BoxRec

Looking at this fellas sad & recent death, lets have a bullshit free account of how good he was.

In the early 70s he was hit & miss as he learned his craft, but its worth noting the guys who beat him where Clay Hodges (whipped Foreman twice as an amateur), the fearsome giant Roy Tiger Williams, and Earnie Shavers after having trouble for the first two rds managed to ice him in 3. The only time Jimmy ever would be kayoed. So he was hardly losing to bad fighters.

Ignoring judges crooked decisions & boxing politics, Young went onto chin Richard Dunn in 8 rds in london, and outpoint Ron Lyle, Jose Luis Garcia, and Earnie Shavers in a rematch.

This earned a 1976 shot at a flabby Muhammad Ali who was busted up & humilated by Young over 15 rds. Ali never landed on clean hard shot in the entire duration of the fight, due to Youngs expert defense skills. Despite Youngs lack of physical brawn he could dig better than he gets credit for, breaking Alis ear drum and jarring him several times.

I love Ali, but his hardcore Thomas Hauser-level obsessives will point to Young leaning out of the ring as justification for Ali 'winning'- This is a crock of shit. Poeples memories have been severely clouded. Refresh your mind with a viewing of the tape. This only happened late in the fight. At best Young did this in 3 rds max. THREE rds in a FIFTEEN rd fight!! Even if you automatically deduct these rds from Young putrely for this illegal tactic (feel free to ignore Alis numerous illegal tactics in the fight such as holding an extended glove in Youngs face), and Young has STILL boxed too much of a clear cut fight to 'lose'.

Anyway Young gets robbed of the world heavyweight crown he earned, but bounces back and whips Ron Lyle yet again and then another of the all time greats, George Foreman, decking the much bigger man in the 12th.

He then fights Ken Norton, and once again finds himself on the wrong end of a decision. Norton lands very little on Young, and gets shaken up numerous times through the fight. Young looks to have outboxed Norton, his heart is broken and he gives up trying.

A flabby Young drops decisions to fiddly & awkward Puerto Rican prospect Ossie Ocasio twice which takes him out of contention. A fadeing Young takes on the young lions with mixed results, including Michael Dokes, Greg Page, Jeff Sims, Tony Tubbs and Tony Tucker. None of these top fighters can make a dent in Jimmy, who still retains defensive guile to die for.

Gerry Cooney stops him on a horrible cut in 4 rds in his last big fight.

Overall Jimmy Young has wins over Ali, Foreman, Norton, Shavers, Lyle twice, and many others. This makes him one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

Had been given the decisions he deserved/earned his career would have been drastically different, he wouldnt have lost heart & stopped training in 78 and began dabbling in drink & drugs, therfore his career would have been extended and enjoyed probably a long title reign or a couple. He would of surely fought Larry Holmes in big fight(s). and maybe bumped Holmes off long before Holmes could ever have become a legend.

RIP Jimmy.

My thoughts on Jimmy Young from an earlier thread.

Jimmy Young has always been one of my favourite Heavyweights. One of Philly's finest Heavyweights was thrown into tough company early in his career fighting the likes of Earnie Shavers and the feared Roy Williams, whilst still a novice. Young learnt his craft well in the ring and around the gyms and slowly over the years crept up the ranking to become a Heavyweight contender in the Golden Era of Heavyweight Boxing the 1970's.

He gained some worthy victories over the likes of Garcia, Lyle, Ballard and of course Foreman. Unfortunatley there was also the debatable loses to Ali and Norton. After the Norton lose, a fight some claimed was fixed to set up another Ali v Norton fight it was all down hill for Young. I've heard he was told prior to the Norton fight that he was never going to recieve another title shot as his style was not a crowd pleasing style.

Jimmy Young then gave into his demons and became a man lost in a world of drink and drugs. But even the shell of this talented fighter had enough to take the distance young talented fighters such as Ocassio, Dokes, Tucker, Page, Simms and Tubbs. If only Young had managed to live a clean life, the early 80's Heavyweight scene may have been very different.

