Forgotten champions: The best boxers you've never heard of

[Delroy Booth]

I've been meaning to do a thread like this for ages, where we can showcase some of boxings rarests talent that may have flown under the radar and been unfairly overlooked for whatever reason. Whilst superstars like Roy Jones, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya took all the plaudits and paydays, many other guys just as talented never got the big break to superstardom, whether it was because they were frozen out for being too much of a risk with little reward, or whether their dreams of superstardom where shattered by boxing politics, or maybe even if it was just down to bad luck. The aim here is to pay some respect to those fighters who never made it to that level of fame and fortune, despite having all the skills to justify it.

I'd love to do some of the really old fighters who fit this description, like the real heavyweight champion Sam Langford, or middleweight sensation Charlie Burley, both of whom were frozen out of the top tier for racial reasons. However I'd like to be able to put a few Youtube video's of their best fights so that everyone can have a good look, so I'm going to focus on more modern boxers with available video footage.

1. Ricardo "El Finito" Lopez: 50-0-1 (38KO) Minimumweight and Light-Flyweight

If you were asked "name the most successful professional boxer of the last 40 years" to the majority of people who follow boxing and you'll get a list of familiar names. Many would make a case for Roy Jones Jr, the mercurial 4-weight champion who sat astride the P4P rankings for the best part of a decade. Or maybe Bernard Hopkins career, with his dominance of the middleweight division followed by his (probably unbreakable) record of being the oldest legitimate world champion in boxing history, moving up in weight to secure the light-heavyweight title off Tavoris Cloud aged 47. Some might argue that champions like Floyd Mayweather or Joe Calzaghe might be the most impressive, remaining undefeated their whole careers and dominating their era's. But very few (outside Mexico at least) would say Ricardo Lopez.

Yet Ricardo Lopez is by practically every objective standard the single most successful boxer of the modern age. No other fighter so comprehensively dominated their weight division for longer. In a career that lasted from 1985-2001 Lopez never lost a single fight. He amassed an astonishing 26 title consecutive title defenses years of his minimumwight then light-flyweight crown, more than Joe Louis at heayweight (25) Joe Calzaghe at super-middleweight (21) Bernard Hopkins at middleweight (20) or Henry Armstrong at welterweight (19). Only Julio Cesar Chavez ranks higher, with 27 consecutive world title defenses.* Simply put, because Lopez operated at the lowest weight division in boxing his astonishing career was often ignored despite his incredible skill, but in truth Ricardo Lopez was a giant of the sport. He was one of the fastest boxers in the history of the sport, and for a guy of such little weight (under 8 stone!) had a talent for knocking people out, which is rare in such light weight divisions.

Now I don't want to focus simply give a narrative of wins and losses in these posts, you can find that anywhere and besides with Lopez because there is a lack of well known opponents in that division it wouldn't be very useful. Please instead enjoy watching a couple of these videos, the first a highlight reel and the second my favourite Lopez fight, his step up in weight to fight American WBC light-flyweight champion Will Griggsby





*There's some degree of dispute here whether or not you should count only consecutive title defenses of the same title in the same weight division, or whether or not if a fighter moves up in weight and carries on winning, in effect "unifying" the linear titles of both weight divisions. I'm using the latter definition, but I'm sure that real boxing nerds would take issue with that.

 

[Delroy Booth]

2. Harry "The Terminator" Simon 28-0 (21KO) WBO light-middlweight and middleweight champion

Harry Simon is one of the nearly-men of world boxing. Born and based originally in Namibia, his aggressive swarming style and lack of profile in the US made him one of those fighters that posed a lot of risk with little reward for the big superstars. Like a lot of fighters from Africa he would struggle to get the fights against top tier opponents needed to make a name for himself. Despite this drawback in the late 90's Harry Simon managed to run off a string of impressive victories on the peripheral world boxing circuit, fighting in England for much of it, and eventually won himself a shot at the light-middleweight world title against future Hall of Fame multi-weight world champion Winky Wright in 1998. Despite being a heavy underdrog Harry Simon won the fight, and promptly rattled off a trio of defenses before moving up to middleweight and beating Hacine Cherifi, with an eye on challenging for the middleweight title. Sadly however he was excluded in the "middleweight tournament" of 2001 set up by Don King to unify the seperate titles in the division, between Bernard Hopkins - Keith Holmes and Felix Trinidad - William Joppy, which led to the big Bernard Hopkins vs Felix Trindad unification fight of Septmeber 2001. Being frozen out like this mean Simon had to go a different direction, and so in 2002 he went back to Europe and won the lesser regarded WBO version of the middleweight title against undefeated Swede Armand Krajnc, thereby setting himself up as the leading challenger to the new undisputed WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

Just as his career looked as though it might take off however, it ended. In 2002 he ended up causing the death of 3 beglian tourists (including a child) in a car crash, which an investigation concluded was as a result of his speeding. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail in 2005 having spent muc of the previous few years on remand, with his boxing career in ruins. Like that other African superstar than never was Ike Ibeabuchi, he appeared quite a disturbed individual in some ways, rumours about his extravagance and badboy behaviour surrounded him his during his career.

