Yes, I know. It has been a while since I've posted, and you would think with how many times I would make this mistake that it would never happen again, but it has. I reviewed this fight and one other, but lost it for a moment and I am just now getting to publishing my review. Shame on me. This content is protected 1. Pretty simple. Lesnevich. 2. Woodcock landed good left jabs and right hands. Woodcock dropped Lesnevich in a corner as Lesnevich was charging him. Woodcock. 3. Woodcock. 4. The two took turns teeing off. Woodcock. 5. Woodcock landed a lot of straight right hands. Woodcock. 7. Woodcock. 8. A left-right put Lesnevich down face-first. Verdict: Overall, this fight didn't stick out to me by my recollection, but one thing I thought was interesting was not that Lesnevich was washed up, but Lesnevich, a pressure fighter, was smothering Woodcock, and Woodcock just neutralized him by smothering him back, but not in the pressure fighter style. I felt meh about this one, so I would say decide for yourself.
Funnily enough, I watched this one a couple of weeks ago. Gus was certainly shot but it was still a big win for Woodcock. A major American name in the win column of a British Heavyweight was big news back then.
They were so slow they looked as if they were fighting in marmite. LOL Brit commentators as biased as they are today.
Loved H to bits. He could be a bit one eyed though. He adored Ali. Just see if you can find his commentary at the climax of the Rumble in the Jungle. Bless him, he just loses it ! The best British commentator was Reg Gutteridge. He was steeped in Boxing. His partnership with Jim Watt was levels above anything we've heard before or since.
Mostly two instances stuck out to me when I say Harry wasn't biased imo. One, I remember when Bob Foster fought Chris Finnegan, he was of course hoping Finnegan would do well and reported correctly when Finnegan did indeed have good moments, but he said a lot of good things about Foster's power and speed as well. And he congratulated Foster after the fight and stated that it was a great victory. Second, when Hagler beat Alan Minter, he said that the British people acted disgracefully by rioting, and he seemed to think that Hagler won the fight and rightfully so. But maybe he was biased at times.
He didn't mean to be Billy, he was just passionate. He loved Boxers. He'd boxed in the Navy during the War and knew what it took to be as good as Foster and Finnegan. I met him a couple of times. He was just like you'd think. Like a favourite Uncle.
One of the best commentators of all time imo. Great voice, good objectivity. Always very polite and as accurate as possible.
Thanks for posting. An interesting enough fight. Someone said Lesnevich was shot, but he would bounce back to be fighter of the year in 1947, with a 10 round KO of Billy Fox, plus a decision and KO of Tami Mauriello, and a 1 round KO of Melio Bettina. Bruce W seems to have been a puncher, but I have seen him slaughtered on film by Joe Baksi. Lesnevich just doesn't seem all that good, and was lucky he didn't defend against Charles, or Moore, or Maxim. The British and Europeans appear to have filmed fights more often back then. We have quite a few fights from across the pond in the 1946 to 1951 era.
