pre 1980's...if americans had to travel more,how different would history be????

Leonard-Duran 2 in Panama City in Feb, 1981. Giving Duran time to have a tuneup and get in shape

 

I seen the film of the fight which runs about 30 or so mins, All 15 rounds are there, but I think Louis won more on his punching power, than Farr's weaker blows, Farr was a mess, yes Farr made a good accout, but damage done to your foe plays a big part of the scoring of that era.
Under the score system, I think Louis won it.

 

He should have stayed in shape.

It's not SRL's fault that Cholo ballooned up to cruiserweight after the first fight.

 

Mike Trainer is not signing a contract for that fight. Never.

That was 1 thing that began to rear it's head in the sport from about 75 onwards--american fighters not taking their act on the road. And even more rare was the examples of going into the lions den against a top fighter and big attendance. Like say a Tate-Coetzee. Those became very rare fights being made and what became even moreso was getting an A+ performance out of the american fighter on that nite.


An example would be say a Hearns going to Italy for a bout with Kalmabay when he started campaigning at middle. Good tough hard fight for both. But go look at guys from the 50' and 60' and early 70's and they were taking those kinds of Lions Den fights. But we the fans were the beneficiary of this at some of the lower weights, but not as you moved up.

 

Ronnie Harris choking against the less talented Corro one of the classic examples at that time of how much a strong home crowd can matter.

 

Time changes can actually be a real problem. However, if you go over to the place weeks in advance, you should be able to adjust your body-clock.

If there is a psychological affect for home-town crowd, that's for the fighter to overcome. But given his place as a pro (and it depends on who we are talking about), he has made it this far to be able to adapt to fighting in front of a crowd as opposed to being Great in the Gym, so...again, it depends on the fighter's make-up and training. Some athletes actually have done better away from home because there is more pressure when home. And going away is not only less pressure, but its an act of conquering as opposed to defending (which can work for you too but it depends on the person).

 

well, I am of the opinion you do this early in a guy's career for maturation and having your guy overcome obstacles. Angie Dundee was great at it and look at the wonderful job he did with Cassius Clay. Since about 75, you have guys that will not even take the risk Ali did pre-title taking on a tough Guy like Cooper in his backyard.

But passing that test always seems to help those guys later on in a big fight and is almost like adding a reserve of an olympic belt to draw upon at some time. But there is so much protection going on with fighters and the advent of 4 world titles has made this much much worse. You'd think it'd be the opposite and would open doors for various challenges and take advantage of taxes to receive a bigger net of the revenue.

 

Yep.

You can even take this 1 additional branch from the trunk of the tree, as far as american fighters. How many actually even take a fight going into the lion's den and that fight even takes place in america? So many guys have tons of bouts but it's the stacked deck variety.

How many times in a guy's career are they taking their act on the road and taking on a different/bigger promoter's fighter? even more rare is this--how many A+ performances do we see when fighter A finally does take that big risk?

 

"jet lag"

Most traveled by ship back then.

A lot of Americans did fight abroad, though. How many fights in other countries did Archie Moore have?

 

Boxing has always had its share of home town decisions, or decisions based on golden gooses needing a win to make a lot of money on their next fight. In the USA, there have been many home town decisions, some of which were robberies where the other guy from USA lost.

Germany has had its share of home town cooking. In Asia, I hear it’s even worse as fighters from other countries often need to win at least 2/3 of the rounds by a clear margin or score a KO to beat the home country fighter.

Regarding Louis vs. Farr, the scoring was horrible. Louis’ managers and promoters had several business relationships in NY. In fact one of his managers was later sent to prison for mob related reasons. While this in itself does not prove Louis had favorbile scoring, it does raise an eyebrow or two. Indeed, those at ringside felt Walcott won the first fight with Louis, and based on the footage I have seen Goody looks the better in the first fight as well by a small margin. Walcott camp insisted that Donovan needed to be removed. And they had good reason to say this.

In boxing, the promoter picks the referee. And Louis referee for 15+ title fights was a guy named Art Donovan. Donovan somehow scored Louis vs. Farr 13-1 in favor of Louis! Anyone fair judge with a good working pair of eyes knows this is a very baised card. Farr won several rounds ( At least 5-6 ), maybe more and once stunned Louis ( I think round 9 or 11 ), which can be seen on film. The fight was close. There was no re-match. If the fight had been in Wales, it would not surprise me if a UK judge would have selected Farr as the winner on their card.