Forgotten champs, contenders, and others

[giacomino]

Santos Laciar. Should be in the IHOF
Gilberto Román

[Expug]

Cowboy Reuben Shank.
Beat Henry Armstrong and Fritzie Zivic.
Maybe someone here knows about the story with this guy. Wasn’t he the fighter who was supposed to fight Graziano where Rocky was offered to go in the tank but refused and never reported the offer?
This resulted in Graziano being suspended.
Was Shank mobbed up ? Maybe he’s not the guy.

[Caractacus]

some people (back then )had referred to Billy Graham as the "Uncrowned Welterweight Champion of the World".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Gra ... can_boxer)

[gilgamesh]

Hilmer Kenty might fall into the category of forgotten titleholder. Until I started going through old fights from the 1980's I had never heard the name Hilmer Kenty.

[Expug]

Good call on Kenty.
Was surprised when Sean Ogrady beat him the way he did.

[gilgamesh]

There was a pretty solid contender out of Kronk Gym in the 80's named David Braxton. He had a good fight with James "Hard Rock" Green, and also later fought Mike McCallum.

Decent contender. One of them guys that was fun to watch even in a losing effort.

[NazNaci1]

Brian Mitchell.

WBA (and then IBF World Champ) Super Featherweight Champ - 12 defences, all in the opponents back yard.

45-1 record, with the defeat early on in his career and beat some good names, Alfredo Layne, Jim McDonnell, Tony Lopez, Frankie Mitchell, Danilo Cabrera. Never lost a World title, but was stripped.

He was some fighter. Very skilled and very underrated.

I did watch his fight with McDonnell and though McDonnell was a tidy boxer and elusive, Mitchell was just too skilled and too strong.

Miguel 'Happy' Lora was another fine and oft forgotten champion with a great list of opponents on his resume.

[elmersalsa]

Brian Mitchell.

WBA (and then IBF World Champ) Super Featherweight Champ - 12 defences, all in the opponents back yard.

45-1 record, with the defeat early on in his career and beat some good names, Alfredo Layne, Jim McDonnell, Tony Lopez, Frankie Mitchell, Danilo Cabrera. Never lost a World title, but was stripped.

He was some fighter. Very skilled and very underrated.

I did watch his fight with McDonnell and though McDonnell was a tidy boxer and elusive, Mitchell was just too skilled and too strong.

Miguel 'Happy' Lora was another fine and oft forgotten champion with a great list of opponents on his resume.

Good calls. Especially for Brian Mitchell. He proved to be a worthy champion at 130lbs. I wonder why the great Julio Cesar Chavez didn't had an unification title bout with him. Mitchell was one of South Africa's best.

[gilgamesh]

Brian Mitchell.

WBA (and then IBF World Champ) Super Featherweight Champ - 12 defences, all in the opponents back yard.

45-1 record, with the defeat early on in his career and beat some good names, Alfredo Layne, Jim McDonnell, Tony Lopez, Frankie Mitchell, Danilo Cabrera. Never lost a World title, but was stripped.

He was some fighter. Very skilled and very underrated.

I did watch his fight with McDonnell and though McDonnell was a tidy boxer and elusive, Mitchell was just too skilled and too strong.

Miguel 'Happy' Lora was another fine and oft forgotten champion with a great list of opponents on his resume.

It's really unfortunate too as Mitchell was stripped, and his career derailed through no fault of his own. There was such an outrage about the Apartheid policy of South Africa that some organizations wouldn't sanction him to fight or wouldn't recognize any fighter from that Country in their rankings or something.

Makes you wonder how much more he could've done.

Mitchell is in the Hall of Fame I believe so he's not completely forgotten.

[giacomino]

Hilmer Kenty might fall into the category of forgotten titleholder. Until I started going through old fights from the 1980's I had never heard the name Hilmer Kenty.

Kenty was on free TV a good bit in the late 1970s, early 1980s. His biggest wins were over Ernesto Espana, another short-time lightweight belt holder who was slow as molasses but could punch some. O’Grady beat him up for 15 rounds, absolutely pounded his body, and he was never the same at age 25.

[giacomino]

The mention of Happy Lora made me think of another fine longtime bantamweight title holder, Jeff Chandler, another guy who was on free TV all the time when he held a belt from 1980-1984. Would have loved to have seen him fight Bazooka Gomez (Gomez would have stopped him but it would have been an interesting match) Veeraphol Sahaprom Is another excellent forgotten bantamweight belt holder who held the WBC trinket from the late 1990s to mid-2000s. Fun action fighter

[Ambling Alp II]

You know I watched boxing on TV as much as I could in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (I missed some fights because we had 8 people and one TV). The networks had good fights on a lot. For whatever reason, I don't think I ever saw Hilmer Kenty fight. Saw Chandler a little bit.

There were a lot of good but not great lightweights that I remember from the early 1980s- Howard Davis, Rockin Robin Blake, Harry Arroyo, Charlie Brown, Terrence Alli, Melvin Paul. There were others as well. Mancini of course.

