Recently I have been very interested in Walter McGowan, and have purchased film of him and many old boxing magazines from his era. And I think he gets sold slightly short, probably through ignorance rather than any actual underrating, but I think this needs to be addressed. His skillset is one of the best of any Flyweights I have seen. His fast feet allowed him to dart in and out of range behind a snappy jab. His sense of distance was superb and allowed him to time counters and put together his combinations superbly and make them land crisply. His left hook was a potent weapon to head and body, and I loved the way he would fall inside his jab and bang away with that left hook. As far as pure boxing goes he is among the best IMO. He was also very tough and could take a punch well, although himself not being considered a big puncher, at domestic British level he was thought to have at least a modicum of power. And at the world level his punches carried enough sting to do damage. He actually floored the super tough Chinoi 3 times in one round! Not bad for a supposed non-hitter. The big weakness of his was the cuts and he genuinely did cut up in almost every fight. Every scrap of footage we have of him show shim getting cut, believe it or not. We all know his Flyweight credentials, his Flyweight resume does lack top contender names of the era, but he did really rule Europe despite never winning the European title (although many felt he deserved the nod in the first Burruni match). With wins over the likes of Libeer, Brown and Luukanon. Makes a respectable record. The win over Burruni is superb, especially in the manner in which he achieved it. He failed to defend his title against Chinoi (and regain) because of cuts, but each time he was well ahead at the time of the stoppage and looked to be on the way to a comfortable win. In fact I did not think Chinoi won a round against McGowan. His Bantamweight credentials are also solid. He was robbed off the European Bantamweight crown with a draw against Galli, that almost everyone thought he won. He also has the amazing first win over Rudkin, which controversial as it was, most people thought it was a close fight and no complaints could be made that Walter came out on top. This win over Rudkin is huge IMO. All in all, a very good resume for a very good fighter. Would you consider him great? Also it should be noted that McGowan was in the frame to fight Fighting Harada a few times. Once when Harada newly captured the Flyweight crown (and McGowan defeated Libeer), however McGowan would have been very inexperienced, and again when McGowan defeated Rudkin, this time at Bantamweight however. It could have been a superb match up in their primes but at these points in their careers you would have to settle for decisive Harada wins. Anyone else just got random general thoughts on McGowan? Lets get a discussion going.
I have seen a lot of Walther Mc Gowan fights and he was great. I have not yet seen the fights you should have sent me a year ago in retur for the fights I sent to you. Woller
