Best, Losing Performance, By A British Fighter?

Ted Moore / Harry Greb

 

From a p4p perspective, Fitz vs Jeffries, provided you considered Bob British. Eubank vs Carl Thompson, if not.

Of those already cited, Winstone vs Saldivar and Rudkin vs Rose and Harada are great shouts.

 

Johnny Owen v Lupe Pinter is the one which springs to my mind when thinking of it great challenge where the challenger literally gave his all, sadly and tragically.

 

Conteh vs Saad (i)
Tarleton vs Miller (i & ii)
Rudkin vs Harada
Roderick vs Armstrong
Hoko vs Villasana (i)

Not that i'm being biased to a certain region, or anything.

 

Tyson Fury against Usyk maybe?

 

Paul Hodkinson vs Marcos villasana (first fight) very impressive effort from hoko, but his face was in bad shape and could barely see at the end.

 

If you haven't read it. Hugh McIlvanney's piece about him is one of the greatest pieces of sports writing of all time.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th.../hugh-mcilvanney-johnny-owen-last-fight-vault

 

Paul Lloyd vs Marco Antonio Barrera.

 

I'm going by Box recs stats.
Why didn't Jock fight those I named to press his claims for a middleweight title shot?

 

well I'm sure you have read the two books on Mac and Newspaper Reports,

first off he/they, Levene & Dickerson wouldn't have too

a) challenge literally ever single leading middleweight over there,

b) he, Mac, and All Boxers equally don't have too, nor do they have to fight every contender, it's not even possible for the most part...

c) and most importantly, they did try to get matches made and they weren't accepted or came off, he was being pressed as a L-HW by much of the NY Boxing people.

d) I don't know all the in & outs, only what is reported, but we all know they tried to get bouts, so do most leading Boxers, they don't all come off and again they don't challenge literally every fighter, usually just the 1 or 2 or 3 necessary to get them to a title.

e) the question can also be asked at L-HW, Why did the NY People readily give Mac that shot and gave him No Chance at MW

f) ask the same question of all the then other MW's there.

we only know what is Reported, not every little behind the scenes machinations.

anyway, as per the Thread, it was a Great Losing Performance by a British fighter.

 

I didnt suggest he had to fight all of them,but he literally fought none of them.
He got a LHVY title shot because he was top ten ranked in that division and remained so for the entire decade.
He was only top ten ranked as a middleweight at the end of1938 2 years after his title shot at LHVY so his challenge in that division had nothing to do with any attempts at sidelining him.
What proof is there his management tried to make matches with the middleweight contenders I named?
37 &38 Steele,Apostoli,Krieger,Brown,Hostak, Woods,Overlin were fighting each other at160lbs.McAvoy was never in the mix.
From1935 to1938 how many times was McAvoy anywhere near the middle weight limit?
Why didnt he fight Australians Richards or Henneberry? Those would have been excellent fights!
Theories of McAvoy being frozen out of title shots don't stand up to scrutiny .
He was campaigning as a light heavyweight of his own volition.

 

He did try to get fights at MW, they never materialised, I also think he was in the Top 10 at MW in 1934 or 35...

he did fight UP, most of the Top men then did, especially in Britain, the Big Boy titles at the end of the day is where all the Money & Prestige lay.

in 38, or 39 he was the only Middle cum L-HW in the world that was Ranked in the Top 10 at both weights.

He went to the U.S in 35 in sole pursuit of the Middleweight Title tilt, to suggest he didn't or he didn't challenge the yanks is crazy, that is why he was there. It never materialised, hardly his fault.

as to Henneberry pushing for a shot, the BBBof C approved of 2 fights one with Sadd, the other Gilroy, if Fred beat them he was considered for the shot. Henneberry got pissed off waiting and was headed for the States in stead, not sure if he made it, can't remember, the war broke out he might have returned home to Auz. Henneberry Stated of British Boxing "it's Racket Ridden", he was of course right... and let us remember what good Ol' Jake said about Titles and Boxing Corruption.

One hot summer afternoon on the Lower East Side of New York a crowd watched two boys fighting in the street. Those two kids were a lot alike. They were 12 years old. They were tough. In their kind of poverty you had to be tough to live and carry your head up. They fought bitterly for one solid hour, without gloves or rules, while the crowd cheered, egging them on. Only when it seemed as if they were both going to drop from exhaustion did someone in the crowd break it up and call it a draw. One of those kids was Rocky Graziano. The other was me, Jake LaMotta. We both became middleweight champions of the world.
The road to the title almost broke my heart. To get a chance at the championship, I had to make a deal with the fight mob, the crooked managers, just as Rocky had gone along with the same kind of wise guys, just as many other fighters have gone along with a system that makes it almost impossible for a fighter to be both independent and successful.
- Jake LaMotta

it's a Tough BUSINESS and not everyone gets to play, a sad fact, but hey what can you do, most people know it and weigh things up as a result of it.