The greatest feats achieved by "green fighters"

Jimmy McLarnins early career is almost unmatched.. even by 17 years old he had beaten ATG Pancho Villa, future two time undisputed WW champion Jackie Fields, Olympic gold medalist & future undisputed flyweight champion Fidel Labarba & two draws with bantamweight champion & HOFer Memphis Pal Moore.. as a scrawny teen.. can u imagine that today .. he also beat HOFer Bud Taylor by DQ but lost the overall trilogy... that is incredible.. yes he sometimes get criticism for being a bit of weight bully but i think it a little unfair.. Certainly not by todays standards.. you have some fighters entering the ring 20-25lbs above what they weighed in at the night before.. that's weight bullying.. let's size up McLarnin, he was 5'6, 67 inch reach and started off his career as a Flyweight.. yes there was a 7lb difference for Canzoneri, 6lbs for Villa etc... but as i said he he did come all way up from flyweight himself.. albeit he was very young.. but still.. so i don't see him as a legit weight bully.. McLarnin fought them because they were within his weight range, not because he was cutting weight so he could face off with little guys. If a peak McClarnin was fighting Flyweights then there would be an argument but he wasn't.. also he was seventeen.. the experience most of those opponents I've just mentioned had was well beyond his yet he still more than held his own..

 

"Competitive at some stretches? " Calling me a fanboy ? You're clearly a troll.

 

Interesting post !

 

At seventeen he was still a kid.

A terrific call.

 

Great call and when you watch that fight again Tim really dealt out some major punishment to Larry's body .. that was the worst consistent punishment Holmes took up to the Tyson fight with the Weaver being second ( the single punch knockdowns by Shavers and Snipes were serious but one shot scenarios opposed to multi round punishment ) ... Holmes may have edged but it was extremely close and Tim was brutal that night.

 

The first 20 fights of Jimmy Ellis wasn’t even funny. He was thrown in at the deep end of the pool against top contenders. But still, one could see this kid had talent if managed correctly. At 3-0 he beat Wilfie Greaves. At 5-1 he knocked out Rory Calhoun. And at 7-1 he beat Holly Mims, which reversed his only loss.

 

Gerry Cooney.. in his first 5 years as a professional he fought Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young, Larry Holmes & Ken Norton. Imagine that today?

 

There’s another way to go about this question if we consider Green figthers.

Dave Boy Green fought for the welterweight title twice.

Alvin Green retired Ezzard Charles, handing him a defeat in Ezz’s final bout.

Eddie Green went 1-1-1 with 1 no contest vs Fred Krueger, which I’m pretty sure is better than anyone in the movies did against ol’ razor-claws.

(Krueger had a colorful career, also going 1-0-1 with Billy Brown and fighting Johnny Black to a draw. Shoulda called him Kid Crayola or Skittles Krueger.)

 

Another 17 year old High School student was Dwight Hawkins who received the call to engage the top bantamweight contender Jose Becerra, who was about a year and a half away from winning the world title. Becerra had an imposing 42-3-3 record compared to Hawkins' 9-4-1. But Dwight knocked Becerra kickng in 4 rounds. It didn't matter that Becerra reversed the loss some 4 months later. This High Schooler knocked out the top contender at 118 and that cred likely went a long way in the halls of that school for quite a while.

 

Has to be Davey Boy Green over John Stracey. He was as green as it gets.,

 

In the womb, kicking and punching in there.

 

Richard Green was a high-profile referee who officiated Ali-Holmes, Mancini-Frias and Mancini-Kim, among other fights.

Sadly, he took his own life in the 1980s.

 

Thank god he wasn't a twin!