There was a specter on the Eastern which put fear into every man born to be 175 pounds. The specter was named MASKE!
Erdei is a Hungarian. He was a very good boxer. Diacnou wasn't as good IMO. Tough guy but always looked like the much smaller man.
You are correct. I thought he was Romanian for some reason. Diacnou was a very heavy handed dude that just metered out once he starting fighting the top guys like Pascal and Dawson. At 5'9, he was very undersized.
Tunney....sorta? His resume doesn't really live up to his talent; Gibbons and Jeff Smith were on the slide, Levinsky and Carp were basically washed, Loughran was formidable but undersized and not fully physically matured yet. I won't overlook the fact that Gene's peak (around 1924-28) coincided with the decline of the previous golden era but he could've fought Loughran in a rematch later on, maybe add Slapsie Maxie, Walker, Berlenbach and Slats to that resume as well. Regardless, what he did to Greb, especially fifth time around given how Greb still went on to beat Walker and arguably Flowers later on also arguably beat Gene and Loughran within the prior year, speaks levels as to how great Tunney was. There's a reason Greb emphasized that Tunney was "different from the rest" of his ridiculously stacked resume of opponents.
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad near broke my heart. For a few years he was considered the hardest puncher on the division, with booming power in either mitt. He was the best counter puncher in the division, had an excellent chin and was brilliant defensively. He also possessed a brutal body attack. Watch him against Marvin Johnson, he was at his best. Sure, he could have taken him out a bit earlier but he owned that fight. The problem was he needed more fire in the belly, more aggression. He needed to punch in combination more. He could have taken Galindez' title that night but was too passive when he should have been taking over. He beat himself on the scales against Spinks tho there was some controversy over the calibration. Eddie was his own worst enemy.