Why Is Your Favorite Fighter Your Favorite Fighter?

Hi Buddy.
Good pick, I am sure more than a few share your enthusiasm for Buchanan, a steller british champion, and were it not for Duran , he might well have held the title for many a year, I quite liked the Buchanan post the Duran fight, more aggressive, planted his feet more, thinking the debacle of that fight hardened him somewhat, made him more spiteful, he became more of a box fighter sort off.
I had a long conversation with him at a boxing funtion many years ago, he had long been retired from the unlicensed fights, and was not looking very well, still slim, but haggard, as to his career, he felt that he was overlooked by the establishment, also he said he felt undervalued, carried a lot of baggage from a long hard boxing life, that said he was polite and informative, as to his fights, he knew, as we knew, that a return with Duran would have been another defeat for him, but he would have wanted to fight him not least because of the money a title fight would bring in, all in all, another sad tale of a boxer not earning the millions of today's fighters, and having to work on for the rest of their lives.
I might add, sparing your blushes, you have acquired an immense amount of boxing knowledge for someone so young, your prowse could be mistaken for a pundit much older, truly impressive, let's hope your tenure with the forum is long, and we can look forward to many and varied posts in the future.
stay safe DG, chat soon.

 

I agree about Buchanan getting rougher post-Duran, I think it's very visible in his Jim Watt fight, one of my favourite performances of his and one of my favourite British title fights. Loved reading your story about meeting Ken. I would have liked to see a Duran rematch even if it did lead to another L on the ledger, I do think though that it would have meant a better sense of closure for both men if the loss was above board and there wasn't any controversy around it. Buchanan had to go back to his work as a carpenter post-retirement and was troubled with back problems throughout his later life I believe, it's a real shame he never got the happy ending he deserved. Though, if he did, I don't think it would have changed his feeling that he was overlooked, seeing as from articles I've read interviewing him as he was champion, he felt the same way, and had felt undermined and over looked since he was a child. Thank you for the compliment on my writing by the way. This forum has certainly been a very welcoming place for barbershop boxing talk and I don't have any intention of leaving all too soon. Take care Mike.

 

Buchanan for me too. Long retired when I got into boxing. Boxing News did an articule on the great Ismael Laguna and how this once beaten Scot travelled to Puerto Rico and comes on strong against a the champion in searing heat (I can just recently saw brave McGuigan fall to pieces against Stevie Cruz due to heat exhaustion) to dominate the last 3 rounds. Ken never seem to get the credit for such an incredible feat, I ran it on par with Honeyghan´s win.

He then repeated the feat, beat top contender Navarro in his hometown and thrashed 22-0 Donato Paduano, 41-1 Al Ford and ko 3 Andres Steyn the reigning South African champion in Johannesberg in non-title fights!


He fought his heart out against the young unstoppage Duran, the loss rankled at being unfair. Depends on your perspective as in the US it´s viewed differently to the Uk. I guess the Americans still remember Fainting Phil Scott!

Also there was a feeling he was avoided after the Duran fight. he stopped an ancient Carlos Ortiz, won the British and European titles but just couldn´t bag that big fight. Nearly rewon the World crown finally gets Guts Ishimatsu but suffered a closed eye which hampered him. Very unlucky.

I saw the documentary where he was fighting unlicienced boxing fights, very sad to see such a great fighter. He was always bitter in interviews though he later years he forgave Duran. Class fighter.

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PS: Does anyone have a decent version of Buchanan-Laguna I (don´t care if silent or not English) since all the versions I´ve got are pretty bad unfortunately.

 

because in his/their respective divisions he/they are potentially the Best.

i.e Marshall, Charles and JJW...

 

I would pick "Smokin Joe"--growing up in the 70's I saw a lot of Frazier. He just always struck me as a really solid humble guy with absolutely not ONE ounce of phoniness! I think Joe had the most heart I've ever seen in any fighter! AND, he also had NO fear of anyone and was one of the toughest guys you'll ever see!! (In fact I'd take Joe in a street brawl over ANY fighter--even Foreman!! No WAY would I want to meet an angry Frazier in a dark alley!!)

 

I have a few favorites. One is Lennox Lewis, he seemed a bit arrogant when he was active, but I always liked the way he carried himself, low key, private type of guy.

 

Muhammad Ali

I was coming up to my eleventh birthday when Ali was in Britain for the second Henry Copper fight. This is when he first caught my attention. He just seemed so totally different from any sportsman I'd seen before. I became a fan from that fight onwards.

 

Some great responses here.

My favorite fighter, Tom "Roughhouse" Fischer, the guy in my avatar, was barely a blip on the 70's and 80's radar, although he did get a couple big high profile fights including getting to fight on the Ali-Holmes undercard against Mike Dokes.

When I was a teenager and started boxing at the local PAL, right by Champ Chaney's office was a fight poster from Fischer's big fight in Dayton against ex-title challenger Terry Daniels and Fischer had an interesting gimmick- shaved head and credible snarl with fu-manchu mustache and "Roughhouse" nickname caught my interest. As I began to interact with professionals there at the gym, I saw the difference between the high profile money-backed glamour guys like SRL and the other "pushed" Olympians and local guys working 9-5 and chasing a dream and I gravitated towards the latter.

I ended up following Fischer and met people who knew him from Dayton and described a guy who laid carpet during the day and trained on either side of his workday, running 6 miles before work and hitting the gym afterwards and both bar bouncing and running "Tom's Christmas Trees" on the weekends to make ends meet. Very easy to admire someone who is the determined underdog fighting against the odds. Even moreso when the guy is 5'9 with no real amateur career who started boxing to shed weight and ends up fighting the #1 heavyweight contender on one of the biggest fight cards in history. Stayed a fan to the end of his career.