There is something that many people don't realize about Greg Haugen. He didn't learn to fight in Tough Man Contests; he started very young and had a ton of amateur fights. he was very well schooled from a very young age.
Yeah, he didn't win those tough man competitions by physically overwhelming his opponents. All 130 pounds of him.
I felt bad hearing this. Whenever someone you grew up watching passes it's a reminder how fleeting time is. May he R.I.P.
Can't believe he died, farewell to one of the most toughest b-level guys of all time, he's not the best but he made the most out of how little he had.
Greg was one of one. RIP I always remember after he made the cab driver comment they 100,000 fans were out for blood. So he makes his ringwalk to Born in the USA
Sad news. Haugen had a lot of big nights for a guy who most don't think of as a great fighter. The Chavez match was special. Can you imagine more than 100,000 people rooting against you? Stopping Mancini. Beating Paz (IMO) twice. Being the first to give Camacho a loss. It was certainly a colorful career.
Back when Greg came up and I was in my "Wilfredo Gomez turns into Molly Ringwald turns back into Wilfredo Gomez" era, I used to watch all the fights and all the John Hughes teenager movies. There were two movies that had PN connections and they were "Rad" about motorcycles..I mean who can forget Rad , it was awesome! The other one was "No Retreat, No Surrender", where a teen karate fighter moves to Seattle. I remember in NRNS, they made a comment that people from New York often dont see Seattle. Years later, when I visted Seattle, right in front of the Seattle stratosphere thing, I repeated that but instead said people from Puerto Rico often dont see Seatle, specially when they've never seen New York before.....lol I still haven't. Anyways, my point: I had read about Haugen and knew that be beat Freddie Roach, but I had never seen Haugen fight when he fought Paul, who was, as I said on another post, one of the three heads of the three-headed monster that was the lightweight division in 1986, along with Hector Camacho, Livingstone Bramble and, later, Edwin Rosario. So when I saw his story, how he was from Washington and moved to Alaska (you cant get no more pacific Northwest than that!) and then saw his extraordinary fight with Jimmy Paul, and quite honestly, I had him beat Paul by a razor-thin 143-142, I was like "wow, not only is this guy for real, but also he talks like some of the dudes in those teen comedies i watch!" lmao
Sad news. I got ESPN in the summer of 1985 when he was starting to make a mark. I remember watching him blow out Charle "White Lignting" Brown on a Friday night in Jan 86. The win over Jimmy Paul a few months later was a big surprise. The showdown with Paz in Providence with all the pre fight smack talk was awesome. I really wanted to see him kick Paz's ass. NBC had been hyping the he'll out of Paz.
He basically did beat Paz. Greg went to his hometown and Vinny agreed to go to Haugen's hometown. Ofcourse Vinny did what Vinny does. When it was his turn he refused. I still had Haugen winning the first two fights close but clear.
Sad news . Rest in peace. Greg had underestimated skills and smarts to go with his toughness. He beat pazienza,mancini and camacho you don't do that without skill. He also was a very good amateur. R.i.p