How good were the British & European Champs (1950-75)?

When I started following boxing in the mid-70s, I know that some European champions were legitimate top contenders. Bugner, Tonna, Chris Finnegan, Minter, Stracey, Green, and Parlov come to mind here. Other European champions were just limited clubfighters, though, who would not have been able to win eight round fights against ham-and-eggers in the USA. Thus, the quality of these champions varied.

In the '70s, if I remember correctly, holding the European belt automatically entitled a fighter to a top ten world rating with the WBC. Whether that fighter could remain in the top ten was something else altogether, though.

 

An interesting fact here is that in 1975 (after losing a title fight to Ali), Joe Bugner dumped his European belt because he didn't want to be burdened by having to defend it against mediocre mandatory challengers. At the time, Bugner was focused on world class competition, so holding the European belt was a hindrance to him.

 

From the film that I have seen of them, Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner and Jack Bodell were actually pretty good fighters.

 

Mickey Duff ,in his auto biography heartily endorses this opinion.
Charnley matched against Griffith was a mismatch.Charnley's manager was money orientated ,sometimes at Dave's expense.

 

He certainly didn't mind fighting Welterweights.He stopped Pete Waterman beat Jose Stable and gave Brian Curvis all the trouble he could handle in his last year.The Griffith fight was madness although he still managed to go 9 rounds.I think Dave himself must have thought better of it after that and retired at 29! I believe he did very well in his retirement.

 

That's possibly stretching it a bit far Mr Magoo, but he was game!

 

He certainly did ,and thoroughly deserved it ,he comes from the next town to me.Today he would have been a World Champ.imo.

 

I agree that Jack Bodell was hardly what most consider as a great fighter persay. I admit that the footage I've seen of him was limited, but from what I could tell, his boxing skills were sound, he just lacked in defense and a good chin. Offensively he was okay. His record from 1967-1971 wasn't that bad. He went on a streak where he beat a large number of good fighters while losing few times during this period, but again, I agree that he was limited.

 

Unfortunately I have to disagree with Bodell and Cooper. These two did a lot to create the horizontal heavyweight reputation British heavies had until Lewis showed up.

Bodell was especially bad. See his one round demolition by Jerry Quarry as an example.

 

He was very game and awkward.I remember Henry Cooper saying when he fought him the 2nd time he kept tripping over Jack's feet,they were so awkwardly placed!