Johnny Caldwell vs Freddie Gilroy

Nice one nat :good; this was a massive and much anticipated fight at the time that just about lived up to expectation from what I can gather, though sadly much unappreciated nowadays.

Johnny was the better craftsman and tidier fighter in there but Freddie was the naturally bigger man with the edge in speed and power. Great inside scrapping from the both of them too with Caldwell's grit and technique compensating for him not being quite as strong as Gilroy (despite leaving himself on occasion when falling in, something that Jofre punished him for at times). His style would have been better served by a bigger punch I think; he didn't have the biggest dig even at flyweight.

Excellently schooled little classical boxer though, it'd be nice if footage of the Halimi fights surfaced like Al mentioned on the Jofre thread. I'd like to see the Gilroy-Halimi fight too; Freddie was a real natural talent it seems. I didn't know that he retired because of Solomons not being able to fix up a crack at Jofre in the wake of victory here. Pity, he was only in his mid-twenties when he packed in. Does anyone know if there was more to it?

 

Thanks, I didn't see yet....I will watch that later today

 

bump-baba-bump

 

Yeah, I agree with you
And I wish there was more film of Halimi too...

 

Me too, I've only seen the clip of the first KO loss against Becerra on youtube. Halimi was a top-level road warrior and has become a bit of a forgotten champion in the scheme of things. Of all his world and European title fights, only the title winning effort against D'Agata, a bit of a forgotten man himself, took place on home turf for him I think. That said, a fair number observers at the time seemed to think he was very lucky to get the nod both times against Macias and Gilroy, especially on away soil.

I know that Gilroy lost to Cossemyns a few months later; still, I've sometimes vaguely wondered why he didn't get an immediate rematch prior to the Cossemyns loss if the Halimi fight was so close. The same thing goes with Macias although I haven't examined either situation in any great depth. Interesting how both of them retired young.

Macias is another fighter I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of either; he looks good here against ex kickboxer Chamroen Songkitrat, the dangerous and talented Oriental champion and former world title challenger who managed to carve out a pretty notable career for himself when one considers he only had a dozen or so fights.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W-eVeFjQPg[/ame]

 

Halimi was a very good slick and quick boxer as far as I know about him....tough fights against Becerra…
I watched that fight Macias vs Chamroen…Macias is highly regarded in Mexico, I found many things about him in the Mexican boxing websites…
Interesting Tin…I didn´t knew Chamroen was a ex-kickboxer....

 

Hmmm, everything I've read about Halimi and even the snippet of footage seems to show him as a wild, swarming, aggressive type with good strength and endurance but not much punching power. Seemingly capable of fighting with a unorthodox craftiness and occasional slickness off the back foot however; in fact, it apparently might have been this tactic that got him back into the fight against Macias in the last 5 or so rounds after being somewhat outboxed in the early going.......

I'm the same as you in that I've read a fair bit about Macias; he was a bit of an idol it seems and had a big home following at the time before he retired and went into acting or whatever it was. He looks like a very nice natural mover and counterpuncher in the Chamroen fight. I never knew that Chamroen had been a kickboxer either, though it isn't exactly uncommon in that part of the world....

I think that most of the bantamweight champions between Ortiz and Jofre - with the possible exception of Carruthers - suffer these days from a lack of wider exposure and the fact that none of them reigned very long or were massively dominant over their rivals in the way that Ortiz and Jofre both were for such a long time. Perhaps similar in a way to the time between Al Brown and Ortiz from the mid 30's to the early 40's.

 

Nice, thanks for the information, I will read more about Halimi......I´m not sure if was against Becerra when I read that....that he fought at the back foot and everything.......I will be looking for that article.....