European fighters

[vistaman44]

Dean, David, Chris, SAL, Tiger, et. al.;

I really appreciate the additions you guys have made. Thanks so much, and keep up the good work.

David, feel free to tweek and/or rerun any and all of my fighters from the 1940s and 1980s.

My next pack will include more than 75 miscellaneous junior middleweights through heavyweights from 1970 through 1999, and many will be from Europe and Africa. My next project after that will be to create a skin or group of African fighters in the upper weight classes from 1970 to the present.

[David Myers]

Italian flyweight. Born 1944. Fought from 1966 to 1976. Record: 28-7-1 (9).

Three-time Italian flyweight champion: 1968-1973, 1974, and 1975-1976. Lost three EBU flyweight title bouts. Twice to Fernando Atzori--in December 1968 and again in May 1970. And, in the last fight of his career, to Franco Udella in June 1976.

[Gunsmoke]

My next project after that will be to create a skin or group of African fighters in the upper weight classes from 1970 to the present.

I always wanted to do a project like that but never seemed to find the time

Good luck with it anyway v-man

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by vistaman44

My next pack will include more than 75 miscellaneous junior middleweights through heavyweights from 1970 through 1999, and many will be from Europe and Africa. My next project after that will be to create a skin or group of African fighters in the upper weight classes from 1970 to the present.

Mark:

I will look forward to the Africans, yet another still under represented group. I did Mofokeng a while back but it may have been a duplication because I did not have all the various packs downloaded at that time.



David:

Have you rated the Welsh Bantam Johnny Owen? He is an interesting story and I wanted to rate him, but it seems unlikely that no one has done him yet. I cannot locate a file for him, but wanted to double check before spending any time on him.

Christopher

[djday45]

Originally Posted by vistaman44

Dean, David, Chris, SAL, Tiger, et. al.;

I really appreciate the additions you guys have made. Thanks so much, and keep up the good work.

David, feel free to tweek and/or rerun any and all of my fighters from the 1940s and 1980s.

My next pack will include more than 75 miscellaneous junior middleweights through heavyweights from 1970 through 1999, and many will be from Europe and Africa. My next project after that will be to create a skin or group of African fighters in the upper weight classes from 1970 to the present.

Hey Mark, great to see you back, hope you are well and your family.

rgds
Dean

[David Myers]

Chris,

No, I haven't got around to Johnny Owen. Please go ahead with him. You'd be interested in Hugh McIlvanney's story about the bout with Lupe Pintor in which Owen was mortally injured: "Johnny Owen's Last Fight," in <i>The Hardest Game: McIlvanney on Boxing</i> (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2001), pp. 109-12.

A welcome back to Mark a.k.a. Vistaman from this quarter too! Can't wait to see your latest additions to the swelling user data base of fighters.

Rocco: Please feel free to post your newly rated European fighters under this thread, if you want to. If not, not. Up to you.

I can only echo Mark's gratitude to all of the TBCB community who make this game so great!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Rocco: Please feel free to post your newly rated European fighters under this thread, if you want to. If not, not. Up to you.


Thanks David,

No particular reason I put Vinot in the non-HW's thread. Just from habit I guess putting the non-HW's there. I got some different european LHW's and HW's that i've seen working on the 67 replay so I decided to do some of these and go back to the 67 replay in a bit. I really enjoy looking up these european guys and see what kind of opponents they fought.

Rocco

[CONN CHRIS]

JOHNNY OWEN Welsh BW (1976-1980) "The Matchstick Man"

Hometown - Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, USA

25(10)-2-1

Johnny Owen looked like a man unlikely to succeed in the boxing ring. His frame was frail, almost skeletal in appearance; out of the ring, Johnny was said to be shy, unassuming and generous. In the ring however, Owen demonstrated great stamina, quickness and a smothering style.

As an amature, Owen boxed for the Welsh A.B.A. team as a flyweight which gave him his first international exposure fighting in Ireland and Sweden. He turned pro in 1976 at the age of 20.