[Expug]

I’ll put Cornelius Boza Edwards in the mix there of fun guys to watch in that period also. Always came to fight.

[gilgamesh]

I’ll put Cornelius Boza Edwards in the mix there of fun guys to watch in that period also. Always came to fight.

Yes Boza is good TV. One of the most entertaining fighters to watch of the 80's. Win or Lose he's always in fun fights.

[giacomino]

I’ll put Cornelius Boza Edwards in the mix there of fun guys to watch in that period also. Always came to fight.

Yes Boza is good TV. One of the most entertaining fighters to watch of the 80's. Win or Lose he's always in fun fights.

His two fights with Chacon were absolute classics.

[giacomino]

You know I watched boxing on TV as much as I could in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (I missed some fights because we had 8 people and one TV). The networks had good fights on a lot. For whatever reason, I don't think I ever saw Hilmer Kenty fight. Saw Chandler a little bit.

There were a lot of good but not great lightweights that I remember from the early 1980s- Howard Davis, Rockin Robin Blake, Harry Arroyo, Charlie Brown, Terrence Alli, Melvin Paul. There were others as well. Mancini of course.

Arroyo was fun to watch because he wasn’t super talented but the dude always kept going and could take a licking and keep on ticking. He was one of the first IBF beltholders and at the time, all his fights were on live TV. Jimmy Paul, another forgotten belt holder, absolutely beat the snot out of him (much quicker and more disciplined boxer) for his IBF belt and Harry was never the same

[Ambling Alp II]

I’ll put Cornelius Boza Edwards in the mix there of fun guys to watch in that period also. Always came to fight.

Yes Boza is good TV. One of the most entertaining fighters to watch of the 80's. Win or Lose he's always in fun fights.

His two fights with Chacon were absolute classics.

Will never forget watching the second one. You could make a good case for Boza-Edwards belonging in the HOF.

[elmersalsa]

Mike Rossman. I remember the night when I started watching boxing when Rossman magnificently took the WBA World Light-Heavyweight crown from Victor Galindez. It was an incredible performance by Rossman.

[giacomino]

Yes Boza is good TV. One of the most entertaining fighters to watch of the 80's. Win or Lose he's always in fun fights.

His two fights with Chacon were absolute classics.

Will never forget watching the second one. You could make a good case for Boza-Edwards belonging in the HOF.

While I really enjoyed watching him (i probably saw at least 10 of his fights), no way on the HOF. He beat Chacon and Limón back to back, but he got KO’d by Navarrete, Arguello, Ramirez, lost to Chacon and Lockridge and lost almost every round against Camacho. He beat a few decent up and comer lightweights but he usually lost when he stepped up and doesn’t have enough to merit anything but the Hall of Good and Exciting. (I know, McGuigan is in with less, but …)

[Expug]

Another exciting banger in that era was Andy Gannigan. All that guy did was bang but was in some fun to watch wars regularly.
He was unbeaten until Johnny Lira went out to Hawaii and stopped him.
Lira said as “soon as he turned it into a street fight I had him”.
I knew Lira. R.I.P.

[elmersalsa]

Del Flanagan
Paddy DeMarco. DeMarco should be in the hall of fame.

[giacomino]

Another exciting banger in that era was Andy Gannigan. All that guy did was bang but was in some fun to watch wars regularly.
He was unbeaten until Johnny Lira went out to Hawaii and stopped him.
Lira said as “soon as he turned it into a street fight I had him”.
I knew Lira. R.I.P.

So right about Gannigan. All action. I remember him blowing out O’Grady not long after O’Grady beat the tar out of Kenty for the lightweight belt. He gave Arguello a rough time for a few rounds before Arguello’s class kicked in.
I was rooting for Lira when he fought Espana for a belt in 1979. If I remember right he put Espana down at some point

[Expug]

Another exciting banger in that era was Andy Gannigan. All that guy did was bang but was in some fun to watch wars regularly.
He was unbeaten until Johnny Lira went out to Hawaii and stopped him.
Lira said as “soon as he turned it into a street fight I had him”.
I knew Lira. R.I.P.

So right about Gannigan. All action. I remember him blowing out O’Grady not long after O’Grady beat the tar out of Kenty for the lightweight belt. He gave Arguello a rough time for a few rounds before Arguello’s class kicked in.
I was rooting for Lira when he fought Espana for a belt in 1979. If I remember right he put Espana down at some point

Yes, Johnny had him down early, but Espana busted his jaw and it got stopped later on.
Johnny was a tough guy. We trained at the same gym. First , the old CYO gym on Chicagos near west side , then at The U.S Arena on Division at Damen.
Really great days, great memories.

[goose 5]

Did Ali ever train at either of those Chicago gyms ?

[Expug]

Did Ali ever train at either of those Chicago gyms ?

Not to my knowledge.
I would guess that he probably trained at Windy City gym when in Chicago.
Wilfred Benitez, Carlos Deleon, Frank Bruno trained at the us arena while in town for fights.
I was there while they were working out.
Duran trained at the fuller park gym while I was there. 1988 I believe