BoxRec

A thread for those men who did not manage to win a World Championship, but were good enough too.
So, two things:

1, The poster above you mentioned a fighter - you have to make a case against that said fighter in any terms that you so wish.

2. And you have to select a fighter and make a case why you think he could have won a World Championship.
Got it? Simples.

I'll ring the bell with Laszlo Papp.

I don't think that I need to say much as everything has been said about him before. A truly class act and I think - for the most part- it is generally accepted these days that he was one of the best fighters in the world at Middleweight in the early to mid sixties...

And who knows? If the Light Middleweight division had've gained more recognition in it's early days - Papp may have been one of it's earliest advocates as Champion in that division...

While I agree it is possible he could have been the champion because Joey Giardello was nearly on his way out anyways, it can be argued that the Hungarian was a bit on the old side and that the vast majority of his wins as a professional were against no name Europeans and it may be a bit of a stretch to imagine him being able to successfully make the leap to capture the title.

My pick is Ezzard Charles, when he was a light heavyweight. I don't think anybody can come up with a reasonable argument why he couldn't have been the light heavyweight champion of the world. It will also be just about equally difficult for somebody to make a case against Gene Tunney as a light heavyweight not being able to capture the light heavyweight title.

But I think that would be a thread stopper so I will make another pick and throw out Luther McCarty who was the best of the white hopes even though he was half Native American.