Jimmy Young was also used a a sparring partner for Norton whilst Norton was preparing for his third fight with Ali. I have read that Young was thrown out of camp after two weeks becuase Norton coundn't handle him. In the late 1980's Young was also one of Tysons chief sparring partners. Whatever your opinions on Tyson, he knows his Boxing and has a lot of respect for Jimmy Young and always refers to him as "My main man" I have been told.

The two best fighters of his era that he never fought were the late Jerry Quarry and Larry Holmes. Young has been stated as saying that Quarry just may have had the style to beat him, sadly we will never know.

As for Holmes V Young, I've said it before on Boxrec many, many times I will always believe Jimmy Young may well have had the beating of Larry Holmes. If it had been Holmes in the ring with Young that night and not Foreman.....? Holmes is an all time great but styles make fights, just look at the trouble a novice Witherspoon gave a peak Holmes, and I would rate Young a slightly better fighter that Witherspoon.

There was a great interview with Young in Boxing News by Tris Dixon about two years ago. Young seemed to have a photographic memory when it came to his career. He claimed to have had about six more fights than listed on his record and that he fought untill 1990 (?). I imagine these extra fights may well have neen unlicensed fights, but that is just my theory.

Young was a very highly skilled, awkward, slippery fighter with great defensive skills, very durable with a great chin (the Cooney lose was a cut and Young was shot by then) he was also a underated body puncher. He just lacked a little power & size.

By all accounts Jimmy Young was a kind and gentle man whom has been taken before his time.

Rest In Peace Jimmy, Boxing will not forget you.

Joe, if you still have that interview, you should write it up. In view of recent events, people would be fascinated to read it.

I read that article on him from Philly News in 1996 and he seemed to be losing it back then. Its worth noting however when people say he was "like a child" if you listen to his interviews in his prime in the 70s he had a child like demeanor way back then & odd, simple way of communicating, so maybe he wasnt as far damaged as some believe?

overhand_right wrote:Joe, if you still have that interview, you should write it up. In view of recent events, people would be fascinated to read it.

IF I can find it I will.

By the way Overhand have you check out this new site?

http://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/

It's new and still being worked on apparently.

Great site Joe!! I'll keep my eye on that one.

Much obliged!

Wait a minute Young lost to Shavers in his first fight with the first round TKO lost and he drew with Shavers in the rematch despite Shavers didn't put his performance well according to his autobiography.

I'm pleased to see the interest stirred by Jimmy's passing. He was one of my favorites but I didn't realize how many other fans admired him. Casual fans didn't take to him - he wasn't a bombing crowd-pleaser - but real fans of boxing skill appreciated him. That night in San Juan, 28 years ago, that was his moment. Unafraid, well prepared, he messed up Foreman so bad he SAW GOD and didn't set foot in a ring for ten years! How's that for a whuppin? If there was justice in boxing (and there ain't) Jimmy would be remembered as the only man to ever beat Ali, Foreman, Lyle and Norton. And maybe you could throw in Shavers.
On the dark side, we shouldn't even try to dismiss stories about Jimmy's post-career health problems. Face it - boxing does that to people. He was damaged, just as Ali is damaged and Quarry was damaged. We know they were not bums. Don't let anyone tell you they were, but don't deny the terrible price they paid, either.

crooked nose wrote:On the dark side, we shouldn't even try to dismiss stories about Jimmy's post-career health problems. Face it - boxing does that to people. He was damaged, just as Ali is damaged and Quarry was damaged. We know they were not bums. Don't let anyone tell you they were, but don't deny the terrible price they paid, either.

I have an interview with Young just after the Foreman fight were his speech is very clear.

I also have a brief interview with Jimmy Young taken around the time Foreman was in the early stages of his 80's comeback. By then Jimmys speech was begining to slur and going from memory he had some teeth missing as well.

Boxing can be such a cruel, brutal sport at times. But also in Jimmys case his drink and drug problems would not have helped his health,