Owen won the Welsh Bantamweight Title in only his sixth pro bout with a ten round decision over fellow county man George Sutton whom Johnny had also out pointed in his pro debut. 1978 saw Owen collect two more belts as he stopped Paddy Maguire in eleven rounds for the British Title and out pointed Paul Ferreri over 15 rounds for the Commonwealth Title. In between, Owen also defended his British crown against Wayne Evans.

1979 saw Johnny suffer his first defeat amidst controversy. He traveled to Almeria, Spain to challenge Juan Francisco Rodriguez for the European Bantam Belt. Rodriguez was cautioned repeatedly through the bout (three times for holding, once for butting) and was finally warned with a point deduction in the twelfth. After the final bell, it took the judges an unusually long time to add up their cards, finally scoring the bout 145-144, 146-146, 145-144 for the Hometown Champ Rodriguez. Back home in Wales, the decision was viewed as a farce. To add insult to injury, Spanish officials withheld a substantial portion of Owen's purse claiming that a Spanish fighter was owed the amount from a bout in Britain the previous year.

The following year, Owen avenged his bitter defeat by claiming the EBU title in a rematch with Rodriguez. This time there was no doubt about the decision as Owen won the twelve rounder 120-115, 119-117 and 119-115. Two months later, Owen defended his British and Commonwealth belts in a fifteen round decision over John Feeney setting him up for a shot at the WBC title.

On September 19, 1980 Johnny Owen met WBC Champion Lupe Pintor for the title in Los Angeles, California. Through nine rounds, Owens was ahead on points but the harder punching Pintor's blows began to find a home in the tenth and eleventh. Two minutes into the twelfth round, a Pintor right dropped Owens who received an eight count but appeared to be able to continue. Just seconds later, another right from Pintor sent Owen to the canvas and into a coma that he would not come out of. Johnny was operated on to remove blood clots and died in an L.A. hospital two months later.

Johnny owen is fondly remembered in Wales as a true champion. In 2002 a statue was erected in his honor in Merthyr with Lupe Pintor on hand for the unveiling.

[djday45]

Great rating of Johnny Owen Chris, well done mate.

rgds
Dean

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by djday45

Great rating of Johnny Owen Chris, well done mate.

rgds
Dean

If any one has any comments for me on the rating, this would be one that I would certainly appreciate it. The only boxer rated on his opponent list was Pintor so it was a lot of guess work based on some reading.

There is a short film clip on the web that may force a tear or two, especialy if you followed his career (I did not).

http://www.johnnyowen.fsnet.co.uk/tmm.html

While you are there, you may want to look around a bit, the website has much more than simply information on Johnny Owen - check out the Welsh Warriors section especialy.

Christopher

[CONN CHRIS]

DENNIS AVOTH HW (1967-1973)

Hometown, Cardiff, Wales, UK

23(5)-21-3 (22-20-3 per boxrec)

Dennis is the older brother of Commonwealth LHW Champion Eddie Avoth. He split a pair of decisions with Bunny Johnson, Decisioned Carl Gizzi and lost to Roger Tighe and Billy Aird. Avoth won the Welsh Heavyweight belt with a 1971 decision over Carl Gizzi and defended it three times before retiring in 1973.

Note: this rating of Avoth will almost never beat Gizzi and Johnson in the game, but I think both of may need to be adjusted downward.

[CONN CHRIS]

DENNIS AVOTH HW (1967-1973)

[CONN CHRIS]

DEL PHILLIPS HW (1968-1972) - no photo

Hometown - Carmaerthen, Wales, UK

13(7)-9-1

Phillips drew with Dennis Avoth in 1969, beat Avoth in a Welsh HW title eliminator in 1970 and lost on points to Avoth in their 1972 Welsh HW title battle.

