How good was Richard Evatt?

ebeneezer · Post by **ebeneezer** » 11 Feb 2006, 13:19

I was watching that 101 knockouts dvd that i picked up recently and amongst the many Kos I was particularly struck by Richard Evatt.

How good was he?

Was he just a bog standard British prospect with a huge punch or was he fringe world level?

How did he look in his fight with Junior Jones?

My T Sharp · Post by **My T Sharp** » 11 Feb 2006, 13:29

Very exciting fighter but he took alot of punches and didn't always have the resistance. He gave a faded Junior Jones a working over before getting caught by late on by the heavy hitting Jones. His loss to Mick O'Malley was from a broken jaw from a cracking shot.

Dirk Kelly · Post by **Dirk Kelly** » 11 Feb 2006, 14:27

I always thought he was so unlucky against Jones, keeping him on the back foot for most of the fight then getting tagged so late on. Found it so bizarre as all Jones seemed to do for the whole fight was bang his chest.

shoutout · Post by **shoutout** » 12 Feb 2006, 01:43

ebeneezer wrote:I was watching that 101 knockouts dvd that i picked up recently and amongst the many Kos I was particularly struck by Richard Evatt.

How good was he?

Was he just a bog standard British prospect with a huge punch or was he fringe world level?

How did he look in his fight with Junior Jones?

he was good, but dont think he lived up to his billing after a top-notch amateur career...

The Hawk · Post by **The Hawk** » 12 Feb 2006, 07:20

He was very unlucky against Junior Jones that night, Jones pulled his "Get Out Of Jail" punch out and won the fight. Thats boxing!

But I thought he looked good that night and that was the first and only time I seen him Box with his orange and black striped hair that night

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 12 Feb 2006, 09:24

That was undoubtedly his career best performance, never repeated that performance.

Good TV fighter who might have won the British title (think it was Jon Jo Irwin/Gary Thornhill who were champs), had he gone for that route. That was about his real level though - Junior Jones was a pretty much shot fighter at that stage.

I hope he is okay, one fighter who I always was worried about even before his medical problems came to light - just always had a feeling that it was an accident waiting to happen.

Twinkle Toes · Post by **Twinkle Toes** » 12 Feb 2006, 09:30

I remember willing him on in the Jones fight, he loooked the business that night..until the ending anyway.

Never performed to that standard again.

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 12 Feb 2006, 09:51

Didn't he get arrested for shoplifting about two years ago?

silkov · Post by **silkov** » 12 Feb 2006, 10:03

Evatt was the sort of fighter I think would have done well to have gone to America to box, pick up a better defence etc... had he bobbed and weaved a bit more he woud have gone further, but I think his lack of defence let him down ultimately and he never looked as good again after the Jones loss... which was quite a bad ko if I remember right...

knockout · Post by **knockout** » 12 Feb 2006, 11:11

Evatt was extremely talented but his private life wasnt clean enough to make it to the highest level

CB · Post by CB » 15 Feb 2006, 04:41

KOJOE90 wrote:Didn't he get arrested for shoplifting about two years ago?

Yeah he got arrested for stealing razor blades or something from the local Superdrug and also got nicked for punching an off duty OB when alledgedly "playing up" in front of a group of teenagers he was with.

The problem with Rich was that outside of the ring he loved to live up to his "mini" celebrity status in Coventry as he was doing well when the rise of CPUK promotions led by Kev Houston was at its height and boxing was really taking off here, as him, Pithie, Simpson and the Payne brothers were all doing reasonably well but to be perfectly frank he was a bit of a bully outside of the ring.

Personally, i have always got on with him fine but i have seen many occasions when he has really took the piss and acted a complete wanker outside of the ring. The problem with this is that at only 5'6 and boxing at Super Featherweight he had a few takers from some of the larger Cov population.

Before his fight against Mick O'Malley up at the Connexion there was a rumour going around that he had been knocked out on the Tuesday before in a local pub for playing up, so although it was a cracking punch by O'Malley lets just say it wasn't a total surprise when it came back that he had a fractured/broken jaw. (Can't remember which off the top of my head).

It is a shame really the way his career ended because he did have a very heavy punch and i can remember watching the video of his first ever professional fight when he knocked his opponent down with his very first punch as a Pro fighter (not a bad record in anyone's book).

