BoxRec

How good was Cowdell?.H had the misfortune to be around at the same time as Sanchez and Nelson but how would he do if he was fighting today?.

I've only saw his fight with Azumah Nelson so i don't have much to go on.

Cowdell was a tremendous technician, a great counter puncher.

One of the best British fighters never to win a world title. perhaps better than Herol Graham IMO.

Watch Cowdells fight with Sanchez in Houston. Very close fight, Sanchez won a split decision if I remember correctly.

The Nelson fight does him no justice, caught cold and past his prime. No disgrace is losing to Nelson.

He was untouchable at European level. Only scored about 5 knockouts I think, but could bamboozle the best of em.
Always remember him taking on Londoner Jimmy Flint, who was one of the most ferocious punchers I've ever seen; Pat just took him to school.

Bad luck to meet a great champion like Sanchez of course, but he was by no means outclassed.
Sanchez was coming off his greatest win over Gomez, so must've been a bit flat, but Cowdell took him to the wire. The Mexican great finally caught up with him in the 15th round, knocking him down a getting a close decision.

He just never got started against "The Mighty Warrior", Azumah Nelson.
Just an absolutely perfect left uppercut connected flush, and poor Cowdell was out for about 5 scary minutes.
Probably the best punch Azumah ever threw.
Cowdell certainly never had much luck did he.

MightyWarrior wrote:He was untouchable at European level. Only scored about 5 knockouts I think, but could bamboozle the best of em.
Always remember him taking on Londoner Jimmy Flint, who was one of the most ferocious punchers I've ever seen; Pat just took him to school.

Bad luck to meet a great champion like Sanchez of course, but he was by no means outclassed.
Sanchez was coming off his greatest win over Gomez, so must've been a bit flat, but Cowdell took him to the wire. The Mexican great finally caught up with him in the 15th round, knocking him down a getting a close decision.

He just never got started against "The Mighty Warrior", Azumah Nelson.
Just an absolutely perfect left uppercut connected flush, and poor Cowdell was out for about 5 scary minutes.
Probably the best punch Azumah ever threw.
Cowdell certainly never had much luck did he.

No, he didnt, but McGuigan did.

Do you recall Azumah at the post (Cowdell) fight interview?

"McGuigan, that girl, I want.

I call her a girl cause she dont wnat to fight me"

"I knock im ( Cowdell) out wif a lef upercut"

"I'm too bad baby"

Yeah I remember that too knockout. Barry always kept very quiet about Nelson, almost acted like he didn't exist.
And you can't blame him, he would've been hammered!

Cowdell was a great boxer who never really got the credit due to him... his performance vs Sanchez was just superb... while I think his defeat to Nelson came as he was slowing down a bit... though that shot from Nelson would probably have koed 99% of fighters. I'd pick Cowdel to outbox and beat Mcguigan when both were at their peaks... he'd be a champ today if he were fighting now.... he'd stand Harrison on his head imo!....

Silkov can you help me and find out about former light heavyweight contender Chic Calderwood by reading the article how good is Chic Calderwood (For Silkov). Also find out if Calderwood stood in the same height as Jose Torres when they were standing in the ring at 5'10". Please Silkov help me.

MightyWarrior wrote: Bad luck to meet a great champion like Sanchez of course, but he was by no means outclassed.
Sanchez was coming off his greatest win over Gomez, so must've been a bit flat, but Cowdell took him to the wire. The Mexican great finally caught up with him in the 15th round, knocking him down a getting a close decision.

He just never got started against "The Mighty Warrior", Azumah Nelson.
Just an absolutely perfect left uppercut connected flush, and poor Cowdell was out for about 5 scary minutes.
Probably the best punch Azumah ever threw.
Cowdell certainly never had much luck did he.

Cowdell was indeed a class act, I think I'm write in saying that he took the fight with the great Sanchez at relativly short notice. Sanchez said, If I recall correctly that the change of opponent had troubled him but said that Pat had made it a very difficult fight for him and that Pat could be World champ one day.

As for the Azumah lose, he just got caught with a cracking punch from a great fighter, it happens to better fighters than Pat and should not be dwelt upon too much IMO.

Pat Cowdell was a very good technical, tough and intelligent fighter although I think Ken Buchanan was better.

