Hey Old Guys!

If there was one lesser known fighter from before say 1995 that you could tell the younguns about who you saw as they happened who would it be and why? I'm not looking for the Frazier's, Duran's, Foster kind of guys. But lesser lights.

Take a few minutes here and name him and explain why you think knowing about him is valuable.

Then if you want, do the same thing for a fighter who was before your time who, for whatever reason, you discovered in your research and do the same thing.

I'll do mine below.

The guy who I saw as he happened that I wish the younguns had? Philadelphia Middleweight Bad Benny Briscoe.

Why? Because Benny was truly a bad mutha (shut your mouth). He was about 95% of Marvin Hagler in every area but maybe raw talent. Benny fought EVERYBODY. HOFers on seven occasions (0-6-1). He fought ranked guys on perhaps 15 occasions and lost most of them. He fought for the undisputed 160 crown on three occasions and lost each time. The thing about Bad Benny was he was in all those fights but one. The time Rodrigo Valdez handed him his only KO defeat. But you get just the slightest step below top tick fighters and Benny was just too big a puncher. How big? He came THIS close to KOing the great Carlos Monzon in the ninth round in Argentina. Carlos did the chicken dance but Briscoe couldn't finish him. Briscoe beat champions Vincente Rondon and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad.

In those days just being the best middleweight in Philadelphia meant something. Philly had four middles who were ranked in those days. Briscoe, Cyclone Hart (anothe banger), Willie the Worm Monroe, Bobby Boogaloo Watts (who got a win over Hagler) and Briscoe was the best of them. He was also a good guy. He knew it was time to retire when he knocked down sparring partner and friend Jimmie Sykes in a fight at the Blue Horizon and then just didn't want to hurt him anymore.

If I go back before my time? He's a HOFer but I'm still going to pick Jimmy McLarnin. Why? Because his history puts to rest the notion that a fighter can't go from 112-147 and bring his power with him without PED's. The Belfast Spider started at 112 and defeated HOFers Fidel LaBarba and Bantam HOFer Memphis Pal Moore and defeated 112 legend Pancho Villa in a catchweight fight. At feather he beat HOFer Bud Taylor and future champ Jackie Fields. At lightweight he knocked off future champ Joe Glick, and drilled reigning 135 king and HOFer Kid Louis Kaplan in an over the weight fight. At 147 he won the undisputed crown by stopping HOFer Young Corbett in one round then had an extraordinary trilogy with Barney Ross. In a period of one year the two men fought three unbelievably close decisions. How did McLarnin end his career? In his last 13 fights he fought HOFers a dozen times and went 8-5.

Hey Marble, i guess you are the only old guy on here;D The one boxer that comes to mind is Rocky Lockridge. I didn't know anything about him until the intervention show on A&E. He was WBA super featherweight champ, KO'd Roger Mayweather in the 1st round to claim the title. It was Mayweathers first career L. Defended his belt 3 times then lost to Wilfredo Gomez. Picked up another belt then lost it to Tony Lopez. Fought JCC along the way, but just as fast as the fame and fortune came it went away even faster. Was living on the street addicted to drugs and cut off from his family. That's whwn i found out about him on the A&E show. Just a reminder to everyone that this shit happens all the time not just with boxers but to people like me and you too.

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Originally Posted by MMASUX

Hey Marble, i guess you are the only old guy on here;D The one boxer that comes to mind is Rocky Lockridge. I didn't know anything about him until the intervention show on A&E. He was WBA super featherweight champ, KO'd Roger Mayweather in the 1st round to claim the title. It was Mayweathers first career L. Defended his belt 3 times then lost to Wilfredo Gomez. Picked up another belt then lost it to Tony Lopez. Fought JCC along the way, but just as fast as the fame and fortune came it went away even faster. Was living on the street addicted to drugs and cut off from his family. That's whwn i found out about him on the A&E show. Just a reminder to everyone that this shit happens all the time not just with boxers but to people like me and you too.

