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Jimmy Young: A Career Worth Remembering by Frank Lotierzo
Jimmy Young stood slightly over 6'1" and
weighed between 209 and 213 pounds during the prime fighting years
of his career from 1974-77. His style was hard to interpret. Some
considered him a boxer and others viewed him as a counterpuncher. He
was known for being extremely hard to hit. Young actually went
entire fights without being caught once with a solid punch. He
frustrated the boxers and took the bullets out of the guns of the
sluggers. He had good hand speed, but he was more sneaky than fast.
His basics were sound, but he was more cunning than he was a great
boxer. Young’s opponents were often frustrated by his unconventional
tactics. His lack of one-punch knockout power led some to think he
couldn't compete with the upper-tier heavyweights of his era, but he
beat some of the greatest punchers in heavyweight history during his
career.
Many of his fights were hard to score and his style wasn't
considered crowd-pleasing by many purists, which may have been the
reason he lost a few close decisions in some of the biggest bouts of
his career. Jimmy Young fought in the 1970s, a time many historians
believe was the best era in heavyweight history. His name is
sometimes wrongly omitted from the lineage linking Ali, Frazier,
Foreman, Norton, Quarry, Lyle and Shavers.
In January of 1969 Young turned pro and won a four round decision
over Jimmy Gilmore. In his sixth bout he lost a four round decision
to the 6'5" 230-pound
But the biggest injustice by his handlers came in his 11th bout when
they matched him with rising knockout artist Earnie Shavers, who
stopped him in the first round. This fight can only be rationalized
by someone in the Young faction who was desperately in need of
money, or due to total ineptness on the part of the person who had
the final say. When Jimmy Young fought Earnie Shavers the first
time, he only had 10 fights under his belt. Shavers was a former
National AAU champion being managed by Don King. On top of that,
Shavers was 42-2 in 44 pro fights, winning 41 by knockout. Young's
management made a monumental mistake putting him in against Shavers
in only his eleventh fight. It's remarkable his psyche wasn't
shattered and he went on to beat the fighters he did after that.
A year and a half later Young (13-4-1) fought a rematch with Shavers
(46-4). This time the fight went the scheduled 10 rounds. The fight
was declared a draw and would later prove to be an omen for Young's
career when it came to getting the call in close fights. I have only
seen this fight on tape, but I scored it for Young. Over the years
I've talked to more than a few fighters and trainers who were at the
fight and saw it live. Everyone says the same thing. Young won it.
After his rematch with Shavers, Young fought another former National
AAU champion and rising knockout artist named Ron Lyle (30-1-1).
Prior to fighting Young, Lyle had defeated former champ Jimmy Ellis,
as well as veteran contenders Buster Mathis, Oscar Bonavena and
Larry Middleton. The only blemish on Lyle's record was his upset
loss to Jerry Quarry two years earlier. Lyle, like Shavers, was a
heavy favorite to defeat Young. Young fought one of the best fights
of his career versus Lyle, winning by unanimous decision. With two
impressive showings against ranked contenders Earnie Shavers and Ron
Lyle, Young was right in the middle of the heavyweight title
picture. Young posted two wins after Lyle and finished 1975 ranked
ninth among The Ring’s top ten heavyweights in the world.
Young kicked off 1976 by defeating former title challenger Jose
"King" Roman on February 20, raising his record to 17-4-2, while
extending his unbeaten streak to 12. On April 30, 1976, seven years
after turning pro, Jimmy Young fought undisputed heavyweight
champion Muhammad Ali on ABC. At the time, Ali was bigger than
boxing. Young would be the sixth fighter Ali defended his title
against after regaining it from George Foreman in October of 1974.
In Ali's last six fights before he fought Jimmy Young, he won five
of them by stoppage. Among the fighters Ali stopped were George
Foreman, Ron Lyle and Joe Frazier - and neither Foreman nor Lyle had
ever been stopped before fighting Ali.
In the biggest fight of his career, Jimmy Young not only survived,
but you could count the number of times he was hit cleanly by Ali.
Young took Ali out of his game, causing him to miss more punches
than any fighter Ali ever fought. Young forced Ali to fight as the
aggressor the entire fight, and that wasn't Ali's forte. Young
totally frustrated and bewildered Ali for 15 rounds. Ali tried
everything against Young, but was unable to solve his style. At the
end of the fifteenth round, Ali was no closer to figuring out how to
fight Young than he was in the first round. In a fight that most
thought he lost, Ali won a unanimous decision over Jimmy Young to
retain his title.
Due to his terrific showing in his fight with Ali, Young remained in
title contention with Foreman, Norton and Lyle, who were all vying
for a rematch with Ali and a shot at the crown. Six weeks before
fighting a rematch with Ron Lyle in November of 1976, Muhammad Ali
won a unanimous decision over Ken Norton to again retain his title.
Although some viewed Ali's victory over Norton as controversial, it
wasn't controversial to the same degree as the decision verdict that
went against Young. There were just as many who saw the fight for
Ali as there were those who saw it for Norton. Everyone knew Young
totally outclassed Ali and made him look like an amateur.
