How good was Jimmy Bivins

Very highly.

 

He was the greatest duration champion of all time.

 

Late career wins over Bascom, DeJohn, Wallace...from the Pastor split loss he had wins over Pastor, Maxim, Moore, Murray, Sheppard, Bettina, Charles, Christoforidis, Valentino, Mauriello, and Savold until Walcott ended his 27 fight unbeaten streak streak with a split decision win. Has any other heavyweight/ lightheavyweight contender a better run of fights? He also beat Henry, Lesnevich and Turkey Thompson, some fighter.

 

Amazing (genuinely) that contenders like Shavers, Cleveland Williams, Elmer Ray, Rex Layne, can get loads of interest and a thread on Bivins, better than any of them, IMO, can hardly get a reply.

 

A lot of people will bring up Sam Langford, Harry Wills, Charley Burley and Holman Williams as guys that were just unjustly denied a title shot. And they are right. But I gotta say, I think Bivins is at the top of the list. Bivins held both Duration light heavyweight and heavyweight titles during the war years. Do you think he could have got just one title shot from the champs returning from service?

 

His work from 1940-46 was something special. Some of his best wins where however tainted by the fact he was a bigger man and some of the names he beat where relatively “green”.

Ezzard and Archie left very little doubt on who was superior in return bouts if memory serves after the war. (I might be wrong I’m no expert) anyways Jimmy was a true contender, he contended! (Lol) he fought everybody he wasn’t sitting pretty waiting for his shot and whenever he lost some he won some more and kept building a reputation.

Bivins was a model old school fighter with a career trajectory that was among the most meteoric of all time of course like most old timers he had his ruts. Check out his best streaks with a little boxrec detective work.

 

Now I’m stabbing in the dark with an echo of a memory but Louis fought him in a non title bout afterwards and diced him up? Not sure about his situation at LHW.

 

He did fight Bivins post-war, but that wasn't until '51 when both fighters had a lot of mileage on the odometer. Bivins deserved that shot in '45 or '46, but Lesnevich and Louis were angling to make some money after 4 years in the service. I know Louis made a ton of money for the Conn rematch, which Conn didn't deserve. And I'm sure Gus made a bucket load of money to defend against Mills over in England. Didn't look like anyone was enforcing a title shot against the top contender.

 

Not a favourite of mine, but his resume is very deep.

 

His resume is better than most men who DID win championships.

 

As an aside it shows how goog Moore was!

 

From !940 to 1955 we have Louis, Marciano, Charles, Walcott, Moore...and then I reckon Bivins?