Ron Richards, Fred Henneberry and Ambrose Palmer were three of Australias best middleweights of the 1930's and 40's. Apart from fighting each other many times I see Richards and Henneberry both fought Archie Moore and Palmer fought Young Stribling. So its easy to see they were world class fighters. Richards beat Henneberry 6 times, 4 of those Henneberry lost on a disqualification. Henneberry beat Richards 3 times and they Drew once. Palmer beat Richards 4 times and beat Henneberry twice but lost to him once via disqualification. Anyway just wanted to see how you would rate these three guys against each other. Is Richards the best of the three or do you rate Palmer or Henneberry higher ?
Great topic mate. All vastly superior to each other in different facets. Ambrose was always toooooo big for Richards mate. Richards lost four out of four to the larger man. Henneberry and Richards were the better match up. Henneberry was ALWAYS forcing the fights. From his crouched position he'd remain in Richards face swinging brutally. Richards was the consumate counter puncher with dynamite in his right hand. Much the same as Green vs Mundine, Richards relied on Henneberry to come to him, countering with bombs and keeping up with all action. Two execellently matched men. Richards only had a slight edge, yet in 10 encounters, only cuts or disq seperated them. Palmer vs Henneberry was the less memorable of the matches as Henneberry had great respect for Ambrose, pulling no funny business and fighting with care throughout their meetings. Dont forget Jack Carrol mate.. as a W/W, he belted Richards twice and Henneberry the same. They had to catch him if they wanted to beat him. The evasive Carroll was only caught by Henneberry once. Who'se the best?? Palmer had the wood on Richards and Respect of Henneberry. Carroll was the better of Richards and Henneberry also. Richards had the misfortune of being too small in meeting the brilliant boxing Palmer. Its a vicious circle mate.. Styles make for great fights, and these men all combined exceptional talent with varying styles to provide slight edges over each other. The named three along with Carroll were World beaters in any era. Barney Ross had no interest in meeting Jack Carroll. Ron Richards belted the **** out of Lesnevich, demoralised Ray Actis and took Archie Moore 12 rounds for the first time in The Mongooses career. Henneberry schooled Ken Overlin in bullish fighting, who later conquered Cererino Garcia for the World M/W crown. Palmer never ventured too far, yet proved wis own values in bettering the better men of Champions.
I've always known Palmer was the bigger guy out of the three and therefore had an advantage to some extent. I know he was weighing in as a light heavy towards the end of his career and he outweighed Henneberry by 15 pounds in there last encounter. I havent seen much of Jack Carroll to be honest. I will have to see if i can get my hands on some of his fights.
Mate, very little extended footage of Jack Carroll is available. Ive not seen any full fights. He's almost unkown to the wankers in the classic forum, although he's one of the greatest fighters we have produced. A total spoiler with a flicking/cutting left jab and a range like a guided missile... Barney Ross had been warned to stay away from Australia and facing Jack by Maxie Rosenbloom... and Barney was no slouch.. Its typical though.. Our geographical isolation cost us plenty.
He must have been good for Ross to have been warned not to fight him. Its a real shame there is stuff all footage of him.
