Greats who idolized other greats

Dempsey idolized Sullivan and Jeffries

 

Pacquiao has stated in interviews that he idolized Julio Cesar Chavez Sr while growing up. It’s also nice to see that they’re also good friends too.

 

Frazier was a big fan of Marciano and Armstrong and modeled his swarming style on them.

Schmeling got into boxing watching Dempsey fights.

Robinson's idols were Louis and Kid Chocolate and his style of fighting reflected how he wanted to blend Chocolate's slick movement and Louis' explosive combination punching.

 

Jack 'Kid' Berg idolized Ted 'Kid' Lewis, both Jews raised in east end London, had to call himself 'Kid' in honour of Lewis and did his best to follow in his footsteps.

Maybe obvious but
Jersey Joe Walcott - Barbados Joe Walcott
Jack Dempsey - 'Nonpareil' Jack Dempsey

 

I know Carlos Zárate’s favorite fighters growing up were Jose Napoles, Sugar Ramos, Jose Medel and Raul Macias.

Salvador Sanchez’s were Napoles and Ruben Olivares.

 

Joe Calzaghe idolized Marvin Hagler

 

As did Tony Sibson.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson loved Henry Armstrong and fought Fritzie Zivic pretty early on because he wanted to get revenge on behalf of Hank.

Ray was said to have carried Armstrong when they fought out of respect for him.

 

That's nice to hear such a great fighter having an underappreciated fighter like Medel as a favourite. Did he elaborate much about them to you Chris? I know Macias was an idol to most young Mexicans and a massive star there and that Medel was popular too but haven't heard many fighters reference them directly.

 

Wilfredo Gomez was a massive inspiration for Michael Armstrong, who fought under the name Michael Gomez.

Nigel Benn was an inspiration to a lot of British fighters, Jamie Moore being my favourite of them. Tony Bellew once said due to how much he loved Benn at the time, that when Watson beat him, he tried to do everything like Watson did. He looked at him as the best thing since sliced bread.

Michael Brodie once said how much he looked up to Tony Sibson.

 

Yep, his old trainer (Bill Miller) was close friends with Charles and would watch old Ezzard Charles fights with Toney in the evenings after training. Toney also looked up to Rocky Marciano a lot.

 

Benn was everyone's fave.

 

Joe Gans admired Bob Fitzsimmons so much that he travelled directly to his training camp to try and learn his Boxing secrets. Fitz would never give away the full detail, but he was obviously pretty helpful towards Gans.

In turn, Kid Chocolate would apparently watch Gans film at any possible chance he could pay, and it was available, and would copy his moves.

SRR and Gavilan would also emulate Chocolate, and even Tyson has stated how much he admired him. IMO Tyson's punching style is reminiscent of Chocolate.