Jimmy Young Has Got To Be One Of The Most Underrated Heavyweights Ever.

[Hulk]

I'd have to see the Ali and Norton fights to judge if he actually deserved to win them or not.

Beating George Foreman was a great accomplishment for him. Don't think he would beat George before George got beat by Ali.

[DaxxKahn]

Young is certainly an underrated HW in legacy terms,,,,He is another one of the fighters og that era lost in the shuffle of the super greats Ali, Frazier, Foreman who seemed to just own the 70's be it in the ring or in the media...

If Young came along 10 years later things would have been different for him,,,or 10 years earlier

[The Fightfan]

I really don't think much of Jimmy Young. Yes he did have wins over Foreman. Lyle, etc, but he just didn't have a power and he really wasn't exciting at all. I put him in the same class as Byrd. A good fighter,great defensive skills but someone who is easily forgettable. IMO his most exciting fight was a TKO loss to Cooney. Yes I have seen most of Jimmy Young's fight's from old VHS tapes from father and was never really impressed. Underrated absolutely but is easily forgettable.

[ICB]

I really don't think much of Jimmy Young. Yes he did have wins over Foreman. Lyle, etc, but he just didn't have a power and he really wasn't exciting at all. I put him in the same class as Byrd. A good fighter,great defensive skills but someone who is easily forgettable. IMO his most exciting fight was a TKO loss to Cooney. Yes I have seen most of Jimmy Young's fight's from old VHS tapes from father and was never really impressed. Underrated absolutely but is easily forgettable.

I can see the Chris Byrd comparison's, they did fight similar somewhat. They were both very defensive and at times very boring. But then again you could say could Chris Byrd go the distance with George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Ron Lyle x2, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, and arguably have decision wins against every single one of them ?

Just imagine if he would of had a win over either of those guys, he would certainly not be forgotten. And he certainly deserved the win over Muhammad Ali.

[El Kabong]

....not crowd pleasing but special huh? And we heap this praise on Jimmy Young?

I don't want to take anything away from what Young did but this is a common occurance, there are good fighters that get lost in the mix all the time. For example, I think Ray Mercer probably stands out as a recent fighter who was very good but just came up short in the really big fights....he may have lost out on a win over Lennox Lewis, he gave Holyfield fits, blasted out Morrison but he lost out to Larry Holmes. I think if he had a shot vs Tyson around the time of the Tyson-Holyfield fights Mercer would have dominated him.