This is an entry in an occasional series of posts looking back at the Ring Magazine Fights of the Year from 1970 to 2009.
In 1972, Bob Foster defended his unified (WBC & WBA) Light Heavyweight championship against Chris Finnegan in the UK. Foster was a heavy favorite in this fight; not only was he in the midst of a record-setting string of defenses at LHW, he was also the naturally bigger man in this fight; the only questions centered on his age. Foster answered those questions with a clean 14th round KO, which capped a good, competitive fight that he was nevertheless clearly winning.
Overview
Although Finnegan was overmatched for much of this fight, he employed great persistence and resourcefulness to make it far more competitive than either the outcome or the scorecards would indicate. Most of the action fell into one of these three patterns:
- Finnegan circles away from Foster while looking for openings, while getting jabbed to death and taking the occasional hard combination. Finnegan lands occasionally, but usually not enough to win the exchanges. Often, when Finnegan does attack, he is rebuffed by a hard counter before he really gets started.
- Finnegan pursues Foster, who trades with him. Finnegan often wins these exchanges.
- Finnegan remains largely stationary, while Foster circles him. Finnegan gets jabbed to death and takes the occasional hard combination, while landing hardly anything.
These patterns are listed in the rough order of their appearance in the fight. As you can see, Finnegan rarely had the advantage, but he was also rarely discouraged. What made the fight interesting was that, to my eye at least, Foster always looked vulnerable to a lucky shot, and Finnegan rarely if ever looked discouraged. He was the very definition of a guy with “a puncher’s chance”, and a pretty good boxer in the bargain.
Although I scored the first 9 rounds strongly for Foster, in truth many of them were very close, and Finnegan could even have had an edge on the hometown cards. After the knockdown in the 10th, however, Foster began to establish more and more control over the fight, leading to the eventual knockout.
Reaction
This wasn’t a particularly dramatic fight; Foster was clearly the better man on this night from the first bell, and his counters were especially spectacular. I think this bout loomed large at the time because it was so much better than anyone expected, and because Finnegan, although outclassed, fought with such tenacity.
A word here about FOTY criteria: I think that the tastes of Ring Magazine have changed over the years. The modern criteria seem to heavily weight action and, especially, drama. The older criteria, in force for the fights we’re looking at now, seem to value significance as much as anything else: so far, every fight we’ve seen has been a unified championship fight. This might be a by-product of technology: in the 1970s, many obscure fights that could contend for modern FOTY honors might simply not have been taped or filmed, limiting the pool of candidates to those relatively few bouts that were seen by more people than were in the house on the night.
It’s still a good fight, it’s just not Gatti-Ward.
Round Notes
These are my raw notes on the fight.
1: Foster is much taller than Finnegan. Finnegan circles away, Foster purses slowly, jabbing at a steady but not intense pace. The jabs seem to grow more effective later in the round. Finnegan lands at least one good power shot, but Foster wins with his consistent, solid jab.
2: Finnegan begins to stand his ground from time to time, and looks to land against Foster. He does, quite effectively, several times. For his part, Foster begins to employ his right behind his jab. Close round, but I think Foster’s punches were more significant.
3: Both fighters land good blows, but Foster not only lands what look to be the more effective ones, he also catches Finnegan coming in with hard, flashy counters on more than one occasion. Foster’s round.
4: Another round in which Finnegan gives a good effort and lands some solid punches, but still gets the worst of the exchanges. Towards the end of the round he seems to begin to once again back away from Foster.
5: Foster’s jab seems to have disappeared, or at least become very ineffective. Finnegan finds several openings to land power shots, and despite taking some fire in return, does enough to win the round on my card.
6: Tough round to score. Finnegan is back to circling away from Foster, who re-establishes his jab. Finnegan, however, is now countering the jab with body shots. I scored this for Foster, as the aggressor, on the narrowest of margins.
7: Here, the fight begins to assume some of the character of a slugfest. I think Foster wins, although it is debatable. Foster does land another spectacular counter.
8: Finnegan trades with Foster, and backs him up for the first time in the fight. Foster wins the last 30s of the round, but Finnegan wins the balance of the rest, and takes the round.
9: Finnegan begins strongly, but then Foster seems to recover and re-establish (in order) his defense, his jab, and even his right counter. I see Foster as taking control of and winning this round, albeit closely.
10: Foster’s jab scores consistently, but he is unable to stop Finnegan from landing the occasional hard punch. Foster is already winning the round when he knocks Finnegan down with a dramatic combination. Finnegan looks shaky when he first gets up, but steadies himself and trades with Foster for the balance of the round. Interestingly, Foster looked a little wobbly himself before the knockdown.
11: Foster circles and pot-shots Finnegan, winning the round. He gets hit from time to time, and slips once, indicating that his legs are somewhat unsteady. He looks vulnerable to a powerful attack, if one could be landed.
12: Much as in the 11th, Foster circles, pot-shots, and wins the round. Finnegan is a little more aggressive, and catches Foster a handful of times.
13: Foster is a little more aggressive in this round, standing in while throwing combinations. Finnegan trades with him, but comes up short.
14: As in the 14th, Foster is now more willing to trade. It pays off, as he knocks Finnegan down, and out. Counted out at 0:55.
