Your favorite boxing year

Yeah, Leonard was really great back then. Too bad he had to take that break.

 

... 1949.

-a peaking Robinson takes on Kid Gavilan

-Gavilian-Ike Williams (albeit faded), twice

-Lamotta-Cerdan

-Ezzard Charles was about 28 years old and fighting Maxim, Walcott, and KOd Valentino

-Archie Moore, 33, beating Bivins, Satterfield, and Harold Johnson

-you had Paddy Demarco, Tony Demarco, Jimmy Carter, Art Aragon and a stellar gallery not mentioned here -all active.

-Basilio was starting out (and take note -he fought 15 times),

-Conn and Zale had just finished, Fritzie was wrapping it up and Beau Jack was active but winding down,

-you had Fusari beating Castellani but getting stopped by Graziano,

-Marciano had 13 fights with the last one being the one that ended big Carmine Vingo's career in December.

-Pep-Saddler II at Madison Square Garden. That's a hard one to top alone.

That's the year for me. Where's John Garfield?? I need an Amen over here. Hell, I would have stopped going to work and spent the year on trains to and from MSG.

 

in my time the best year has to be 2007. so many megafights. 2008 has produced some classics and could be even better

the year 2000 was great. we had:

mab v morales 1
dlh v mosley
vargas v tito
tito v reid
vargas v quartey
ayala v tapia 2

 

wish i was around for them days

 

...............My choice too.

Holmes-Cooney
Pryor-Arguello
Chacon-Limon IV

Dominant champions and great fights.

 

Agreed! 1982 was the year of my birth but also from what I've seen and read, the best year for boxing ever.

 

Thanks for bringin' the thread to my attention, S89. Solid Amen from me.

Scrolling through your list makes me more than a little misty. The ol' Garden's as vivid to me now as it was almost 60 years ago.

And all those names -- those precious memories -- make time stand still for me. I grew up in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, just a few blocks from Paddy DeMarco.

 

1986....

 

In my time I like 1987. A peak Tyson and a peak Holyfield were fighters of the year, each fighting 4 times and dominating the heavy and cruiser divisions between them.
Leonard-Hagler was the event of the year.

Hearns fought Andries and Roldan, the middleweights seemed stacked with new fighters.
McCallum KOs Curry. Chavez beats Rosario.

 

this year is really shaping up to be an ATG year. we still have to come:

cotto v marg
Clottey V JUdah
Diaz V Katsidis (a surefire classic)
dawson v Tarver
nate cambell v juan guzman
calzaghe v jones
another dlh mega fight
mayorga v mosley
hatton v malinaggi
Casamayor - Juan Manuel Marquez
Vitali Klitschko - Samuel Peter
torres v holt 3

 

You're welcome. I grew up a few miles from the North End of Boston -home of Tony Demarco, who's 2 wars with Basilio is more forgotten than they should be. I was recently at Vinnie Marino's restaurant in Dedham --only 2 pro fights in the early 60s but a fixture around Roslindale and Dedham outside of Boston... the bar is a shrine to the Demarco-Basilio fights.

 

It means more when you're a kid and these guys are your heroes. For that reason, it's easy for me. 1981:

Sanchez-Gomez
Leonard-Hearns
Arguello-Mancini

These fights were within 6 weeks of each other. Amazing!

 

Your singling out of Tony DeMarco, S89, brings a sad smile.

I was doin’ a video of the week-long pre-fight hoopla in Vegas for the Ruiz-Jones heavyweight title fight, tryin’ to collar celebrities and civilians for predictions.

Outside the weigh-in at Caesar’s I spotted DeMarco in a rumpled sport jacket – an every-man in the midst of a crowd oblivious to his accomplishments. But for streaks of silver in his hair, and an additional 20 pounds, he still looked like the crouching bomb-thrower that fought epoch wars with Basilio.

I went over and asked if I could interview him. He broke into a warm smile and said, “sure,” as if he was an undercard fighter getting unexpected recognition.

We spoke for about a half hour, but only his prediction of why fellow New Englander Ruiz would win made it into the video.

He did confirm something I’d always thought, that he was a converted southpaw. He couldn’t get fights early on, so his trainer turned him around.

If you’ve not seen the video, click on the link. You'll spot him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0_HOWlGD6o

 

Last I heard, DeMarco still sits in the North End, still lives there, and is doing okay. Much like Valdez down in Columbia feeding the pigeons... at peace with the world after the days of war.

Great video. If Ruiz listened to you, employed physics and made it rough instead of fighting precisely the way to lose that bout, it could have been different for him.

Corrales's appearance was poignant and he had the right prediction I believe...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.antekprizering.com/basiliodemarco4347t.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.antekprizering.com/ringactionphoto.html&h=79&w=130&sz=6&hl=en&start=16&um=1&tbnid=ZRoquprge9uvmM:&tbnh=55&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtony%2Bdemarco%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN