Forgetten, leaving a very incomplete picture especially years later. When Duane Bobick was blown out by Norton in 1, he was legitmately hit in the throat. His eyes watered up and he couldn't see. Absolutely nothing false about that one, Bobick sounds terrible post fight in his dressing room when Cosell is interviewing him. Depressing. Andrew Golota nearly pulled out of the first Bowe fight. He was under an extreme amount of stress even before the fight. The HBO crew commented on this before the fight began, that he never grew out of the amateur fighter mindset as he was an amateur for so long. What else?
The gloves were such that pre WWII, you would need to be a complete novice to take a throat blow, Bobick was far from good, but was too classy to take a throat blow, so do not insult Duane.
I'm quite sure that Bobick was not even alive until after WWII, so that would put his career as post WWII. Genaro Hernandez is a former world champion, and only lost to two men. Azumah Nelson hit him in the throat.
Yeah, truly difficult when it's happened to plenty of good, modern fighters. Guys flurying, snaps your head back and hits you in the throat with a follow up shot, as a another post just mentioned.
Jim Jeffries was the first heavyweight champion ever to retire as undefeated champion. Michael Spinks also retired as undefeated heavyweight champion (although he only physically held the lineal belt) as he had been stripped of his other. His retirement only lasted a few months, before he signed to fight Tyson. Jim Jeffries did actually land some punches against Johnson and according to some may have won some rounds when he was annihilated by Johnson. Gene Tunney, who is usually criticised for not having a proven heavyweight chin, actually took some clean shots from arguably the greatest puncher ever in Dempsey, and got up and kept fighting. Something the solid heavyweight chin of Jack Sharkey (and many others) could not do. Virtually no very good light heavyweight world champion has ever failed to beat at least a couple of world class fighters when they step up to heavys (even if they are occassionally blown out). Muhammed Ali, who is probably the greatest fighter ever, had a close to perfect build, good Strength, Was the fastest boxer of all time almost certainly, had an amazing ability to adapt and use general ring generalship, was never pushed around, yet despite all this, needed to rely on probably the best ever chin, recuperative powers and heart. Without it, despite all of his ATG assets he would not be close to an all time great in legacy.
Ezzard Charles took a terrific blow to the throat from Marciano.Was he not classy enough to avoid it?
Tommy Burns, having sustained a complete 'savaging' at the hands of Jack Johnson, reportedly spent a vast sum of his winning at the racecourse the following day, and in very good spirits. Johnson did carry Burns.
Fair call, I guess, although it depends on your definition of World Class. He did beat Sonny Moore, who went the distance with Zora Foley and Clevelend Williams, so he coudlnt have been too far off world class. Bert Whitehurst took Harold Johnson and Sonny Liston the distance twice and actually beat Bob Satterfield, so again he must have been very close to world class. Willie Besmanoff had beaten Marty Marshall and Bob Baker and been the distance with quite a few good fighters like Yvon Durelle, Archie Moore etc. Sure he was knocked out in 7 by Muhammed Ali but that means that he did last longer than someone like say, jerry Quarry. Foster lost to the best fighters he fought such as Ali, Terrell, Foley, Frazier, and Doug Jones. But being honest, these were all top 4 heavyweights and if there were 4 titles like there is today, they would all have been champions at some stage of their career. Proably longstanding champions. In todays environment, some of the guys that he beat have records which are not too far removed from say a a Lance Whitaker, Clifford Ettiene, Danny Williams, Corrie Sanders etc even Andrew Golota. Never the best fighters in the world but probably fair to consider them World Class fighters.
World Class is one of those terms that gets thrown around without a lot of thought. According to BoxRec, there are 1074 fighters currently ranked at heavyweight. Disregard how they have them ranked, that is not my point. It means that at least 1074 heavyweights have had a recorded professional fight in the past year. If one heavyweight can beat 900 of the fighters on their list, he is well into the world's top 10% in regards to 200+ lb fighters. If he can be all but 30 or 40, he is in the upper 3%.
Going the distance with some one does not put you in their class. Whitehurst. Those results you mentioned happened in 1958 Liston 1957 Satterfield 1956/8 Johnson Foster fought Whitehurst in1962.,Whitehurst had lost 5 of his last 6 fights ,he was a trial horse. Besmanoff fought Marshall in 1959 Baker in 1957 He lost to Foster in 1963,and had lost 5 of his last 7 fights one of the others being a draw,again a trial horse. Liston went out in 1 rd to Ali ,Foster lasted into the 7th does that mean he is 7 x better than Liston?
