Saensak Muangsurin, John Stracey, Eckhard Dagge & David Kotey. Thought I'd take a break from another Marciano, Duran, Tyson thread and throw some light on these virtually forgotten fighters. They were all champions in or around 1976 and that was the year I first started following boxing closely. I was buying all the boxing magazines and noticed these guys were champions in the Latin dominated lower divisions and took an interest in them. I never saw Muangsuring fight. He won the jr. welter title in only his 3rd pro fight although he had been previously competing in martial arts. He defended several times before losing his title and later became fodder for a young Tommy Hearns. I've seen Stracey's fight with Palomino many times and always feel sorry for him as he's in genuine agony from Carlos's body attack. He was very classy in defeat as he took the mike after the fight and congratulated the new champion and thanked the British fans for their support. I saw Kotey's 2nd fight with Danny Lopez where Little Red stopped him but know very little else about him other than he bear Ruben Olivares for the title. I know virtually nothing about Dagge except he was the 2nd German born champion at that time after Schmelling and was stopped by Rocky Mattioli and lost his title. Incidentally, both Dagge and Muangsurin have been dead awhile. Any thoughts or comments from anybody who knows anything else about these champs?
Dagge was very good. But he was also a junkie. Even before getting a title he was. He was also quite witty. Some quotes from him: "IThere were many champions who were alcoholics but I was the first alcoholic to become champion." Then asked about how he compares with Schmeling, he answered: "At least I won my title standing on my feets." He was never big in Germany due to his connections to the red-light district of Hamburg. His trainers were very annoyed about him due to his training habits, he often vanished for days from training camp then came back totally drunk, took some pills and then trained harder than anybody else. He also liked to get punched. I nearly every fight he let his opponent punch him without much defence until he was warmed up, then he turned up and won. He won the title against Elisha Obed who was thought of beeing the next big thing. After Dagge was finished with him, he was damaged goods. Dagge also holds a win over an old Emile Griffith. He had all the talent in the world but drugs, alcohol and his bitternis over the lack of appreciation by his countrymen cut his career short. Universum gave him a chance as a trainer after his career and he was the trainer of Dariusz Michaelchweski for a while until he got fired because he wasn´t teaching DM only about boxing but also about alcohol and whores. He made a therapy afterwards and after beeing sober for half a year he got cancer and died. Kohl, founder and owner of Universum, and DM paid for his funeral where only very few showed up.
That Dagge was never big in Germany, when he fought exclusively on German speaking turf, speaks volumes. Schmeling, on the other hand, established himself in New York, and became very popular in America before Hitler's rise to power unfairly tainted him by association (and for promotional exploitation). Muangsurin, like Dagge, seems doomed to be the answer to a trivia question, Stracey, saddled with the label of a transitional champion between an end of the line Napoles and ascendant Palomino. Kotey was stuck between Olivares and Little Red, losing the title in a communications challenged **** hole that was so isolated from the rest of civilization that it took two days for the outside world to receive news of Lopez dethroning him. (It was briefly rumored that Danny had been devoured by cockroaches on his way to the ring.)
Well, boxing was at a downward curve in Germany at the time and most boxing events where somehow related with dubious figures. It more and more was seen as something half-illegal and Dagge training right in the middle of St. Pauli, the red light district of Hamburg, didn´t help his cause.
You're very correct. Maske was a true great among greats. Inhabitant of mighty Olympus of Fistiana. The rarest of breeds. Great thread.
Very interesting. I knew very little about him. Sounds like kind of a tragic figure but his life sounds like it would make a good movie. Of course, I don't know who would go see it.
Dagge did a real nice job w/ Dariusz and really developed that jab of his. Beautiful work. Although Dariusz had a good one as an amateur. But Dagge turned it into world class & then Fritz took over. If I recall correctly, Dagge himself had a big amateur following and a high pedigree from those ranks. Stracey had that huge win over a personal favorite of mine, Napoles. Big big upset at the time and a terrific win under any circumstances. Duff talks about that some in his autobiography. But that was such a tough division at the time and not many softies out there to inflate records/lengthen title runs.
Regrettably I have n't seen enough of Muansurin,Dagge and Kotey to form an opinion. I'm familiar with Stracey,though. Very good welterweight,and I recall his title winning bout against the great Jose Napoles vividly. In rterospect,it's no surprise that he lost to the classy Carlos Palomino,but I was surprised when he was defeated by Dave Green.
