This fight was considered one of the biggest upsets of the 1950s, as reigning WW champ Gavilan - who was unbeaten in his previous 28 fights over 3 years - dropped a non-title decision to rugged journeyman Danny "Bang Bang" Womber. Womber had a deceptive record with a number of close/competitive loses to top fighters of the day. He was very tricky and had a difficult defensive style - similar to Holly Mims IMO, but without the big sneak right hand. As far as Gavilan goes, he was coming off a string of impressive title defenses, but this fight may be the first indication that he was just beginning to slow down at this time. Having said that, I've always thought Gavilan did enough to win this fight with heavier and more impactful punching, even as Womber did match or surpass his workrate in a number of rounds. (It would seem at least one person who watched the fight agrees with me, since a comment under the 4th video simply says "Puzzling decision.") How do you folks see it?
Thanks, RL! I've never seen this fight, so I'll watch it now while working and let you know how I saw it. BTW - feel free to post more old videos in General where we can all view & discuss, as I don't think the video section gets a lot of traffic. Especially right now, when we're devoid of any significant upcoming fights except for Estrada-Choco II, there's nothing else to discuss so old videos are welcome.
Watching the first round alone, it's apparent that Gavilan was slower by this point than he was in his prime.
Odd that anyone would bemoan a lack of fights to watch when there's a forum designed for that purpose just a click away...
So I'm through 7 rounds - Womber is hanging tough, and putting up a great fight, but Gavilan is without question winning. He's landing the cleaner shots, and controlling Womber with that beautiful jab of his (which should silence anymore "I DooN't seeee AnYY JaBS in OLLdd fights) troll comments.
Just watched the fight. The Keed was robbed blind. Classic case of an underdog getting too much credit for putting up a tough fight. Gavilan's jab was the story of this fight. I thought he clearly won, and although I didn't score it, it seemed 7-3ish in favor of Gavilan to me.
I went through a lot of Gavilán’s close fights back in the day and remember giving him the edge in almost all. Particularly the close/controversial ones. This was among them, along with the 3rd Graham fight, the Bratton rematch, and the Tiger Jones fight. I believe I gave him each of them by 2-4 points. From what I gather, there’s plenty more where those came from. He probably ought to have about 10 more wins/fewer losses on his record.
I thought Gavilan beat Graham by about a 3-round margin (9-6 or 8-5-2-type decision), barely edged out Basilio (probably could've gone either way 8-7), and was robbed against Saxton and Womber. Gavi had no qualms about fighting on opponents' home turfs even when he was on top of the world, and that's what led to his involvement in so many "controversial"/split decisions.
Good post. I’ve never watched the full Saxton fight myself. Too depressing. The only fight involving Johnny Saxton that I’m a fan of is the Basilio rematch.