[CONN CHRIS]

DANNY EVANS WW (1930-1935)

Hometown - Ammanford, Wales, UK

5(1)-6-1

Evans career is interesting in that 8 of his 12 pro bouts were title or title eliminator fights. He fought for the Welsh Welterweight Title on five occasions, winning twice. Evans also beat Billy Thomas for the Welsh Middleweight Title. In 1934, Evans was included in an eliminator series for the British Welterweight Title where he lost in the second round to Harry Mason. In one of Evans' few non-title bouts, he was stopped in the seventh by Archie Sexton.

[CONN CHRIS]

DANNY EVANS WW (1930-1935)

[CONN CHRIS]

PHIL EDWARDS MW (1952-1962)

Hometown - Cardiff, Wales, UK

60(20)-8-3; 1 NC

Phil Edwards was a home body. Besides one trip to Sweden and one to Scotland, he never fought much further away from Wales than Manchester or London. He was however an accomplished Middleweight with victories over Lew Lazar and Neal Rivers to his credit. Edwards won the Welsh Middleweight belt in 1957, defended it once in 1958 and set his sights on the British crown. Unfortunately for Edwards, Terry Downs stood in his way. Downs and Edwards met late in 1958 to fill the then vacant British title with Downs scoring a 13th round TKO. It was the first stoppage suffered by Edwards in that, his 53rd pro bout. The two met again with the British belt on the line in 1960. The results were similar with Downs again stopping Edwards late in the fight. Overall, Edwards was only stopped 3 times including the two fights with Downes over a 72 bout career.

[CONN CHRIS]

PHIL EDWARDS WW (1952-1962)

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Bernard Thebault - Rating 3 France
Heavyweight 1964-69
15 wins / 3 losses / 0 draws / 7 KO

Birthplace: Argenteuil

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Thebault bounced around fighting HW's and LHW's though the main being HW and thus his rating for the top division. He started out 10-0-0 including wins over Kurt Stroer, Rudolf Nehring and Lion Ven. Couple other noteworthy opponents in that period at least by thier career records being HW Malcolm Worthington(21-18-2,15KO) and LHW Jose Angel Manzur(31-33-14,13KO). Then in November 1966 Thebault lost his first fight, an 8 round decision to LHW Alfredo Vogrig(33-17-4,13KO). At that time, Thebault seemed intent on fighting in the Light Heavy rank as he'd defeated LHW Harry Kneipp(24-12-5,5KO) previous to the Vogrig fight and then in December 1966 he bounced back from the decision loss to Vogrig to defeat Paul Roux for the French LHW Title when Roux was DQ'd in the 4th round. They fought a rematch in June 1967 with Thebault successfuly defending the title winning a 15 round decision over Roux.

At this time, Thebault shifted his attention back to the Heavyweights as he then rung up wins over Jean-Paul Schiller(21-7-1,13), Roger Russell(12-18-2,4) and Jose Peyre(13-24-1,5). Bernard then in May 1969 tried to move up some in the quality of opposition taking on Carl Gizzi. He was no match for Gizzi being stopped in the 4th round. That didn't prevent him though from landing a shot in December 1969 at the then vacant European (EBU), Heavyweight Title against Peter Weiland. The German knockout the Frenchman in the first round sending Thebault quickly into retirement.

[David Myers]

English middleweight. Managed by Al Phillips. Born 1945. Fought from 1965 to 1979. Record: 27-10-2 (12).

McAteer lost a Commonwealth middleweight title bout to Johnny Pritchett in February 1968. He captured the Commonwealth middleweight title when Pritchett retired, beating Wally Swift via TKO in July 1969 to claim the vacant seat. He lost an EBU middleweight title match to Tom Bogs in April 1970, and surrendered his Commonwealth crown to Mark Rowe one month later, losing on a 14th-round TKO. After dropping four of his next nine fights, McAteer retired.

[David Myers]

English middleweight. Born 1947. Fought from 1966 to 1973. Record: 38-8-1 (29).

Rowe won the Commonwealth middleweight title in May 1970, beating Les McAteer by TKO. Lost the title to Bunny Sterling four months later on a fourth-round TKO.