He tried making a comeback recently now he's out of jail and is technically still active, recording a win as recently as June this year, however aged 41, fighting excluslvely in namibia and now weighing well over 200lbs his career seems over.

Here's some of his greatest hits, just a reminder of what could've been. He was phenomenally strong, especially at light-middleweight, and he had great head movement too. His style was exciting and with the right promotion could've been a very popular world renowned boxer. Here's his best moments, the title win over Winky Wright and then against London's very own Wayne Alexander, who was a last minute replacement for an opponent who had pulled out, taking the fight on 24 hours notice. Both great scraps.

 

[trampie]

If i had never heard of them i wouldn't be writing about them would i ?

But out of boxers others may not of heard of i offer :-

Dr Jack Matthews OBE
[beat Marciano but they gave it as a draw as it was wartime not to upset the Americans]

Jimmy Wilde, the ghost with a hammer in his hand aka the mighty atom
[the greatest P4P boxer ever]

Peerless Jim Driscoll
[100,000 people at his funeral and fought Freddie Welsh - real name Thomas, aka the Welsh wizard in a superbout, Cardiff was rioting for days with the valley commando's in town, the fight ended on a disqualification due to foul play]

A great [although people will have heard of him] that does not get the recognition as one of the greatest ever that he should is Super Joe Calzaghe.
[They would not pick him for the Olympics- too flash, which he would have won, Collins retired rather than fight him, Ottke wouldn't fight him, Hopkins and Jones jnr would have lost at any stages of their careers against him, they would only fight him after they lost their titles and unbeaten records and Calzaghe still had his].

 

[JimW]

I only really know about him because of the anecdote of him decking Oswald Mosley, which is good enough as far as I'm concerned, but Ted "Kid" Lewis seems to have been a genuine top class fighter too:
http://www.boxing.com/the_aldgate_sphinx_ted_kid_lewis.html
Found this footage which I've not watched meself due to YouTube block here:

 

[Nigel Irritable]

A great [although people will have heard of him] that does not get the recognition as one of the greatest ever that he should is Super Joe Calzaghe.
[They would not pick him for the Olympics- too flash, which he would have won, Collins retired rather than fight him, Ottke wouldn't fight him, Hopkins and Jones jnr would have lost at any stages of their careers against him, they would only fight him after they lost their titles and unbeaten records and Calzaghe still had his].

This is completely one-eyed. Calzaghe was an excellent boxer, but we will never know if he could have been great, because he sat at home beating up nobodies for years on end and only bothered himself to fight people who might hit him back at the end of his career.

I don't blame him for this: squatting on some alphabet title and milking it for all you can squeeze out of local fans is an accepted way to do business in boxing. It's a short and risky career after all and nobody is obliged to take risks with their health and well being to entertain me. But ultimately Calzaghe's career from a boxing as opposed to monetary point of view was a waste of talent.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Thanks for this thread by the way Delroy.

As an aside, I think Ibeabuchi counts as more than simply "quite disturbed". By all accounts, the guy was/is a completely crazed, dangerous, misogynist lunatic. Which didn't stop quite a few boxing fans from hoping the guy would get released. Presumably a subset of Tyson's fans.

 

[silverfish]

This is completely one-eyed. Calzaghe was an excellent boxer, but we will never know if he could have been great, because he sat at home beating up nobodies for years on end and only bothered himself to fight people who might hit him back at the end of his career.

I don't blame him for this: squatting on some alphabet title and milking it for all you can squeeze out of local fans is an accepted way to do business in boxing. It's a short and risky career after all and nobody is obliged to take risks with their health and well being to entertain me. But ultimately Calzaghe's career from a boxing as opposed to monetary point of view was a waste of talent.

Was this his managements fault?

Did his dad not have a big influence in his career.

Read the autobiography, don't remember much other than, he feels like an un- heralded great

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Was this his managements fault?

It depends what you mean by "fault". If I was a boxer, I'd be more than happy to have management that maximised my earnings while minimising the risks to my health. But while it's hard to be sure from the outside, Calzaghe seems like the sort who would have cheerfully fought whoever his management put in front of him, so yes, it was probably his management's strategy rather than his. Apart from anything else, he was a world boxing champion, something that doesn't correlate strongly with a lack of self belief.

There's also the possibility that the people around him didn't quite realise how little protection he needed until the Lacy fight.

 

[Delroy Booth]

It depends what you mean by "fault". If I was a boxer, I'd be more than happy to have management that maximised my earnings while minimising the risks to my health. But while it's hard to be sure from the outside, Calzaghe seems like the sort who would have cheerfully fought whoever his management put in front of him, so yes, it was probably his management's strategy rather than his. Apart from anything else, he was a world boxing champion, something that doesn't correlate strongly with a lack of self belief.

There's also the possibility that the people around him didn't quite realise how little protection he needed until the Lacy fight.

