10. The Londons
BRIAN London challenged Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight championship – and his father could have a fight as well.
Jack held the British heavyweight title in the 1940s and two decades later, his son emulated him.
Brian was well beaten by both Patterson and Ali and when asked about Ali’s battle with Parkinson’s years later, London quipped: “Don’t blame me. I didn’t hit him.”
9. The Pattersons
Floyd Patterson was in the record books as the youngest fighter to win the world heavyweight championship – until another resident of the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn came along, Mike Tyson.
Both were mentored by Cus D’Amato and upon his retirement, Patterson adopted a 14 year old called Tracy Harris.
He had to wait until his 47th fight for a crack at world honours – and took the WBC super-bantamweight title off Thierry Jacob with a two-round KO.
Patterson went on to the IBF super-featherweight title and though there was a fall out with his father, they were reconciled before Floyd’s death in 2006, aged 71.
8. The Douglases
William ‘Dynamite’ Douglas was a fringe contender at middleweight and light-heavyweight during the 1970s – he fought Bernie Briscoe and Matthew Saad Muhammad – and went on to train his son.
James ‘Buster’ Douglas was known as a talent who possibly didn’t have the appetite for fighting his father once had, but he produced the performance of his life in Tokyo in February, 1990, defying pre-fights odds of 42-1 to shatter Mike Tyson.
Douglas had unravelled in a previous world-title attempt against Tony Tucker, but despite the death of his mother during his training camp for the Tyson fight, he was superb, climbing off the canvas to win in 10 rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euZ08eWV4ME&t=7s
7. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr And Jr
It wasn’t easy being Julio Cesar Chavez jr.
“I get the criticism,” he said, “because I am senior’s son. For all the good I do, I feel it counts for half. And any of the bad is doubled because of the limelight that’s on me.”
The good is making three defences of the WBC middleweight title (2011-2012) and the bad includes failing drugs tests after the Sergio Martinez and Troy Rowland fights and his flop against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Chavez sr is remembered for being arguably the best fighter of his generation. He remained unbeaten until his 91st fight – upon turning pro he had promised his mother he would retire once he was beaten – and won world titles at super-featherweight, lightweight and super-lightweight.
6. The Duivens
What about this pair . . . After a late withdrawal left Dutch heavyweight Harry Duiven jr without an opponent for his seventh pro fight in December, 2006, his own father agreed to step in!
Harry Duiven sr – 20 years his opponent’s senior – was beaten inside two rounds and never boxed again. According to net reports, Duiven sr reckoned that with more time to prepare, he would have won.
5. The Spinks’
Cory Spinks was born five days after his father, Leon, beat Muhammad Ali in a huge upset and for the next few years, father and son didn’t have much to do with each other.
Wild man Leon had already split from Cory’s mother by the time he was born and she struggled to get any support from Cory’s father as he partied away his ring earnings.
The situation would be reversed years later when Leon was working as a cleaner at a YMCA and Cory was a two-weight world champion. “Now it’s payback time,” said Leon in 2006. “He’s not helping me at all, but that’s all right. I don’t ask for nothing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQD9Z9wExU
5. The Eubanks
ITV are fond of showing the clip from the 2003 reality TV show ‘At Home With The Eubanks’ when Chris Eubank sr tells his son Chris jr that he will not be allowed to box.
Like his father, Eubank jr served his boxing apprenticeship in the States and has said he intends to eclipse his father’s achievements. Eubank sr won world titles at two weights and had more world-title fights – 24 – than any other British boxer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n30eb8O15jE
3. The Joneses
ROY Jones sr, who had fought Marvin Hagler in his pro career was a tyrant.
He would whip his son with a plastic pipe or water hose should he show signs of tiring during training sessions and there was a story that Roy started carrying a knife and then a pistol after seeing his father tie his pet Rottweiler to a tree and shoot it in the head for biting his sister.
Despite this, they stayed together throughout Jones’ amateur career that culminated in his robbery in the final of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and throughout his first 19 pro fights – until son made the break from father.
2. The Calzaghes
ENZO Calzaghe was a winner. “We would fight over anything when we were kids,” he said. “We would fight over a game of marbles. We would start cheating and if you didn’t get caught and you won, then you’ve won. The saying is: ‘May the best man win,’ well my attitude was that I’m the best man and I will win.”
This spirit was passed on to his son . . .
Enzo didn’t learn how to train fighters out of a text book and remembered: “The other coaches would laugh at me behind my back,” but Joe won all 46 professional fights with his father in his corner.
“It doesn’t matter how good I am at training fighters,” said Enzo, “they need to have the ability and Joe was special. They couldn’t read his style. Joe was unique, nobody else could do what he did. Could I train someone to beat Joe? I think I could find a system.
“But he would have to be some fighter.”
1. The Mayweathers
ONE of the reasons given for Floyd Mayweather jr’s greatness was his DNA. His uncle, Roger, held WBC titles at super-featherweight and lightweight, another uncle, Jeff, fought Oscar de la Hoya and his father, Floyd sr, boxed Sugar Ray Leonard. Floyd sr wasn’t the greatest of influences. Legend has it that when a rival drug dealer pointed a shot gun at him, Floyd sr dangled the not-yet-two-year-old Floyd in front of him as a human shield.
Floyd sr had spells inside prison for drug dealing and the relationship with his son was up and down. Mayweather sr was once thrown out of a house his son owned and for more than a decade, he was missing from his son’s corner.
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