|
I hope you enjoy it once I get it moving. Right now I'm sort of setting it up. I'm going through my old boxing magazines from the 50s and 60s to revisit his career. Everything I've read through the years indicated that he could have been great as a pro---thus the inspiration for this sim. He was thirty when the communist regime let him dabble in the pros, so those fights were not partilularly indicative of what he might have done if really given a chance. I share your view on the Euro fighters--of course Cerdan was a different matter. I also felt that Gustav "Bubi" Scholz was a standout as well. Too bad his only crack at a world title was when he was a little past prime and fighting as a light heavy.
The interesting thing about this era (and I hope the sim) is that the division sort of goes through a pretty big transition. It starts with Zale, Graziano, Cerdan, and LaMotta. By the time Papp actually turns pro, Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio are major players. The real constant thread is Sugar Ray within the division. At the end of Papp's career Joey Giardello is wearing the crown. He started his career the same year that I have Papp defect.
Spider Webb, Paul Pender, Dick Tiger, Terry Downes, and Hurricane Carter were all active in Laszlo's later years. And I've not even mentioned any of the welterweights who moved up (Kid Gavalin) during the mid-period.
So there's a broad range of potential matchups for this sim. I'll just with the flow here, as I did with the Stevenson sim. Minimally, I'll run it until the end of 1956 to account for the "lost years".
|