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Similar story to this one, but at a lower level.

Paul Sykes. He was well known as a bit of a thug around Bradford and Wakefield in the 70's, 80's and 90's and spent quite a lot of time behind bars around this time. He used to do a lot of debt collecting etc. for gangster types and also did a bit of door work. Now in the 70's Sykes was a Heavyweight and in only his second fight his bad habits handed him his first loss as he got DQ'd in the 7th. He then went on an unbeaten streak and in june 1979 landed himself a shot at the British title in only his 9th fight. He challenged John L. Gardner for the title and was stopped in the 6th by the better man. The bout was stopped after he turned his back on Gardner, so the one sided beating was stopped. He had one more fight after this, a 1st round KO defeat in Nigeria in 1980.

The thing with Sykes is had he dedicated his life to the sport he could well (in my opinion) have excelled at it and made a lot better life for himself. He was just stuck in a life of Booze, drugs and crime from an early age and he just didn't seem to have the intelligence to get his head straight and make a real go of his profession.

During a stint in Prison in the late 80's he was awarded the Koestler Award (an award offered to people in HM's prisons for creative works) for a novel called Sweet Agony. I've never read it though it was published when he was released.

He spent the rest of his life in and out of trouble and was barred from Wakefield city centre in 2000, a ban he was in court for ignoring in 2003. He died homeless in 2007 at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, his cause of death was Pneumonia and Cirrhosis of the liver. Boxing has helped out many people like Sykes in the past but they have to show willing to develop their natural skills and unfortunately Sykes didn't have the WILL to do that.

Larry Holmes

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Originally Posted by rjj tszyu

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Originally Posted by MMASUX

Hey Marble, i guess you are the only old guy on here;D The one boxer that comes to mind is Rocky Lockridge. I didn't know anything about him until the intervention show on A&E. He was WBA super featherweight champ, KO'd Roger Mayweather in the 1st round to claim the title. It was Mayweathers first career L. Defended his belt 3 times then lost to Wilfredo Gomez. Picked up another belt then lost it to Tony Lopez. Fought JCC along the way, but just as fast as the fame and fortune came it went away even faster. Was living on the street addicted to drugs and cut off from his family. That's whwn i found out about him on the A&E show. Just a reminder to everyone that this shit happens all the time not just with boxers but to people like me and you too.

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Similar story to this one, but at a lower level.

Paul Sykes. He was well known as a bit of a thug around Bradford and Wakefield in the 70's, 80's and 90's and spent quite a lot of time behind bars around this time. He used to do a lot of debt collecting etc. for gangster types and also did a bit of door work. Now in the 70's Sykes was a Heavyweight and in only his second fight his bad habits handed him his first loss as he got DQ'd in the 7th. He then went on an unbeaten streak and in june 1979 landed himself a shot at the British title in only his 9th fight. He challenged John L. Gardner for the title and was stopped in the 6th by the better man. The bout was stopped after he turned his back on Gardner, so the one sided beating was stopped. He had one more fight after this, a 1st round KO defeat in Nigeria in 1980.

The thing with Sykes is had he dedicated his life to the sport he could well (in my opinion) have excelled at it and made a lot better life for himself. He was just stuck in a life of Booze, drugs and crime from an early age and he just didn't seem to have the intelligence to get his head straight and make a real go of his profession.

During a stint in Prison in the late 80's he was awarded the Koestler Award (an award offered to people in HM's prisons for creative works) for a novel called Sweet Agony. I've never read it though it was published when he was released.

He spent the rest of his life in and out of trouble and was barred from Wakefield city centre in 2000, a ban he was in court for ignoring in 2003. He died homeless in 2007 at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, his cause of death was Pneumonia and Cirrhosis of the liver. Boxing has helped out many people like Sykes in the past but they have to show willing to develop their natural skills and unfortunately Sykes didn't have the WILL to do that.

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Geepers that reads like a script for a movie called "Rocky: Gone Wrong.