New HW Boxers Rated

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Cooper finished his first year of professional fighting in 1954 first with a 1st round TKO over Eddie Keith on November 23rd. Then on December 7th, he KO'd Denny Ball in the 1st round to put Cooper's record at 4-0-0 with 4KO's.

Eddie Keith England Rating 1
Heavyweight 1954
0 wins / 2 losses / 0 draws / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Keith was KO'd in the 2nd round on June 1st, 1954 by Joe Erskine who was fighting his 7th bout. Then on November 23rd of that same year, Henry Cooper in his 3rd career fight stopped by TKO Keith in the 1st round and sent Keith to his boxing burial.


Denny Ball England Rating 1
Heavyweight 1953-57

Hometown: Bedford, England

Rating by: Rocco Del SEsto

Lost a 3 round decision to Joe Erskine in June 1954 then Erskine defeated him in a 6 round decision in late July of that year. Five months after the 2nd Erskine fight, Ball was KO'd in the 3rd round by Henry Cooper. Ball's last noteworthy opponent was then Dick Richardson in April 1955. Richardson stopped Ball in the 3rd round. AFter that Ball did not fight for two years until he came back to the ring to fight Alan Pompey, a heavyweight from Trinidad and Tobago. The two fought a 6 round draw in April of 57, then they fought a rematch in June that year, that time, Pompey KO'd Ball in the 3rd round to finally finish Ball's career.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

January 27th, 1955, Cooper takes on South African, Colin Strauch who is in the middle of a not much career. It's no contest at all here in the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London as Coop TKO's Colin in the very first round!

Colinn Strauch South Africa, Rating 1
Heavyweight 1951-57
11 wins / 16 losses / 3 draws / 4 KO

Hometown: Pretoria, South Africa

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Not much really to Strauch's career other then consecutive TKO losses to Garnett Denny and Henry Cooper in November 1954 and January 1955.

Strauch fought one year, 1951 in his native South Africa, then did not fight for 2-1/2 years before turning up in Liverpool, England in June 1954. He fought there once loosing, then went to Luanshya, Zambia to loose the first of two, 10 round decisions to fellow South African, Doug Miller(38-18-3,10KO). Those two, 10 round losses to Miller were the only fights that went beyond 8 round for Strauch. Other then fighting Miller again in Zambia and other South Africans, Buddy Walker(4-9-0,3KO) and Jim Corbett(1-4-0) in Zimbabwe, Strauch fought out the rest of his career in England, save his loss to Garnett Denny which was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[Dave1877]

This is a big topic so would anyone be so kind to tell me if there are any current versions of the fat, lumbering Riddick Bowe around? I would never be able to rate him in his current state in a million years. Thanks a lot. (Also, this isn't heavyweight so I apologise, but a current Julio Cesar Chavez Sr would be great too).

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Getting back to Henry Cooper, after stopping Colin Strauch in the first round in January 1955, Cooper runs his record to 6-0-0 with a 6 round decision over Cliff Purnell in February at Harringay Arena.

Cliff Purnell England Rating 1
Heavyweight 1951-64
20 wins / 36 losses / 2 draws / 11 KO

Hometown: Weston-Super-Mare, England
Birthplace: Timsbury, Somerset, England
Trainer: Bill Miles
Manager: Nat Sellar/Denis Granv

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

This guy was an apparent wild one in the ring. Stopped 17 times in a fight and DQ'd in 5 others! Purnell's career started out in modest fashion with a 10-3-1,8KO record over the first couple of years, including a win and a loss against Morrie Bush and a 6 round decision over Joe Bygraves in September 1953. A month after that Purnell and Bygraves squared off again, this time, Bygraves KO'd Purnell in the 2nd round. That would mark the start of a 10-33-1,3KO nosedive over the rest of Cliff's career.

The wins came few and far in between. He managed victories over Dinny Powell, Simon Templar, and Paddy Slavin, the rest of his wins over guys not heard off here. The losses were many. They included against Templar twice, Peter Bates twice, Joe Erskine twice, Henry Cooper, Paddy Slavin twice, Garnett Denny, and a just starting out Carl Gizzi.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Exactly 1 month after pointing Cliff Purnell, Cooper fought Hugh Ferns at Exhibition Hall. Cooper won his 7th without defeat when Ferns was DQ'd in the 2nd round.

