He came from nowhere

[Delta Jay]

That’s why I was asking, because there’s just loads of crazy facts about him. He won prizefighter at 40 years old.

As far as Mongolia facts go, I know they’re in the process of changing which alphabet they use from Cyrillic. And they still have these ancient nomadic tribes who ride horses and hunt using eagles.

in some turko-mongol (incl. kazakh/uzbekh etc) cultures they still continue the practise of literally stealing their brides right from their tents in another village

They still do that in Liverpool, as well.

[Boxerbeetle]

One hard bastard and well popular in Oldham/Manchester. Good ticket seller. Lived in a caravan in
his manager/trainers? back garden. I know Granada did a piece on him, maybe its on ytube.

Chilling ko of an unbeaten and highly touted Matthews.

That’s why I was asking, because there’s just loads of crazy facts about him. He won prizefighter at 40 years old.

As far as Mongolia facts go, I know they’re in the process of changing which alphabet they use from Cyrillic. And they still have these ancient nomadic tribes who ride horses and hunt using eagles.

I once tried to teach myself the Cyrillic alphabet using Wikipedia when I was extremely bored on one lunch break. Amazingly, the attempt failed completely. In hindsight, maybe I should have devoted more than about 20 minutes to it.

[My Name Is Earl]

One hard bastard and well popular in Oldham/Manchester. Good ticket seller. Lived in a caravan in
his manager/trainers? back garden. I know Granada did a piece on him, maybe its on ytube.

Chilling ko of an unbeaten and highly touted Matthews.

That’s why I was asking, because there’s just loads of crazy facts about him. He won prizefighter at 40 years old.

As far as Mongolia facts go, I know they’re in the process of changing which alphabet they use from Cyrillic. And they still have these ancient nomadic tribes who ride horses and hunt using eagles.

There's only the Matthews Prizefighter 2nd rd barn burner i could find.

Went to a 'Mongolian Feast' night a good few years ago. Everyone in the restaurant all sat together
on joined up tables. Didn't fancy that when we saw it....but what a great and surreal night it turned out.
They played Beatles music all night with the night ending up with waiters, chefs and all the punters
singing Hey Jude. Hearty cholesterol packed grub and quality vodka.

[Delta Jay]

Been watching loads on YouTube since this thread. What a fornicating guy he is.

[Wee Tommy]

I always wanted Choi to get some kind of big break.

How far could he have went with the right set up? Let’s be honest he did amazingly with the opportunities he did get. Legend.

[My Name Is Earl]

Been watching loads on YouTube since this thread. What a fornicating guy he is.

Thanks for that When i searched why didn't that come up. A few other Choi links popped
up with yours so cheers again.

An IFL interview at the Hard Knocks gym, and the full Daud Yordan fight Was never
going to win, but @ 41 the bloke was a machine.

[Delta Jay]

Been watching loads on YouTube since this thread. What a fornicating guy he is.

Thanks for that When i searched why didn't that come up. A few other Choi links popped
up with yours so cheers again.

An IFL interview at the Hard Knocks gym, and the full Daud Yordan fight Was never
going to win, but @ 41 the bloke was a machine.

I could barely remember his name when I first mentioned him in this thread, been watching all his stuff now. I love it when he says his trainer Lee is a “good lad.”

[My Name Is Earl]

Thanks for that When i searched why didn't that come up. A few other Choi links popped
up with yours so cheers again.

An IFL interview at the Hard Knocks gym, and the full Daud Yordan fight Was never
going to win, but @ 41 the bloke was a machine.

I could barely remember his name when I first mentioned him in this thread, been watching all his stuff now. I love it when he says his trainer Lee is a “good lad.”

That'll be from his Owd'am (Oldham) days

He mentions sparring with Gomez, Harrison, Johanneson, Brodie etc. They would have been quality
sessions as he doesn't seem the type to go through the motions. As i said, he was a real popular bloke.

[margaret thatcher]

maury lara?

[GreenLightning]

Anyone mention when Kiko ran over Dunne in a round? Havnt seen Kiko use a shoulder roll from that eight fi to the Barrett fight 14 years later

[margaret thatcher]

lol i just saw a weird one of choi with spencer fearon and a sumo wrestler

[Bleak]

Ali Nuumbembe Had a some decent results over here not sure his backstory ,but
Was but ended up in Glossop for a time

[MightyWarrior]

Britain’s unbeaten European flyweight champion Charlie Magri was all set for a world title shot in 1981 when they brought over journeyman Juan Diaz from Mexico for a safe warm up, it looked a safe one as Diaz had lost around 15 fights.
A big fan favourite Charlie was suprisingly dropped in the first round, but soon turned things around and was on the verge of stopping the Mexican a few rounds later when he was shockingly dropped and knocked out in the sixth round in front of a stunned royal Albert hall crowd, leaving his world title hopes in ruins. The result made the back pages of UK newspapers.

[bennie]

Britain’s unbeaten European flyweight champion Charlie Magri was all set for a world title shot in 1981 when they brought over journeyman Juan Diaz from Mexico for a safe warm up, it looked a safe one as Diaz had lost around 15 fights.
A big fan favourite Charlie was suprisingly dropped in the first round, but soon turned things around and was on the verge of stopping the Mexican a few rounds later when he was shockingly dropped and knocked out in the sixth round in front of a stunned royal Albert hall crowd, leaving his world title hopes in ruins. The result made the back pages of UK newspapers.