This, especially the last setence, is probably right. Frank Warren was never keen on letting his top British cash cows fight the top tier American fighters. He never wanted Eubank or Benn to fight the likes of Bernard Hopkins, James Toney and especially not Roy Jones Jr. Same is true of Calzaghe. Calzaghe was protected, and fought mainly against substandard fighters in Europe, even though as it later turned out such protecting was unnecesary and Calzaghe was one of the best fighters of his generation.

Still think that Roy Jones in his prime would've beaten him though. The Roy Jones that took apart Clinton Woods would've destroyed Calzaghe.

 

[trampie]

This is completely one-eyed. Calzaghe was an excellent boxer, but we will never know if he could have been great, because he sat at home beating up nobodies for years on end and only bothered himself to fight people who might hit him back at the end of his career.

I don't blame him for this: squatting on some alphabet title and milking it for all you can squeeze out of local fans is an accepted way to do business in boxing. It's a short and risky career after all and nobody is obliged to take risks with their health and well being to entertain me. But ultimately Calzaghe's career from a boxing as opposed to monetary point of view was a waste of talent.

Calzaghe did not fight at home all the time the opposite is true in fact, Calzaghe won 46 out of 46 fights and although he was a champion for a decade he only had 18 fights at home.
He beat the likes of Eubank, Reid and Woodhall in England, Veit in Germany, Hopkins and Jones Jnr in America.
Calzaghe was the best and everybody in the game knew it and won't take him on, Hopkins agreed back in the day to fight Calzaghe and the next day after been told how good Calzaghe was asked for double the money.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Here's another one, Mike McCallum 49-5-1 (36KO) Former WBA light-middlweight, WBA & IBF middleweight then WBC light-heavyweight world champion

This guy was a great fighter who was frozen out of much of the big action until later in his career, like fellow Jamaican Glen Johnson or perhaps even Herol Graham, he never got the recognition he deserved as a champion because he was out there on the periphery, which made him a high risk low reward fight for many of the better fighters of his time. He laboured away as the light-middleweight, beating well-regarded challengers such as Julian Jackson and Donald Curry during the 1980's. He stepped up for the WBA middleweight title and beat Herol Graham, (hitherto undefeated) Steve Collins and then Michael Watson three fights in a row. He got a creditable draw against an undefeated James Toney at middleweight, then lost in the return match. As he entered his late 30's he lost to the hugely underrated and overlooked French fighter Fabrice Tiozzo (himself a good contender for this thread) challenging for the light-heavyweight championship. At age 40 he lost a 12 round decision to Roy Jones Jr, who had waited his time to take him on, and then in his last fight lost against to James Toney, this time at 190lbs cruiserweight, but I wouldn't pay much attention to that.

As a boxer he was superb at getting up close and ripping in bodyshots. He knew how to pick and time these massive punches to the body better than just about anyone in his era. Check out these two fights, the first against James Toney, an incredibly close fight between technique-wise two of the best upclose counter-punchers the sport has ever produced, followed by his earlier vicotry against power-puncher Julian Jackson at light-middleweight

 

[Delroy Booth]

Calzaghe did not fight at home all the time the opposite is true in fact, Calzaghe won 46 out of 46 fights and although he was a champion for a decade he only had 18 fights at home.
He beat the likes of Eubank, Reid and Woodhall in England, Veit in Germany, Hopkins and Jones Jnr in America.
Calzaghe was the best and everybody in the game knew it and won't take him on, Hopkins agreed back in the day to fight Calzaghe and the next day after been told how good Calzaghe was asked for double the money.

You're talking through your arse as usual. I love the idea that Hopkins was a afraid of Calzaghe in his physical prime, yet presumably not scared of him after he'd entered his mid 40's. Even in Calzaghe's autobiography it states how he didn't want to fight Roy Jones in his prime because the result would've been a foregone conclusion. Perfectly understandably too a lot of other good fighters felt the same way.

Frank Warren managed Calzaghe's career badly, deprived him of the very best fights until right at the end of his career, which is a shame because I'd have loved to se Calzaghe matched hard and up against these great fighters we're talking about, and for the record I rate Calzaghe I'm sure he would've done himself proud, although I doubt he'd have retired undefeated if that was the case.

 

[trampie]

This, especially the last setence, is probably right. Frank Warren was never keen on letting his top British cash cows fight the top tier American fighters. He never wanted Eubank or Benn to fight the likes of Bernard Hopkins, James Toney and especially not Roy Jones Jr. Same is true of Calzaghe. Calzaghe was protected, and fought mainly against substandard fighters in Europe, even though as it later turned out such protecting was unnecesary and Calzaghe was one of the best fighters of his generation.

Still think that Roy Jones in his prime would've beaten him though. The Roy Jones that took apart Clinton Woods would've destroyed Calzaghe.

Are you talking before or after the scandal around the Hall fight ?, Jones was only fighting in America against nobodies, Jones was allegedly told by a British boxer back in the day that Calzaghe was too great a risk for Jones to take.
Calzaghe was twice the fighter Woods was, Woods lost in 6 rounds to Jones, Calzaghe beat Jones jnr 118-109 on every scorecard.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Calzaghe was twice the fighter Woods was, Woods lost in 6 rounds to Jones, Calzaghe beat Jones jnr 118-109 on every scorecard.