Hugh Ferns England Rating 2
Heavyweight 1951-55
14 wins / 8 losses / 1 draw / 6 KO

Hometown: Greenock, Scotland

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Started out 10-2-0, his 2 losses a 1st round KO loss in his 2nd fight, and then in March 1953 lost a 6 round decision to Joe Bygraves who was fighting his 2nd professional bout. In May and September then that year he lost consecutive fights to Ron Harman and Bygraves. In October 1953 he won a 2nd round disqualification against Jack Hobbs after alleged low blows by Hobbs(15-3-0,13KO). In March 1954 Ferns won an 8 round decision over Simon Templar then in October that year lost by TKO in the 4th against Peter Bates.

March 1955 saw Ferns take on Henry Cooper. Ferns was DQ'd in the 2nd round. Ferns then fought 3 more times in 1955 to finish out his career. He fought a 6 round draw after the Cooper fight, then won his last 2 career bouts, including one against Dick Richardson when Richardson was DQ'd in the 5th for alleged butting. Ferns then closed things wout with a 4th round TKO victory over Garnett Denny.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Sir Enry next fights Joe Crickmar at Earls Court Arena in London on March 29th, '54, 3 weeks after winning the DQ agains Ferns. Cooper makes a fair easy time of it with a 5th round TKO over Crickmar.

Joe Crickman England Rating 1
Heavyweight 1952-57
8 wins / 11 losses / 0 draws / 5 KO

Hometown: Stepney, England

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Crickmar won 4 of this first 5 fights including the first against Dinny Powell. After a couple losses he fought and beat Joe Bygraves in consecutive fights in June and July 1953. Crickmar then lost 8 of his last 9 fights. His only win in that time was an 8 round decision over Peter Bates. He lost fights to Fred Powell, Bygraves, Ron Harman, Paddy Slavin, Joe ERskine, and Henry Cooper through March 1955. Crickmar then left the ring for 2 years before making a quick comeback bid in 1957. He gave it up for good loosing TKO's to Albert Scott and Ron Redrup.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

On April 18, 1955, Cooper upped his record to 9-0 with an 8 round decision over Joe Bygraves. A little more then a week later on April 26th Cooper took on Italian Uber Bacilieri. Uber pulled the upset in Harringay Arena as he stopped Cooper in the 5th round winning TKO, to hand Coop his first career loss. Bacilieri can be found earlier in the HW thread.

Henry shakes off that defeat to come back on June 6th at Ice Stadium in Nottingham to fight the next new opponent we'll look at, Ron Harman. Henry stops Harman in this fight with a 7th round TKO.

Ron Harman England Rating 3
Heavyweight 1952-56
15 wins / 3 losses / 1 draw / 8 KO

Hometown: Brighton, England

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Harman was 14-1-1 when he was stopped by Henry Cooper in the 7th round in June 1955. Harman then was stopped in the 4th round 5 months later by Peter Bates. He fought then only 1 more time in April 1956 winning a 3rd round TKO over a Basil Kew.

Harman's opponents during that 14-1-1 run included wins over Morrie Bush twice, Harry Painter, Hugh Ferns twice, Fred Powell, Joe Crickmar and a loss to Powell.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

From Sept 1955 thru May 1956, Cooper KO'd Uber Bacilieri in 7, lost a 10 round decision to Joe Erskine, stopped Maurice Mols in 4 rounds and beat undefeated (12-0-0 at the time) Brian London in the 1st round by TKO. Three weeks after the London fight on June 26th, 1956 Cooper fought Italian HW Giannino Luise in London stopping Luise in the 7th round.

Giannino Luise Italy Rating 2
Heavyweight 1952-58
17 wins / 9 losses / 1 draw / 9 KO

Alias: Giannino Orlando Luise
Hometown: Venice, Italy
Birthplace: Padova, Italy

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Luis ran up a 14-3-1 record in Itay through May 1956 with wins over Maurice Mols, Gianbattista Alfonsetti, Kurt Schiegl and Horst Herold. He fought an 8 round draw with Uber Bacilieri.

Luise then traveled for the first time out of his native Italy to Wembley, London, England to take on Henry Cooper in late June 1956. The scheduled 10 round bout was stopped in the 7th round when Luise arose from a count with his hands hanging loosely per BoxRec. That was the start of a dismal 3-6-0 record over the last couple years of his career. Luis was also stopped by Jose Gonzalez Sales and Dick Richardson and lost decisions to Bruno Scarabellin, Franco Cavicchi and Massimo Zanaboni. He did manage an 8 round decision over Mario de Persio.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

2-1/2 months after disposing of Giannino Luise, Henry meets up with another pretty fair English heayweight, Peter Bates. Bates is 21-6-1 at the time but is coming off a tough 10 round decision loss to German Heinz Neuhaus. On September 7th 1956 Cooper and Bates meet up in Manchester, England for a scheduled 10 rounder. The fight goes only half of that as it's stopped in the 5th round and declared a TKO victory for Bates with Henry suffering from a "badly gashed eyebrow.

