Well I seem to have written the last word on the style of obscure fighters such as John L Sullivan and Bob Fitzsimmons, lol.
Janitor your knowledge of the era is unbeleivable love your anaylisis of fighters of the time and descriptions of their styles. Very interesting reading. I'm actually still working on that Fitzsimmons project from the summer, although its slowed down abit im just practising the basics of Fitz.
There are a lot of interesting stories about the amature fighters in the communist countries that couldn't go pro. Like Nicolae Linca. Linca defeated Frederick Tiedt of Ireland on a 3-2 decision, to capture the Olympic Gold Medal in the 148 pound (Welterweight) class at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Tiedt actually received more total points, but Linca was given the decision by three of the five judges. In the semi-final and final, he boxed with a severe injury in the right hand, which made him an example of resiliance and courage. Toward the end of his life, he suffered of various illnesses.In the early 1990-s, Romanian media found him living in abject poverty and forgotten by his former club and sports authorities. The public outcry caused by his situation led the Romanian Parliament to vote a law whereby Olympic medalists, past, present and future, would receive a monthly allowance from the Government from the day of their retirement from sport, up to their death. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Linca[/ame] He finished his amateur career with a record of 306 fights and only 25 loses.
Ya know I tried but this is like a god damn homework assignment. And to make matters worse, I'm not even gonna get partial credit for it.
For some reason I had this interest in checking out old HW Eddie Machen (50-11-3) but when it came to actually researching and pouring some stuff onto a post, it just wasn't workin. I originally wanted to Eric Crumble but the man is legend and I can't do him justice.
Upon a quick resume scan, the guy has some legit names on there. Guys like Ingemar Johansson (W), Sonny Liston (L), Joe Fraizer (L), Jerry Quarry (W), Floyd Patterson (L), Karl Mildenberger (L), Joey Maxim, Zora Folley (D) and Cleveland Williams (D) were just a few of the names kicked out. I dug a little deeper and found some unique reports about Machen. Stuff about him turning his life around after having spent time in the pen, issues with fights as a kid in school and constant quibbles with trainers and friends over his career. Skill set wise, it seems like the general consensus was that he was a fast handed but often unfocused fighter. I was going to delve further but it was hard to find one main source for the guy. Fight footage is there but mainly of his major fights (Johannson, Fraizer, Liston etc). I felt like the study was coming up incomplete so I more or less backed off.
He seemed like a real conflicted kind of guy. Spent time in a mental hospital after threatening to kill himself, filed for bankruptcy, distanced himself from his family during his final days and then died somewhat unusually (most sources say he fell from a window although one has to wonder if it was accidental or suicidal) at a rather young age (40 years old). Research says he was married at the time and working so maybe it WAS an accident. I want to do more research on the guy but there just isn't much out there to really go off. Took a lot of fights in opposing territory (Sweeden, Germany and so forth) and took on some stiff competition.