hi. i've just finished watching an excellent doco on jerry quarry, really enjoyed it. it made me wonder if there's been many white heavyweights that were actually DECENT and GOOD fighters since the sixties?
I guess you're talking about white Americans. Haven't been many really world class ones. I mean, Tommy Morrison might be the best white American heavy since Quarry, and he was not THAT good. Tex Cobb was tough but very limited. Gerry Cooney was hyped up big time but he didn't achieve much at all. Joe Mesi is probably the most recent white American heavyweight contender. He could punch pretty good, but cant tell how good he was. Against his two best opponents (both fringe guys) the results are mixed.
There has been a shortage of White Heavyweights but its funny in countrys like South Africa Whites dominated the Heavyweight division with Coetzee,Knotezee,Sanders. America has not had many only in the amatuers, Nick Wells and Duane Bobick dominated but Wells was misguided in the pros with Texas NON knowhow, the same thing happened to Canadian Willie Dewitt, mismanged a dominating amatuer Heavyweight (who crushed Holmes 2 times) Chuvalo had the body,strength,chin but was not managed so well. The Russians were not allowed to turn Pro but now I wonder if they were, how the Heavyweight landscape may have been different and more competitive for guys like Ali,Frazier,Holmes, Etc. In America Boxing is shunned next to football, baseball and college but has always been a tough sport where most tough guys come from gettos or desperate conditions...What if Marciano was accepted by the Cus, we may have never seen this great fighter excell and develope.
If you mean any white, then how about names like Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Oleg Maskaev, Vitali Klitschko, Sergei Liakhovich, Nikolai Valuev and Andrew Golota.
The best and currently the dominant champion in the Heavyweight division is Wladimir Klitschko. Povetkin and Chagaev are other excellent white heavweights fighting today. White Heavyweights have never been as strong as they are today.:deal
I think the main reason is better ecomics for the whites than there was before. Back in the 50's, There was not much for a Italian guy to do, so we had the Carmen Basilio's and Rocky Marciano's who took over the sport. By the 60's they were mostly gone. In the 1920's and 30's we had the great jewish fighters. And before that Irish.
In America? Not really. Gerrie Coetzee from South Africa was a pretty good fighter. The Klitschkos of course, are/were very good fighters. Francesco Damiani from Italy wasn't too bad either.
Like I said, they're not from America. But yes, the best heavyweights in the world are white no matter what their origin is.
