BoxRec

Over the years theres been a number of fighters and champions who I have felt were underrated during and after their careers.
Dennis Andries for me is one of the most underrated fighters Britain has had, three times World Lighthevyweight champ and all the British press seemed to care about during his title reigns was how old he was!. We were also constantly reminded during his fights that Dennis wasn't Sugarrar leonard and that he was a bit of a surly character out of the ring.
But who can blame him!... he done everything the hard way, won the British championship at about the third time of trying, was robbed out of the Europeon title by a draw verdict against Alex Blanchard, beat Bobby Cyze, gave Thomas Hearns a real fight before being stopped (after actually shaking a tiring Hearns!) and had those three wars with Jeff Harding, the third of which when he lost his title back to Harding on points was (and still is) in my opinion a robbery. But he never got much respect over here, in fact I think he probably gained more respect in America than in England. Yet to my mind he was a great fighter, a throw back to the brawlers of the twenties and thirties, I loved his brawling style, and beneath it all he actually had a very decent jab when he used it.
Emanuel Steward was so impressed with Andries showing against Hearns that Andries ended up joining the Kronk gymn for a while, and I remmember reading Steward saying at the time something along the lines that if he had got Andries early in his career then he could have been a truely great fighter!.
Not bad for a surly old man who couldn'd box like SugarRayLeonard!.
Anyone out there got ideas about underrated fighters?.... I have some more but will come back with them as I ve got to dash unfortunately.
By the way I d be interested to know what Andries is up to these days if anyone out their has any idea.

Check out Bert Lytell's record for a fighter who's so underrated he's virtually unknown today. Even in his own day he was known only by the real followers of the sport. He started out as a middleweight fighting light heavies until he grew into that class..at about 170. southpaw with a difficult style, he seldom fought in his home town, and I'm not even sure he had one. Had a mini career of driving Oakland (later Boradwalk) Billy Smith, an erratic light heavy who could really bang, crazy. Again, just check the record.

Better known , of course is Joey Giardello.Because his name never comes up in discussions of the great middleweights of all time doesn't mean he wasn't a top level fighter.Underrated i think because he won his title late, so had a brief career as champion. But...he entered Ring Magazine's top ten in 1952 and stayed there for ten years plus. Not GREAT in any one department...speed, punching or cleverness, he was VERY GOOD in ALL of them, plus a good chin. Fought most of the best of his era.

I have always thought that Eddie Cotton, former lightheavyweight contender who was rated in the top ten for more then a decade and Jeff Chandler who had a nice run of defences as bantamweight champion, have always been underrated by most boxing fans.

Most underrated and under-appreciated fighters can be found from Bantam down to straw/minimumweight...

recent comments about Buddy McGirt reminded me of how great a fighter he was at his peak, and how under appreciated.Ring Magazine came out with a list of the top 100 fighters ..sometime in the 90s and I thought there was a typo when his name didn't appear in the top five. He was way down ..I forget where..but this was just before he beat Simon Brown in one of the best performances ever. Belonged with those wonderful chess masters of the 40s. When I read he was to fight Tommy Ayers I tried to reach Ayers' people and tell them they were crazy as Ayers was trying for a comeback, but I couldn't get through to them, and they wouldn't have listened anyway.Ayers was kayoed in the second round, after Buddy used round one just to check him out. A marvelous boxer/puncher who had everything. Lost to Meldrick Taylor and Pernell Whitiker when they were at their peaks. McGirt never got his form back after his arm operation.

I believe the injury McGirt suffered was bicep-tendon separation. I had that same injury and was never able to understand how Buddy fought with the pain that injury brings. I too had the bicep-tendon repair, and you only get about 75% of the strength in your arm back. The fact that McGirt resumed his career is a testament to his skill and nerve.

right on, tomato can. After the operation you could see his arm wasn't what it was and his opponent could see it, yet Buddy was so good he still was better than a lot of fighters with two usable arms.

maybe this name has come up on some older posts, but Freddie Miller is a vastly underrated fighter. Again, go to the record.Especially amazing is the travelling he did in the pre-jet age. First rate southpaw featherweight, in an era of lots of competition.

Amongst the modern day fighters Ricardo Lopez is definately criminally underrated and ignored, in all these years he's been champ I cannot remember reading a feature on him in KO or Ring, even after his great fight with Alvarez he still didn't get what was due to him. Hearing as I did recently that female boxers such as Mia Stjohn (or whatever her name is) are regularly getting bigger paychecks than Lopez made me feel outraged. Its such a shame that a great fighter like Lopez is discriminated against because 1. he is small and 2. he is Mexican.
Looking back a bit I d say that both Louis 'Kid' Kaplan and Benny Bass are unfairly underrated and overlooked. Looking at their records both men should be in the hall of fame in my opinion. Both fought the bast of their day and Kaplan was the first Russian to win a World title (at Featherweight) and was a top contender at Lightweight for a long time but was avoided by the Lightweight champs and never got a deserved shot at the heavier title after giving up the Feather title undefeated champion.

Tommy Paul and Freddie Miller NBA featherweight champs in the 1930's are underrated. They fought tough battles against each other and the top Bantams, Feathers and Lightweights in the 30's. Argueably the best years for the lighter weights. Tommy Paul was rated in the 10 from 1929-1934.

wsbuf.....right on! look at my post re Freddie Miller, where I tell everybody to look at the record...he was called the Globe Trotter as his traveling from fights to fights that time was amazing. The last time I talked to his daghter Patti, she was still trying to get a street named after him in Cincinnati.He was the first world champ to come from there.There's an Ezzard Charles Drive as well there should be, but Miller keeps getting more and more forgotten as time dims the memory.

a look at their competition shows how many tough fighters he and Tommy Paul fought.

Justin wrote:Most underrated and under-appreciated fighters can be found from Bantam down to straw/minimumweight...

Hilario Zapata