Probably best known for being tore apart in two rounds by Iran Barkley late in his career. Had a very impressive record of 52-4, only stopped once by Iran. Started his career as a damned near welterweight and fought all the way to light heavyweight. Anyone know anything about him?
Pretty good fighter. Beat Robert Hines and Lindell Holmes, lost twice to Gianfranco Rosi and as you stated was blown out by Barkley. Definitely not a champion in other eras, not a hall of famer, but a good fighter. Pretty good offensive boxer but was there to be hit.
The sheer size difference between him and Iran was stark.... It was unreal to see that fight.. Van Horne was a technically amazing fighter, the Hines fight was one i remember vividly.........
The original Million Dollar Baby; turned pro too early and hyped too quickly. He had real potential but was rushed and crashed and burned pretty badly. Looked good beating Hines, but was just not ready for the rugged Rosi. And I think his management had a grudge against him, when matching him with Barkley, who had a point to prove post Benn.
He sure had a nice win over Holmes that not many folks saw coming. Especially me. I sure didn't think he could handle the additional weight & Holmes at that time was looking about at the top of his game. But there were some physical fighters around during that timeframe & Van Horn was always going to have a real hard time facing those tough physical guys. And that fight was about the end of Holmes and Van Horn didn't last much longer himself.
That is very true, but although big time surprised myself that the Schoolboy got the job done at the time, with hindsight Holmes was on the way out.
Holmes looked on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion when Van Horn stopped him with some mediocre bodyshots. It was an odd fight for sure.Holmes actually looked a lot better against Eubank.He redeemed himself there, despite being beaten clearly.
Holmes done well, but it seemed to me Eubank was going though the motions and made the fight a lot closer than it should of been.
I always remember Van Horne featuring on a very high profile front cover of Ring Magazine.. They were proclaiming him the future of that division.. He was indeed a fresh young face who had been making all the noise until that point but he soon did go off the scene , which was sad because he had some skills and i liked him.
