I choose Chuvalo and it might well have been his fight with Quarry that stated it all for me... see my post on the 1st page.
Jake Lammota The Raging bull movie was all it took for me to beg my mother for a pair of boxing gloves.
That's one I need to see. Overall I think Chuvalo might have given Marciano trouble...he was a fine fighter imo. He was just overwhelmed with the best-ever competition in the heavies at the time.
George was rough, tough and durable. The truth, though, is that he was a below average heavyweight. Besides the greats who beat him, he lost to many non- greats: Corletti, Rademacher, Bonavena, Terrell, Mathis, Cloreux, Ellis, Foley, Patterson, and others.
He had heart, though. And a not-inconsequential amount of power. More than I can say about most heavyweights this century, but I'm an old school fool anyway.
The fighter I considered heroic when I started following the sport was Evander Holyfield because of his never say die attitude even when he was seemingly outgunned (as per the Bowe fight). After the Tyson fight, my estimation of him went through the roof. In the ring at least, he seemed to embody the best aspects of the sport. The Real Deal was such an apt nickname for him.
Imo Chuvalo would be near the top of today's division. He'd KO Joshua and Whyte imo, if he can take Wilders punch he'd chin him as well and him brawling with Ruiz would be a sight to behold. Fury would soundly beat him imo
I remember watching Leonard-Hearns II and being in awe of the way both of them boxed. That fight alone made me a huge fan of Hearns and boxing in general.
Ali; I just about have memories of the last few fights. And moving to Crawley in 1980, I remember Minter (Crawley was Alan's hometown) winning the world title, and the disgraceful, classless showing against Hagler. I was in awe of the Marvelous One from that moment on.
Tyson was the first who I really recall and was awestruck by as a small kid, though I wouldn't say he was a hero. It was all Bruno, Benn, Watson, Eubanks, Naz etc as a kid. I really liked Watson and Benn, was baffled by Eubank and hated Hamed like ****. I got into watching old stuff really quickly, from being about six. I used to spend hours with my Grandad watching Laurel and Hardy and Boris Karloff films and when he sussed how crackers I was about boxing, he started telling me about fighters from years gone by. He sat me down one day with a corned beef sandwich, a pot of tea with about twenty ****ing sugars in it and stuck on a tape of Joe Louis beating up Max Baer. And that was that. My first boxing hero and still my favourite fighter of all time nearly 30 years later. Me grandad was mates with Billy Thompson, the European lightweight champion in the late 40s, who lived in the next village, so I was always pestering him for his opinion and for anecdotes. He was ranked in the top five for a stretch and I remember him saying that he was close to a title shot at one bit. I asked him who he would've had to fight and he said 'a black American fella, they called him Ike Williams'. Me the seven year old ignoramus says 'Ooh, was he good? Could you have beat him Billy?' He just smiled and said ' I think I'd have had me hands full, flower'. My grandad piped up 'There'd have more chance of a frog growing hair', and Thompson just laughed and told me grandad to **** off. So I was demanding to watch Ike Williams before I'd ever watched Muhammad Ali.
Ken Norton, 1976-1978. I was aged 8-11. After that I became a much more fickle boxing fan, rooting for whoever was hot at the time. Once I was an adult, I pretty much stopped rooting for individual boxers at all. Instead I rooted for boxing. If I was rooting for anyone it was because I thought if they won it would be better for the sport. There are guys I appreciate and respect, but any hero worship went away by my mid teens. Interesting question by the original poster. It's cool to see where and when people came into the sport.