Just to focus on this, that basically means nothing. The Roy Jones that Clinton Woods fought is probably the closest thing there's ever been to a genuinely unbeatable fighter. The Roy Jones Jr post-Ruiz that Calzaghe fought was a shadow of his former self, and had been beaten conclusively (via ruthless KO) by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Roy never physically recovered from having gain and lose all that weight to beat John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title, and he definitely never recovered from the horrible vicious knockout losses he recieved. Like Ricky Hatton, once you get beaten like that twice in a row it's time to call it a day, but due to his money problems Jones is still fighting, struggling to beat guys that in the past he'd have played with.

And btw the Hopkins fight with Calzaghe was extremely close and scrappy (hardly a virtuoso performance) and the in the Roy Jones fight, Calzaghe wasn't really doing very well until Roy got that hideous cut. Infact I seem to remember Roy toying with Calzaghe earlier on in the fight, and back in his prime that's exactly what he'd have done to Joe should they have ever met. In terms of pure skill and talent there's no competition Jones was and is leagues better.

Warren could've made the fights if he wanted but he didn't, just like with Ricky Hatton, he wanted to feed him a collection of overmatched fighters to milk money and pad his record. Evans Ashira? Sakio Bika? Tocker Pudwill? None of those guys were even close to the top10, maybe not the 10- 20. Mario Veit was never any good either come to it. It was embarassing watching a talented pro like Calzaghe waste his career fighting these guys when the big fights could've been made stateside. And for what it's worth I thought Robin Reid should've got the decision against Calzaghe that night in Newcastle (meaning Reid, himself maybe a contender for this thread, beat both the reigning and lineal supermiddleweight champions Joe Calzaghe and Sven Ottke but got robbed in both....)

 

[trampie]

You're talking through you're arse as usual. I love the idea that Hopkins was a afraid of Calzaghe in his physical prime, yet presumably not scared of him after he'd entered his mid 40's. Even in Calzaghe's autobiography it states how he didn't want to fight Roy Jones in his prime because the result would've been a foregone conclusion. Perfectly understandably too a lot of other good fighters felt the same way.

Frank Warren managed Calzaghe's career badly, deprived him of the very best fights until right at the end of his career, which is a shame because I'd have loved to se Calzaghe matched hard and up against these great fighters we're talking about, and for the record I rate Calzaghe I'm sure he would've done himself proud, although I doubt he'd have retired undefeated if that was the case.

Calzaghe bought the hype around Jones that the rest of the world had bought, Jones didn't fight anybody good, Jones only fought in the US until the very end of his career and mainly against low quality opposition, had Calzaghe fought Jones at that point Calzaghe would have knocked Jones into the following week.

Hopkins was 95% prime when he fought Calzaghe, Hopkins started his career very late and didn't have the miles on the clock that Joe had, Calzaghe was very near retirement when he fought Hopkins, Calzaghe's hands were shot, Calzaghe retired the same year he fought Hopkins, Calzaghe had been fighting since a boy, always the one to beat, 4 times schoolboy ABA's, 3 consecutive senior ABA's at different weights only the 2nd man in 100 years or something to do it, Calzaghe was always the man to beat, he was the ultimate winner.
Hopkins was in the form of his life against a fading Calzaghe, Hopkins was coming off wins against Tarver and Winky Wright, Calzaghe beat him in his own backyard with an American ref and 3 American judges, Hopkins went on straight after the Calzaghe fight to beat Pavlik, Ornelas and Jones Jnr, then he drew with Pascal before beating him in his next fight, so like i say Hopkins was 95% prime, Calzaghe was virtually retired, Calzaghe had been fighting a different levels from about 9 years old.

Calzaghe would have beaten Hopkins at any stage of their careers, Calzaghe was just a level better than Hopkins.

 

[trampie]

Just to focus on this, that basically means nothing. The Roy Jones that Clinton Woods fought is probably the closest thing there's ever been to a genuinely unbeatable fighter. The Roy Jones Jr post-Ruiz that Calzaghe fought was a shadow of his former self, and had been beaten conclusively (via ruthless KO) by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Roy never physically recovered from having gain and lose all that weight to beat John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title, and he definitely never recovered from the horrible vicious knockout losses he recieved. Like Ricky Hatton, once you get beaten like that twice in a row it's time to call it a day, but due to his money problems Jones is still fighting, struggling to beat guys that in the past he'd have played with.

And btw the Hopkins fight with Calzaghe was extremely close and scrappy (hardly a virtuoso performance) and the in the Roy Jones fight, Calzaghe wasn't really doing very well until Roy got that hideous cut. Infact I seem to remember Roy toying with Calzaghe earlier on in the fight, and back in his prime that's exactly what he'd have done to Joe should they have ever met. In terms of pure skill and talent there's no competition Jones was and is leagues better.

