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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.
In reality, Tunney did not defeat every man with whom he was ever in the ring. In 1923, Tunney had a no contest against Jack Renault -- a fight that the referee stopped because he didn't think either fighter was trying. And in 1918 Tunney fought to a draw against Tommy Gavigan. Tunney did not have rematches against either Renault or Gavigan, and therefore there are two men with whom Tunney was in the ring and whom Tunney did not defeat.
I point this out mostly because Kellerman getting something wrong like that is so rare. But I was also surprised that neither Kellerman nor Lampley pointed something out about the fighters they were watching.
Peter improved to 30-1 by beating Maskaev, and that one loss was to Wladimir Klitschko. So if the Peter-Klitschko rematch that everyone wants actually does take place, and if Peter wins that rematch, Peter would join Lewis and Marciano in that elite company.
Of course, the 27-year-old Peter has a long career ahead of him, with many more opportunities to lose. But it's possible that when we watch Peter, we're watching a fighter in his prime right now who will some day be mentioned alongside a pair of all-time greats, Lewis and Marciano.
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