"Man, what a great fighter. People don't know he gave Meldrick Taylor a draw back in the day when they matched him up against him. I'm a big Howard Davis Jr. fan and I remember that fight with Meldrick Taylor. He's probably one of the top 10 fighters ever to never win a world title," stated world-class trainer Stephen "Breadman" Edwards, who shared his memories of 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. Last Wednesday, Davis Jr. passed away after battling cancer. He was 59 years old.
"Man, he just had some tough luck, especially in the Rosario fight when he was knocked down in the last round. I mean, think about this, he was voted the best fighter on the best Olympic Team ever, so that tells you how good he was. He's probably the best amateur in the history of boxing at 132, except maybe besides Oscar [De La Hoya]. He was a phenomenal fighter, man. It's a shame he died of cancer like that. I just had a chance to actually kind of correspond with his son a little bit about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Definitely rest in peace to Howard Davis Jr., man," Edwards commented.
He added, "A lot of these young cats don't realize how talented he was as a fighter because he didn't win the title and he didn't have the prestige that Ray Leonard had, but he was a great fighter and he fought in the era with no head gear against the Russians and the Cubans. You had to really be able to fight to win a Gold Medal back then and he won one. He was a phenomenal talent and I felt bad when I head of his death and I feel really bad for the family."
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