Warren could've made the fights if he wanted but he didn't, just like with Ricky Hatton, he wanted to feed him a collection of overmatched fighters to milk money and pad his record. Evans Ashira? Sakio Bika? Tocker Pudwill? None of those guys were even close to the top10, maybe not the 10- 20. Mario Veit was never any good either come to it. It was embarassing watching a talented pro like Calzaghe waste his career fighting these guys when the big fights could've been made stateside. And for what it's worth I thought Robin Reid should've got the decision against Calzaghe that night in Newcastle (meaning Reid, himself maybe a contender for this thread, beat both the reigning and lineal supermiddleweight champions Joe Calzaghe and Sven Ottke but got robbed in both....)

Calzaghe beat Reid 116-111 on two scorecards, Calzaghe had glass put in his food just before the fight, Calzaghe had an upset stomach and did both his hands in in about the 4th round of the contest [that was the first time i believe he had hand trouble], Reid was fighting at home and had all those advantages and he was a top performer back in the day and he still couldn't beat Super Joe Calzaghe.

 

[Delroy Booth]

This is hilarious You really love Joe Calzaghe don't you? I've known plenty of mancs who felt the same way about Ricky Hatton.

 

[trampie]

This is hilarious You really love Joe Calzaghe don't you? I've known plenty of mancs who felt the same way about Ricky Hatton.

Ricky Hatton was rubbish, Joe Calzaghe was as close to an unbeatable fighter as i have seen, 1000 punches a 12 round fight from all angles, you couldn't beat him on points and you couldn't stop him, he had a iron chin, only down 4 times in his career, down in each of his last 2 fights when his punch resistance was going, but straight up every time, he never ever came close to losing, 2 split decisions were rogue judge jobs away from home, as he had the fight won with 2 rounds to go on the other cards both times.
He could box from range and was a devastating combination puncher or he could have a brawl and still win as he was super tough, the last guy to beat him in the amateurs in a close one was on his knees screaming hysterically when the ref gave him the nod, Calzaghe could punch as well, on soccer Saturday they had that machine that recorded guest sports peoples punching power, boxers were doing well with Holyfield and Froch up there, Calzaghe broke the machine, Calzaghe's power was off the scale, his punch was harder than the machine could record, his reading zoomed past everyone else and stopped at the maximum of 999 as it would not record 4 figures, it smashed everyone else.

Calzaghe could comeback after been retired for 5 years and beat Froch right now as Calzaghe is a couple of levels higher, he would have dropped a level through retirement but not enough for Froch to have a chance.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Sorry mate, you are nuts.

Not because you rate Calzaghe highly, everyone here does. But because you assume that he'd have beaten the fighters his management consistently kept him away from. The central issue with his record is that he never fought anyone good at their peak, other than Lacy, who judging by his whole career was wildly overrated at the time. We just cannot know what he was or wasn't capable of.

I genuinely enjoyed your distinction between home fights and fights in England, where of course huge numbers of Welsh fans could easily travel and where he'd be the British fighter when he wasn't fighting a hometown boy. So well done on that I suppose.

 

[trampie]

Sorry mate, you are nuts.

Not because you rate Calzaghe highly, everyone here does. But because you assume that he'd have beaten the fighters his management consistently kept him away from. The central issue with his record is that he never fought anyone good at their peak, other than Lacy, who judging by his whole career was wildly overrated at the time. We just cannot know what he was or wasn't capable of.

I genuinely enjoyed your distinction between home fights and fights in England, where of course huge numbers of Welsh fans could easily travel and where he'd be the British fighter when he wasn't fighting a hometown boy. So well done on that I suppose.

Kessler was an undefeated multiple champion at his peak that Calzaghe beat, Lacy was an undefeated multiple champion at his peak that Calzaghe not only beat but Calzaghe ruined him, Lacy was called the new Mike Tyson by the American press and he was never the same again after Calzaghe beat him, Calzaghe effectively finished his career [well his corner did when they didn't throw the towel in to save him anymore physical and mental punishment], Calzaghe beat American ring legend Hopkins as close to his prime as you could get in America with all American officials, Hopkins results bare this out.

Fighting Englishmen in England is an away fight, same for fighting Americans in America or a German in Germany are away fights, fighting an American in Denmark on a Tyson bill was a neutral fight, fighting non Brits in England was a fairly rare occurrence, Lacy and Bika spring to mind, Bika is actual a paper champion today even.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Anyway...

Back on topic. Eder Jofre 72-2-4 (50 KO) WBA and lineal Bantamweight champion, WBC featherweight champion.

