There have been so many fighters who took the name "Young Whoever" over time, taking the name of a famous former fighter as their own either because of physical resemblance, resemblance in fighting style, or to perhaps stir interesting and create buzz and incrase the gate -- or perhaps in some cases just out of tribute. The most recent I can remember of these was Young Joe Louis (Eddie Taylor) out of Chicago who was a cruier/heavy of some note in the 1970s and into the 90s (becoming strictly an opponent after some early success). I also found a Young Joe Louis who fought Young Tiger Flowers in 1935 -- neither of them reaching 10 career bouts. These days I don't think a boxer could do that without legally changing his name in the Federal ID/boxrec era, where commissions want to know who the boxer actually is. So my question is threefold: 1) Who were the most successful of the Young Whoever fighters? 2) Have there been any notable such guys since the aforementioned Young Joe Louis? 3) Did any of these ever come remotely close to living up to their namesake?
Jimmy Young. All jokes aside, this naming of "Young George Foreman" etc happened a lot in Africa. I remember I went through some heavyweight's record some time ago (don't remember his name right now though) who fought a lot in africa and there were tons of names like "Young George Foreman" etc. Some boxer is called "Proud Kilimanjaro". I once talked to Young Dick Tiger on the phone - he is Dick Tiger's nephew and runs "Tiger's boxing gym" in Los Angeles. A super nice guy he is.
i remember proud kilaminjaro almost giving hughroy curry a huge shock near the end of their fight......and giving the outsized horice notice a good workout too, great start to that fight kilamanjaro had i remember...although he was naturally a good bit bigger.
I remember he was due to fight Lennox Lewis, but failed a HIV test, Mike Simuwelu getting the fight instead.