The brummie paddy was indeed a great technician with decent power. Although i feel that he was fortunate to lose a split decision against sanchez as he was outboxed for long spells in that fight and floored late. I disagree with silkov's opinion that pat would have beaten mcguigan. Barry would have been much too strong and would have exerted to much pressure. Against nelson, cowdell was coming of a short layoff and had been campaigning in the super featherweight division at that stage of his career. If you add the fact that pat was way past his best, then its totally reasonable that nelson's knockout was greatly exaggerated at the time.

I see Cowdell as having the style to beat Mcguigan, Barry always had trouble with counter punchers... Bernard Taylor, Stevei Cruz, Jim Mcdonnell...... Cruz and Mcdonnell were both boxers in a simular mold to Cowdell, both beat Barry. I'm not saying that the fight would be a foregone conclusion.... it'd be a great fight no doubt... but I feel that Cowdell at his best had the durability to withstand Barrys onslaughts and the elusiveness to out-speed and out-box him and get a points verdict. Cowdell was fast and more slippery than both Mcdonnell and Cruz... it was this speed which caused Sanchez so many problems. Sanchez was himself a very underrated puncher.... (he destroyed Gomez and stopped Azumha Nelson, the only man ever to stop Nelson) the fact that Pat was floored in the last round against Sanchez is no disgrace and shows that Salvadore was going all out to clintch what he knew was a close decision.
If he could go 15 with Sanchez I've no doubt that Cowdell would stand up to Mcguigans punches.

Mcguigan's fights with cruz and mcdonnel cant be used as examples, as we know that barry wasnt anyway near his best for either of those fights. Sanchez was a good puncher but he was essentially a boxer who deied that basic style by relying on his extreme durability to slug it out with harder hitting opponents using accumulative, rather than deadly one-hit punches to knock men out. Mcguigan was heavier handed, physically stronger, and actually a more consistant puncher than salvador [laporte said he was the hardest hitter he faced], and would have gotten to pat sooner or later with sinking bodyshots, before bringing them up to the head. I could certainly see mcguigan ending things inside the distance.

kovit wrote:Silkov can you help me and find out about former light heavyweight contender Chic Calderwood by reading the article how good is Chic Calderwood (For Silkov). Also find out if Calderwood stood in the same height as Jose Torres when they were standing in the ring at 5'10". Please Silkov help me.

Please do this on another thread

Cowdell was a very good technician with a good jab and tricky feints. He was not a "runner" or a "dancer", just a technician. He had a decent chin. He was very light-hitting.


He gave Sanchez a great fight, and that was one of the fights (along with a few others) that makes me wonder if Sanchez deserves to be rated as high as so many people rate him today. I had Sanchez winning only by about 2 points (8 rounds to 7, plus a knockdown). That last round KD by Sanchez is what decided the fight IMO.

Must step in there lads. Cowdell wouldn't have beaten Barry in a month of Sunday's.Pat was a good boxer, didn't have a punch and could take a bit but there is now way he would have taken Barry...laughable to even suggest it.

McGuigan wrote:Must step in there lads. Cowdell wouldn't have beaten Barry in a month of Sunday's.Pat was a good boxer, didn't have a punch and could take a bit but there is now way he would have taken Barry...laughable to even suggest it.

Based on his performance against Salvador Sanchez, I think Cowdell could have given McGuigan a run for his money.

Styles make fights, and whilst I would favour McGuigan, I dont see it as a foregone conclusion.

knockout artist wrote:

McGuigan wrote:Must step in there lads. Cowdell wouldn't have beaten Barry in a month of Sunday's.Pat was a good boxer, didn't have a punch and could take a bit but there is now way he would have taken Barry...laughable to even suggest it.

Based on his performance against Salvador Sanchez, I think Cowdell could have given McGuigan a run for his money.

Styles make fights, and whilst I would favour McGuigan, I dont see it as a foregone conclusion.

Sorry mate. Pat was indeed a decent enough fighter but he just simply would not have beaten Barry.

The Keed wrote:He gave Sanchez a great fight, and that was one of the fights (along with a few others) that makes me wonder if Sanchez deserves to be rated as high as so many people rate him today.

I see what you are same but most 'great' fighters get troubled by 'lesser' fighters from time to time for any number of reasons.

Sanchez still makes my all-time top 10 Featherweight list, although I feel in the minority when I say, if there had been a Featherweight rematch, say 18 months later with Azumah Nelson I favour a Nelson win, but only just.

