Sixty years ago today: Michael "The Spartan" Bentt (shortest pro career of any HW champion) is born.

Such a fascinating story. Bentt was born in one metropolis (London) only to be raised in its counterpart across the pond (NYC). He initially got into boxing, which he didn't like, just to appease his dad who loved it and wanted to live vicariously through his kids - a pretty familiar refrain in this sport, sadly. He really didn't like it, and had given it up entirely when a tragedy made him lock in and dedicated the next fourteen years of his life to something he previously had done with reluctance and resentment. While a preadolescent struggling in the gym, he'd found a kinder mentor than his father in teen Dominican flyweight George Pimentel. Eight years Bentt's senior, Pimentel literally showed him the ropes and spoke to his young friend of much broader ambitions than young Michael shared, though he admired Pimentel's drive. Unfortunately, not long after making the USA national amateur squad, Pimentel at just 20 would die in a plane crash in Poland along with a dozen teammates and several coaches (and the rest of the crew & passengers) - including the recently retired former welterweight champion Carlos Palomino's younger brother Paul.

Inspired to dedicate himself to achieving his role model's dreams of success, Bentt locked in...and boy, did he achieve. Bentt spent the whole 1980s rampaging across the amateurs, winning four NY Golden Gloves and five U.S. national titles. His greatest coup in this span was a split decision over Alexander Gennadievich Yagubkin of Russia in the AIBA world championship quarterfinals (avenging Yagubkin's defeat of him in the World Cup six months prior). Bentt would fall in the semis to Dutch southpaw Arnold Petrus Maria Vanderlyde, and fail in the rest of his major opportunities in the second half of the decade - losing twice in a row each to Félix Savón and Ray Mercer.

Then he linked up with Emanuel Steward and turned pro (at his father's insistence; Michael wanted to go to college instead) - just to get summarily blitzed in one round by a 6′4½″ southpaw from Hillcrest Heights, MD named Jerry "T-Bone The Slice Man" Jones. Apparently the fact that Jones was a lefty blindsided both Bentt and Steward, but the result was that the Kronk guru moved on to greener pastures and the despondent & humiliated Bentt spent twenty-two months of soul-searching, suicidal ideation, and self-blame before deciding to give it another go.

He packed on a few more pounds of muscle, and embarked on a three-year run going 10-0 (albeit versus middling opposition) while also serving as Evander Holyfield's chief sparring partner. As luck would have it, boasting an empty 10-1 record with a KO1 loss to his name made him an ideal candidate for Tommy "The Duke" Morrison's stay-busy tune-up ahead of a guaranteed 8 million dollar payday against Lennox Lewis. This was seen as nothing more than a chance for HBO to feature Morrison's destructive KO power to build up and promote the Lewis fight.

Cherry pick gone wrong, banana peel - whatever fruit analogy you want to use, Bentt may be up there with the biggest of all time. He quite unexpectedly survived an early onslaught to blitz Morrison in the 1st, relieving him of his WBO title, as a +1200 underdog. HBO and Morrison's handlers perhaps ought to have done their homework a little more diligently and maybe asked Holyfield and his people if Bentt was any good.

Pimentel's dream was more than satisfied now - with a slew of accolades in the amateurs, plus a world title. Only thing missing was an Olympic medal, courtesy of Ray Mercer, but all in all Bentt had more than set out what he meant to at the start of his journey.

He would hot potato the belt in his first defense the following vernal equinox to Herbert Okechukwu "The Dancing Destroyer" Maduagwu (better known as Herbie Hide), getting dominated throughout, dropped twice, and put into a coma for a week - and that was that. Doctors told him that he couldn't take any more blows to his already compromised head (Bentt had suffered a concussion during sparring in his training camp ahead of Hide), and Bentt essentially said "bet".

He was tempted a while later to suit up once more to end on a high note - but the New York Athletic Commission, admirably, shot him down. He shrugged and pursued a new path in life - as playwright, actor, director and teacher.

IB Funfact: Bentt was among two finalists when the field narrowed in an HBO audition contest to determine the color commentator for World Championship Boxing - alongside Lennox Lewis, who got the job.

And so we have a curious case of an 11-2 fighter, who began & ended his pro career with getting KTFO as bookends, and only ever defeated a single ranked opponent (a famously chinny one, at that; a glass cannon who underestimated him and blundered into his own downfall, caught cold) and who never even wanted to box in the first place and had quit multiple times in his life - joining the immortalized HW championship annals, if only for a cup of coffee.