You have to say that the Jones fight was the pinnacle of his career and if he would have got a result that night then his career may have taken a very different path but its all a case of its and buts as is sadly the case with many talented boxers!!

TerribleTerry · Post by **TerribleTerry** » 15 Feb 2006, 05:01

Evatt went to school with Roy Rutherford in Coventry. They were rivals even back then, I believe.

They would eventually tangle in the pro ring win with Evatt squeezing past Roy in an all-Cov showdown.

CB · Post by CB » 15 Feb 2006, 05:53

TerribleTerry wrote:Evatt went to school with Roy Rutherford in Coventry. They were rivals even back then, I believe.

They would eventually tangle in the pro ring win with Evatt squeezing past Roy in an all-Cov showdown.

Yeah they both went to Caludon Castle School and although they were never best of friends there was never that much rivalry between them back then from what i heard but it was played on a lot by the promoters (and rightly so) in order to get bums on seats and try and re-ignite their respective careers. Although, i missed this one i heard that Evatt was somewhat fortunate to get the points decision.

Mr Boogaloo · Post by **Mr Boogaloo** » 15 Feb 2006, 09:00

ebeneezer, same ebeneezer of the MMA site that should never be mentioned a few years ago?

I remember watching the O'Malley fight when I was just getting into boxing. That was fornicating horrible. I thought he was caught by at least 3 huge uppercuts and had his jaw totally smashed. Big shame he was so badly injured.

silkov · Post by **silkov** » 15 Feb 2006, 09:42

CB wrote:
KOJOE90 wrote:Didn't he get arrested for shoplifting about two years ago?
Yeah he got arrested for stealing razor blades or something from the local Superdrug and also got nicked for punching an off duty OB when alledgedly "playing up" in front of a group of teenagers he was with.

The problem with Rich was that outside of the ring he loved to live up to his "mini" celebrity status in Coventry as he was doing well when the rise of CPUK promotions led by Kev Houston was at its height and boxing was really taking off here, as him, Pithie, Simpson and the Payne brothers were all doing reasonably well but to be perfectly frank he was a bit of a bully outside of the ring.

Personally, i have always got on with him fine but i have seen many occasions when he has really took the piss and acted a complete wanker outside of the ring. The problem with this is that at only 5'6 and boxing at Super Featherweight he had a few takers from some of the larger Cov population.

Before his fight against Mick O'Malley up at the Connexion there was a rumour going around that he had been knocked out on the Tuesday before in a local pub for playing up, so although it was a cracking punch by O'Malley lets just say it wasn't a total surprise when it came back that he had a fractured/broken jaw. (Can't remember which off the top of my head).

It is a shame really the way his career ended because he did have a very heavy punch and i can remember watching the video of his first ever professional fight when he knocked his opponent down with his very first punch as a Pro fighter (not a bad record in anyone's book).

You have to say that the Jones fight was the pinnacle of his career and if he would have got a result that night then his career may have taken a very different path but its all a case of its and buts as is sadly the case with many talented boxers!!

Pithie, theres another one who could have gone further perhaps but didn't like to train so I hear...

TerribleTerry · Post by **TerribleTerry** » 15 Feb 2006, 10:14

CB wrote:
TerribleTerry wrote:Evatt went to school with Roy Rutherford in Coventry. They were rivals even back then, I believe.

They would eventually tangle in the pro ring win with Evatt squeezing past Roy in an all-Cov showdown.
Yeah they both went to Caludon Castle School and although they were never best of friends there was never that much rivalry between them back then from what i heard but it was played on a lot by the promoters (and rightly so) in order to get bums on seats and try and re-ignite their respective careers. Although, i missed this one i heard that Evatt was somewhat fortunate to get the points decision.

I agree, the needle between those two probably owed a great deal to promotional hype, I know Roy personally and he is a very even-tempered, nice feller.

Evatt was a schoolboy boxer, whilst Rutherford was a kickboxing/sport karate phenom. A playground scrap between those two would have been worth paying admission to see though!

ebeneezer · Post by **ebeneezer** » 15 Feb 2006, 12:01

Mr Boogaloo wrote:ebeneezer, same ebeneezer of the MMA site that should never be mentioned a few years ago?

The very same.

Nice to meet you again Boogaloo, it's been a while.

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 15 Feb 2006, 14:29

Richard Evatt vs Dean Pithie would have been a good fight.

How good was Richard Evatt?

How good was Richard Evatt?

Re: How good was Richard Evatt?