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.
Yeah I think you’re right Bennie, typical of a flyweight, Charlie’s top shelf life was relatively short; what an incredible offensive fighter he was at its peak: punches coming from every direction and heavy, heavy leather. An offensive whirlwind. Going by memory I think he was again dropped in the first round by the formidable Laciar, but came back to win.
Mickey Duff was a hell of a matchmaker, but in those days of your fax machine slowly whirring away in the corner as a potential opponent’s record from far-flung Mexico arrived for you to pour over, it must’ve been very hard to work out who you were going to end up with...you had to rely on word of mouth, and record wise there were a few books, fight fax i think, and the ring record book, usually 6 months out of date !
keirw wrote: ↑19 Feb 2021, 03:44
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).
A friend of mine visited Gleasons whilst on holiday in New York and was told Kov was lethal. There was a huge buzz about him over there, apparently. He told everyone to back him. I didn’t.....
knockout wrote: ↑18 Feb 2021, 18:55
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 )
Following on from Lebedev and Kovalev .... predating their visits to these shores, back in the late 90s Herbie Hide was making a straightforward defence against some tall awkward robotic fighter from Ukraine :)
Vitali something or other :)
Again the mainstream media weren’t aware of Vitalis extensive amateur career both in boxing and kickboxing and if I recall Herbie was quite the favourite
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.
Although boxing is rife with stories, often immaculate, about promoters exploiting fighters, Charlie was not well served by his management, he should have retired comfortably well off, it's not like he was a flash harrry mincing about in a fur coat and roller, and he wasn't into drugs or the party scene. A little heartbreaking that he had to graft on demolition sites in his later years after he was such a household name.
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.”
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.
Although boxing is rife with stories, often immaculate, about promoters exploiting fighters, Charlie was not well served by his management, he should have retired comfortably well off, it's not like he was a flash harrry mincing about in a fur coat and roller, and he wasn't into drugs or the party scene. A little heartbreaking that he had to graft on demolition sites in his later years after he was such a household name.
Charlie should have turned pro with Mike Barrett instead of Terry Lawless. When you look at all the champions managed by Lawless, only Jim Watt and Frank Bruno came away with money.
Magri told me he was on a flat fee of 5000 a fight when he was selling out venues. He earned more from his losing fight against chitilada than any of his other fights. He said he felt they held him back from a world title shot because he would have wanted more money.
jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑20 Feb 2021, 04:19
Magri told me he was on a flat fee of 5000 a fight when he was selling out venues. He earned more from his losing fight against chitilada than any of his other fights. He said he felt they held him back from a world title shot because he would have wanted more money.
Charlie's ability to sell out the Albert Hall over and over again must have made the Cartel wealthy but I feel that Barrett would have given him a cut of the box office revenue and the TV money, and done the right thing by Charlie in terms of a world title crack at the right time. Charlie trained his butt off and was ready for a shot for three or four years before it belatedly happened. Incidentally, in his biography, Mickey Duff said that Duke McKenzie was better than Magri, but a peak Magri would have walked through McKenzie, in my opinion. The Magri who lost to McKenzie in 1986 was dead at the weight and all worn out.
keirw wrote: ↑19 Feb 2021, 03:44
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).
Our own riddick_blowe was raving over Krusher, and telling me to bet big on an early KO of Cleverly. I went all in for three rounds -- and would have won big if it wasn't for that fat crook Terry O'connor, reneging on his stoppage and carrying the home fighter back to his corner for another round.
In the recent Costello & Bunce podcast with Maloney, he spoke more favourably of Barrett than Duff.
Indeed, when big ticket seller Brian Nickels missed the contracted weight for his fight with Wayne Weeks, Maloney insisted that Nickels took off the extra pounds in order for the contest to go ahead.
Weeks won the fight and Maloney claims to have faced a backlash from Duff, saying that Mickey pinned him to the wall telling him he'd broken the cardinal rule...getting a ticket seller beat !
Whereas Mike Barrett supposedly went up to Maloney and said he admired him for doing what he did.
jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑20 Feb 2021, 04:19
Magri told me he was on a flat fee of 5000 a fight when he was selling out venues. He earned more from his losing fight against chitilada than any of his other fights. He said he felt they held him back from a world title shot because he would have wanted more money.
Charlie's ability to sell out the Albert Hall over and over again must have made the Cartel wealthy but I feel that Barrett would have given him a cut of the box office revenue and the TV money, and done the right thing by Charlie in terms of a world title crack at the right time. Charlie trained his butt off and was ready for a shot for three or four years before it belatedly happened. Incidentally, in his biography, Mickey Duff said that Duke McKenzie was better than Magri, but a peak Magri would have walked through McKenzie, in my opinion. The Magri who lost to McKenzie in 1986 was dead at the weight and all worn out.
mcKenzie was better in the sense of overall skillset perhaps, but as we all know, it's not the fighter with the best toolkit who necessarily wins.
