During last night's
Samuel Peter-
Oleg Maskaev fight, HBO play-by-play man
Jim Lampley mentioned that
Lennox Lewis and Rocky Marciano are, in Lampley's words, "the only two heavyweight champions who have defeated every man with whom they were ever in the ring."
Lewis avenged both of his losses, to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman, and also won the rematch after his draw with Evander Holyfield. Marciano, of course, is the only heavyweight champ to retire with a perfect record.
But then Lampley's broadcast partner,
Max Kellerman, told Lampley that he was forgetting someone: Gene Tunney. Kellerman pointed out that the only man to defeat Tunney was Harry Greb in 1922, and that Tunney had subsequently defeated Greb, so Tunney actually belonged in that class alongside Lewis and Marciano.
Lampley then acceded to Kellerman's superior knowledge of boxing history. And, as anyone who has watched Kellerman knows,
everyone should accede to Kellerman's superior knowledge of boxing history. Kellerman's knowledge of boxing history is staggering -- even when it comes to boxers who fought half a century or more before the 34-year-old Kellerman was born.
But there's a problem: In this case, Kellerman was wrong.
After beating Paulie Malignaggi on Saturday night, Ricky Hatton has just about cleared out the 140-pound weight class in boxing. But immediately after the fight, the MGM Grand was buzzing with speculation about whether Hatton would move up or down in weight, or whether another fighter would move to 140 pounds to challenge Hatton.
