Forgotten Fighters

[mickey malone]

Saad Muhammad can never be forgotten.
Back in the late 70's, he was everyone's favourite fighter.. Legendary

[greeh]

The Canizales brothers - Gaby and Orlando were both world champs - with Orlando being the more successful and a very decent long term champion who seems to be almost completely forgotten.

If they'd been middleweights or LHWs they'd be talked about a lot more; the age-old curse of being a wee man!

Both of them boxed in the UK. Gaby losing his WBO bantamweight to Duke McKenzie (no shame in that!) and Orlando twice beating Billy Hardy.

That first Hardy fight in the UK was a cracking little SD war with Billy really at his best but Orlando just about edging it. The second, rematch fight in the States went more Orlando's way.

Good to see someone mention Orlando Canizales. What a superbly well-balanced boxer-puncher he was. His smooth movement and quality punching-technique is beautiful to watch.

From a purely technical perspective, Orlando did not have many, if any, weaknesses.

It is weird that he doesn’t receive as much praise as another supremely skilled boxer that campaigned in the lighter divisions - Ricardo Lopez. Both were textbook boxer-punchers with excellent technical ability but with less than stellar resumes.

One of the most mouthwatering match-ups I can think of which didn’t occurred at the time was Orlando Canizales vs Miguel “Happy” Lora. What a technical masterpiece it would have been.

And just to stop any eventual nutcase who happened to see Miguel Lora against Orlando's brother, Gaby, from saying anything ridiculous: no, Gaby Canizales did NOT beat a prime Miguel Lora.

[soul_survivor]

How about George Dixon? First ever black champion who seems to be all but forgotten now. Heck, to add to that distinction, he was the first ever multi-weight world champ if I'm not mistaken. He probably won't be ranked as a top 50 atg as such but he is up there in terms of pioneering and paving the way forward, especially for guys like Jack JOhnson.

[mickey malone]

How about George Dixon? First ever black champion who seems to be all but forgotten now. Heck, to add to that distinction, he was the first ever multi-weight world champ if I'm not mistaken. He probably won't be ranked as a top 50 atg as such but he is up there in terms of pioneering and paving the way forward, especially for guys like Jack JOhnson.

Fine post!.. Dixon's accomplishments are amazing for a fighter no one ever mentions, and I don't believe you're mistaken either.. George had a brief spell as bantamweight champ, before reigning supreme at featherweight for the best part of 10 years!! until he was eventually dethroned by one of the hardest punching little men of all time, a prime Terry McGovern..

[GeneralZod]

Fine post!.. Dixon's accomplishments are amazing for a fighter no one ever mentions, and I don't believe you're mistaken either.. George had a brief spell as bantamweight champ, before reigning supreme at featherweight for the best part of 10 years!! until he was eventually dethroned by one of the hardest punching little men of all time, a prime Terry McGovern..

I believe it was WBA or WBC's facebook that posted a picture of Dixon on his birthday quoting him as the first black champion and half the comments were "But Jack Johnson!"

Tommy Farr can qualify for this i think. Most of Louis's opponents during his reign are looked as the bum of the month club, minus Billy Conn.

Could you count Johansson? Ingemar's reign was so short he gets overlooked. One of the HBO documentaries actually cited Rocky Marciano as the last white champion, disregarding him. He's got KOs over Machen, Cooper and of course Floyd Patterson.

[soul_survivor]

Fine post!.. Dixon's accomplishments are amazing for a fighter no one ever mentions, and I don't believe you're mistaken either.. George had a brief spell as bantamweight champ, before reigning supreme at featherweight for the best part of 10 years!! until he was eventually dethroned by one of the hardest punching little men of all time, a prime Terry McGovern..

Terry McGovern, damn good fighter!

I believe it was WBA or WBC's facebook that posted a picture of Dixon on his birthday quoting him as the first black champion and half the comments were "But Jack Johnson!"

Tommy Farr can qualify for this i think. Most of Louis's opponents during his reign are looked as the bum of the month club, minus Billy Conn.

Could you count Johansson? Ingemar's reign was so short he gets overlooked. One of the HBO documentaries actually cited Rocky Marciano as the last white champion, disregarding him. He's got KOs over Machen, Cooper and of course Floyd Patterson.

Ahh missed that on FB, then again I don't have the WBC or WBA pages liked.

And Marciano as last white champion? What are the Klits?

[mickey malone]

I believe it was WBA or WBC's facebook that posted a picture of Dixon on his birthday quoting him as the first black champion and half the comments were "But Jack Johnson!"

Tommy Farr can qualify for this i think. Most of Louis's opponents during his reign are looked as the bum of the month club, minus Billy Conn.

Could you count Johansson? Ingemar's reign was so short he gets overlooked. One of the HBO documentaries actually cited Rocky Marciano as the last white champion, disregarding him. He's got KOs over Machen, Cooper and of course Floyd Patterson.

Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion, that's all the average joe knows i'm afraid..
Farr was a very good fighter.. Went in with 3 hw champions, Baer, Braddock and Louis, all 3 of them went to the wire.. Not to mention a win over Baer b4 he was champ.. Farr also beat light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran in a long and illustrious career, lasting 27 years and 137 fights.. Hardly forgotten

And Bingo gets his props, rarely a week goes by when I don't see his name come up somewhere.. As the one and only Swedish champ, he has to be remembered... Would'nt surprise me, if he was the one and only Swedish professional boxer too.

[Bodyshot3]

There's a lovely passed-down story of an ageing Tommy Farr being feted by a modern boxing writer for going the distance with Louis and giving the great man such a proper scap. Farr is alleged to have pulled a face when asked to recall the fight and replied: "Wish you'd stop talking about that Joe Louis, my head starts to bloody hurting just to hear that name."

[GeneralZod]

Terry McGovern, damn good fighter!



Ahh missed that on FB, then again I don't have the WBC or WBA pages liked.

And Marciano as last white champion? What are the Klits?

The documentary was about the Cooney/Holmes hype, hence why they weren't mentioned.

[BennyST]

I was around for Zarate and was lucky enough to see him fight live. His power was no myth and you could hear the snap in his punches. When he was the WBC champion, unbeaten KO sensation Alfonso Zamora was the WBA champion. A fight between these two Mexican rivals was a natural. The WBC and WBA were being difficult, so they just made it a 10 round non title fight and screw the parasites out of their share of the money. The fight sold out the Forum and I had to drive an hour to Anaheim to see it close circuit. Zarate scored a decisive KO in a great fight that should be easy to find. The only major fight that Zarate really lost was to ATG Wilfredo Gomez in Puerto Rico when Zarate was moving up in weight and supposedly sick. The other loss to Pintor was considered a terrible decision and after a seven year layoff Zarate was just a shell of himself.

He also got badly beat up by Jeff Fenech for four or five rounds, before a headbutt halted the bout, which Fenech won.

The Pintor fight though was when he was still in his prime. He had just rewon a title, and it was after that that he retired. He then came back, and had a 12 fight winning streak for a couple of years which put him in line for another title, which was the Fenech fight.

He then had one last fight against Zaragoza but also lost that.