Had it been known that Barry was killing himself making Featherweight and was almost desperate to move up, there's a 90% chance that this fight would have taken place in late May 86 at Villa Park. At stake would have been Pat's European Super Featherweight Title as well as it being a WBA final eliminator. As it happened Barry's weight problems were top secret and Pat had to come down to 9 stone to challenge Azumah Nelson in a massive risk fight with the idea of facing McGuigan in a unification. Who wins at 9 stone 4 ?
McGuigan: He always prepared meticulously and would have made the weight and performed at 100%. Barry was always in top shape. Still is.
This is a really interesting match up to ponder, actually. I am leaning to McGuigan, but a case can be made for Cowdell. Bump for this.
McGuigan is a horrible stylistic match up for Pat, particularly in a potential 1986 match up. Cowdell was not shot, but the wear and tear were catching up with him, and as McGuigan showed initially in his comeback the fire was still burning intensely, that would be more so in 86.
Thanks for posting T. Don't forget that the Nelson and Cruz fights wouldn't have happened. Pat had won seven fights in eighteen months including beating World rated Jean Marc Renard and stopping future IBF World Champion Kelvin Seabrooks. He hadn't lost since Sanchez. Stylistically, Barry hated being pushed back and Pat would certainly have had periods where he did just that. Remember how Barry struggled against Danillo Cabrera ? I'll leave it a few days to see if anyone else is interested then give my thoughts. Just so wished this fight had happened.
Good points LG; but to counter: Renard was quite well protected and anything above decent British level he struggled. Seabrooks was still very flaky at that time, but kudos for Cowdell for getting the job done inside the distance, it showed he still had something about him. But losing to Daho showed there was issues with Pat in the time period, and although Havard would turn out to be fringe world class, that Cowdell was comprehensively beaten when going in a warm favourite (granted the 130 British title jinx struck), and Pat called it a day suggested father time had found another victim. Fair point over Cabrera though. The only defence being he was an unknown going in and showed by going ten rounds with Nelson and the distance with Chavez, he was, if nothing else, tough.
You know your stuff T. I hoped this thread would draw in some real Boxing people. After Nelson, everybody went for Pat early. Daho came to Birmingham to spar him for the Nelson fight and had probably seen the first cracks there. Watch the rematch with Najib. The Havard fight was two and a half years after the nearly fight we're chatting about. Cowdell was 35 and despite giving Floyd a Boxing lesson for 5 rounds, his legs were gone. Interestingly, Floyd had also sparred Pat. I know this because I picked him and Peter Jones, Colin's little Brother, up from New Street and took them to the gym. As I say, I'll give it a couple of days to see if there are any takers. Please do post back if you want to though. As I said, you obviously know the game.
Well, I didn't exactly break the net with this one ! For what it's worth, I think this could have been a domestic showdown to rank with the Finnegan / Minter wars of the 70's. McGuigan was at or very near his peak while Cowdell was enjoying the most fabulous Autumn to his career. I think Pat would have started the fight very fast, putting the full force of the shoulder into his jab in order to push Barry on to his back foot where he was never comfortable. Barry was a Fighter who relied so heavily on natural rhythm. If you could disrupt that, he found it almost impossible to gain any real momentum. Moving into the middle rounds, I'm sure McGuigan had the talent to start seeing Pat's shots and starting to time him, rather like he did to Bernard Taylor in his first title defence and the ensuing 4 or 5 rounds would produce the best action of the contest, Barry trying to tee off with the left hook to the body, Cowdell looking to counter with uppercuts and straight rights. Both guys were such correct punchers that there is no doubt they would both be stung and need to take the chance to grab and take a breather but the quality of work from both would have been breath taking. The deciding factor in this fight would, I feel, have been the difference in age. Barry would have been 25 and, as stated, Pat 32. The final 2 or 3 rounds would see McGuigan exploiting the reserves of strength and energy he had to mount sustained attacks with Cowdell having to concentrate more and more on covering up and defending. After a fabulous contest bursting with class and quality, I would hope that Old General Cowdell could hear the final bell and lose a close but not controversial decision.
McGuigan by ko Cowdell beat Seabrooks who was a natrual 118 lb. Renard was European level, not really ever world class. McGuigan had the power to hurt Cowdell and was in his prime. Cowdell, while on a winning streak was past his.
