On Today's Date, a 15 Round War Between Joe Frazier and Oscar Bonavena

20 or 30 years from now, someone will be posting that Sam Peter is an all time great because he nearly beat Wladimir Klitschko.

 

Cheers red. Great stuff as per always. I'm not totally sold on Oscar but will have another look, bearing in mind what you have written, and look out for some of the points you make; see if it alters my opinion.

Look. He gave prime Frazier hell and Ali had a tougher time with him than he did with Quarry which speaks volumes.

Sorry to hijack the thread to go off on a tangent, and I confess to having a bit of an agenda here. but the way Bonavena gave so many of the 70s' big guns a fight just goes to show what an amazing fighter Floyd Patterson was, to have done so well against Oscar at 37, despite having a style predicated on youth, speed and reflexes. Just shows that Floyd was far from the fragile paper champion he sometimes gets portrayed as. But I think I may be preaching to the converted on this one.

 

Got no problem with what you said. Floyd was psychologically "unique".....helped people up from knockdowns;... sent Ingo into total "la-la land", etc, ... but got totally intimidated by Liston and all the pressure to beat Sonny. Floyd was a good man.

 

Expand on this bud... which other "site"

 

He was clearly several leagues above Stander.

 

Bonevena was a tough cookie. Very strong. I like the reference to Fullmer in that awkwardness and also brute physical strength. With that said it is interesting to compare the first fight to the second fight to see how far Joe Frazier had come. Working with Eddie Futch full time was paying dividends. In that first bout Joe was standing upright too much and not moving his head with the steady beat that he did in the rematch. Oscar did a good job in this fight. He had the right plan.

 

There's not a lot of HW's out there who wouldn't struggle with Frazier's left hook.

 

in 10 match ups agains lennox lewis, he wouldnt land any of this haymakers

 

People underrate Bonaven's durability. Guy took twice the abuse the consenus iron chinned George Foreman did, against Ali, before succumbing.

 

And to be doing that in his mid 30s, having won the title at the age of 21 - 21 for a light heavyweight!! - underlines what an absolute underappreciated gem we had for nearly two decades. The definition of a class act.

 

I don't think it's even necessarily your bias, I've always heard of Ellis/Patterson as a head scratcher of a decision that Patterson clearly deserved, both Quarry fights being very tightly contested, and then with the Bonavena match most seem to agree that he deserved it.

Patterson's resume definitely does not tell the entire tale of what a quality fighter he was, at first glance. He deserves better.