Peter Bates England Rating 3
Heavyweight 1953-63
31 wins / 15 losses / 4 draws / 19 KO

Hometown: Shirebrook, England
Birthplace; Salisbury, Wiltshire
Manager: Jimmy Lumb/Bruce Woodcock

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Bates packed a decent punch while showing to have a apparent good chin as shown by the 19/3 KO to times stopped Ratio.

Bates fought a lot of guys who's names you'll recognize. He beat Cliff Purnell three times, Hugh Ferns, Simon Templar twice, Paddy Slavin, Fred Powell, Ron Harman, Gerhard Hecht, Henry Cooper, Frankie Daniels and Ron Gray. He fought draws with Fred Powell, Ray Shiel and Johnny Prescott.

Lost a good number of fights though, especially to the better competition including Joe Crickmar, Joe Bygraves Twice, Joe Erskine Twice, Dick Richardson, Heinz Neuhaus, Ingemar Johansson, Brian London, Gawie de Klerk, Ray Shiel twice and finally to finish his career, Billy Walker.

His biggest win was probably the one over Henry Cooper which was stopped in the 5th round because of a badly gashed eyebrow on Cooper.

There's one more new fighter will be looking at scanning the career of Sir Enry. Though Cooper has 38 more fights in his career after the loss to Bates, we've seen all of those opponents into the game originally or by others except for one last one. We'll be looking at Boston Jacobs up next whom Cooper fights in April 1967.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Last new guy up we look at of opponents in Henry Cooper's career is American, Boston Jacobs. These two fought a 10 round battle in April 1967, about 7 months after Cooper was KO'd in the 4th round by Floyd Patterson and 4 month previous to that had lost by 6th round TKO in his 2nd fight with Muhammad Ali, his only shot at the world HW title.

Boston Jacobs USA Rating 2
Heavyweight 1964-67
7 wins / 5 losses / 0 draws / 3 KO

Hometown: New York, NY
Birthplace: Winston-Salem, NC

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

After loosing a 6th round TKO to a Don Prout(21-5-0,13KO) to start his career in JUly 1964, Jacobs did not step back into the ring until April 1965 winning a 6 round decision over Bob Felstein. A couple months later he KO'd Curly (Ray) Fiddler. Jacobs was then inactive for a period until February 1966. From then on he fought 5 times in 1966 and 4 times in 1967 against some pretty decent competition. H won fights against Tom McNeeley, Jean-Claude Roy, Greatest Crawford and stopped Willie Ray Richardson and Ermanno Festorazzi. He also lost a 10 round decisions to Tony Alongi and Henry Cooper and lost by TKO to George Chuvalo and Dante Cane.

For what little he fought those first couple years, you wonder how did he draw the competition he fought the last two years?!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Next we'll being looking through the career George Chuvalo.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Chuvalo started his professional boxing career in April 1956 fighting in what was the Jack Dempsey Heavyweight Novice Tournament held at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada. In this tournament, Chuvalo knocked out four opponents in a total of 12 minutes and 36 seconds as noted in Facing Ali. Those 4 KO's were.....

Jim Leornard USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1956-57
4 wins / 1 loss / 0 draws / 1 KO

Hometown: Syracuse, NY

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

On April 23rd (according to Facing Ali) in 1956 a couple new HW's, Jim Leonard and George Chuvalo fought in the Jack Dempsey Heavyweight Novice Tournament in Toronto, Canada. The American from Syracuse was no match for the Canadian as Chuvalo KO'd Leornard in the 2nd round.

Leornard fought 4 more times in his career, twice beating Bobby Vance (0-3-0), Malcom Butler(0-1-0) and Johnny Odom(0-3-0).


Gordon Baldwin Canada Rating 1
Heavyweight 1956-60,66
2 wins / 7 losses / 0 draws / 0 KO

Hometown: Toronto, Canada

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Baldwin was George Chuvalo's 2nd conquest on April 23rd 1956 in the Jack Dempsey Heavywieght Novice Tournament held in Toronto, Canada. Chuvalo KO'd Baldwin in the 2nd round.

