Francesco Damiani

[Benncollinsaad]

This guy gotta be the best continental European heavyweight before the arrival of the Klitschkos. He was strong and tough and very good. He was easily beating Ray Mercer when Mercer pulled out a crashing uppercut and broke his nose. He was gonna fight Tyson but the money they offered him was bad. He was 6'3 and with his good movement and height advantage, as well as good punch I think he woulda given Tyson a good fight. He also beat Greg Page and Tyrell Biggs.

[JAB5239]

This guy gotta be the best continental European heavyweight before the arrival of the Klitschkos. He was strong and tough and very good. He was easily beating Ray Mercer when Mercer pulled out a crashing uppercut and broke his nose. He was gonna fight Tyson but the money they offered him was bad. He was 6'3 and with his good movement and height advantage, as well as good punch I think he woulda given Tyson a good fight. He also beat Greg Page and Tyrell Biggs.

I've only seen his fight with Mercer, but based on that I always thought he was a pretty good fighter. He made Ray look awful and one dimensional.

[Obama]

This guy gotta be the best continental European heavyweight before the arrival of the Klitschkos. He was strong and tough and very good. He was easily beating Ray Mercer when Mercer pulled out a crashing uppercut and broke his nose. He was gonna fight Tyson but the money they offered him was bad. He was 6'3 and with his good movement and height advantage, as well as good punch I think he woulda given Tyson a good fight. He also beat Greg Page and Tyrell Biggs.

Ummm...no.

Lennox Lewis by 10 miles, but if you don't want to count him, Max Schmeling by 9. After that you got guys like Primo Carnera (mob ties or not), Paulino Uzcudun, and Tommy Farr by a couple miles. Then you got guys like Henry Cooper, Brian London, so on and so forth by 1 mile.

Ray was green for Damiani. Nonetheless, he got the job done. Damiani's inability to keep from getting KOed, given a Heavyweight resume with 4 recognizable names and 5 credible ones, keep him out of consideration as one of the great European Heavyweights. When guys like Oliver McCall are rated higher than you, how can you ever be considered great? Page was past his prime and Biggs was already ruined by Tyson.

[BattlingNelson]

Damiani was an excellent fighter who caught my eye with an outstanding olympic performance. As a pro he had a nice career and he was the WBO champion. His career was somewhat jinxed by bad luck in him having his nose badly broken and bloodied by Mercer in a fight he completely dominated.

I last saw him as trainer for the italian olympic boxers.

Ummm...no.

Lennox Lewis by 10 miles, but if you don't want to count him, Max Schmeling by 9. After that you got guys like Primo Carnera (mob ties or not), Paulino Uzcudun, and Tommy Farr by a couple miles. Then you got guys like Henry Cooper, Brian London, so on and so forth by 1 mile.

Ray was green for Damiani. Nonetheless, he got the job done. Damiani's inability to keep from getting KOed, given a Heavyweight resume with 4 recognizable names and 5 credible ones, keep him out of consideration as one of the great European Heavyweights. When guys like Oliver McCall are rated higher than you, how can you ever be considered great? Page was past his prime and Biggs was already ruined by Tyson.

You're missing out on several top euros primarily Ingemar Johansson and Brian Nielsen deserves a mention as well.

I disagree with you rating Brian London, Carnera, Uzcudun above Damiani.

[Benncollinsaad]

Those guys from the 30's are all overated. Carnera was nowhere near the boxer Damiani was. He was just a lumbering guy with a big punch. Uzcudun was a brawler. I don't know much about that London guy. I said CONTINENTAL Europe, do you know what that means?? That excludes Great Britain.

[BattlingNelson]

Those guys from the 30's are all overated. Carnera was nowhere near the boxer Damiani was. He was just a lumbering guy with a big punch. Uzcudun was a brawler. I don't know much about that London guy. I said CONTINENTAL Europe, do you know what that means?? That excludes Great Britain.

Schmeling, Johansson and arguably Nielsen had better pro careers than Damiani.

Also worth consideration is Karl Mildenberger and Axel Schulz.

[Benncollinsaad]

Schmeling, Johansson and arguably Nielsen had better pro careers than Damiani.

Also worth consideration is Karl Mildenberger and Axel Schulz.

Yes. Schulz often gets bashed, but he beat Foreman and had a close fight with Moorer. He didn't get the Foreman fight, but everybody knows he won it. I already praised Nielsen. Schmelling and Johansson too.

[Obama]

Those guys from the 30's are all overated. Carnera was nowhere near the boxer Damiani was. He was just a lumbering guy with a big punch. Uzcudun was a brawler. I don't know much about that London guy. I said CONTINENTAL Europe, do you know what that means?? That excludes Great Britain.

I'm sure that's exactly how you beat a guy like Max Baer.

He took a good punch and was crude. Calling him a brawler is a stretch.

You don't need to be a better technical boxer to be a better overall boxer than someone. The guys I mentioned have better wins than Damiani did, therefore they are greater.

[Emon723]

Damiani was offered to fight George Foreman in 1990, and Holyfield in 1991 when Tyson pulled out of his megafight with the real deal, Damiani blew both paydays, I never seen him fight but he was perceived as a threat or at least would give Mike Tyson a good fight.

[Obama]

Damiani was offered to fight George Foreman in 1990, and Holyfield in 1991 when Tyson pulled out of his megafight with the real deal, Damiani blew both paydays, I never seen him fight but he was perceived as a threat or at least would give Mike Tyson a good fight.

He also blew 2 chances to demonstrate greatness.