The Young-Lyle rematch was shown on ABC. Young outboxed Lyle, this
time for 12 rounds instead of 10. Young won another unanimous
decision over Lyle in a rematch that looked like a rerun of their
first fight. Four months after beating Lyle, Young, as the
third ranked heavyweight in the world, fought former heavyweight
champion George Foreman. Foreman was the top ranked heavyweight in
the world and in the midst of a five bout knockout streak since
returning to the ring. With Ali having escaped Young and Norton in
1976, Foreman was next in line for a title shot.
Foreman clamored for a rematch with Ali ever since losing the title
in
On March 17, 1977, George Foreman (45-1) fought Jimmy Young (20-5-2)
in what was billed as a world heavyweight title elimination bout
between the division’s first and third ranked contenders. The fight
was held in the heat outside Roberto Clemente Coliseum in
For the first five rounds Foreman was content to follow Young around
the ring as Young picked his spots to flurry. Sensing he was behind,
Foreman picked it up in the sixth round. The seventh round is where
the fight slipped away from Foreman. Foreman nailed Young with a
left hook that literally sent him to the other side of the ring.
Young remained on his feet but was in serious trouble, appearing to
be a punch or two away from being stopped. But Young didn't panic
and smartly concentrated on making sure Foreman didn't catch him
clean with another big shot, instead of foolishly trying to fight
him off. Foreman emptied the wagon in the last minute of round seven
trying to get Young out, but was unable tag Young with another big
shot to finish him.
From the eighth round on, Young outthought and outfought the tiring
Foreman. By the 12th round the crowd was chanting "Jimmy Young,
Jimmy Young, Jimmy Young," which actually sounded like they were
saying “Gimme Young.” In the final minute a flurry of Young punches
knocked the exhausted Foreman off balance, causing his knee to touch
the canvas, which was ruled an official knockdown. When the decision
was announced, Young was the unanimous decision victor by the scores
of 118-111, 116-113 and 115-114. The Foreman-Young bout was voted
1977 Fight of the Year by Ring Magazine. After the fight Foreman
retired. It was Young who was thought to be next in line for a title
shot at reigning heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.
On September 14, 1977, two weeks prior to Muhammad Ali's title
defense against Earnie Shavers, Jimmy Young and Ken Norton fought
what was billed as a double main event. With Norton and Young both
winning, they maintained their rankings at the top of the division
and waited for Ali and Shavers. On September 29, 1977, an aging and
eroding Muhammad Ali made his 10th consecutive successful title
defense winning a unanimous decision over Earnie Shavers.
This is where things became interesting and the influence of
Muhammad Ali was never more evident. With Ali's win over Shavers,
and with Foreman's retirement, the question became who would Ali
defend the title against next? It was just a year earlier that Young
lost a controversial decision to Ali in April, and Norton lost a
disputed decision to Ali in September. This is where Ali, as the
heavyweight champ, called the shots, but with the pressure on Ali to
fight both Norton and Young again, he was in a bind. But Ali, being
the escape artist he was, found a way out. Ali told the media that
he's old and getting ready to retire and said I'm not fighting
both Young and Norton. He suggested that Young and Norton fight and
that he would defend the title against the fighter who won. And so
it was.
On November 5, 1977 at
The Norton-Young bout unfolded the way most thought it would. Norton
tried to cut the ring off and go to Young's body. Young tried to
keep from getting caught against the ropes while trying to catch
Norton with right hands as he was coming in. During the fight Young
froze Norton in his tracks for a brief second with a couple of
rights hands he landed from outside. Norton had his best rounds
during the middle of the fight when he was able to force Young to
the ropes, scoring big hooks to both sides of Young's body. Despite
Norton's effective body attack, Young made him pay, answering with
clean hooks and straight right hands to the head.
The pattern and flow of the fight didn't vary much and both fighters
had their moments. Norton came out with a sense of urgency in the
15th round, giving the impression he felt he was behind. For the
first half of the round Norton physically controlled Young, but
Young caught a second wind and fired back with three and four punch
combinations forcing Norton back. When the bell rang ending the
fight, Young appeared more confident of victory than Norton.
When the decision was announced, Young found himself on the losing
end of a split decision. Two of the judges had the same score
total 147-143 for Norton, with the third favoring Young 144-142.
Norton's victory over Young was viewed by many boxing observers as
being questionable. Many felt Norton lost. Once again, Young's
non-aggressive style worked against him.
The biggest money fight in the heavyweight division heading into
1978 was Ali-Norton IV, not a rematch between Ali and Young. It
wasn't hard to figure out that Norton's image and style would work
to his favor and most likely result in him getting the nod
in the close rounds. However, there was only one fighter who was
hurt or stunned during this fight, and that fighter was Norton.
