Lt. Heavy champ Eddie Mustafa Muhammad ballooning up to fight hvyweight Renaldo Snipes and losing...then coming back down to Lthvy to lose his title to Michael Spinks. 1981-05-17 : Renaldo Snipes 215 lbs beat Eddie Mustafa Muhammad 201¾ lbs by SD in round 10 of 10 Location: Ballys Park Place Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA Referee: Vincent Rainone 7-2 Judge: William Kostrub 9-1 Judge: Paul Cavalier 3-5 Referee Vinnie Rainone at 7-2-1 and Judge William Kostrub’s 9-1 for Snipes naturally was based on Renaldo doing all of the aggressive fighting, or, whatever of it took place. Long time Jersey official Paul Cavaliere, the other Judge, had his card announced at 5-3-2 for Muhammad! Following the bout Cavaliere was adamant that he had Snipes the winner, but Deputy Commission Robert Lee refused to change the card. Apparently Paul had the boxers mixed up while giving the rounds to Snipes, he marked them for Muhammad. Sources: Flash Gordon’s Tonight’s Boxing Program & Weekly Newsletter Issue Number: 388 Aug. 10th - Aug. 16th 1981, page 2. NBC TV Sports
Joe Frazier's decision not to retire,....not to join Rocky Marciano and Gene Tunney in This content is protected after whipping Muhammad Ali in the FOTC on March 8th, 1971. No matter what anybody thinks, ...he could have chosen that path if he had wanted to.
European welterweight champion Johann Orsolics has a signed contract to fight Jose Napoles for the welterweight title scheduled for late 1970 in front of the hometown audience. So what does that shrewd Johann do while waiting for his signed title fight? He decides to take a 'tuneup' fight. And who does he choose as his fodder? Eddie Perkins! Can you believe it? Perkins knocks him kicking in 4 rounds and kisses the title shot goodbye. Napoles has Perkins and Billy Backus now on the table and he chooses the easier of the two in Backus and loses his title on cuts. What went through Orsolics' braintrust that they would choose Perkins as a tuneup for an already signed title shot?
But, that is also what made Saad Muhammad great. Guy had balls of steel. He wasn't afraid to face any man in the ring.
I'm thinking Robinson might of had the handcuffs on in those fights against Servo. Hoping perhaps that a title shot could come down the road if Servo was able to win it. Just a thought I have no proof of course. One thing Ray did speak openly about in his book was that he was asked to carry guys quite often he mentioned a few of them like Chuck Fusari.
One no one has mentioned is Joe Baksi's decision to fight Olle Tandberg when he apparently was in line for a big money shot at Joe Louis' title later that year. Another one of those tune-up fights which derailed a title shot.
Roy Jones moving down from HW to fight Tarver and then the real nail giving him a rematch. Ali’s comebacks
Curry fighting McCallum too early when he really was not over the Honeyghan loss and not yet a full fledged 154 pound fighter in comfort. It was a bad fight. Anytime someone fights McCallum you have to fight great, but he didn't have the firepower to really keep Mike off him at that time.. Either way bad decision. Taylor fighting Norris. I am not sure who decided that one.
I thought Jerry was a great boxing commentator. Apparently ABC offered $300,000 to CBS' $250,000 to televise the fight. And yes, it cost Jerry a sweet gig that he was a natural for at a time that he should've been transitioning to other careers besides boxing. He might've been happier and prevented some of the further damage incurred sparring and fighting into the 80's.
Here's one I heard recently: According to Gerry Cooney's management, they offered WBA Champ Mike Weaver a guaranteed 5 Million+ to fight Gerry Cooney. They would pay #1 Contender James 'Quick' Tillis a step aside fee (which Tillis apparently agreed to) to have Weaver fight Cooney instead. Weaver inexplicably fought Tillis instead for $250,000 and Cooney's management then sought Larry Holmes. Cooney loses to Holmes and Weaver eventually loses to Michael Dokes. Bye bye 5+ Million to lose to Dokes instead for relative peanuts. The Cooney fight was also (looking back) a winnable fight for Weaver. Smack my damn head.
