DumbNBANephew t1_j8fr69r wrote on February 13, 2023 at 11:47 PM

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that Sugar Ray Robinson had won all but one of his previous 132 fights, when he was defeated by unknown British boxer Randolph Turpin in 1951. Turpin became the first Brit to hold the middleweight championship since 1891 by VengefulMight

Sounds to me like boxing in Britain was most likely rife with corruption and had been so for a long time. 1960s is when it finally got so corrupt that not one of the established boxers could win for decades and a "nobody" finally won.

RedstripeRhapsodyHP t1_j8g3bjx wrote on February 14, 2023 at 1:18 AM

You think British boxing conspired to prevent a Brit from holding one of the 'glory' titles for 60 years?

DumbNBANephew t1_j8j6wys wrote on February 14, 2023 at 6:27 PM

I think there was a circle of people who were "in" and they did their best to make sure no one else gets ahead of them no matter how good they are. A status pro quo that existed for a long time. They weren't all of British boxing when it all started, but they were de facto British boxing for a while before it all fell apart.

You see this sort of thing everywhere if you look hard enough. Some nobody being good enough to win it all and never get support is a telling sign.