educate me about gus lesnivitch...

He was a paper champ for the majority of his reign I know that much.

 

gus lesnivitch was a Very Good Top performer, strong, tough, durable and a good boxer!

 

Hell, he would be a LH champ today. Saw him a couple times at MSG. He could hit and was very strong, but he was around when the LHs consisted of Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, and Billy Conn....Three of the greatest LHs ever along with Gene Tunney...

 

He was ring magazine fighter of the year because he defended his title in big international bouts as soon as he returned from the war. He was a good champion but like Tony zale his title was frozen during the war and it has became fashionable to boost posible "uncrowned champions" active for the duration of the war. Apart from joe Louis no other champion gets any credit for being able to defend their title after such a long absence.

 

not fashionable, more FACTUAL,

there were a lot of GREAT boys waiting in the wings, they should have been allowed to fight for the title (Interim), regardless of the war and then faced off with the absent champion's upon their return.

It could have easily been done, but the trickle down effect of waiting fighters was also "secured" by financial interest among powerfull players I.E Jack Solomons and Mills position in Britain, being held safely till a world title showdown came his way...

other titles too, namely the middleweight title!

Burt or someone else might be able to shed some light on other divisions who could have done the same.

 

Gus got fighter of the year for picking up victories over ranked opponents in both lhw and hw division in the wings of his heroic war efforts.

Doesn't change he lost to bivins soon after taking the belts and from that point on it's impossible to consider him the best lhw in the world.

 

ok ,It's Lesnevich.

 

Thats right... I can never spell his name without checking either, But Gus was a Very Good Fighter, a lesser great from the Greatest of Era's.

 

this is true but it is worth noting that LH melio bettina was 1-1-1 against a prime bivins yet gus blew melio away in a round in 1947. Bivins also lost to christofordis who gus could beat.

maybe it is a pity for bivins that the title was not at stake when he met gus but maybe gus took it too easy? Jake lamotta lost non title fights as a champion yet it never seems to effect jakes appeal as a great champion.

IMO Bivins, bettina, christofordis, lesnevich, mauriello and maxim could have fought each other over and over and it would be hard to decide who was the best at lightheavyweight. with hindsight later we can say moore and charles were a cut above but even they would drop losses to those among the other group during the early mid 1940s.

 

Not with hindsight. After beating gus, bivins dominated boxing for 4 years.

If gus took it easy that's his own fault.

After moving to hw marshal beat bolden to be crowned best lhw in the world, he lost to moore who lost to charles.

By the time charles couldn't fight around the limit, maxim beat gus.

A huge paper champion imo.

 

I think that is a little unfair. Gus was inactive during the war but up until the war he was (on paper) as good as bivins. after the war gus lost to top heavyweights but had the good win over bettina who was 50-50 with bivins proving he was still top level against LH's active throughout the war. gus was at worst still a top lightheavyweight when he was 176lb. You cant blame gus for the circumstances.

 

No because he lost to bivins.

Not blaming him for the was but there's no way I can label him the top active boxer when he's inactive.

After the war he was never as good around the limit as charles and then he lost to maxim.

Maybe without the war he'd have beaten bivins in a rematch and justified his position, but he didn't.

I don't blame him, but he's undoubtedly a paper champ.

 

Bivins was no better than lesnevich before the war and was no better than bettina during the war.

Red cochrane was way more of a paper champion than gus ever was. Red won the welterweight title in his own hometown on points in 1941 from zivic. He never defended it until 1946. upon winning the title before joining the navy red had 3 non title ten rounders. He won a sd and lost two of the four including a loss to zivic! By the time he defended the title again he had also been twice KOd by graziano.

By comparison gus lesnevich dropped a single nontitle decision to a guy who moved up to heavyweight but had already lost to several fighters gus could beat and whom never fought as a LH again. To my mind gus was as good a Lightheavyweight champion as jake lamotta was at middleweight. It was a great era.

 

Lesnevich effectively lost the title to bivins.

Red was also a huge paper champion considering zivic had lost to kaplan prior