You're opinion would probably be right, or as right as you can get in that scenario. However, the main things which prevented his title shots, aside from his ethnicity, is in those reports. Lesenvich didn't want anything to do with a rematch and he lost to Walcott whilst aiming for the Louis fight.
Gus knew he was on his way out. He got mega money for the re-match with Freddie Mills. A fight with Bivins wouldn't have got him half what Jack Solomons paid him.
He was found by two cops investigating the home for allegations of child abuse. They found him up in a feces infested attic with a deep gash on his hand and withered away to 110 pounds or so and he appeared confused. Since he was 78 at the time, his daughter and her husband were charged with elder abuse. He died in 2012 at age 92 in a nursing home from complications from dementia. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93082058/jimmy-bivins
First time seeing the Doc fight and wasn’t disappointed. More entertaining then Bivins other fights on film
Haven't got to it yet, will hopefully get it done after the podcast later. I'm very eager to watch the Anton fight, though. Great thread, by the way. Hopefully we get some more responses. It got me thinking. I might make a few of these over the coming weeks whilst in isolation. One for Maxim, Marshall, maybe Moore or Williams. The whole Black Murderer's Row is STILL underrated.
In terms of the murderer's row, I see him as a George Foreman type figure. He certainly isn't as skilled as Burley, Charles, Marshall or Moore. But he had incredibly long arms and he would shift weight in swings similar to Foreman with heavyhanded wood chopping punches. I wonder if he was past his best when he was losing to Charles and Moore or if they'd figured him out. It could be they grew into the LHW-Cruser bodysize a bit better.
He certainly wasn't unskilled, though. His lead hand was excellent, be it with feints, be it with his jab or his left hook. His right was clubbing and looping. He did build power with his shots in Foreman-esc way, nice comparison. He stalked and jabbed using his range vs Anton (in his absolute prime) well. It was a little bit of both, combined with the weight difference lowering, and it becoming more even. Moore and Charles proved they were better than him. But then again, they proved that with every LHW at the time. And probably ever.
His reach definitely threw a lot of people off the first time they met him. I always thought he had more power then his KO percentage entailed. Have to check boxrec because I’m wondering if he Was a lot stronger in the 40s maybe lost some power moving up.
I really like his jab, very stiff, looked like he rocked Ezzard's head back with it a few times. Looked as strong as some fighters straights. He seemed to me to like that stiff arm defense, leaving the left hand extended, which got exploited quite well when he fought Moore I thought. Good fighter, definitely worth watching a few more of.
