Let's talk a bout this guy for a minute. How good was he??? I see many boxing historians that speak very highly of him, but I need to know about him some more...I see in his record that he KO'd the great Joe Gans, but I have found that the KO was not a legit one and that Gans took a DIVE.
But his record is very impressive. He stopped 18 foes in a row, but his tenure as world champion, specailly at featherweight was BRIEF. I also believe at one time that he was the second triple crown titlist in history...If he was, in what weight he became triple crown world titlist???
WHERE DO YOU RANK THIS GUY??? Was he that good??? Maybe you guys can help me and examine his career...Thanks
I think that McGovern was certainly one of the greatest bantamweights in history and I think he was one of the best featherweights in history. His reign was somewhat brief, but he cleaned out both the bantamweight and particularly the featherweight divisions beating all of the top contenders, sometimes two in a month, which is unheard of today. Skill-wise he could be outboxed, but he was so durable that he just walked through everything that an opponent could throw at him until the other man fell. At one point McGovern was 39-0-1 (33 KO), which was his prime. He never avoided anyone.
He won recognition of batamweight champion of America by dominating the top men of the division, lastly of which was Johnny Ritchie, who was termed champion of the west. They fought for the right to face Pedlar Palmer of England, who McGovern annihilated in less than a round, for the world bantamweight title, which he soon gave up when he won the featherweight title from George Dixon about four months later. About six months following the Dixon bout, McGovern obliterated Frank Erne, who was lightweight champion, but stipulations before the bout required that Erne come in at 128 pounds, which was a few pounds lighter than the 133 pound lightweight limit at the time, so the belt was not at risk.
McGovern went on fighting at a tremendous pace, but he was also acting in theater acts that his manager, who was also in theater production, had arranged for him. Personally, I think this, more than anything resulted in his sudden downfall as he was often out at all hours after he started acted. He had started drinking and living a very undisciplined life as compared to his previous years when he was so dominate, he just simply was not getting the rest essential for a fighter’s durability. The fight with Gans was an outright fake, but McGovern was cleared of any charges and it was very much believed that he had no clue about the fix.
When Young Corbett challenged him, McGovern was ripe for the pickings, and to be sure, Corbett stopped by McGovern’s dressing room on his way to the ring and said something like, “come on out Terry and get the licking of your life.” Well McGovern was a proud man and this outraged him, so when he entered the ring all he saw was red. With rage in his mind he went after Corbett when the bell rang, but was very wild and Corbett, who had quite a punch, soon had him reeling and hurt and a short time later down for the count. The knockout destroyed McGovern and he was never the same fighter afterward and for the remaining years of his life he was in and out of sanitariums at a pretty consistent rate. He was used up as a fighter at twenty-two years of age!
Great review barry ...Let's talk about his opponents and greatest victories... McGovern is considered by The Ring Magazine as ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND GREATEST FIGHTERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY, but not many people talks about him...where does he rank with the all time best??? is he a top 30 all time great fighter???
I've never tried to put together a list of P4P greats, but I would more than likely have McGovern in the top 15, or 20, maybe even the top ten. I don't think that there has ever been another fighter that could just walk through opponents like McGovern did. It didn't matter if they were sluggers/brawlers, scientific boxers, or a combination of both McGovern went through every kind with relative ease, that is until he starting taking his training, or lack of training for granted!
McGovern could have actually been undefeated at 57-0-5 until his bout with Corbett because both of his losses to that point were by DQ and he was winning in both fights up till the referee stopped the bouts!
I’ve done a lot of research on McGovern and I have clips of just about all of his fights so if there is any particular fight that you want to know about, just let me know. When I mentioned before that he defeated the best of two divisions, he did! There wasn’t one, or two fighters that he missed who were proclaimed to be world-beaters. He still managed to do fairly well after the Corbett loss and even managed to win a newspaper decision over Corbett in their third and last bout, but the knockout, especially the second by Corbett in San Francisco, destroyed his invincibility. Corbett just had the “Indian Sign” on McGovern, just like Iran Barkley did on Thomas Hearns!
McGovern was the first, and possibly the best, of a breed of fighter that produced others in his style such as Stanley Ketchel and Jack Dempsey…two names that are not too shabby to be mentioned with, or actually, it’s Dempsey and Ketchel’s name that is to be mentioned with McGovern’s because he was first!
I sould mention though that McGovern did get a lucky break in one of his bouts against Oscar Gardner, who was one of the toughest and best of that era. Gardner put McGovern down in the third round, if I recall correctly and McGovern got back to his feet by pulling himself up using Gardner's body and held on for the remainder of the round. He was really hurt in that round, but his recooperative powers were incredible and he came out for the next round and put it all over Gardner and either knocked him out then, or a couple of rounds later! The record that I have put together for Gardner so far lists his record at 66-24-28 (41 KO) in 119 bouts!
barry wrote:I've never tried to put together a list of P4P greats, but I would more than likely have McGovern in the top 15, or 20, maybe even the top ten. I don't think that there has ever been another fighter that could just walk through opponents like McGovern did. It didn't matter if they were sluggers/brawlers, scientific boxers, or a combination of both McGovern went through every kind with relative ease, that is until he starting taking his training, or lack of training for granted
I think that your points about McGovern are great barry, but I cannot see him as a top 10, 15 nor 20 all time fighter. I COULD BE WRONG, barry.
But Guys like Sam Langford, Ray Leonard, Carlos Monzon, Pernell Whitaker, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles and Jimmy Wilde to name a few, where more accomplished and had more rich boxing history in my opinion.
Even guys like Marvin Hagler, Barney Ross, Jack Dempsey, Stanley Ketchel, Tony Canzoneri, Alexis Arguello and Julio Cesar Chavez were more dominating and more historical than McGovern. Don't you think???
Don't take this as a DEBATE...I JUST WANT YOUR OPINION, barry...Your points are good!!!
elmersalsa wrote:Guys like Sam Langford, Ray Leonard
Please don't mention them in the same sentence again. I personally think the quality of boxing has gone down and down from the beginning of the century to now
Like I said, I really don't know how I would rank him because I have never tried to put together an all-time P4P list, I can only guess about it, but I know I would certainly have him in a top 30!
I read where Joe Gans had to weigh in with his fight with Mcgovern just before the fight with his gloves on and his shoes and shorts on as well. That was apparently in the contract for the fight, Mcgoverns manager was a good negotiator, and Gans was black and in those days... well you know how it was in america at that time. The agreed upon weight was 132lbs
Does there exist any filmfootage of McGovern? I have seen some footage on Joe Gans from 1909 I think it was, so it is likely that McGovern was also filmed in the ring.
Anyone know?
His bout with Gans was filmed and his bout with Pedlar Palmer was supposed to be filmed, which is why it was held at Tuckahoe, NY, which was one of the few open-air arenas that was set up for filming fights. I'm sure there were a couple more that were supposed to be filmed, but I don't recall of the top of my head which fights it was!
