BoxRec

Ha ha i saw Nigel in Yates's on Friday night, he still commands respect and seems to know just about everyone. If i had the same name i'd be honoured Neil

Matchfixer wrote:

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:

Matchfixer wrote: More to the point what's a result like that doing in this poll anyway? Freddy Welsh died in 1927 and the 2nd result between them was 1917!!!

I'd be very surprised if anyone on this forum was born at any time remotely near then

"What's a result like this doing in this poll anyway?" I assume you mean because it is before your time. With a question like the one posed (great British victories abroad), the fact you didn't see the fight doesn't have that much to do with it, in my opinion.

I take it nobody here saw Waterloo but will accept it was a very significant military victory.

A particular favourite of mine is Matt Wells who travelled all the way to Australia in 1914 to win the world welterweight title. Say what you like about how valid it was re the belt, competition, etc - definitely up there with good wins abroad.

OK I agree with your analogy to Waterloo. Point taken.

It's just that I would be very surprised if anyone has seen video footage/film of these fights and if they have can they have enough knowledge of the period in question to get an accurate perspective on how great the achievement was? (Not that I'm saying it is not a great achievement - just hard to tell)

For example, I have seen 3 Ali fights and although I could gain access to more I don't think I could ever truly appreciate his greatness as I grew up after he had finished boxing.

That's my point, in this particular case I don't think actually seeing the fight is a pre-requisite to having an opinion on great British wins abroad. You can know enough about the period to have a quite accurate perspective (if you do enough graft over the years into reading about the sport).

The point you make about living through a period making you better qualified is spot on. You mention Ali - he is probably more venerated by people who have come after his peak than those who were there to see it. Students of the sport and people who lived through his time will acknowledge that he MAY be the greatest but he was also capable of being a total bastard and certainly not the Mandela type saint he is made out to be.

I wouldn't rank Danny's victory too high, for me Honeyghan's mugging of Curry is the best ever, at least that I've seen. Stracey v Napoles was another great one, McGuigan (Ok Irish not British) beating Pedroza was pretty good too.

Whilst not of a Honeyghan standard, Benn-Barkley and Eubank-Rocchigiani were both mightily impressive efforts in their respective ways.

Ulysses wrote:Did Freddie Welsh beat Benny Leonard?

I was waiting for this question, Welsh won a ND, 'Newspaper Decision' over Leonard in Brooklyn USA, July 28th 1916.

Not a official verdict I know but it was different times then and still a great result.