McGuigan wrote:

knockout artist wrote:

McGuigan wrote:Must step in there lads. Cowdell wouldn't have beaten Barry in a month of Sunday's.Pat was a good boxer, didn't have a punch and could take a bit but there is now way he would have taken Barry...laughable to even suggest it.

Based on his performance against Salvador Sanchez, I think Cowdell could have given McGuigan a run for his money.

Styles make fights, and whilst I would favour McGuigan, I dont see it as a foregone conclusion.

Sorry mate. Pat was indeed a decent enough fighter but he just simply would not have beaten Barry.

I think this is a very competitive match, I lean toward Barry, but the Irish lad would have known he had been in a fight, make no mistake about that.

KOJOE90 wrote:

The Keed wrote:He gave Sanchez a great fight, and that was one of the fights (along with a few others) that makes me wonder if Sanchez deserves to be rated as high as so many people rate him today.

I see what you are same but most 'great' fighters get troubled by 'lesser' fighters from time to time for any number of reasons.

Sanchez still makes my all-time top 10 Featherweight list, although I feel in the minority when I say, if there had been a Featherweight rematch, say 18 months later with Azumah Nelson I favour a Nelson win, but only just.

I'm not saying Sanchez isn't in the top 10 feathers... I DO put him there...

BUT...

Some people rate Sanchez on the same par as Pep and Saddler, and that's too much for me. Both those guys accomplished more than Sanchez, and I would've surely picked both to beat him.

Some people will go so far as to claim Sanchez is in the top 10 all-time P4P... and that's ridiculous IMO.

Like you said, no one can even be sure if Sanchez would've beat a prime Nelson... maybe he would've, but it's very much up in the air...

What we do know is that Nelson, with only a few pro fights and taking the fight on only about 10 days notice, gave Sanchez hell, and held him even right up until running out of gas in the last round.

Where would you have Sanchez placed in the top 10 feathers? I think he deserves top 5 at least.
And like when compairing the careers of various fighters, you have to take into account the circumstances ( eg: 3 years exile, army service, longer fights etc ) and as we all know Sanchez died young, maybe even before his prime - who knows for sure.

When I watch him cooly taking apart the dynamite punching Danny Lopez twice, at a relatively young age, I'm left wondering who exactly could've defintely beaten this fighting machine?
Sanchez virtualy had it all: brilliant reflexes, superb boxing brain, granite chin and a warrior's heart.
Plus amazing stamina, that saw him going at the same pace in round 15 as in the first.
He also had a world class punch on him too. Ask Wilfredo Gomez. That truly brilliant win, over a fellow legend, ranks him near the top of the featherweight tree for me.

I have to agree with Mighty Warrior. Sanchez had it all. I dont know of any weaknesses he had.

He was a sensational fighter. Just look at the tape of the Gomez fight. Sanchez slaughtered him, and only Gomez' fine conditioning got him through the first round. Sanchez then did a number and bashed up the highly favoured puncher Gomez.

I seen tapes of Pep and Sadler who are obviously great fighters, but I have to say that Sanchez would have been competetive with any Featherweight in history. Also remember that we may have never seen his best.

Sanchez top 5 without a doubt. I'd have Olivares and maybe Arguello up there in the top 10 too (at 126).

knockout artist wrote:I have to agree with Mighty Warrior. Sanchez had it all. I dont know of any weaknesses he had.

He was a sensational fighter. Just look at the tape of the Gomez fight. Sanchez slaughtered him, and only Gomez' fine conditioning got him through the first round. Sanchez then did a number and bashed up the highly favoured puncher Gomez.

I seen tapes of Pep and Sadler who are obviously great fighters, but I have to say that Sanchez would have been competetive with any Featherweight in history. Also remember that we may have never seen his best.

Sanchez top 5 without a doubt. I'd have Olivares and maybe Arguello up there in the top 10 too (at 126).

I agree! ....Sanchez really was a sensational fighter who competed when the division was very strong... he beat all time greats in Gomez and Azumha Nelson.... no one else ever stopped Nelson, who I think is another top ten all time Featherweight... and when you think that Sanchez fought against weight problems through most of his title reign you realise just what a great fighter he was and how great he could have become. His plan had been to move straight up to Lightweight, not bothering with the Jumior lightweight division and fight Arguello....... what a fight that would have been and great though Arguello was I could see Sanchez beating him on points, with his extra speed being the deciding factor.