Were these fighters good or bad guys outside the ring?

Most boxers carry themselves like Gentlemen ( by most accounts) ...I would much rather meet a boxer than a UFC fighter or any other professional athlete

 

Benvenuti is absolutely loved by all. I haven't met him but I've spoken to people who have. A really warm, open man who still loves Boxing.
I met Don Curry. Quiet, polite, serious guy. Seemed strangely insecure and lacking self confidence. He was World Champion when I met him. Liked him a lot.

 

And an opponent's wife !

 

Sorry to hear this. Nino is, apparently, much loved in our sport.

 

And yet ...Sugar Ray Leonard is the one who gets all the hate mail on these Boxing forums

 

Benvenuti Is a very good person.

 

not sure about most of them but from what I’ve heard Roberto Duran is NOT a good guy

 

Greb attracts some unsavoury biographers.

 

Kid McCoy is one I'd like to learn more about outside of the ring. He certainly lived a complex and colourful life.

I've not been able to find the article again, but Creedon had a good anecdote about him.

 

Which IMHO have distorted our view of him a little.

The truth was more complex.

 

They were scum.

Great fighters though.

 

I really don't think the likes of Harry Greb, Ezzard Charles and Jesery Joe Walcott were at all scum.

 

Willie Pepp seemed very domestically focused, well he tried domestic bliss by getting married 6 times

"I've got it made. I've got a wife and a TV set - and they're both working."

"All my wives were great housekeepers. After every divorce, they kept the house."

 

From what I've read and heard of him throughout the years,...and I've been a fan of his since'67, Nino Benvenuti is one of the nicest, most high class people the sport of boxing has ever known. He worked with a charity...a Christian outreach for years that was founded by Mother Theresa (really)...he visited folks in hospitals and hospices and was involved in other humanitarian, charitable works. He visited his conqueror, Carlos Monzon in prison. For me, he was a golden, clamorous figure who stepped right in after Ali was deposed,..and in '67, besides winning the middleweight crown, fullfilled Ali's role as a much needed charismatic figure for the much beleagured sport of boxing.