John Davison

[Autobarn]

britain produced a lot of good featherweights, especially in the 1990s. davison is remembered for losing an exciting battle for the WBO title, vs steve robinson, who'd been regarded as a journeyman. so really, a disappointment. but it was quite an exciting, bruising battle. i recall enjoyign this fight, and robinson himself admitted how tough it was, in melainie lloyd's sweet fighting man book.

was reading around a bit, and davison didn't even turn pro til he was about 30? (having reached the ABA finals as an amateur.) and he was naturally not even a featherweight? there was a recent autobiograhpy as well, wasn't there...

regardless of how good he was or wasn't, ior how late he left it, or the weight - it seems he was in some really crowd pleasing battles? vs some thais for a WBC international bauble, and two hard, close defeats to fabrice benichou in france? he did win a british featherweight title, and would seem to be just the kind of crowd pleasing fighter that the north east could do with nowadays...

can anyone add anything? which are the best fights to check out?

[bennie]

The fight with Robinson took everything out of him. He had a coupe of wars with Benichou beforehand, although I've never seen them. Good puncher, who smashed Paul Hodkinson in the amateurs.

[Autobarn]

must have been a pretty talented, tough fighter to do what he did. featherweights, especially in the UK, seem to get old early.

obviously losing to robinson, and the resulting "cinderella man" story, completely overshadowed davison... robinson deserved his success, coming in at 2 days notice after palacios tested HIV positive, and getting those wins over ex champs mcmillan, mckenzie, and of course hoko, to become the apparentyl highest paid featherweight in the world...

agree with you bennie, that fight took it out of davison, getting stopped as he did by duke mckenzie, a pretty old and out of his weight mck at that.

so - his british title win v tim driscoll saw him overcome a fractured jaw? was this a good fight?

apparently davison didn't get the TV backing his style and talent would seem to have "deserved"? what davison fights are available on DVD (i.e. which were televised)?

what a time for featherweights, the early '90s - hoko, davison, mcmillan, mckenzie, robinson. british boxing could do with fighters like these, nowadays.

[Autobarn]

from reading bits of his book, his 2 EBU title fights with benichou and the WBC international super bantam fight with plaisakda singwangcha (sakda sorpakdee) sound like stonking battles.

sounds like a guy who had some great fights in his short career.

davison seems like a more blue collar peer of hodkinson; whereas hoko, the complete, polished pressure fighter was moved carefully to the world title, the less aesthetic davison seems to have been put into similarly risky situations for lesser reward. understandable, as hoko had a very clean style of boxing. sounds like davison was a terrific draw in the north-east.

did davison soften up benichou for hoko, as he claims in his book Little Man, Big Heart?

2 big WHAT IFs for davison:

WHAT IF he got that super bantam title fight vs jesse benavides (TV wouldn't put up the money).

WHAT IF the fight with billy hardy came off, a catchweight with hardy coming up and davison going down to 122. how big a crowd could they have drawn?

[Counter-puncher]

WHAT IF the fight with billy hardy came off, a catchweight with hardy coming up and davison going down to 122. how big a crowd could they have drawn?

it would have been huge, I am sure.

[orbtastic]

His book is a strange read.

He was exciting to watch but basically wasn't as good as he was made out to be, nor was he as good as he says he was (in the book).

I remember him crying like a baby after Steve Robinson outpointed him.

[Autobarn]

WHAT IF the fight with billy hardy came off, a catchweight with hardy coming up and davison going down to 122. how big a crowd could they have drawn?

it would have been huge, I am sure.

probably would only have happened if dava had got the world title fight vs benavides and won it. then i'm sure hardy would have gone for it.

[Autobarn]

His book is a strange read.

He was exciting to watch but basically wasn't as good as he was made out to be, nor was he as good as he says he was (in the book).

I remember him crying like a baby after Steve Robinson outpointed him.

what i disliked about the book was that he made it sound like hoko and mcmillan were smashed by villasana and palacios - making no mention of the injuries that lost them their titles.

i loved reading about the fights, though - some good blow by blow accounts. it was interesting to hear his side of the robinson fight. robinson obviously did great coming in at a couple of days notice and fighting through leg cramps late in the fight. good though that dava gives his side, saying that he'd overtrained (6 months of the palacios fight being off and on) and was spent before the fight. he certainly did look like an old man by the end of that memorable contest.

[orbtastic]

Yeah that's true, he certainly aged quickly.

[Autobarn]

i wish i could find his fights with sakda sorpakdee, andre seymour (scottish fight of the year) & the two with benichou.

[keithmoonhangover]

Being a Mackem, I was more of a Billy Hardy fan. Davison - Hardy would have been a great fight for the region, it's a shame it couldn't be made.

[marbles]

davison might have smashed hoko in the amateurs in the 1st fight they had but that fight was at bantam when hoko was 19. a year later a stronger hoko at feather avenged the loss with a convincing points win

davison was a honest warrior and good to watch but nowhere near as good as he says he was and hoko in my opinion much better .