First time I saw Jimmy Young at MSG, I thought he was garbage

Great post, and welcome to the forums Il Duce. :happy

 

Russell,
Thanks for the Kudo's.
Much appreciated.
This is a great site.
I saw Jimmy Young box in 1969 as an amateur, and followed his professional career.
Really a good kid.
6' 1" and 190 lbs. Very smart in the ring, though at times dull.
He knew he couldn't punch.
Saw several of his sparring sessions with Leotis Martin, just before turning pro.
He held his own, against a cagey veteran with a 'Killer" right hand.
Leotis never hurt him.
His manager (I can't remember the name) got him some good 'money' fights early in his career. He had to take them, because there were no other fights out there for a 'slick' non-puncher like Jimmy.
They persuaded him to put on extra weight (+15 lbs.) so he would have a 'heftier punch'.
It didn't help, it only slowed him down and made him 'lazy'.
For the Ali fight, he is listed at 209 lbs. That was the press release, in reality he was a 198 lbs.
If you look at the fight, Ali looks 'so much bigger' than Jimmy.

 

Saoul Mamby, probably.

 

My man Jimmy was a natural..a bigger version of Wilfred Benitez in a way..only he competed against naturally bigger guys and he had a better chin than Benitez..he always..and to this day, amazed me. The Foreman fight is one of my alltime favorites, and I'm a fan of big George's.

 

Pipino Cuevas had a similar "down" .....up....then down career.

 

No one ever mentioned this, but was Jimmy Young part of Smokin Joe Frazier's
sparring crew up at the Concord Hotel, New York, in February 1971.

Because Kenny Norton was there too, helping Joe out for the "Fight of the Century"

 

Tommy...I just want you to know I had a one-liner, likely a pretty predictable one...I backed off, just for you.

 

Look, I have never cut-up or chopped-down Jimmy Young as a talented 200 pounder capable of teaching youths the ins and outs about boxing technique, but I never got the feeling that Jimmy Young had the eye of the tiger to be consistant and a deadly force during his peak years between 1975 thru 1978... Young was a classic example of being a "Hot & Cold" boxer... Even when he was in decent shape and focused, it still seemed like he could better trained... Young failed himself more than anybody else... His pro record could / should have less losses than it depicts... Cheers...

MR.BILL:bbb