The nicest boxer

Only in my head, those days like boxing are long gone.
Walking's a challenge these days

 

Nice guys: Michael Grant, Sergio Martinez, Marlon Starling, and James Toney. Trainer Kevin Cunningham is nice too.

Not so nice: Charles Brewer, Derrick Gainer, and Freddie Norwood.

 

Lennox Lewis, Ray Leonard and Wilder were great guys when I met them. Fury was a bit of a douche bag.

 

Paul Williams

 

Lewis comes across as a really classy bloke.

 

I’m a Brewer fan but never met him. What was he like that made him not-so-nice?

 

Besides McGirt who was super friendly so was Frazier Bert Cooper Holmes Ritchie Kates Meldrick Taylor. All very kool

 

Emile Griffith, Joe Frazier & Michael Spinks, all of whom have been mentioned several times already, extremely nice guys. Also, Joey Giardello and Arthur Mercante were very nice.

 

I met him in a gym in Philly. He was ornery, probably cause he was training for an upcoming fight. I do remember he seemed intent on facing Prime Roy Jones, which would've been a disaster.

 

I thought you might’ve been joking but I wasn’t going to assume it - I’ve known people run/exercise under such sufferances and don’t know how they do it. Sorry to hear that it’s impaired you a bit.

 

Met Quincy Taylor in person and talked to him at length. Really nice guy as well....

 

I'll second that Knew him quite well when in Texas

 

I met him in the Fort Lauderdale area. A friend of mine who boxed as an amateur briefly, owns a barber shop there and Taylor stopped by to get a haircut, and I met him through my buddy. Actually brought him by the house. Taylor was really down to Earth. Was enthusiastic when recalling some of his fights. I believe he was inactive at the time due to injury. Don't believe he fought again after the time I met him.

My Dad worked with a former boxer by the name of Pete Balcunas who used to bring boxing films to our house. I was a little too young to remember him well, but heard he was a great guy as well...

 

Oh yeah, he’d have been wrecked there. He was definitely a fighter I always rooted for. I felt he got jobbed against Ottke.

 

All of the pro boxers I ever met personally were very approachable and nice: Chuck Wepner, Rocky Graziano, Jersey Joe Walcott, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier, Shannon Briggs, Michael Moorer, George Foreman, and Steve Dudas. Dudas was a ranked heavyweight in the 30s and 40s who fought Schmeling and Walcott. He was a school bus driver and maintenance man in my public school days, and my father used to see him doing road work during his fighting days.

I can't really say that I met Ali, but I did go to see him in 1969 when he made an appearance at my college. This was in the middle of his exile from boxing. He entertained questions from the audience and it seemed that the questioners either loved him or hated him. He was friendlier to those who were friendlier to him and more defensive toward those challenging him. There was no violence at that lecture, but definitely a lot of tension in the air. I knew the students who organized the lecture and they told me that in private Ali was very quiet.

Although not a fighter, I once met Bert Randolph Sugar and approached him for an autograph. To my surprise, he was very personable. He seemed glad that I recognized him and I told him that I felt that Boxing Illustrated, of which he was editor at that time, was the best boxing magazine around. While I had always preferred The Ring, at that time I really did feel that BI was the best around. He thanked me and said that he really needed to hear that.