7 reasons why Jimmy Young had a very unusual career in boxing

He had a rather intriguing boxing career

I had made an article months earlier thats called ‘I used to want to be a boxer’. I had that thought around 15 years ago, and on that article, I had explained the reasons why I didn’t go into boxing. While I had not watched boxing in years, I used to watch boxing a number of times. The main times that I had looked at boxing matches was around 15–10 years ago, which was the main time I was watching stuff on social media, which I don’t do nearly as much now. Plus, I had looked at a bunch of boxing records on Boxrec around the same time that I was commonly watching stuff on social media. Anyway, there was this underrated pro boxer that I want to talk about that had a overall unusual career in boxing. This boxer is Jimmy Young, and I’m going to explain the reasons why he had an unusual career in boxing. Now several of the things that I’ll mention is based on what I had seen in his matches, while other factors that I’ll state will be based on what I read when looking at Young’s record on Boxrec. The latter is due to me not seeing all of Young’s matches because in the older days of boxing, there were many boxing matches that were either not shot on camera or were shot on camera but later became lost forever due to a number of different factors (accidental fire, destruction from war, change in the rules of the government in the nation that the footage was shot in, etc.).

1. It was only around one-third of his pro victories that he stopped his opponents.

According to Boxrec, Young had 35 wins, but it was only in 11 of those wins that he stopped his opponent. Now according to Boxrec, there are plenty of boxers that didn’t stopped most of the opponents that they defeated, but in most of those cases, the boxers never became one of the top ranked contenders. Those are boxers that climb high enough enough on the boxing ladder to where they could get a shot at the World Title of their weight division. Other well known boxers that didn’t stop most of the opponents that they defeated are Willie Pep, Benny Leonard, Nicolino Locche, Wilfredo Benitez, and Pernell Whittaker, but those guys built a career that mostly involved them dodging and blocking punches. While Young had better reflexes than most other boxers, Young’s reflexes weren’t on the level of those boxers that I just mentioned.

2. The man had more losses than matches where he stopped his opponent

This is embarrassing as well as unusual by standards of a boxer that became one of the top ranked contenders. While he had 18 losses, what I’ll state next is what makes this very unusual.

3. According to Boxrec, several of Young’s losses were very close decisions

Muhammad Ali on the left

I have no idea why this was the case with Young’s career. It had been stated that a number of Young’s close decision losses could of been wins. The most known cases would be Young’s losses to Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton.

4. Young was stopped early by Earnie Shavers in their 1st match, and had a draw against Shavers in their 2nd match

A number of boxers, including Muhammad Ali, said that Earnie Shavers is the hardest puncher that they ever fought. While I couldn’t find any info on who Young said was his hardest hitting opponent, I’m sure that he would of said Shavers if he had been asked in an interview which boxer hit him the hardest. Young must of worked much more on his resiliency after his 1st match against Shavers.

5. Young had lost to a number of boxers that never became top contenders, yet did very well against boxers that did become top contenders

George Foreman on the left

Ken Norton on the left

How often does this happen ever? While Young’s career is already unusual based on what I had already mentioned, it’s the fact that he still held his own against top contenders that makes his career even more unusual. Along with drawing against Shavers in their 2nd match, Young defeated George Foreman, Ron Lyle twice, and Richard Dunn, and even gave Ali and Norton one of the hardest matches of their career, and this was all despite Young’s several losses against guys that never became a Title holder of any kind.

6. Young was a true underdog who had his biggest match in the same year that a big movie about an underdog boxer was released

Rocky Balboa (Left) and Apollo Creed (Right)

Young’s match against Ali happened in 1976. Later that same year, the underdog movie called Rocky made its debut. Like Rocky Balboa, Young was an underdog. Young wasn’t the favorite when he went against the most notable boxers that he fought. This would be reasonable because boxers that are the favorite in matches would get that due to past credentials in the ring. Young didn’t have great credentials prior to facing any of the most notable boxers that he fought, including Ali. It’s very surprising that boxing’s biggest true underdog had his biggest match in the same year that the biggest underdog movie was released.

7. Young never lived up to his potential, and the definitive reason is unknown

Young definitely had the potential to become one of the all-time greats of boxing, but he never lived up to it. I couldn’t find any definitive reasons why he never lived up to his potential. Nothing that I heard nor read about Young stated that he had an addiction to narcotics nor alcohol during his time in boxing. Young died of heart disease in 2005, but I couldn’t find anything that stated that a drug addiction had a part in his death. Now Young did put on more weight in his later boxing years, which means that he ate much more after earning more in boxing, but that’s not unusual among Heavyweight boxers that spent many years in pro boxing. It’s stated that the heaviest that Ali had been in boxing was during his latter years in boxing. I’m guessing that the big reason why Young didn’t live up to his potential was because he didn’t care that much about boxing. There are many boxers that went into boxing in hopes of becoming a World Champion, and there are boxers that went into boxing because they didn’t want to be poor. One of the things that I remember reading somewhere years back about Sugar Ray Robinson is that he stated that he hated boxing, but he hated being poor even more. I think that there were many boxers that entered boxing because of the same reason Robinson entered it. As I already stated on my article that’s called ‘I used to want to be a boxer’, if me and my dad had became homeless years after my mom’s death over 15 years ago (cancer), then I would of pursued a career in boxing, even though I was never a very big fan of boxing. My mom’s death contributed to why I commonly watched boxing around 10–15 years ago. Anyway, I do think that Young’s reason to going into boxing was because he didn’t want to be poor, not because he was a big fan of boxing. There were a number of factors that supports that. He only had 3 matches in amateur boxing prior to jumping into pro boxing. He didn’t stop most of the opponents that he defeated. He let himself go physically in his later boxing years. He had several close decision losses that could of been wins, and I can’t explain the reason behind that.

Overall, Young’s boxing career wasn’t very consistent. Young didn’t become nearly as good of a boxer as he could of been. If he had, then Young would of had far more wins, far more knockouts, far less losses, knock out the overrated bully that is George Foreman, and would of won the World Heavyweight Title against Ali. Sure, the win would of been against a fading Ali, but it still would of been a win. If Young had lived up to his potential, then Young could of been one of the greatest pound-4-pound boxers of all time. Well, those are the reasons why Jimmy Young had a very unusual career in boxing. Enjoy the rest of the year. The End.