Very few people I have ever come across have as much boxing knowledge as I do, honestly, and I wish I met more people who did. My best boxing friend growing up (Ed Ayala) was my equal, as was a fellow named Brian who I was introduced to in 1999 by my wife. Ed is still a textbook of boxing information but unfortunately, a rare disease has cost him the ability to speak and do many basic things we take for granted. And Brian stopped liking boxing recently and switched over 100% to MMA, which caused me to question whether he was ever really my boxing equal to begin with.
I worked at a YMCA in Lowell once back in like 1999 and there were some really good P.R. boxing fans I would get into endless debates with, they used to call me Kellerman, lol...
On this forum, there are some great boxing minds and that's fun to find.
During induction weekends at the IBHOF, I can always find somebody who knows as much about boxing as I do, but at the IBHOF there are so many good smart boxing fans to choose from, it's almost not fair.
It sounds very familiar all of it, around this place I'm on me pat malone as far as boxing history goes, but I wouldn't reccomend myself if you want to learn the finer points, my old mate was a boxer in Melbourne in the 60's and he, like most Aussies of that Gen. he could talk for hours about the local scene in those days,.... We were too isolated after WW1 and we looked inward for our boxing heroes. To Aussies who were around in the 40' and 50's that I have spoken to, the U.S.A's Freddie Dawson is more famous here than Benny Leonard, Ike Williams Joe Gans and Packey McFarland put together, they were names familiar only to the hard-core fans,...... Ditto for Aussies. Tommy burns, Vic Patrick, and a hundred others that were household names. The only American fighters that were well known here were the visitors who fought lots of times here. It wasn't until I found this forum a month ago that I actually found some like minded people. Of course there were the odd exceptions,..... you may have heard the names,..... Dempsey, Louis and Robinson,....... you would have had to come from Mars if you didn't know those names.
I spoke with Bert Sugar last year in Las Vegas and I must say the majority of this section seem more knowledgable than he does.
It was only a breif talk, though.
I generally enjoy hearing Bert Sugar a lot,,,,,, but it's hard to forgive him for his Top 100 list. Man that list sucks,.................................... if I couldn't come up with an improvement to that list DAN,...... you have my permission to shoot me.
I chatted with him in an Irish bar next to Madison Square Garden back in '02 (we were ther for Tapia-Medina) for over an hour...and I share your feelings. He knows his stuff, but I know many who know history, and the nuances of the game, better than he does.
I saw him at the MGM Grand the week of the Mayweather-Mosley fight. I went over there from the UK to see it.
We had a little debate over Mosley's jab He was pretty adament it would factor in the fight. As opposed to my view that it would have next to no factor.
Did you read his magazines when he was active in writing and publishing them?
That's where you'll find Bert's boxing knowledge, not in a brief conversation with him, honestly. In a brief conversation, you will find his humor first, his class second, and maybe a little of that knowledge third. At least that's my take on the man...
Yeah, he was a good writer. I don't rate him all that high as a historian or atleast as high as you do but he's by no means a scruff in that department. I question many of his views but hey, that's not new in Boxing for ANY Historian.
By brief, I mean about 30 minutes. We spoke on a few things.
But I have to agree he was very pleasent, polite and classy from my experience.
Bert sounds like a cool dude, by your guys experience with him. Which is good to hear.
Let's put it this way, if I walked into a bar and there was a fight on the TV and I could sit down next to Bert Sugar or Dan Rafael and just watch the fight while chatting about boxing, I'm sittin next to Bert. And in all my visits to the IBHOF, I never saw Dan there a single time, I see Bert there ALL the time. Could be because he is IN the IBHOF, but that's beside the point...
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