stujones wrote: ↑19 Jan 2022, 11:05
bennie wrote: ↑19 Jan 2022, 06:47
John L. Gardner deserves a place in the top 10. The Londoner won British and European titles and was a typically superfit Terry Lawless fighter who lacked a big punch but who pressured opponents - round after round - until his pressure proved too much. Gardner 'broke' the likes of Ossie Ocasio, Paul Sykes, Billy Aird, Neville Meade and Greg Sorrentino and only needed to beat Jimmy Young at Wembley in 1979 to secure a shot at the world heavyweight title, but the fleshy Young, who never got over his defeat to Ken Norton, had enough left to win on points.
Gardner came back to win the European title with a knockout of the perennially fragile Lorenzo Zanon but was later the victim of a suicidal piece of matchmaking by his promoter Mickey Duff, who threw him in with an unbeaten Michael Dokes in the States but only Dokes, "Sailor" Ibar Arrington and Noel Quarless ever beat Gardner in 10 years as a pro. Arrington caught him cold in the first round; Quarless hammered a washed-up Gardner.
Bennie, what about Horace Notice - just a bit before my time but I can remember reading about him.
Good fighter Notice who never lost a pro fight (and lost only one as an amateur). The Midlander didn't take up boxing until he was 21 but reached the ABA heavyweight final at Wembley in 1982 after a handful of bouts and was stopped in the first round by Harold Hylton, although the ring did Notice (and others) no favours on the night. The ring lacked an apron and many fighters, backed to the ropes, lost their footing and slipped down. Some referees then counted. Notice was floored early by Hylton, got up too soon and was under pressure but slipped by the ropes and the referee waved it off. It was never a knockdown, a bad stoppage.
Understandably, Notice seethed at his defeat and waited 12 long months for a second go at Hylton (again in an ABA final) and this time blasted the Gloucester man to first-round defeat with a big left hook. It was a horrible knockout (in 10-ounce gloves) and the sight of the doctor racing across the ring to help the stricken Hylton is etched in the memory. Notice had arrived. (Amazingly, Hylton made a comeback a few years later and smashed Repton's Bobby Parkes in the first round in the 1987 ABA heavyweight final, which showed great character.)
Notice represented a Great Britain team against America a couple of months later in London and was the only British winner on the night, destroying Tim Fryerson of Indianapolis in the opening round. (Paul Banke was one of the American fighters.) He then made the bizarre decision to turn pro just a year away from the Olympics and scored a good early win over Frenchman Anaclet Wamba in a hard eight-rounder at the Albert Hall (points) and later picked up British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, which he retained a few times.
A detached retina ended his promising career at 16-0 (12) and that was that, which is a shame because Notice had proved his mettle at championship level and was surely in line for a European title shot and some lucrative paydays. The last time I saw him in the flesh was in late 1989 when he was introduced into the ring at the Elephant and Castle Leisure Centre just before Duke McKenzie's dreary 10-rounder with an American by the name of David Moreno. Notice got a good hand, walked over to McKenzie's corner and was completely ignored by Duke, who was having his first fight at bantamweight and looked a bag of nerves. Notice then completely ignored Moreno in the other corner by leaving the ring. He popped up on TV a couple of years later when a riot broke out in the fight between Derek Williams and French pikey Jean-Maurice Chanet in France. Notice, who was in Williams' corner, rather stupidly stood on the ring apron amid the riot and was bombarded by chairs. Oh well, at least the ring had an apron.