Balwin went on loose 5 more bouts through May 1960 when on that day he lost by 7th round KO to Burke Emery for the vacant Canadian LHW title. Previous to that Baldwin did manage to win a couple fights. After his loss to Emery, Baldwin the left boxing until in October 1966 he came back to fight one more time, loosing by 2nd round TKO to Larry Renaud.


Ross Gregory Canada Rating 1
Heavyweight 1956
0 wins / 1 loss / 0 draws / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

BoxRec gives no nationality for Ross, only assuming him to be Canadian as his only career bout is being George Chuvalo's 3rd KO in the Jack Dempsey Heavyweight Novice Tournament in April 1956 in Toronto, Canada. Gregory was KO'd in the 1st round.


Ed McGee Canada Rating 1
Heavyweight 1956
0 wins / 1 loss / 0 draws / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

McGee was George Chuvalo's 4th KO in the Jack Dempsey Heavyweight Novice Tournament in Toronto, Canada in which Chuvalo fought starting out his professional boxing career. Chuvalo KO'd McGee in the 1st round.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

After his round of knockouts in that Jack Dempsey tournament, Chuvalo then got his first real test in the heavyweight ring against South African HW champion Johnny Arthur who was in the process of a fight tour through North America. In Toronto, the two fought to an 8 round UD won the by upstart Canadian, Chuvalo.

I've attached a file of Arthur that is the game original file. I added some bio info to it that you might find of interest. Some of it is from a very good article I found on the web that had been posted after his recent death back in May. There was also a decent photo of Arthur that I'll post also.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Photo of HW Johnny Arthur

[mh2365]

resized

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Another tomato can opponent of Chuvalo's. Joe Evans takes a 1st round beating from George in September 1956.

Joe Evans USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1953-56
0 wins / 3 losses / 0 draws / 0 KO

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

In his first professional fight, Evans fought Mike DeJohn in September 1953. DeJohn was an undeated 11-0-0 at the time. The first 3 round apparently DeJohn landed punches at will as Evans was unable to answer the bell for the 4th round.

Evans next fight came in March 1954 against Frank Cowan. Cowan KO'd Evans at 2:20 of the 2nd round of thier scheduled 6 rounder. Both of these fights were fought in Syracuse, NY. Evans then did not fight for close to 2-1/2 years before he showed up in Toronto, Canada at teh Maple Leaf Gardens to take on young George Chuvalo, 5-0-0 and just coming off a UD off South African champion Johnny Arthur.

No contest. Chuvalo KO's Evans in the 1st round and that's it for the Clevelander's career.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

After disposing of Evans in one round, Chuvalo squared off against a better then average American heavyweight of the time, Howard King. They fought in a short 3 round affair in Toronto, with Chuvalo suffering his first career loss loosing the decision to King.

I've attached again an original game file of King with some of his career bio added if you'd care for it.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

After suffering his first loss to Howard King, Chuvalo got back onto the winning track with an 8 round decision over American Bob Biehler. A modestly successful heavyweight fighting around his upper New York state region. Chuvalo won again in his hometown Toronto.

Bob Biehler USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1953-58
19 wins / 12 losses / 1 draw / 11 KO

Alias: Robert John
Hometown: Rochester, NY
Birthplace: Olean, NY
Trainer: Sam Porcelli

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Biehler was 16-8-0,8KO's in February 1956 having just won an 8 round decision over Jack Nelson. His previous most noteable win was a 6 round decision over Wayne Bethea. He'd lost fights to Jimmy Slade and Toxie Hall. After the win over Jack Nelson,Biehler then from March thru June 1956 lost decisions to Michael Maye(7-0-0,4) and George Kartalian(19-10-2,5) twice. He also fought one draw with Kartalian.

Next up in November that same year he fought and lost an 8 round decision to George Chuvalo. After a 6 round loss to Tony Hughes in May 1957, Biehler then alternated wins and losses in his last 6 fights. The 3 losses were to Larry Zernitz, Charley Powell and Harold Carter.

[CONN CHRIS]

Thanks for all the new heavyweights Rocco, I am enjoying following along these career paths.

Christopher

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Thanks for all the new heavyweights Rocco, I am enjoying following along these career paths.

Christopher

Thanks Chris. Glad your enjoying it. I'll tell ya though what you and the others are doing over in those photo threads and the other threads with all those non heavyweights, your the ones really doing the heavyweight service to this gaming community!

Rocco