BoxRec

When I was growing up learning about boxing I remember reading about Don and his thyroid problems.

Obviously now medicine, nutrition & training has come on in leaps & bounds. I wonder what his ideal weight really was & how far he could have gone.

"Obviously now medicine, nutrition & training has come on in leaps & bounds"

Medicine, yes. Nutrition, arguable. Training, no.

depending on who held the titles it's easily possible that he could have won one of the four MW titles.

I don´t want to know.

he'd definitely be in with a shout for a decent world strap if he was boxing today

Ezzard wrote:depending on who held the titles it's easily possible that he could have won one of the four MW titles.

actually....if you listen to british press after his fight with marciano, he should have rightfully been heavyweight champion of the world (via a DQ win).
i have some newspaper clipping from then...an example of this (and not saying i agree or disagree mind)...

this was just a phone snap...too big for scanner...

Don Cockell, is one of the more under-rated contenders and British/European fighters of all time.

I can't help but thinking, how well he took a punch, how good of a mover he was, etc. that his career (if he fought in the passed 20 years or so) that his wouldn't of mirrored someone like James Toney. In his prime, before the thyroid issues, he was a stellar middleweight in Europe--- following the thyroid issues, he of course proved his skills carried over into the higher weights. He just had the misfortune of facing one of the most relentless and brutal punchers in heavyweight history.