On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:21:43 GMT, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:54:20 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:



Ali was the best HW. But Larry Holmes was pretty close, and given his
title defenses should be a legend himself. Reason he never got much
respect is that birdbrain Howie Cosell was still calling fights, and
given his idolatry of Ali, he ran down Holmes every chance he got.
I haven't even watched a HW fight in years, given the quality now
compared to bygone eras.

Eh - I don't know about that. Homes was certainly a good fighter and
worthy of Hall of Fame inclusion, but you have to remember he spent a
lot of his time in the IBF fighting heavyweight chumps.

Politics. He would fight anybody.
And they ALL fought plenty of bums.
Should have kept his mouth shut about Marciano's jockstrap.
But he was one of the few fighters that would alert the ref to stop
the fight when his opponent had it.
And he had the best jab - bar none.

In my opinion, the two greatest of our era had to be Ali and Frazier.

Everybody's got an opinion (-:
I have to look for that fight I saw live where Marvis Frazier got hit
directly on top of the head and was floored. One of the weirdest
things I saw, after Ali's phantom punch.
Can't remember the opponent. Maybe it's on youtube.

For the record, I gave up on professional boxing after Hagler got
hosed in his bout with Ray Leonard - who was a total fraud as a boxer.
I think Hagler, if he had won that fight, would have been recognized
at the greatest professional fighter of all time.

I agree that Hagler was hosed, but Leonard was a terrific fighter.
Hagler suffered from the Leonard idolatry.
I was skeptical early on, because nobody had tagged him.
My contention was until that happened he wasn't proven.
We watched the Leanord/Hearns bout live, and I remember jumping
up yelling when Hearns clipped Leanord's jaw with a long right and
Leonard's knees wobbled. I thought my "feet of clay" theory might be
right. Nope. Leonard came back. Heart of a lion.
Probably my favorite fight.
And despite his "no mas" disaster with Leonard, and getting absolutely
clocked by Hearns, Duran is probably my favorite fighter of all time.
What a hard-ass that guy was.
To see him - really a natural lightweight - go the distance with
Hagler was amazing.

--Vic