Aside from Earnie Shavers, was there anyone else who ever decked Jimmy Young? And speaking of Shavers, did he deck Jimmy in both of their fights? I know he must have in that ko win of his, but I read somewhere that he decked Jimmy in their draw rematch as well..but I'll be damned if I can come up with anyone else that floored him in his entire career. Don't anybody mention that bull**** knockdown call the ref made in the Ali-Young fight when Young had a count against him for sticking his head outside the ropes. The ref was criminal to do that..he could have just deucted points from Young..not started a count.
Young picked himself up off the canvas early on to take Shavers to a "draw" in their rematch. :-( Can't remember Young's arse ever touching the canvas besides that, and the first Shavers fight of course.
Obviously this speaks well of Young's chin almost as well as it does of his defensive wizardry. Consider that his management may have been dreadfully at fault for the Shavers ko defeat, as Muhammad Ali, for example, wasn't delivered up to as dangerous an opponent as Earnie Shavers in his 11th bout.
Young was a great fighter to look at in the 70's and it's unfortunate that I don't know a place to see or get most of his fights. To answer your question, I don't think Young ever touched the canvas apart from the Shavers fights. This piece is on thesweetscience website. "But the biggest injustice by his handlers came in his 11th bout when they matched him with rising knockout artist Earnie Shavers, who stopped him in the first round. This fight can only be rationalized by someone in the Young camp who was desperately in need of money, or due to total ineptness on the part of the person who had the final say. When Jimmy Young fought Earnie Shavers the first time, he only had 10 fights under his belt. Shavers was a former National AAU champion being managed by Don King. On top of that, Shavers was 42-2 in 44 pro fights, winning 41 by knockout. Young's management made a monumental mistake putting him in against Shavers in only his eleventh fight. It's remarkable his psyche wasn't shattered and he went on to beat the fighters he did after that. A year and a half later Young (13-4-1) fought a rematch with Shavers (46-4). This time the fight went the scheduled 10 rounds. The fight was declared a draw and would later prove to be an omen for Young's career when it came to getting the call in close fights. I have only seen this fight on tape, but I scored it for Young. Over the years I've talked to more than a few fighters and trainers who were at the fight and saw it live. Everyone says the same thing. Young won it."
Yes I agree..I think that by then Young would have handled Earnie as easily as he did Lyle the second time.
In addition to what this says about Young's chin, it must also be expressed that it was Earnie's hook, not his more celebrated right, which floored Jimmy. The Shavers hook floored Young and Lyle, and it was likewise a left which initially stunned Norton. Jimmy could take it to the body as well. Norton concentrated on his body, and Cooney repeatedly whacked his hook downstairs with no apparent effect.
Yeah, and it was his bloody stand against a peak Cooney...or as near peak as Cooney would get...when he had blood flowing down his face and with Cooney teeing off on him and he never went down..Young..obviously one of my favorite heavyweights ever, was a tough sunuvagun as well as being such a phantom. Very impressive..one of the greatest to never win the heavyweight title IMO.
Man, I almost get choked up reading about his great fights, a true master who never got the wins or respect he deserved. Such a shame how he ended up. My favorite fighter, God bless him.
You know? I really think that Cooney fight could have been his way back to the top, to bad he got that bad cut, things could have gotten way better for him with that win.
well he did attempt one more career surge in the next year of 1981 winning all his fights and getting comeback fighter of the year...after that it was a slow and sad decline
1981 was Jimmy's best year since '77. I still can't get over how much he declined between '77 and '78. Going from beating George Foreman and running Ken Norton extremely close,to losing twice to Ossie Ocasio :?
Yeah I thing Young would've won that aswell. Too bad there's not much Young on youtube and I don't think there's career sets of him. If so, I would consider getting one because I love defensive wizards.
