmes, thinking stupidly that he was just the last remnants of the Ali era. Once I saw him beat Ali (and yes, I very much know it wasn't the great Ali at the time) I went and saw a videotape of the Norton fight and Larry became my favorite. Has been since, with George and Ali still close second and thirds.
It was such a revelation. I only knew about the fight after I fell in love with boxing (which was when I saw the Frazier kayo by Foreman). Of course, when I watched the FOTC rerun my estimation of Joe went sky high.
Floyd Patterson. As a kid I just loved his style and speed, he was the first fighter I got into. I was devastated when Sonny destroyed him twice. However being a boxing fan I learned to love Sonny also.
Little Red Lopez. I was already a fight fan when I first saw him- I was 7 and had been going to the fights for four years with my mother- but Little Red became my hero. My world revolved around his fights.
Don't know about hero but Sugar Ray Leonard got me into it first and it wasn't a boxing ring it was a movie " Body And Soul "and didn't even star SRL,i thought it did being around 8 yrs old. The part was played by Leon Kennedy who looks much like the real SRR,and his adversary I thought was the real Roberto Duran ...movie came out in 1981 and im sure its a spoof of the rivalry looking back now.. I'd have to go with M.Tyson here .." Mike Tysons punch out in 86/87 would swerve me here ,he became the biggest Icon of that time,arguably since . If im being honest though the fictional Rocky Balboa would be my answer ,probably got more motivation out then any real life one. Rocky 3 did it for me and still around 8,i remembering wanting to fight Thunder Lipps after the movie,closest thing I got to that was Jimmy Snuka .
