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hi again folks, i just found this great e-Book about the greats of Australian boxing, I am sure that at least 95 per cent of the information is unknown to most of you Americans and Brits and anyone outside Australia and including most Aussies in this forum. I has chapters on every great champion to fight from Australia from Peter Jackson to Kostya Tszyu both of whom of course were born elsewhere as was Bob Fitzsimmons but they all owed so much to the country where they began as professional boxers. please enjoy and comment on this thread, there is a lot of reading, this is for all fans of boxing history.
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An interesting fact arises in this book from the Preface that the whole idea of world champions is subjective up until the WBA was formed in the 1960's.... that is to say this was the first rue body/authority to govern the sport and this is true, BUT of course there had long been world title belts but this becomes an issue when some who held a version of the world title and indeed had a belt to say so get overlooked like Young Griffo and the guy from Maitland (whatsisname). -
Wow how good was Young Griffo, simply peerless, it wasn't until his 168th bout that he lost a fight against Jack McAuliffe and even then the decision was a disgrace as Griffo had clearly won easily. At his funeral, Gentleman Jim Corbett, Benny Leonard and Gene Tunney were there and Joe Gans said, "he was uncanny, I would travel miles to see him", Gans fought Griffo a fw times when Griffo was in his pime and couldn't beat him until he was way past his prime. Jim Corbett said, "there he lays, the will o the wisp" and Benny Leonard said, "Griffo was the best boxer who ever lived". Griffo's resume is simply astonishing, George Dixon couldn't beat him, in his prime Gans couldn't beat him, Torpedo Billy Murphy suffered badly in the few fights he had with Griffo, George Kid lavigne had a lot of trouble with Griffo and said that in one of their fights he flet as if the whole crowd was pelting him with leather gloves. There are other very impressive names on his record, he was a crazy dude for sure, taking on Tommy Ryan who was then fighting at middleweight and Griffo was out of shape and 10 lbs over his fighting weight and suffering from the DT's, needless to say Ryan gave him a bad night.... .... Griffo = Immortal.Comment
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Here is a discussion on Griffo from the Billy C Boxing show.
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After reviewing the career of Young Griffo I can only conclude that he is in fact either the greatest featherweight of all times or the second best behind Willie Pep. His record and resume and his incredible speed and defence simply put this guy in a class of his own except maybe for Pep, and isn't it a coincidence that both were of the same type, both fighters you could hardly even hit, there are reports on Griffo that state that his opponents could hardly even hit him with a body shot, add to this that he never even entered the ring at 100 per cent of his potential, in fact maybe not even 50 per cent due to his awful alcoholism and not training for fights and fighting so often, taking on many big names time and time again within a week or two of each fight, being woken up in a stupor just an hour or two before he had to fight makes this guy the greatest freak in history. WHY ISN'T HE VERY FAMOUS ?............. was he even human ?Comment
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