Were Australian's better fighters 60yrs ago?

the romantics of yesterdays heroes from 60 years back fail to mention how corrupt the sport was back in the day

having spoken to someone recently who new a thing or 2 about boxing back in the day fighters who were harder men because they came out of the depression and needed to put food on the table were happy to bring an early night in a boxing match at the behest of crooked book makers

no doubt this technique padded lots of local heroes records as it was rife back in the day

 

Blah, blah, blah.

Magilla, I think your mate was insinuating that fighters would bet on themselves.. ala Richards and Henneberry. Henneberry was frequently disqualified for fouls, deliberate fouls, in order to forfeit bets if he was losing.

What is corrupt about that?

 

Ask your mate what would happen if Stadiums Ltd had reason to believe a fighter was throwing fights to benefit bookies. That'd be the last time any fighter would be fighting under the roof of the countries highest paying promoters.

Laying down for the bookies would create havoc with paying spectators. Causing yourself to be disq. after busting your guts to win is a different story. That was common enough. I know of a case where a fighter saw the small crown at West Melbourne Stadium... knowing that his share of the gate would amount to little, he walked on out of the Stadium. A bloke sitting ringside, who had not fought in 8 months, was approached to fill in. He did take the fight.... and took Al Foreman (Number 3 in the world) the full distance!! Not a bad effort. Yep, they were hard *******s.

 

my mates father was a journeyman known for his toughness and willingness to take fights at short notice to pad records and keep bookies happy

no names mentioned none would be known i am talking 50's in SA

 

South Australia was not under Stadiums Ltd control... you have a fair point.

 

its easy to pick out names which were headliners on major cards 50 60 years back and pump them up

60 years from now the same will be done with the likes of mundine and green mark my words

history has a wonderful way of recreating itself to shed a refracted light on the past to suit the romantic feel or notion of a better time much like the history wars its easier to leave out the rot

 

It gives a better understanding of how fkn good our champs were back then by paying attention to a lot of the fighters who 'almost' made it.

Mundine's career wont be remembered as such. Most people will be able to remember the names of 2, maybe 3 blokes he fought. Nothing more.

Ask anyone who his old man fought.. two names will crop up.. Kahu Mahanga and Carlos Monzon.

Without looking at boxrec, see if you can tell me who the National bantamweight Champ was in 1993... Yeah, ****ed if I know either..

Todays fighters will not be on the same pedastol as those from the golden age of boxing. Ask a bloke who loves the games HISTORY, a fair amount of them could give you a pretty detailed run of Aussie champs, in all divisions, through to the 1980's. Most national champs were reverred until that time.

 

Gorilla.. does your mate know much about his old mans career? Got a last name??

 

Swinging the discussion away from the initial point (ie were Australia's fighters better 60 years ago) by bringing crooked bookies into it - but at the same time conceding on the initial point it would seem by what you've written above in yellow.

 

No **** todays fighters will not be held on the same pedastol as those from yester year.

Todays so called historians probably havnt seen most fights they tell stories of. IMO its a big fat bunch of chinese whispers in many instances.

Sure there are those fighters that would do well in any era but casting the Don Bradman sprinkle over an entire cohort is simply

Im assuming there was money back in the day? couple this with fellas fighting to live, not hard to picture corruption.

 

Teke.. There's enough footage of the great fighters from the 1930's onwards to suprise you. There's also the availability of magazines, papers etc to get an indication of the calibre a lot of them were. The game was not a complete mess as it is now.
Mention the names Carrol, Richards, Henneberry, Palmer, Sands, Patrick, Morgan, Burns Barnes, Tollis, Flannery and you've got a huge % of the Lights through to Heavies covered between the 1930's to the late 1950's. Throw in the list of classic battles they shared and engaged with others, and you've covered even deeper.

You'll be suprised what ya learn when ya talk to the 80+ y/o's also. Mate, I've been enjoying this **** for 20 years.

No point talking about corruption when you follow a total sham anyway.

 

I dont doubt anything you said and i look forward to seeing more footage of every era.

 

christ , mundine would have his hands full with the likes of the fighters bobby sinn has mentioned here . a few would be happy to jump up a couple of weight classes or give away plenty of weight to have a crack at chocs whiskers , what do ya reckon.