Gary Mason

Heavy handed but had very suspect stamina IIRC. As said, very good win for LL considering the circumstances.

 

Early 90's that is. By the mid 90's the talent pool was circling the drain.

 

Mason was probably at least as good as someone like Sam Peter.

In his day, he wasn't even considered among the top tier contenders. Today, he'd probably have a title and be getting hyped up the ass by HBO.

 

Hell of a chin, didn't he end up with serious eye damage that was partially responsible for his retirement after the Lennox match? Gives you a good idea of how much heavy artillery Lennox landed on him.

That was a real war regardless, Lennox definitely wasn't as concerned about shutting down an opponents offense as he would later become. Mason hit him with some very flush shots.

He was a stablemate of Bruno's if I'm remembering correctly, and they sparred here and there. I never heard how those sessions ended though.

 

I admit that I never saw him fight, but his record against quality fighters is slim. Hell, Tyrell Biggs may well have been the best man he beat and Biggs hadn't won a fight in nearly three years. From what people from Britain have told me, he was a solid puncher who lacked that extra something special.. A tough opponent for anyone who was average to decent, but any elite man would demolished him from what I gather....

 

Well, he did face and beat Tyrell Biggs, but Biggs was firmly in the journeyman stage by then. It was a performance that was solid and workmanlike without being great in any way.

For me part of Mason's problem was that he was of the slow and ponderous variety; a fighter lacking imagination and the ability to improvise.
He was a monolith though, to his credit. Very tough and a good puncher.

But this is kind of what I was alluding to in another thread about the depth of the 90's. As mentioned, Mason was basically an unknown outside the UK, but he did possess some genuine ability. Same with Francesco Damiani over in Italy.
Both guys would be solid contenders today, for sure.

 

I'll check it out based on your recommendation my friend.:good

 

Mason was always playing second fiddle in his career.

He was the who cares on the undercard to Bruno; then the not as classy as Horace, then when he had his chance to shine sucked against Wills and was darn lucky against Biggs (in what I think may of been a dive) in fights I saw him live.

Now confession time

I was the ony one of my crowd to pick him to beat Lewis in their war at Wembley!

I have since met Gary, he has real class and is IMO a genuine, nice fella.

I am glad I always had a soft spot for him, but Harding and his brilliant ticker aside, he was merely OK...

 

funny this but i was thinking about starting a thread last saturday about if arreola is a contender these days how would gary mason be viewed would he be the most dangerous contender to the klits ,and also being a brit would haye fight him to secure a tittle shot ,i am not convinced haye would of beaten mason ,as said above mason was very slow but could take a good shot would haye of run out of gas and got stopped late

think i will start a poll