Benton is an absolute pleasure to watch - a sublime boxer.dookus wrote:A great little fight that shows the mastery boxers had back then of the finer point of the game - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter taking on George Benton in a non-title fight from 1963. Look at those defensive skills! This isn't even at world level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-S-ng23OXg
Men like Benton and Burley would dominate boxing and have countless straps round their waists and hanging off their shoulders in these times. They were also perfect gentleman - none of the ghetto swagger and slang we associate with American blow hard boxers these days. Martinez for his own talents will never come across opponents with the gifts these men had.
Can you imagine how dangerous a middleweight Jimmy Ellis would be in these times? A man who had the punch & timing to put steel chins like Bonavena on the deck? Unreal?