I haven´t seen that many fights of him, actually only his fight with Jones, DM, Arslan and the two Maske fights. He was a very humble and nice guy when he was over here in Germany and very well liked due to this - we don´t like trashtalkers over here. As a olympic silver medalist - of the US team which also starred Meldrick Taylor and Pernell Whitaker - he was a very good technician with a fine jab, good ring general, fast hands and decent pop but not a puncher. He won his first title in his first title match but got upset by an old Tommy Hearns in his next fight. He then putted together a string of good wins until he won the vacated WBA title again. He defended it nine times before he faced Maske for an unification fight. When he beat Maske and unified two belts he was the best lhw in the world for a time. But then lost his belts to DM in his next fight and in the one after this he lost to Jones. But he wasn´t finished yet and went on to stack up some decent wins just to win a cw title against former and later champ Fabrizzio Tiozzo with a first round KO. Again he lost the belt in his next fight to Jean-Marc Mormeck. But he didn´t give up, he fought on , put together a string of wins again just to rematch Mormeck but he lost this one also. He still fought on and two years later he upset Valery Brudov to win the WBA cw title in impressive fashion. Then he had the rematch with Maske who came back after ten years to avenge his only loss. The fight was made at a catchweight of 190 pounds and was an impressive showing from Maske. Really impressive. In his next fight he lost his cw belt to Firat Arslan and then retired. He really fell short of greatness. He was always one of the best in his division but had always better guys in front of him. He had very good longevity, was a 2-time lhw and 2-time cw champ and made alltogther 9 successful title defences. His best opponents were Bobby Czyz (win), Tommy Hearns (loss), Frank Tate (win), Fabrizio Tiozzo (2 wins), Henry Maske (1 win, 1 loss), Dariusz Michaelchwski (loss), Roy Jones Junior (loss), Jean-Marc-Mormeck (2 losses).
Very well put. I see him at the Amateur shows in New Jersey from time to time. He even called me up a few weeks ago and I straightened out a problem he had with one of his young boxers. He then called back thanking me. I ran the Finals of the New Jersey Diamond Glove Tournament on Friday, November 13th and for the JO's on Saturday, November 14th. He had a young boxer on the Saturday show and he and Bobby Czyz came, BUT not together. I was the Ring Announcer and I had the pleasure of introducing both of them. If you count all his Championship bouts, he fought in over 300 Championship rounds, only Griffith fought in more in modern times, and he won his last title, the WBA World Cruiserweight Title, at the age of 42, as he became the 2nd oldest boxer (Foreman) ever to win a World Title. Your 100% correct when you say he is a nice guy.
The first time I ever saw Virgil Hill fight was probably the most that I had ever been impressed by him. He scored a first round KO over top contender James Kinchen sometime in 1989. After that, his performances were not quite so stellar or exciting. Over the years, I witnessed his matches with such men as Frank Tate, David Vedder, Crawford Ashley and Thomas Hearns.. A very good fighter and one who is probably underrated to some degree. But, as most have already stated, he never quite ascended to the level of great.
Yeah, he had quite a few championship rounds ^^ That´s why he is liked over here. Even casual sport fans know him over here. He is better known than Roy Jones Jr. :good
