I haven’t watched a Bobick fight in many years, so I can’t make a reasonable prediction as of right now. However, just wanted to throw it out there that Big John McDermott was a tough customer and a pretty smooth operator despite his physical appearance. He was my favorite from that era of British boxing. Always rooted for him, and I hope he finds success in retirement.
I was surprised when I looked on boxrec a while ago how many pro fights Bobick had. I can remember him getting beaten by Teofilo Stevenson all those years ago and remembered him (wrongly) having a short pro career
Bobick also had a win over Stevenson, and beat Larry Holmes, who was DQ'd for holding, in the amateurs. He was 38-0 (32 KOs) heading into the Norton fight. Saturday Night Live had a skit that was probably way too politically incorrect in today's World, making fun of Bobick because of that fight.
Bobick beat Stevenson by UD in the 1971 Pan Am Games. He also stopped Mike Weaver in the first round in the amateurs, then stopped him again in the 7th round as a pro.
But Lyle had that brutal ko over Bobick as an amatuer. Almost all those early wins for Bobick were against C grade heavies. I went to a few. The Ledoux and Weaver results were by far the best he did. What surprised me was Futch taking him as a road warrior to fight Knoetze. Then Bobick trying to outmuscle and outpunch the guy. Guess it was a sink or swim thing and Futch left > that. Then Bobick got blasted out in 1 by Tate. Really blew out a lot of candles. A victory over Norton probably gets the Ali sweepstakes back then. There sure was a lot of talk about it. And that version I think could have got the nod over Ali instead of Spinks bout. That was another fight I wanted to see---Neon Leon and Bobick when they were on their way up. A 10 round action fight. but there are so few bouts with the pedigreed up and comers fight each other.