Eder Jofre is perhaps the greatest Brazilian fighter to have ever lived, often thought of as being the Brazilian Roberto Duran. Although well known in his day he's practically unknown now outside of Brazil, but his career was absolutely astonishing, and looking back at old clips of his fights he looks to me like one of the hardest punching bantamweight/featherweights there's ever been. Jofre was from Sao Paulo who turned pro in 1957 and immediately went on an incredible string of early KO victories, fighting 34 times in his first 3 years as a pro before winning the South American bantamweight title in 1960. This guy was a machine and in the 1960's Brazilian promoters couldn't find competitive fights for him in Brazil, whist Mexican and American fighters wanted nothing do with him. Continuing to defend his South American title as often as he could, he eventually got a shot at the WBA bantamweight champion Eloy Sanchez in LA 1962 and won an upset victory in only his 2nd fight outside of Brazil. He then went onto unify the title against the lineal title holder, a young and extremely talented undefeated 23 year old from Belfast named Johnny Caldwell. Although Caldwell was hardly much more than a boy at 23 when he fought Jofre he'd already fought 275 fights as an amatuer and represented Ireland in the 1956 olympics, aged just 18, winning a Bronze medal. This was a fight of two young undefeated talents, and for many British and Irish fans it was supposed to be the moment this young star Caldwell announced himself on the world stage. However after an excellent fight in front of thousand of fans in Brazil Eder Jofre managed to pull out a KO and finish Caldwell in the 10th round. Johnny Caldwell later said of him "Eder Jofre was the greatest bantamweight and the hardest-hitter for his weight of all time." After unifying the titles he carried on winning and had acquired an impressive 47-0-3 record and the undisputed bantamweight title before fighting Japan's Masahiko Harada in 1966, or Fighting Harada as he was known, where Jofre lost a very controversial hometown decision. Harada managed to win the rematch fairly (although i've never seen the second fight) and Jofre, disillusioned, retired from the sport aged just 30. He came back nearly 4 years later at featherweight, and picked up a WBC title from the extremely talented Cuban Jose Legrá in 1973 and defended it successfully defended it once against Mexican legend Vicente Saldiva, arguably two of the best wins of his career as he was entering his late 30's. However rather than pushing for more fights against the top American featherweights of perhaps even Duran who was knocking around at this time, he got stripped of his title due to inactivity, preferring to fight intermittantly against some softer opponents in front of home fans until he retired, aged 40, in 1976. Here's the KO from the fight with Johnny Caldwell and a bit from the fight with Jose Legra





Tommy Burns 48-5-8 (39KO) Heavyweight champion

Burns is a fighter from the Golden Era of boxing back in the early 20th century, and I suppose he was quite well known in his day, but there's probably no other heavyweight champion that's as under appreciated historically. Where to start? Well Tommy, Canadian, was the shortest heavyweight champion in history, standing only 5ft7 tall - the same height as Lionel Messi or Tom Cruise. How bout that? He was the first heavyweight champion to be truly a world heavyweight champion, defending his title in Ireland, France, Australia, England and taking on comers from all over the globe. He was the first man to give a Jew a title shot, fighting the (I shit you not) Joseph "Jewey" Smith in France in 1908. He was also the first heavyweight champion to denounce the colour-bar that existed in the sport saying "I will defend my title against all comers, none barred. By this I mean white, black, Mexican, Indian, or any other nationality. I propose to be the champion of the world, not the white, or the Canadian, or the American. If I am not the best man in the heavyweight division, I don't want the title." which led to the famous fight with Jack Johnson in 1908, which took place in Australia (far too risky for the USA) and led to Johnson being the first black heavyweight champion.

He made an impressive 11 defences of his heavyweight title between, winning 9 by KO. Unfortunately there's not much footage of him fighting, and the stuff that's out there is of low quality. It's worth remembering just how big of a deal boxing was in the USA during the depression. No other sport could compete, it's equivalent to the ascendency and domination of Football over here Britain as a mass working-class sporting pursuit in the early 20th century. To be a giant in this era is a big deal. There's a lot of really under-appreciated great boxers from this era. Pre-war Boxing was a hell of a sport and for all the glitz of Vegas and the thriller in manilla the 60's and 70's were nothing compared to the 10's and 20's. There's loads of great fighters from this era I'd love to get into but finding some footage of them actually fighting is hard, and it ends up becoming a history essay. As well a Sam Langford and Charley Burley there's Stanley Ketchel, The Michigan Assassin, someone who could've been an all time great but who was murdered at a young age. Or Kid Gavilian. Or as Jim mentioned Ted Kid Lewis. And yes Jimmy Wilde 100% criminally underrated fighter outside of Wales and the UK. All these guys have amazing stories really.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Darius Michalczewski 48-2-1 (38 KO) WBO & lineal light-heavyweight champion.

Darius Michalczewski is at first glance an odd choice, not least cos he was a big star in Poland and Germany until recently, but hear me out. Now this guy got a lot of stick in his career and was often lumped in with the other German champion of his era Sven Ottke, as he fought practically all his life in Germany for the same promoter, Klaus Peter-Kohl's Universum, but I think this comparison is a bit unfair. Michalczewski could really fight, he was an exciting and aggressive boxer - unlike Sven Ottke who was boring, dull and a total fraud from start to finish. In retrospect he did better than people gave him credit for. He won the WBO light-heavyweight title way back in 1994 and went on to make a career for himself fighting overmatched WBO mandatory challengers, looking great doing so. Typical stay at home European fighter with a padded record right?