Charlie really punished the man nicknamed "Little Monkey" but Diaz wouldn't crack and in the end Magri simply punched himself out. They brought Diaz back to face Magri's big domestic rival, Keith Wallace, a little later and Wallace boxed and punched his way to a 10-round decision, although he never sparkled and was beaten a fight later by Frenchman Antoine Montero.

[Delta Jay]

maury lara?

100% belongs in here. I’d never even heard of him

[stujones]

Ali Nuumbembe Had a some decent results over here not sure his backstory ,but
Was but ended up in Glossop for a time

That's a plast from the past - used to love the crowd chanting "Ali Nuumbembe" - in the same way the folks from Zaire were chanting Ali Bumyaee in 1974.

[stujones]

Don't know if its been mentioned but world ranked Graham Earl was having a non title fight against a fellow Brit he was expected to beat in an undercard fight - treated as a tune up..... that brit was Ricky Burns.... rest is history.

[Bleak]

Ali Nuumbembe Had a some decent results over here not sure his backstory ,but
Was but ended up in Glossop for a time

That's a plast from the past - used to love the crowd chanting "Ali Nuumbembe" - in the same way the folks from Zaire were chanting Ali Bumyaee in 1974.

I think he may of got a medal at the commonwealths and ended up stopping
Yeah great chant that one

[tonyevs]

Ali Nuumbembe - yes that is a blast from the past. Didnt he live in an old caravan behind the gym for quite a while when he first started?

[jamesmcdonnell]

Britain’s unbeaten European flyweight champion Charlie Magri was all set for a world title shot in 1981 when they brought over journeyman Juan Diaz from Mexico for a safe warm up, it looked a safe one as Diaz had lost around 15 fights.
A big fan favourite Charlie was suprisingly dropped in the first round, but soon turned things around and was on the verge of stopping the Mexican a few rounds later when he was shockingly dropped and knocked out in the sixth round in front of a stunned royal Albert hall crowd, leaving his world title hopes in ruins. The result made the back pages of UK newspapers.

Charlie really punished the man nicknamed "Little Monkey" but Diaz wouldn't crack and in the end Magri simply punched himself out. They brought Diaz back to face Magri's big domestic rival, Keith Wallace, a little later and Wallace boxed and punched his way to a 10-round decision, although he never sparkled and was beaten a fight later by Frenchman Antoine Montero.

I remember Charlie saying he was absolutely exhausted, and the guy had a head like a bowling ball.

[knockout]

Denis Lebedev was European junior champion and one of the top Amateurs in Russia .

Trouble was Russian 81kg squad was super stacked around 2000-2002.

You had Sydney Olympic champion Lebziak , 2001 world champion Makarenko , Mikail Gala 2002 European champion, Erik Teymour felix Stamm runner up 2000

So you had 5 guys who were super talented but Lebedev and Teymour never made it to the bigger tournaments. so no one knew who they were in the pre boxrec / social media days

Lebedev then took a break and only returned to boxing following encouragement from Povetkin and the backing of a good manager/promoter

It was probably a bit of arrogance on Warrens behalf. Having seen a decade of decent Eastern European fighters get treated like dogs & come over to UK for a pay cheque, he assumed Lebedev was just another one coming for the money.

Then history repeated itself with another “unknown” Russian Mr Kovalev (who again was an elite amateur but never got to the big tournaments because world champion Korobov kept beating him for the Russian #1 spot )

[bennie]

Britain’s unbeaten European flyweight champion Charlie Magri was all set for a world title shot in 1981 when they brought over journeyman Juan Diaz from Mexico for a safe warm up, it looked a safe one as Diaz had lost around 15 fights.
A big fan favourite Charlie was suprisingly dropped in the first round, but soon turned things around and was on the verge of stopping the Mexican a few rounds later when he was shockingly dropped and knocked out in the sixth round in front of a stunned royal Albert hall crowd, leaving his world title hopes in ruins. The result made the back pages of UK newspapers.

Charlie really punished the man nicknamed "Little Monkey" but Diaz wouldn't crack and in the end Magri simply punched himself out. They brought Diaz back to face Magri's big domestic rival, Keith Wallace, a little later and Wallace boxed and punched his way to a 10-round decision, although he never sparkled and was beaten a fight later by Frenchman Antoine Montero.

I remember Charlie saying he was absolutely exhausted, and the guy had a head like a bowling ball.

The sad thing is, Charlie was already climbing down the mountain in 1981 and a man he had beaten, Santos Laciar, would prove an outstanding WBA flyweight champion. Mickey Duff and Terry Lawless proved surprisingly unsuccessful in securing a world title shot for Magri in 1980, when the Londoner was unbeatable. Maybe they were concentrating on the money they were creaming off world champions Jim Watt and Maurice Hope that year.

[keirw]

Can't remember many people being particularly big on Kovalev before he came over.

He went on to become one of the most fearsome fighters of his generation, until Ward castrated him (literally).

[keirw]

maury lara?

100% belongs in here. I’d never even heard of him

He does, certainly.

Although, I'm unsure about how far he will actually go.
He is very easy to hit and was caught alot by Warrington and visibly stiffened by a noted non puncher several times during the bout.

On a side note, if Warrington doesn't recover in time for the mooted rematch date do we think Leigh Wood might be put in with Lara?

It would be an interesting fight, Lara would favourite as Wood does look vulnerable, but Wood carries decent power and with the right tactics he could get to Lara first and maybe cause a bit of an upset of his own.

Just a thought

[margaret thatcher]

i think lara will get better, he's only 22 and hadnt been fighting the right type of fights to really bring out the best in him im guessing. though still the win might flatter him quite a bit