Magri was a superb pressure fighter, who threw everything with venom.
I suspect Charlie overtrained, he said he was always terrified of not training enough even as an amateur and sometimes had to be turned away from the gym for his own good.
THEBUTCH wrote: ↑20 Feb 2021, 17:11
In the recent Costello & Bunce podcast with Maloney, he spoke more favourably of Barrett than Duff.
Indeed, when big ticket seller Brian Nickels missed the contracted weight for his fight with Wayne Weeks, Maloney insisted that Nickels took off the extra pounds in order for the contest to go ahead.
Weeks won the fight and Maloney claims to have faced a backlash from Duff, saying that Mickey pinned him to the wall telling him he'd broken the cardinal rule...getting a ticket seller beat !
Whereas Mike Barrett supposedly went up to Maloney and said he admired him for doing what he did.
Brian Nickels later joined his family in the hall and when Maloney walked past at one point, they dished out a load of verbal abuse. Maloney looked at them and carried on walking. Nickels would lose his licence when he launched a series of headbutts at Winston Spencer in the seventh round of a Southern Area title fight in 1989. I can actually sympathize with Nickels here because Spencer was known for goading his opponents and was not a pleasant individual. Nickels apologised publicly with a long letter to Boxing News, which was published, but he didn't get his licence back. Sadly, he died last year at the age of 54.
Was it Winston Spencer who had an altercation with Lloyd Honeyghan.
I know Darren Dyer seemed to have a problem with Honeyghan, but I was lucky enough to sit next to Lloyd at Alexandra Palace when David Walker challenged for the European title.
I'm struggling to remember the guy's name, but it could have been Winston Spencer who came up to Lloyd and spoke for a bit and as soon as he was gone, Honeyghan turned around to me and said "he's a f*cking nutter".
THEBUTCH wrote: ↑22 Feb 2021, 03:09
Was it Winston Spencer who had an altercation with Lloyd Honeyghan.
I know Darren Dyer seemed to have a problem with Honeyghan, but I was lucky enough to sit next to Lloyd at Alexandra Palace when David Walker challenged for the European title.
I'm struggling to remember the guy's name, but it could have been Winston Spencer who came up to Lloyd and spoke for a bit and as soon as he was gone, Honeyghan turned around to me and said "he's a f*cking nutter".
Spencer was a lightweight out of Walworth and a very dangerous fighter but he talked to his opponents in the ring, the Americans call it trash-talking, and was a surly customer all round, although I don't know what he's like today. Boxing News reporter Mike Lockley went round to his flat to do a feature on him and a bird answered the door with a black eye. Mike nearly walked away but went through with the interview and the feature but the feature is terrible. You can tell that Mike doesn't make any effort whatsoever.
banjo wrote: ↑26 May 2020, 06:24
Yeah Choi came over from Mongolia, I only noticed him when he beat Derry Mathews but he'd already been in the UK for 8 years.
Is he still there? Mongolia is a huge country but with a small population I think.... it’s landlocked.... no sea. Anyone been there?
As far as I'm aware Choi lives in Manchester.
Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world apparently, 6 times the size of the UK and has a population of about 3 million.
On the subject of Choi I came across this last year
margaret thatcher wrote: ↑11 May 2020, 18:30
Den Lebedev was pretty much unknown when he came over as a comeback opponent for Enzo, of course Den battered him and went on to become a unified world champ and longtime major player
Pac , though a lower weight champ, was totally unknown in the US when he stepped in as late replacement to challenge the favoured south African champ of the time, lEholo ledwaba . Jim Lampley was making jokes about not knowing how they were supposed to pronounce Pac's name
Some guys get hype and attention from early on, but what notably fighters made their big breakout while largely unknown
The 29 year old was a Light Heavyweight, took 4 years out and came back in 2008 as a Cruiserweight. He had 3 fights in 08. Fought no-one I've heard of.
just watched this guy on youtube, he looks seriously handy. Where's his fanfare been?
as mentioned, he was a good amateur but then totally drifted off the rader and even quit boxing for a good number of years.
tonyevs wrote: ↑18 Feb 2021, 17:16
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?
All the way through his career in the U.K. I believe. Was managed by Maloney. I remember Kelly saying before a fight that she’d be sending Ali “back to Afriker” if he didn’t win. Horrible little cow her.
When i searched why didn't that come up. A few other Choi links popped
Was never