Jimmy Young was an excellent fighter

when you put it like that....yes.

 

He was a good boxer. Tricky.

But the Ali fight was awful. Ali was in even worse shape than he was later on against Leon Spinks, and Leon Spinks' performance was a lot better than Young's, IMO. Ali was way way off his best.

Ali v. Young is one of the last fights I'd put much stock in. Young was considered a decent journeyman contender going in, nothing special but a cut above some of the total joke challengers Ali was fighting, like Coopman for instance. Young's performance in that fight hardly elevates his standing, IMO.

 

young vs byrd woulda been a classic between stylistic nightmarror counter punchers

 

I agree. Another stylistic nightmare would have been Young v Michael Spinks.

 

Jimmy Young was a very skilled boxer,not the most spectacular to watch,though. I rate him the sixth best heavyweight of the 70's

 

He had a great defence but had very low power, he would come out of a shell with a flury. I thought he beat Ali and Norton and he did beat Foreman and Lyle but he was not in the level of a Jersey Joe Walcott. I think Chris Byrd could have had success in the 70's when he fought smart, problem with Byrd is he thought he was a puncher. Young was a defensive wiz and in most fights he showed up in shape...I remember him fighting Ocasio and he showed up in the ring with Man- boobs. that was one of the 1st times I seen a heavyweight not train from being a conditioned fighter before hand. I have seen it many times since then and it is common in the heavyweight division from the 80's on

 

It's scary when I think of the rate that Jimmy slipped between the Ken Norton fight and his first one with Ocasio. I remember that there was only about six months between the two bouts.

 

I have always maintained that Young was a good fighter, very sneaky, couldn't land cleanly against him.

He would be champ if he were fighting today.

 

As one poster already mentioned, the version of Ali that Young fought was basically the same one that lost to Leon Spinks, and I'm still not certain who deserved the decision. The Foreman win was a good victory, but was this really the best we ever saw of George who afterall was throwing up in the locker room and seeing Jesus immediately after the fight? Lyle was a decent win, but Young was not the only man who had claim to beating him.. Young was never a crowd or judge pleaser and spent more time evading his opponents than facing them. Top it off with Young's whole whopping claim to 11 Ko's in 34 wins, and I'm not so sure that " excellent" is the word I'd use to describe him.

 

Me neither,he had a golden chance to beat Ali and didnt take it,,Young lacked a winners mentality in several fights and lost close decs accordingly.His best wins, over a confidence shaky Foreman ,and a 35 year old Lyle dont entitle him to the plaudits he receives imo.

 

A golden chance to beat Ali? Never on scorecards it wasn't and just go look at the lopsided scoring in Ali bouts. For all intents and purposes it pretty much mirrored Howard Cosell commentary and just how many rounds did he give the other guy anyway? Any remotely close round goes to Ali.

Young was not the house fighter and he was taking on Ali in a Bob Arum promotion in 1976 for minimal money. It's hardly an easy task for anyone to get even a split decision win under those circumstances and Ali was a very very difficult guy to ko. And although some folks thought Ali was ready to be taken, nobody was picking Jimmy Young. If he was a huge threat , the Ali camp would've sidestepped him and fought Schutte or Conteh or Stevenson or the other names mentioned at the time.

It sure didn't seem like any more of a golden opportunity than guys like Wepner or Lubbers had in their title shots. More like huge huge underdogs that had zero chance to win.

 

Ali was 35 years old ,only half fit and scaled a career high [at that time] 230lbs ,Young was 28 in his prime, thats as golden a chance as anyone could or should need.
The guy did not have a Champions mentality, he was a defensively orientated ,safety first fighter, who rarely took the initiative and lost several fights by close decision because of it.If he wanted it badly enough he would have had more fire in his belly.
To be honest ,Im getting a bit sick of hearing how he was allways robbed in close fights, was the other guy allways the house fighter do you think?
Coulda, shoulda ,but in the end, ****ing didnt,no prizes for coming second.END OF.

 

Agreed. Young was not a great fighter. He only had the tendency to make Great fighters look unimpressive, which isn't the same as winning. Furthermore, the great fighters that he did manage to make look ordinary were either past their best or showed up in half ass condition. Young's fights with Ossie Ocasio gave us a better idea of what type of fighter he really was.

 

Ive nothing against Young ,he put on a clinic in London against Mark Young, but his style and approach to the game turned me off,and Im growing weary of listening to how he was allways robbed. The guy had negligible power, so he knew he had to win convincingly ,but seldom did.
Glad Im not alone on this:good