Who do you think is the most well known pool player (among the general public)?

PoppaSaun said:
He won 31 times in a row. He had a lossless streak of 71, but had several draws in that time.

There is no evidence that he was paid to retire. He was in his mid thirties, which is a logical age to retire.

He was also an incredibly horrible human being and should be forgotten.
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He set a ring record by making 14 successful title defenses. A record which stood for 27 years before Bernard Hopkins broke it. Monzon retired as undefeated champion in 1977. His record was 87-3-9 with 59 knockouts. He had won his last 80 straight fights.

I watched the boxing news live at the time he retired, the WBC paid him 500k to retire, the WBA paid him an undisclosed amount. Yes, in his private life he was an a##hole, went to prison for killing his wife, died at 52.
 
realkingcobra said:
He set a ring record by making 14 successful title defenses. A record which stood for 27 years before Bernard Hopkins broke it. Monzon retired as undefeated champion in 1977. His record was 87-3-9 with 59 knockouts. He had won his last 80 straight fights.

I watched the boxing news live at the time he retired, the WBC paid him 500k to retire, the WBA paid him an undisclosed amount. Yes, in his private life he was an a##hole, went to prison for killing his wife, died at 52.
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He did not win his last 80 fights. Seriously, look up his record.

Undefeated, yes. Won, no. He had several draws in those 81 fights. (I realize I mis-typed and wrote 71)
 
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Curiosity

Not long ago, I was curious about this also. Did my own limited survey (U.S. midwest) among family and friends. Hands down, no equal, Jeannette Lee was easily the most recognized. As stated by others, she wasn't always referred to by names so I'm not sure that fits the OP's question.
 
PoppaSaun said:
He did not win his last 80 fights. Seriously, look up his record.

Undefeated, yes. Won, no. He had several draws in those 81 fights. (I realize I mis-typed and wrote 71)
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His last loss was at 16W-3L draws are not a loss, and he avenged all 3 of his loses with wins. Do the math, i already have.
 
PoppaSaun said:
He did not win his last 80 fights. Seriously, look up his record.

Undefeated, yes. Won, no. He had several draws in those 81 fights. (I realize I mis-typed and wrote 71)
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The point being, even if you follow boxing, you can still fail to know the greats, so as far as asking people that don't have anything to do with pool, to name a pool player, the odds are slim to even name Minnesota fats to answer the question, and that's only if they had ever watched the "hustler" at some point in time in their life, and the ONLY reason they would have even watched the movie would have been because of Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason staring in it as they BOTH had a huge following of fans.
 
PoppaSaun said:
I never said he lost, but you said he won. Draws are not wins.

Seriously, get over yourself. You aren't always right.
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Draws are not losses either, that's why the fight ends even, but if there's a title on the line, it stays with the champion as it requires a loss to lose it. Get over myself???....LMAO really? YOU didn't even know who he was, yet commented that he was a piece of shit....that don't speak to good about you, but no need to reply and derail this thread to make some kind of off subject personal point, just let it go, I've already tried to get it back on track, now let it go and do the same.
 
pt109 said:
Do I have to be the first to mention this man?

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To the general public, I'm betting very few folks know the name Efren Reyes. I'm betting nobody at my work knows him unless they play pool, or are from the Phillipines. Anyone else, nah, they have no idea. But then again, to be fair, I don't know who is the best badmitton player on the planet either ??
 
realkingcobra said:
Draws are not losses either, that's why the fight ends even, but if there's a title on the line, it stays with the champion as it requires a loss to lose it. Get over myself???....LMAO really? YOU didn't even know who he was, yet commented that he was a piece of shit....that don't speak to good about you, but no need to reply and derail this thread to make some kind of off subject personal point, just let it go, I've already tried to get it back on track, now let it go and do the same.
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I did know of him. Stop making things up to make yourself feel better.

Justinb386 commented that HE didn't know who he was.

I never said he lost. You said he won 80 in a row. If you could admit a mistake, you could have just said, 'My bad, I meant that he was undefeated in 80 fights.' And, it was 81 fights in which he was undefeated...with draws.

So, my statement stands
 
realkingcobra said:
The point being, even if you follow boxing, you can still fail to know the greats, so as far as asking people that don't have anything to do with pool, to name a pool player, the odds are slim to even name Minnesota fats to answer the question, and that's only if they had ever watched the "hustler" at some point in time in their life, and the ONLY reason they would have even watched the movie would have been because of Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason staring in it as they BOTH had a huge following of fans.
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I'm not sure that they have to have watched The Hustler to know Fats. He was able to leverage the name from the movie (or take over the name) but gained fame due to his own self-promotion. So the name became known - and those TV appearances he did with Willie and all his other media stuff spread the name. Whatever else people want to say about him, he certainly understood marketing!
 
GideonF said:
I'm not sure that they have to have watched The Hustler to know Fats. He was able to leverage the name from the movie (or take over the name) but gained fame due to his own self-promotion.
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True, if your exposure to pool was limited to seeing cues at Wal Mart, you would think the two most famous players are "Minnesota Fats" and "Budweiser" :p
 
PoppaSaun said:
I did know of him. Stop making things up to make yourself feel better.

Justinb386 commented that HE didn't know who he was.

I never said he lost. You said he won 80 in a row. If you could admit a mistake, you could have just said, 'My bad, I meant that he was undefeated in 80 fights.' And, it was 81 fights in which he was undefeated...with draws.

So, my statement stands
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I will admist that i had you .ixed up with Justin. Undefeated in my book means didn't lose a fight...LOL
 
realkingcobra said:
I will admist that i had you .ixed up with Justin. Undefeated in my book means didn't lose a fight...LOL
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That is my point, if you would have said 'didn't lose', or 'was undefeated', you would have been correct. You said 'won'. Draws have no winners, he had several draws, ipso facto, he did not win all 81 fights.
 
One of the most famous is a fictitious person - Fast Eddy Felson.

A lot of people think he actually existed because of the movie.
 
Jeanette Lee has a very high profile among early millennials, though they don't always know her name. Almost anyone who grew up in a household with ESPN in the '90s would recognize/remember her.

Besides that... as others have mentioned, Tom Cruise ;)

I'd bet dollars to donuts that vast majority of players in my previous APA league could not name one current male professional player.
 
skip100 said:
Jeanette Lee has a very high profile among early millennials, though they don't always know her name. Almost anyone who grew up in a household with ESPN in the '90s would recognize/remember her.

Besides that... as others have mentioned, Tom Cruise ;)

I'd bet dollars to donuts that vast majority of players in my previous APA league could not name one current male professional player.
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At the rate they retire, un-retire, go on hiatus, etc ... not sure I could either.
 
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