I grew up in that era, however I come from a very poor family and we never had cable TV growing up. I would still catch whatever I could at my friends' or my grandmothers house. I remember seeing guys like Arturo Gatti, Andrew Golota, William Guthrie, and many many more... Just in random, competitive fights on weeknights after school. It always seemed like a feeder program for HBO Boxing after Dark, which in turn was a feeder program for the big PPV events. Back then PPV wasn't even that bad. You could see Tyson or Holyfield for around 50$ and the undercards would have at least 2 other big fights. Usually Trinidad or Ricardo Lopez or somebody. Seems like that is missing today. I know PBC has made some moves, but they've never been able to put out anything consistent, though I have been pleasantly surprised to catch Fox Sports 1 fights broadcast on radio....but again, nothing consistent.
100% yes, even if the fights weren't always the best. Now they did have some real classics and good fights on, but one of the things USA TNF did better than anyone was hyping up fights that were really nothing more than filler Let's say its something like Tim Witherspoon vs an 18-6 Journeyman <cue dramatic music> TONIGHT....Former two time power punching heavyweight Tim Witherspoon returns to action, with a possible title shot down the line you know Tim will be looking go impress. But to do so first he has to get by the tough 18-6 Journeyman <splice in interview with Journeyman> "this is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm ready to crash Witherspoon's plans"> " Now the 18-6 Journeyman is 1-5 in his last 6 fights but he says, that just makes him more dangerous as opponents are now overlooking him, while he has rededicated himself to the sport even at the advanced age of 43" "I'm punching harder than ever and I'm going to surprise a lot of people tonight"
I’m fairly certain that journeyman’s name was always Bigfoot Martin, haha. Yes, I miss the Tuesday Night Fights. They found various niches that made each week an adventure. Every month or so we’d be at the Blue Horizon, which seemed to infect (often below-world-class) fighters in a way that turned them into hearts-on-their-sleeves, carry-them-out-on-their-shields warriors. For a certain period of time roughly once a month we’d get a ‘comeback tour’ guy like Big George or Larry Holmes or Roberto Duran or Hector Camacho vs. John “Midwest Circuit” Doe. Oba Carr and Baby Jones seemed like kids we watched grow up in our neighborhood as they rose from prospects to main eventers to title-level guys. And we’d seem to get some really interesting journeyman-vs-journeyman fights where these mid-level ‘traveling boxing show’ guys who otherwise always seemed to be cast as the ‘opponent’ for a name fighter got to duke it out in a fight one of them was going to win for a change. They seemed to be willing to work with different promoters to give us an ever-rotating lineup of ‘new’ talent (as in new to TNF, even if some were established). Not to mention the always-affable Sean O’Grady on color commentary. Yes, Tuesday Night Fights was an institution. It catered a bit to the casual fan but was more aimed at the true fan who didn’t care if two guys had identical 18-6 records as long as they came to fight and gave us their best. And quite often that guy who showcased in a four- or six-round undercard fight was a true prospect we’d see on HBO or wherever down the road and we could say ‘I knew him back in the day before he was a big deal.’
Haha yeah!! That's exactly how I remember them! And you're flipping channels and you got Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Unsolved Mysteries, or TNF
Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Terry Norris, Hector Camacho Sr., Jorge Paez, Juan Martin Coggi, Jorge Castro, Azumah Nelson and Jeff Fenech were also featured on some of those PPV undercards! Can you imagine that? And yes, I miss USA and HBO boxing! At least we still have Showtime...
I remember him talking about going to watch Nightmare on Elm Street as a teenager at the movie theater! lol!
More than anything. It was so good, so Sean O'Grady, and on a hopeless night in the grind of a work week.
And once or twice, I’m pretty sure, you got Wilbert “Vampire” Johnson on Tuesday Night Fights … so who needs Buffy?
A lot of Sean’s boxing-isms were so on the point and also so cleverly put. I remember him saying of fighters losing a fight and moving on with their careers: “When you lose, you were never at your best. Because how could you lose if you were at your best?” In other words, a fighter has to have and maintain confidence, so mentally he rejects the defeat as an anomaly of being sub-par or else he’d have his confidence shaken and not be able to get ready for the next fight. I was able to attend maybe two or three TNF cards over time. I remember getting to meet Sean before one of them, like arriving way before the first fight of the evening and approaching him when he wasn’t working yet. I had seen The Rolling Stones maybe a week or two before and was wearing a Stones sweatshirt and we ended up hardly talking about boxing at all … soon as I walked up he was like ‘Hey that’s a great sweatshirt. Did you get to see them live?” And then we talked about the Stones and the concert and he talked about seeing them a few times on previous tours. Completely genuine. Such a likable, ‘regular’ guy.
I really enjoyed Tuesday Night Fights quite a bit, as well as the other nights the show was on before they settled on Tuesdays for good. Two fights always stand out for me. One was our own @Tim Witherspoon destroying Anders Eklund in somewhere around a minute. The other one was Vuyani Bungu defending his 122 pound strap against Johnny Lewus. I believe the fight was on some kind of casino riverboat and I remember thinking how cool it would to be travelling on a riverboat watching a world title fight. I can't remember who it was but I do believe the undercard had someone who went on to be a famous boxer.
I miss them live when they were at Forum .. or was it Friday .. or was it both ?I was so young @greynotsoold would know
Hate to burst this particular bubble, but looked it up to be sure and that was at Grand Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. I attended some fights there and at the other Mississippi ‘riverboat’ casinos. When gambling was legalized in Mississippi, it was under a ‘riverboat gambling’ exception (since historically long ago riverboats had card games and such floating up and down the Mississippi River across jurisdictions). But of course these properties wanted a more stable, permanent structure (and have people come and go all day, rather than when a boat docks). To be able to do this, they would build the casino on huge barges that were completely anchored (as in they were ‘on the water’ and had walkways to the ‘riverboat,’ but that ‘riverboat’ was a barge that was set in concrete in shallow water so it wasn’t going anywhere). And often they’d have adjacent hotels on dry land and you’d just walk across the walkway and you were ‘on a boat’ (that never moved) in the casino. I think when the law passed the lawmakers envisioned boats floating up and down the Mississippi River with small gambling operations but those casino boys exploited the loophole — ‘it’s on the river, it’s a boat, but it ain’t gonna move an inch’ haha. There was one year during the Mississippi casino boom years where the state held like 300 world title fights of one sort or another, and Nevada was second at fewer than 100 iirc. They worked with promoters to get all but the top tier fights and took a lot of business away from Vegas and especially Atlantic City (with part of the deal being far lower taxes than AC).
