Fighters With Tragic /Sad Ends?

Jimmy Bivins
Alexis Arguello
Arturo Gatti
Sonny Liston
Vernon Forrest
Randy Turpin
Beau Jack
Esteban Dejesus
Edwin Rosario
Hector Camacho


It’s a long list

 

I believe Hugh McIlvanney's writing about Johnny Owen is the best I've ever seen about boxing, perhaps about any sport.

 

Can we just save time and list the ones who didn't have sad/tragic ends?

 

currently we have adonis stevenson.

 

Arturo Gatti, if not already mentioned.

In more recent times, at least it was nice to read that Wilfredo Gomez was rescued from a bad life situation - last I read he was travelling quite well - I hope that it has remained so.

 

The thread does say "Fighters" so technically Lightning Lee Murray qualifies.

For Murray to pull of a 53million dollar heist, get away with it then flee to Morocco only to be captured is one of the most sad endings iv ever heard.
Its heartbreaking to see someone so close yet so far.

 

Benny Lynch.

 

Julian Letterlough got murdered at a bar. Oscar Bonavena got murdered at a brothel.

Matthew Saad Muhammad was homeless late in life. Iran Barkley was homeless for a little while, and then living in the Paterson projects in the South Bronx that he grew up in. I’m not sure how he’s doing now. His nephew Saquon makes 8 figures in the NFL, so maybe he’s helping him out.

 

Leslie "Sweet Lemonade" Gardner falling into heroin addiction, dying young and being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Detroit when he should have been a top middle in the 80's.

Same for Bernard Mays. Should've had a shot at Hagler and been a top middle in thrilling fights, but fell into alcoholism and almost died losing a fight to Matthew Lewis at the Forum in L.A. Died in his mid 30's from liver disease in an ALF with a bloated stomach that made him look pregnant. Tragic.

Worst was a guy I used to see regularly as a teenager at the Indy PAL gym training, ex Texas champ Clyde "Rocky" Mudgett. Always living on the fringe of the law, Mudgett fell on hard times after becoming a journeyman and decided to rob a meat packing plant before Xmas by shimmying down a chimney and carrying out the goodies. Trouble was he got stuck in the chimney and couldn't get out. Then the plant heating system fired up and sent exhaust blasts up the chimney and incinerated Mudgett. They found him about a week later mummified with fingernail claw marks in the chimney where he tried desperately to pull himself out.

More sad stories than happy endings.

 

If one looks at club fighters, locals, gym/sparring partner
types, tough-men contestants ,probably the majority end
up with sad ends.
For an example, a local fighter, Jeff Simms after a few
eye opening ko wins and almost cutting off Ali's lip while
sparring.
His ending came how he lived most of his life, which
was violently inside AND outside of the ring.
With bullets in the chest, dying on the streets of
Liberty City .....

 

Any discussion of fighters who had a tragic ending has to include Oscar "Ringo" Bonavena--shot and killed outside the notorious Mustang Ranch in 1976. (I recommend getting a copy of the book "Shot at a Brothel" which is a brief (only around 100 pages) but interesting overview of Bonavena's career and events leading up to the fatal shooting.)

 

Hi Buddy.
Good call on Lynch, lots of the aboves have been killed, by their own hand or someone else,s, a few in car accidents, some ended up in prison for life, Benny on the other hand chose his own fate, the demon alcohol, well remember a article I read many years ago, about how Lynch and his fellow drunks were walking home from a long nights drinking ( he was a champ at the time ) and one of the group looked behind and saw Benny lying face down in the gutter, he went back thinking that Lynch had collapsed, only to find that his face was over the drain, and he was trying to drink the dirty rainwater that was running into the drain, such was his dehydration !!!.
nice to chat matey, stay safe.

 

Wilfred Benitez how he was treated by his father was criminal

 

My first thought -

Leon Spinks was another; the guy who beat Ali winds up working as a janitor.

 

So many come to mind but this movie is just brutal... Denny Moyer's story is all the way sad.

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