Leotis Martin

Old Brian does speaking engagements he did one, and some one got up and heckled him ,said," you should be ashamed of yourself, look what has happened to your opponent Muhammad Ali"
London, dead pan said ,"don't blame me pal, I never laid a glove a glove on him".

 

Folley was back-burner toast when he faced Brian. My Korean war bud was at the Floyd-Brian scrap here in Indy in 59, said Brian's body started puffing up and turning red proportunitely from the first round on...along with Patterson's lack of killer instinct? Hard to think that Eddie gave him a worse beating.
A question? After Cooper's victory over Folley in the fall of 58, the matchup was supposed to be Floyd-Henry in early 59. What happened? I do know the British Boxing Board refused to saction London and distanced themselves from that "title" fight.

Another snippet: Has anyone else noticed that, after fighting London in Indy in early May-59, Patterson faced Johannson mid-June of that year? What? 40-45 days later???

 

Johansson was up before the count of ten. London did enough to convince him to retire for good though.

 

About 20 years ago I was given a 1961 magazine with alongi on the cover as "the next big thing". the feature article was all about his unbeaten run and how he had passed all the tests and was about to be launched on the worlds top contenders, the Italian American angle was used to draw comparisons with marciano. Tony looked very long and tall in all the action photos but perhaps it was telling how competitive the fights looked with unknown opponents in the shots as Tony looked to be bleeding in some of them.

It was a few years before I had access to the internet to find out what became of alongi, he drew with chuvalo as well as quarry. alongi only ever really lost on cuts. I Think once he found his level he was content to be a local headliner in Miami, he had a lot of draws but his record was good on paper.

 

Vargas did well for himself and became champion early so it's not like he wasn't having success. He fought Trinidad the best time he could and was even outboxing him in some middle rounds. Hell Reid had his moments against Trinidad too. Reid's biggest weakness was his eye which he retired early because of it. Both Reid & Vargas were champions before they faced Trinidad so I stopped believing that they were "thrown to the wolves". Unfortunate for them they toke risks pretty soon but they held their own at times versus Trinidad. Back to the topic, I think Ali would have his hands full against Machen.