I would think that any worldclass fighter would at some point in his ENTIRE career have to beat another worldclass fighter to prove it. Losing to fighters that arent world class and never beating a world class fighter isnt really going to help your argument. You could argue that on his best day at some point Gilroy achieved world class ability but he never actually proved it so youd be hard pressed supporting that argument with anything tangible.
Sturm beat a world champion in Barker lost a close dec to DLH which many thought he deserved,and beat world ranked contenders,when did Gilroy do that? Sturm has been consistantly world rated in the top 10 for a decade, he has won Intercontinental ttiles, WBA world titles, and IBF World titles. Gilroy couldnt even win his own countries title, let alone Commonwealth,European or World titles. Give it up, your'e whipping a horse that won't run.
You guys can't even define what "world-class" is. According to McVey, the only World-Class guy Sturm ever beat was Darren Barker.
Was Curtis Parker a world-class middleweight? Was Wilford Scypion? From what I recall, everyone who watched them in the early 80s (myself included) thought they were, even when they were losing. If you go back and look at their records now, they don't look so hot. But they were excellent world-class middleweights at the time. Gilroy won 88 pro fights. People who saw him “actually fight” thought he could be a future world champ, until he broke his pelvis and moved up to light heavy and heavy. Okay. Sounds like an interesting guy. Too bad we can’t see Gilroy in action to see how he looked fighting at his best. Because THAT is actually how fighters are judged - how they look fighting at their best. (Not reading a bunch of news reports on how they looked on their worst nights.) Since I can’t see Gilroy at his best, I’m not going to spend days badmouthing his grand kids and telling them he wasn’t any good based on his record against a bunch of guys - most of whom I never saw fight either. Fans who did see Gilroy fight thought he had the goods. He's got a nice record, better than a lot fighters considered "world-class" middleweights today. If Curtis Parker's grand kids get online one day and say their grand dad was a world-class middleweight, I hope people who never saw Parker fight don't badmouth them like you guys are doing to this guy. You can't always go by records.
Who says we cant see Gilroy fight??? Just because you cant dont assume everyone else cant. No, frankly I dont think Scypion and Parker were anything special. They were good club level fighters who could never excel at the world level. The only reason Scypion got a title shot was because he beat Fletcher who was a TV darling because he was exciting. But Fletcher was a limited clubfighter. He wasnt a world class fighter. At best, like a lot of the guys you keep bringing up he was fringe contender, maybe a lower top ten type of guy. Frankly I think its funny that you are bringing guys like Parker and Scypion up seeing as how they were only national level fighters, exactly what Gilroy was at best. The idea that because Gilroy was referred to as a "future" threat to the title somehow means he was great, world class, or a contender is ludicrous. Some guys in their first fight coming out of the amateurs have the same thing said about them. It doesnt mean at that point in time they are world class or contenders. It means that to whoever wrote that they represent potential. Potential goes unrealized all the time. So someone wrote Gilroy "might" be a "future" title threat... Was Gilroy ever a title threat? Nope. He never beat anyone remotely on that level. The closest he got was against Mills and Wood**** who both knocked him out and neither of whom were at the top of their weight class at the time. Look if a small deluded minority want to believe Gilroy was the greatest fighter to never win a title and that he was an excuse for all of his losses, including those to nobodys, and that there was a conspiracy to keep him from a championship so be it, you need to invest in a lot of tin foil though and make sure youre creative on your hat designs, youll need a lot of them. "You cant always go by records" Yeah whatever. Im sure its decieving when a guy fails to win over 30 bouts against middling opposition. So he passes the eye test against hobos and you suddenly want to crown him an ATG? You are a promoters wet dream. Why do you think they match prospects so soft nowadays on the way up? They are catering to guys like you who buy into that b.s. buy the truckload and jump on every bandwagon that comes along.
Stop putting words in my mouth I never said that in any post.Sturm was top ten rated for ten years Gilroy was never top ten rated. Sturm won world and intercontinental titles.Gilroy won jack **** of any consequence.
Gilroy's grandson spends his life eulogising him and posting on every available boxing forum how he was robbed /prevented from fighting the best/conspired against because he was Scottish/unwanted. It's bull****, his record shows the vast majority of his wins were over journeymen many with losing records, none of whom were world class , none were even top euro level when he beat them. Klompton and I haven't made threads about Gilroy being a domestic level fighter, nor have we attacked him or his grandson, we have just called time on the bull**** propagated about him by his one-man crusader relative.I've commended his grandson for his loyalty, not bad -mouthed him, he has personally attacked both Klompton and me. No one disputes Gilroy was a capable fighter and had an interesting career ,that is not the issue here, what is in contention is his standing in the long scheme of things and his record emphatically illustrates at what level he should be placed . " People who actually saw him fight "? Okay, here is one observer's opinion of him from the Cerdan fight. "The Scottish opponent ,with respect to the workman-like Gilroy meant little. Cerdan could draw a crowd just to gaze at him. He had won the European title only 9 days earlier. Once the polite Cerdan was satisfied the customers liked what they saw he dispatched Gilroy in the 4th round.He was clinical and close to perfection" "He was simply outgunned by a ring general". Reg Gutteridge from ringside.