Young landed more clean punches and was never hurt or in trouble
once in 15 rounds. It also helped that Norton was seen as being the
better fighter before the fight started. Young's decision loss to Norton was the third major fight - the others being his rematch with Shavers and his title bout versus Ali - of his career that he came up on the wrong side of a close decision in a fight many believed he won. Based on what happened in the ring, Jimmy Young beat Ken Norton and it should have been him slated to face the Ali-Spinks winner in February 1978.
After Young's heartbreaking loss to Norton, he was never the same
fighter. He fought for more than 10 years after his fight with
Norton, but he seemed to be just going through the motions. Young
became a trial horse playing the role of the spoiler for the up and
coming young heavyweights. Future heavyweight titleholders Michael
Dokes (14-0), Greg Page (18-0), Tony Tubbs (15-0), and Tony Tucker
(25-0) all won decision victories over Young on their march to the
title. Only Gerry Cooney (22-0) stopped Young in 1980 with a
vicious, slashing uppercut. In his bout with Cooney, Young was more
than holding his own before the cut affected him his vision. But
even Cooney couldn't knock him out or stagger him while unloading
numerous left hooks on a defenseless Young, who couldn't see because
of all the blood.
It must also be mentioned that Young spoiled Marvin Stinson's hopes
at a top-ten rating as the result of Young taking him to school in
1981. And Young all but retired prospect Wendell Bailey (13-1) when
he knocked him out on the undercard of the Larry Holmes-Mike Weaver
WBC title bout. The hard-punching Jeff Sims also viewed Young as an
easy win before losing by unanimous decision.
When all is said and done, Jimmy Young will most likely not be
elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. But if Jimmy Young
is judged by what he did in the ring during his prime, it's not so
easy to say he doesn't belong.
The 1970s are considered to be the best era in heavyweight history,
with dominant fighters like Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Quarry,
Lyle and Shavers (Larry Holmes is an ‘80s fighter and was only a
factor during the 1970s from June 1978 forward)
Young fought five of the magnificent seven mentioned above, missing
only Frazier and Quarry. His record during that period says he's
3-3-1, losing to Shavers, Ali and Norton, but after an evaluation,
it could easily be argued that he is 6-1 and the loss was to
Shavers, when Young had just 10 fights under his belt compared to
Shavers’ 44. I see that loss as being the result of a terrible
decision on behalf of his handlers.
The other two loses are to Ali and Norton with the draw coming in
his rematch with Shavers. I saw Young's fights with Muhammad Ali and
Ken Norton. I don't need anyone to try and justify what I saw. What
I saw was Jimmy Young outbox and outpoint both Ali and Norton. Take
away the name Ali and Norton, and Young gets the decision every
time. As far as the Shavers rematch, I've only seen that on tape.
Watching the tape I scored it for Young. On top of that, in the 30
plus years since the fight, I've never talked to one single fighter,
trainer or fan that saw the fight who didn’t think Young won.
Need more? In 27 rounds against the fighter who is usually rated no
lower then number two all-time, Muhammad Ali, and the fighter
considered the strongest and hardest puncher in heavyweight history,
George Foreman, based on the fighting that took place in the ring,
Young is 2-0. Name another heavyweight who can make that claim.
If what happened in the ring is secondary to a decision rendered by
the officials, then Jimmy Young probably shouldn't make the Hall of
Fame. However, if what actually happens in the ring during the fight
counts for anything, then it can be said that Jimmy Young beat
Muhammad Ali (50-2), George Foreman (45-1), Ron Lyle (62-5-2),
Earnie Shavers (88-6) and Ken Norton (39-4) a combined
284-18-2. Other than Muhammad Ali, no other heavyweight who fought
during the 1970s beat as many top fighters as Jimmy Young. Go ahead
and try to come up with another heavyweight from the 1970s,
excluding Ali, who can say they bettered five fighters of that
caliber in the ring.
I'll tell you right now, Joe Frazier can't claim victory over five
fighters of that caliber. Neither can George Foreman, Ron Lyle,
Earnie Shavers or Ken Norton. Ali, Frazier and Foreman make almost
every historian’s all-time list of top-ten heavyweight champions.
Ali, Frazier and Foreman are first ballot Hall of Famers.
Ken Norton was recently elected to the International Boxing Hall of
Fame. George Foreman knocked out Ken Norton. Jimmy Young beat George
Foreman. Ken Norton looked the other way when Ron Lyle was mentioned
as a possible opponent for him to fight. Jimmy Young beat Ron Lyle
twice while he was in his prime. Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes are considered two of the greatest heavyweight champions who ever lived and both defeated Norton by decision in a world title fight. Jimmy Young beat Norton easier than Ali or Holmes, and was never hurt by him, unlike Ali and Holmes. Ken Norton is in the Hall of Fame. Jimmy Young beat Ken Norton. Somebody please explain why Young isn't worthy of Hall of Fame consideration. (End of part one of a three part feature.) PART 1 2 3 ________________________________________________ Frank Lotierzo wrote this article in March 2005 for www.thesweetscience.com. It was reprinted here with his permission. |