Well actually he won the legit light-heavyweight world title back in 1997 fighting the hugely talented and previously undefeated American Virgil Hill, considered the man to beat at 175lbs and a top P4P fighter. It was a fantastic upset, and in the process he took the IBF, WBA lineal world titles away from Hill and away from his promoter Don King. In boxing lineal means you're the champion, the man who beat the man who beat the man etc, as adjudicated by The Ring magazine. Even if you don't have a belt you can still be the champion. Usually that in itself would be enough to mean that he was then the man to beat, and all the top US talent like Roy Jones had no choice but to go to Germany to fight him, but he was victim of a bit of politics. Michalczewski had been the WBO champion, an upstart boxing organisation favoured by European promoters looking to market their fighters as "the world champion" to their domestic audiences. Frank Warren uses them, so did Universum promotions who promoted Michalczeski, and as a result they were being frozen by the more establishment North American belts like the WBC and WBA backed by their own promoters. Immediately after the Hill fight the WBA stripped Michalczewski of his WBA titles for displaying them publicly alongside with the illegitimate WBO belt, and the IBF title was also taken from him for some spurious legal bullshit. These titles would float around the light-heavyweight division for a while before being picked up by Roy Jones Jnr coming up in weight. Unlucky Dariusz.

For a long time there was quite a demand for him to face Roy Jones to re-unify the light-heavyweight titles with the linear/WBO titles, but Jones wasn't going to risk going over to Germany to get stung on a hometown decision, and Michalczewski management weren't keen on him fighting a prime Roy and getting beat, so the fight never happened. Despite this Michalczewski should've been able to make the fights happen and public, but ultimately the refusal of his management to allow him to box outside of Germany meant that many of those great fights didn't.

He ran up a 48-0 record fighting in Germany, fighting a mix of creditworthy opponents and total no-hopers, in a well publicised bid to try and outmatch Marciano's record of 49-0, quite a sound marketing strategy from Universum. He was making them loads of money, and just as he was on the verge of retiring a big undefeated superstar like Joe Calzaghe ended up doing he took on a tough mexican fighter Julio Cesear Gonzalez, got beaten, and promptly retired amidst a chorus of boos and schadenfraude from his critics. He came out of retirement just once to fight Fabrice Tiozzo and lost by KO.

Despite all the clear drawbacks when looking back at his opponents there's some decent wins in there. The victory over Virgil Hill was a great result, the wins against Richard Hall x2, Graziano Rocchigiani x2, Montell Griffin and Derrick Harmon are all good wins too. His competition was no worse than Roy Jones was at light-heavyweight during the same period, that's for sure. But if he wanted to be the legit lineal champ you had to do better and fight the best, go around the world if you need to like Tommy Burns did. A Roy Jones Jnr fight would've been amazing, but what about Antonio Tarver? Glen Johnson would've been a great fight but no way would Universum let him anywhere near their big star after what he did to Ottke. A fight with Joe Calzaghe would've been nice, but they knew Calzaghe was a good fighter and pulling a similar stunt to them in Wales, but I'd have even settled for a fight with Clinton Woods that would've been good too. What about Jean Marc Mormeck? Watch some of his fights on youtube when he was a light-heavyweight in France, he was really good. Maybe it's his own fault but we'll never really know how good he was.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Pongsaklek Wonjongkam 90-5-2 (47 KO) 2x WBC & lineal Flyweight champion

This is a fighter who reminds me of Ricardo Lopez, another small fighter who dominated the lower weights for years whilst the world paid no attention. Thailand's Wongjonkam (simply "Pong" to his fans) was a truly dominant WBC Flyweight champion for many years, filling the post-Lopez gap in the lower divisions and establishing himself as the man to beat below bantamweight, but who was hindered in his early career by fighting almost entirely in Thailand. He went pro in 1994 and looking at his record it must have been a brutal boxing education, fighting in Thailand nearly a dozen times a year, one of the toughest circuits in world boxing. There could be world championship level fighters galore fighting each other week in, week out, for practically pennies in Thailand, and no-one would know it really they get such little exposure. He lost twice early on to unknowns, but following the 2nd loss in 1996 went on to win an astonishing 56 fights consecutively, a record in boxing at the time. And although some of these fighters might have been no good, some of them were very good indeed, frankly it's hard to tell just from looking at the numbers on boxrec. Despite this great record he struggled to make any sort of major impression outside the far east. This was the same situation Manny Pacquiao, also a former flyweight fighting out of the far east, found himself in during his early career, and one of the reasons why he was so keen to move up in weight and come to the USA for the big fights.

