Boxing’s heels

Every protagonist needs an antagonist, every hero a villain.

Who are boxing’s best villains?

I’m not talking about murderers like James Butler or Carlos Monzon or wife-beaters like Jake LaMotta, etc. Not for criminal behavior out of the ring — I’m talking about fighters who relished taking the role of the dastardly foil, the guy you love to hate ... or hate so much people paid good money or always tuned in to see them get their comeuppance.

This may have been because it was their nature, because they knew it was their best way to win, because it enhanced the box office or just by happenstance or circumstance. But not just for one fight — guys who were generally perceived that way for a great portion of their careers.

I’ll start with a few:

Art Aragon: The arrogant ‘Golden Boy’ was the the most hated athlete in Los Angeles and the biggest draw on the West Coast in the 1940s and 50s. A lightweight, he inflamed audiences with his attitude and was especially hated by Mexican fans. He was a celebrity with the Hollywood set and a notorious womanizer who had his best and worst moments in the public eye because he was a publicity machine.

Muhammad Ali: Yes, many celebrities and journalists championed his cause for refusing induction into the military during the unpopular Vietnam Nam war, but Ali was a black fighter with a big mouth at a time when that wasn’t embraced by most white people in the USA. His affiliation with the Black Muslims made him a target and Ali relished rubbing people’s noses in it. (Obviously he became an institution at some point and won over most of the public by the time he retired, and scores more in the decades after — but he was more beloved worldwide long before his own country embraced him).

Sandy Saddler: I think his was a mixture of a displeasing style (roughhouser and unsightly brawler) and being the guy who knocked the beloved Willie Pep off his pedestal (savagely and not without throwing the rulebook out at the first bell — although Pep fought pretty dirty against him, too).

Who else belongs on this list?

 

Damn Morlocks ... no reasoning or explanation, no colored letters, no fancy or blocky font, no super-large type.

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