Via Ken Hissner: A few years ago there was an article about the best boxers in Philly history, and it went to two world lightweight champions Tommy “Phantom of Philly” Loughran and the 1964 Olympic gold medalist. Heavyweight “Smokin” Joe Frazier.
Currently, there is only one world champion in Philly, and that is the WBC & WBO super bantamweight champion. Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton, 21-0 with eight knockouts. On the brink of a world title war is the “most avoided” boxer of the welterweight division in Jaron “Boots” Ennis29-0 with 27 knockouts.
WBO Welterweight Champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, 38-0 with 29 kills, and WBA, WBC & IBF Welterweight Champion Errol “The Truth” Spence, Jr., 28-0 with 22 knockout times! Both have announced that they will be shifting weight to super weight.
Ennis was placed 2nd in the WBA and WBO and 3rd in the WBC and IBF, with two positions in the IBF vacant. Victor Ortiz, Jr. is #1 in all but IBF, where he’s 4th, and reportedly turned down a meeting with Ennis because of his father and coach “Bozy” Ennis.
Fulton wants to unify the super bantamweight titles with IBF and WBO champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev and move up to featherweight.
Loughran was inducted into the IBHOF in 1991 with a track record of 124-33-12 or 90-25-10, while www.boxrec.com showed both. He beat champions in the middle, light and heavyweight divisions. The most notable ones are former heavyweight champions Max Baer and James J. Braddock. He also had a win over middleweight champion Harry Greb, who is considered an all-time P4P top 10.
“Smokin” Joe Frazier is the WBC & WBA heavyweight champion with a 32-4-1 record, including 27 knockouts. His most notable victory was defeating the then-undefeated Muhammad Ali despite losing two other meetings. He twice defeated WBA champion Jimmy Ellis but twice lost to George Foreman “Big”.
WBC & WBA “Terrible” Heavyweight Champion Tim Witherspoon, 55-13-1 with 38 knockdowns, and although not a Philly native who lives there, Sonny Liston, 50-4 with 39 knocks. WBC & WBA lightweight champion Harold Johnson, 76-11 with 31 knockouts, also won at heavyweight against rivals Eddie Machen and Nino Valdez. He lost to Archie Moore 4/5 confrontations. His title loss to Willie Pastrano was the biggest contention in boxing history according to historian and manager Jim Jacobs.
WBA & WBC middleweight champion Joey Giardello, 98-26-8 with 31 knockouts despite being born in Brooklyn, NY, beat Dick Tiger for those titles. His biggest win was against “Sugar” Ray Robinson.
In the ’70s, Philly was popular in the welterweight and middleweight divisions, although instead of competing for the title, they fought each other. Such was the case for “Gypsy” Joe Harris, 24-1 with nine knockouts, who beat WBA & WBC weightlifting champion Curtis Cokes in a non-title bout but was never rematched to win the title. belt picture.
Others known at the time were Willie “The Worm” Monroe, and Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, both of whom won against future world champion “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler. Hagler, along with Eddie WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Mustapha Muhammad aka Eddie Gregory, had important starts in Philly before becoming world champion. Hagler reversed losses for both Monroe and Watts later outside Philly.
Muhammad’s loss in Philly to “Bad” Bennie Briscoe, 66-24-5 with 53 knockouts, was billed as “Philly favorites” and drew with Carlos Monzon in Argentina only to lose to him five years later for the title. and another pair lost to champion Rodrigo Valdes.
Other Philly contenders are Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, 30-9-1 with 28 kills, 19 of which are from the start of his career. Watts, 39-7-1 with 22 knockdowns like Frazier, was born in South Carolina and later went to Philly. Monroe, 40-10-1 with 26 knockdowns born in Alabama. Benton, 61-13-1 with 36 knockdowns, is known as the “Mayor of North Philadelphia.” Stanley “Kitten” Hayward, 32-12-4 with 18 knockouts, had a title loss to Freddie Little but had a non-title win over champion Emile Griffith.
IBF Super Middleweight Champion Charles “The Hatchet” Brewer, 40-11 with 28 knockouts, is the only person in my memory to have defended his title at the legendary Blue Horizon. 1996 Olympic gold medalist David “American Dream” Reid was the WBA lightweight middleweight champion and, like Harris and Martin, their careers were cut short due to eye problems as was the WBA Bantamweight champion.” Joltin” Jeff Chandler, 33-2-2 with 18 knockouts.
Champions also at light-middleweight are IBF champion Robert “Bam Bam” Hines, 25-3-1 with 17 kills, Buster Drayton, 40-15-1 with 28 knocks, and close This is most recently IBF & WBA champion Julian “J Rock” Williams, 27-3-1, with 16 knockouts. Holding the middleweight and light heavyweight titles is Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, 55-8-2 with 32 kills.
Another Olympic Gold Medalist is Meldrick Taylor, a 1984 winner who has held both the IBF Light Welterweight and WBA Welterweight titles.
