chop
02-05-2007, 05:32 AM
By Mike Casey
The great Benny Leonard, still considered by many to be the supreme lightweight of all time maintained that the finest light-heavyweight he ever saw was the Canadian-born master from Bridgeport, Connecticut, known as ‘Bright Eyes’: Jack Delaney.
To which I am fairly sure that many of today’s younger fans will cry, “Who?”
It’s a fair question. Others of a greater vintage with more accumulated knowledge will just as surely shake their heads in the belief that King Benny’s praise was far too fulsome. They will know that Delaney was an exciting, highly efficient ring mechanic who could punch commandingly with both hands. But greater than Tunney, Langford, O’Brien, Moore, Charles, Foster or Michael Spinks?
Well, let us backtrack a little and remind ourselves that Benny Leonard was speaking of the light-heavyweights he SAW. The Ghetto Wizard shuffled off the mortal coil in 1947, so he certainly didn’t see Mr Foster or Mr Spinks. Benny might not have seen much of Moore and almost certainly regarded Tunney, Langford and Charles as heavyweights. Only in relatively recent times has that stellar trio been grouped among the light-heavies.
Plenty of Benny’s contemporaries, however, rated Delaney above the two old-time masters of Langford and George Dixon in the Canadian pantheon of legends. Let me say here and now that I cannot do likewise. What I do find strange is why Jack Delaney’s name so rarely crops up when old champions are discussed.
rest here...
http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=7129
This is the guy who I talked to at another site, nice guy
The great Benny Leonard, still considered by many to be the supreme lightweight of all time maintained that the finest light-heavyweight he ever saw was the Canadian-born master from Bridgeport, Connecticut, known as ‘Bright Eyes’: Jack Delaney.
To which I am fairly sure that many of today’s younger fans will cry, “Who?”
It’s a fair question. Others of a greater vintage with more accumulated knowledge will just as surely shake their heads in the belief that King Benny’s praise was far too fulsome. They will know that Delaney was an exciting, highly efficient ring mechanic who could punch commandingly with both hands. But greater than Tunney, Langford, O’Brien, Moore, Charles, Foster or Michael Spinks?
Well, let us backtrack a little and remind ourselves that Benny Leonard was speaking of the light-heavyweights he SAW. The Ghetto Wizard shuffled off the mortal coil in 1947, so he certainly didn’t see Mr Foster or Mr Spinks. Benny might not have seen much of Moore and almost certainly regarded Tunney, Langford and Charles as heavyweights. Only in relatively recent times has that stellar trio been grouped among the light-heavies.
Plenty of Benny’s contemporaries, however, rated Delaney above the two old-time masters of Langford and George Dixon in the Canadian pantheon of legends. Let me say here and now that I cannot do likewise. What I do find strange is why Jack Delaney’s name so rarely crops up when old champions are discussed.
rest here...
http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=7129
This is the guy who I talked to at another site, nice guy