Unsung great lightheavyweights

This thread is devoted to some of the great lightheavyweights of the past who do not receive enough atention today.

Paul Berlenbach

This content is protected

Jack Delaney

This content is protected

Leo Lomski

This content is protected

Lou Scozza

This content is protected

Feel free to suggest your own names.

 

I am working on it.

In the mean time you might want to put forward some more names.

 

Leo Lomski

This content is protected

Leo Lomski or the Aberdeen Asassin, was a crowd pleasing dynamite puncher who was highly feared and avoided. He was born in Scotland with a jewish farther. He gave Tommy Loughran the toughest fight of his light heavyweight title reing putting the champion down for two nine counts in the first round and loosing a razor thin decision. Some thought that Lomski deserved the nod.

His victims include Maxie Rosenbloom, Mike McTigure, Jimmy Braddock and Tiger Flowers. If he had not had the bad fortune to come along while Tommy Loughran was at his peak he might well have been champion.

Would he pick up a belt today?

You bet your ass.

 

Lou Scozza

This content is protected

Here is what CBZ says about Scozza and it is a fair summary:

Scozza was a talented middleweight and light heavyweight title contender in the mid 1920s and early 1930s; Lou came close to winning the New York version of the Light Heavyweight Championship when he pounded slick boxing Jimmy Slattery late in their February 1930 contest; At his best, Scozza was a very good fighter who has not received due credit for his capability over the years

Victims include, Maxie Rosenbloom, Tony Shucco and Jimmy Braddock

 

Jack Delaney

This content is protected

You wouldnt know it today but Jack Dellaney, or Bright Eyes as he was known, was regarded by some as the greatest light heavyweight of them all before the war. He was a superior technical boxer who tangled with the best from middleweight to heavyweight.

He is perhaps best known for his trilogy with Paul Berlenbach which ranks among the greatest trilogies of all time.

His victims include Tommy Loughran, Maxie Rosenbloom, Paul Berlenbach, Mike McTigue,Tiger Flowers, Johnny Risko, and Paolino Uzcudun.

 

The Dellaney Berlenbach trilogy, one of the greatest of all time?

In all Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach fought three times.

Their first meeting was won by Dellaney by knockout in the fourth round.

In their second encounter Berlenbach was the defending light heavyweight champion and retained his title by a narrow hard fought decision.

In their third encounter Dellaney lifted the title from Berlenbach by decision.



Here is Mike Casseys description of the fight where Dellaney relieved Berlenbach of the title:


A twenty-four hour postponement of the fight failed to dampen the enthusiasm of a capacity crowd of 45,000 at the famous old home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. But it did put Delaney at a greater weight disadvantage. At the time of the weigh-in, Delaney scaled 166lbs to Berlenbach’s 174 1/4lbs. By fight time, however, Paul was up to 181 to Jack’s 169.

This time, before an enraptured and excited crowd, it would be Jack Delaney who would furnish the great comeback rally. Berlenbach was in tremendous form, a proud champion determined to stay on his throne. He displayed his great power of punch repeatedly through the first ten rounds of the battle, and the hardy Delaney appeared to be tiring under the effects of the steady flow of punishment.

Then Jack dug in and found a new lease of life, launching a tremendous drive over the last five rounds that would have Paul fighting desperately for survival. Such was the unlikely intensity and passion of Delaney’s great charge that it would be described by reporters and fans as one of the greatest comebacks in ring history.

Jack launched a sustained, two-fisted attack to win the day, which seemed to take Berlenbach completely by surprise and knock the resistance right out of him in those final, decisive frames.
While Delaney couldn’t floor Berlenbach as in their previous fights, Jack did everything but. Most remarkable was that Jack’s left hand should play such an instrumental role in inflicting the decisive damage. Only on returning to his dressing room did he discover that he had suffered a small fracture in his left thumb.

He employed the left hand with consistent accuracy and crunching effect in his big surge. Right uppercuts and powerful left hooks to the jaw were the weapons that began to unhinge Berlenbach and eat into his points lead, with the champion looked increasingly fragile and uncertain from the eleventh round.

That round almost certainly marked the turning point of the fight, as Delaney found the mark with a smashing right uppercut to the stomach that seemed to suck the wind from Paul’s sails and drain him.

Jack sensed that he had turned the tide and began his powerful run to home base, suddenly charged with new life and verve. He had dropped the previous four rounds and seemed to be finding Berlenbach’s withering power too hot to handle. With that pivotal eleventh round, however, the Brooklyn crowd knew that an already engrossing fight had taken a new twist.
Berlenbach very nearly went under in the fourteenth round when Delaney caught him with a big right to the jaw that dipped his knees. With the big crowd cheering Jack on, Paul made a grab for the ropes and then fell into the temporary shelter of a clinch.

Berlenbach was a mightily brave and gutsy champion. He took a tremendous pounding in those final rounds but weathered the storm with great courage and spirit. Paul never gave up and Delaney still needed to employ his evasive skills as the champion mounted defiant charges. Blood flowed from a cut to Berlenbach’s left eye through the last four rounds, which seemed to impair his vision.

The fifteenth and final round proved another torrid session for Paul and he needed all his heart and guile to survive it. Jack drilled a left to the head and a terrific right to the body that staggered Berlenbach. Then another short right, travelling just inches, found Paul’s chin and came close to sending him down.

Still the champion fought back gallantly, and the two men were hitting each other hard at the bell. Commissioner James A Farley announced that the decision was unanimous for the new champion, Jack Delaney, and the crowd gave Jack a tremendous ovation.

 

Good call.

Joe Louis said that Bettina was the only fighter his managment purpousfully avoided.

This content is protected

 

It is strange that he dosnt get more atention these days.

This content is protected