Anyway after a tough apprenticeship in Thailand, Wonjongkam won the WBC & lineal title at Flyweight by beating Malcolm Tuñacao in 2001. Tuñacao and won the title from another Thai fighter Medgoen Singsurat, who interestingly himself won the lineal flyweight title by being the first man to knock out the previous dominant flyweight champion Manny Pacquiao, which led to Pacquiao's decision to move up in weight. Once he had the title Pong cleared out his division, defending his title 17 times (a record for flyweight) and beating all the top contenders for most of the 2000's - Hussein Hussein, Koki Kameda, Jesus Martinez, all guys I remember being expected to beat Pong and who didn't come close. All the viable contenders for a long period were beaten by him in what must be one of the most quietly impressive title reigns in recent history. Although not known as a one-punch KO artist in the same way Ricardo Lopez, Prince Naseem or Manny Pac were, he had some great KO's on his resume for a flyweight. He was really crafty and smart too, as you'd expect from such a veteran pro, and managed to find a way to win when faced with determined and top class opponents for well over a decade. Oh yeah and he was a southpaw, making him extra tricky. He lost his unbeaten streak to a Japanese fighter called Daisuke Naito, who he'd already beaten twice beforehand, in a shocking upset, before winning the WBC/lineal title back against top-tier mexican Julio Cesar Miranda on points. Gradually as he entered his late 30's he started to decline, losing the title to a journeyman from the Phillipines called Sonny Boy Jaro in 2012, which was Ring magazine's upset of the year. He's still fighting, aged 37, although has lost since and is a shadow of his former self and unlikely to regain the title.

This guy should've been on the top end of everyone's P4P lists throughout most the 2000-10 decade but due to the neglect the lowest weight divisions get this gem of a fighter was cruelly overlooked. His record is pretty hard to fuck with, and by rights he ought to be a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame but probably won't be sadly, as this great article explains. The fight with Koki Kameda is great action, I hope you enjoy this. Big fight over in Japan and Thailand this was.

 

[Numbers]

Great thread I'll enjoy reading this and contribute accordingly.

I seen Harry Simon a few times, the 1st was against Tony 'Poison' Ivory in The Point in Dublin in the mid 90's.

 

[thriller]

You're talking through your arse as usual. I love the idea that Hopkins was a afraid of Calzaghe in his physical prime, yet presumably not scared of him after he'd entered his mid 40's. Even in Calzaghe's autobiography it states how he didn't want to fight Roy Jones in his prime because the result would've been a foregone conclusion. Perfectly understandably too a lot of other good fighters felt the same way.

Frank Warren managed Calzaghe's career badly, deprived him of the very best fights until right at the end of his career, which is a shame because I'd have loved to se Calzaghe matched hard and up against these great fighters we're talking about, and for the record I rate Calzaghe I'm sure he would've done himself proud, although I doubt he'd have retired undefeated if that was the case.

don't be a turd. it's well known and on record that hopkins agreed to fight Joe but then changed his mind and asked twice the amount. And to blame warren for Calzaghe's record shows you don't know shite as much as you think you do. It is well known (clearly not by you) that Calzaghe did not like to travel abroad (i.e. America) for fights. He corrected this towards the tail end of his career. Warren on 3 occasions set up a fight with Glenn Johnson that Joe pulled out due to injury. He tried to get Joe a fight with Kelly Pavlik at the time when Pavlik's stock was riding high (before it came crashing), but Joe was obsessed with fighting a past it RJJ.

As for RJJ and calzaghe fighting, they never campaigned long enough at the same weight, dumbass. RJJ moved from Super Middleweight to light heavyweight in 1996 at that time, Joe had only fought 18 times at Super Middleweight.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Yeah I'd get injured 3 times too if someone was asking me to fight Glen Johnson. No-one wanted to fight Glen Johnson. Only Emmanuel Augustus got robbed more often than Glen did. He was a monster.

 

[peterkro]

Bob Fitzsimmons Cornish/Kiwi fighter.Middle weight,light heavy and heavy weight champion.Knocked out Gentleman Jim Corbett one of the great fighters of his time.

 

[Red Faction]

i have to agree with trampie on this actually.

calzaghe was undefeated champion for 10 years.
it is wrong that the onus should be on him to travel to america just to make a quick buck at the end of his career
the big fights and big fighters avoided him

he was the reigning champion, why isn't the onus on these 'big name fighters' to come to wales and challenge him?
the mandatory challengers were nobodies, that isnt calzaghe's fault

it shows how corrupt and skewed boxing is, to truly believe that the usa is centre of the universe

they should have come to him
they didnt


at the twilight of his career he trapsed across to america to earn a wage that they should have paid him many, many years before

 

[Yetman]

My mums mate, her dad was a pro boxer in the 50's and 60's, fought some big names. I can't remember his name now but he's just had to go into a care home cos of alzhiemers. The saddest thing is, despite being over 80, he's still hard as nails and gets very violent, meaning it takes up to 7 staff to restrain him when he starts losing it. He's a danger to other people and he doesn't even mean it.

A reminder of where some of these people are likely to be once their glory days are over and they've faded into old age.

 

[shagnasty]

My mums mate, her dad was a pro boxer in the 50's and 60's, fought some big names. I can't remember his name now but he's just had to go into a care home cos of alzhiemers. The saddest thing is, despite being over 80, he's still hard as nails and gets very violent, meaning it takes up to 7 staff to restrain him when he starts losing it. He's a danger to other people and he doesn't even mean it.

A reminder of where some of these people are likely to be once their glory days are over and they've faded into old age.

i worked with a bloke named bill didn't know his last name he was retired and did few hours cleaning .He boxed at blackfriars ring for five bob and nobbins ,he had a pair of beautiful cauliflower ears you have ever seem and a callous near his knuckles from hitting with an open glove