Top Fighter from Countries Around the World?

Ah, the 3 weight world champion? I forgot about him, good call. :good

 

Pancho Villa - Phillipines

 

Betulio Gonzalez is the best fighter to ever come out of Venezuela in my opinion, very underrated and sadly all but forgotten today by most which is a shame as he was an excellent fighter.

 

Somemore nominees:

Lakva Sim--Mongolia

Gurcharon Singh--Punjab, India

Anton Christoforidis--Greece

Anton Raadik--Estonia

 

Chile: Martin Vargas

 

Scotland could be Benny Lynch or Ken Buchanan. Both great fighters, both arguably to some people top 100 ATG's.

I've always favoured Lynch, but recently after watching more Ken footage I'm beginning to take a shine to him more.

Take your pick of the two.

 

Algeria: Cerdan
Argentina: Monzon
Australia: Carruthers
Brazil: Jofre
Canada: Langford
Colombia: Cervantes
England: Bob Fitzsimmons
France: Carpentier
Indonesia: Pical
Island of Ireland: Dempsey
Italy: Benvenuti
Japan: Harada
Mexico: Chavez
Nicaragua: Arguello
Philippines: Villa
Panama: Duran
Puerto Rico: Gomez
Russia: Kaplan
Scotland: Paterson
South Africa: Vic Toweel
South Korea: Chang/Yuh
Thailand: Galaxy
USA: Robinson
Venzuela: Esparragoza
Wales: Wilde

 

Maybe in the classic forum, but many casual Canadian boxing fans will claim Lennox Lewis.

 

George Dixon would by my Canadian #2. Personally I think Lewis can be rated as a Canadian and British. Same as Napoles should be rated as a Cuban as well as a Mexican; Hope and Andries (for example) also can be rated in a number of countries....

 

McLarnin was Irish, not Canadian.
Jack Root, Austria
Lazlo Papp, Hungary

 

You can not honestly have Jackie Paterson above Benny Lynch and Ken Buchanan. Can you give you reasons for this. Jackie was a superb wee fighter, but was far from unbeatable, and was not as gifted as Ken or Benny.

 

Lynch was a phenomenon no doubt, but he was around less than 10 years, the booze got to him.

Buchanan again was another beloved Scotsman, and not without reason, he was arguably most naturally talented boxer Britain (let alone Scotland) has produced. But he was unlucky in that Duran dominated era, and Ken never quite got over that defeat.

Paterson had longevity, he was world class for longer than Lynch fought and always rose to the occasion, although I would concede he lost fights he never should of.

Lynch and Buchanan are rightly icons, but Paterson deserves recognition as well IMO.

 

In regards to Australia who was better, Jeff Fenech or Les Darcy. I think Fenech accomplished more.

 

He was Irish born, yes, but I disagree entirely with the statement about him not being Canadian, Matt, as McLarnin himself was very proud to consider himself exactly that.

After his father, Sam, had spent significant time working on the farms in and around Alberta, then he went back to Ireland where he got married and started a family with, I believe, Jimmy being the oldest boy. It wasn't but too long after that, which happened before Jimmy hit even three years of age, when Sam returned to Canada with his new family where they originally made their home on a farm right around Mortlach, Saskatchewan (which is in south-central Sask, close to Moose Jaw). A few years later, when Jimmy was around nine years of age, the family moved out to Vancouver, B.C., which is where Jimmy first took up the sport of boxing.

It was Vancouver where McLarnin learned boxing, and it's also the city where he made his home while not in training for a fight, as he kept his home out here right up until shortly after winning the welterweight title towards the end of his career when he moved down to Oakland. All throughout his fighting career he was being hailed from Vancouver, and that was consistent right the beginning of his pro career to the very end. He was always being referred to as the "Irish-born Canadian from Vancouver" and similiar wording of that nature.

In 1950, long after he retired, he was voted as "Canada's Outstanding Boxer of the Half Century" by the press up here, and when he came back home to Vancouver (where his parents and other family members still lived) to recieve the honour, he was very, very proudful of the fact that he was voted as such in this country. He also express great pride when he was also voted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.

McLarnin definately considered himself Canadian, and was proud to do so, so who's to argue with him? Our country was also more than proud to have him as one of our own, as he was our "Irish-born Canadian", but he was a Canadian nonetheless.