A staple of the middle division from the 80's and 90's. Started off strong going 15-1-1, picking up the Georgia Middleweight strap along the way, even got the WBC Continental belt against White Hype Kevin Moley. But he also started picking up losses, some weird ones, but mostly due to a rapid shift in the quality of opponents. Frank Tate, Herol Graham, Roberto Duran, Michael Watson, Lindell Holmes, Troy Waters, The Beast Mugabi, Roy Jones, James Toney, Charles Brewer... Anyone know his story? Did he have a manager? Was he just a File Under O for Opponent type?
Basically a trial horse. First saw him against Bomber Graham, stocky dude and brawling type but not particularly skilled. He was a late starter and a former american footballer who scaled down from 180 to middleweigt limit. Was managed and promoted by Jerry Hill a former boxer from Florida https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/151825 https://www.facebook.com/jerry.hill.397501/ Believed he did enough to win against Duran and decision was because Roberto was the Known fighter. Lost against the better fighters and was named in 1993 congressional investigations into boxing. https://ia601304.us.archive.org/3/items/corruptioninprof02unit/corruptioninprof02unit.pdf
Always wanted to see the 1st Stackhouse-Kevin Moley fight. Moley was a big punching New York based prospect who was rebuilding after losing to an old Wilfredo Benitez (who he floored) and then drilled in a round by the dangerous Richard Burton (who had squashed big punching Eddie Hall, who had a win over a young Barkley in a forgotten classic, and floored a comebacking Mustafa Hamsho before running out of gas and getting stopped. Hamsho promptly retired for good!). Stackhouse on a run of 3 losses (last 2 by ko) travelled to Moley´s backyard as a sacrificial lamb but knocked him out and won the WBC Continental title. Love seeing unheralded underdogs knocking the touted prospect in front of their adoring fans. If anyone has a copy I´d be grateful if they upload somewhere.
Ricky Stackhouse. Had long forgotten about him and when first seeing this thread, completely mistook him for Ricky Thomas, another tough journeyman who fought a lot of the big names from the day. Thomas fought in the same weight division and around the same time that Stackhouse did. Toney fought both guys about a year apart from one another. I followed the sport closely during Stackhouse's career, but only remember him losing to Duran in a good effort, and getting blasted out early by an upcoming Roy Jones Jr. Noticed on his Boxrec page that he defeated Kenny "The Blizzard" Snow, another fighter who hadn't crossed my mind in eons. Good call-out on Stackhouse.
Not disputing the outcome, he stated it in an article sometime after the fight and I read a report of the fight said he had his arms raised and stormed out of the ring after the verdict was announced. Not seen the fight but the reports state Duran deserved the win. I have a couple of articles that are sort of profiles and he comes across as someone who thought he had more ability than he actually had and like a lot of fighters complained when a decision against him was given. The overwhelming info from around the time of the fight was Duran had to lose weight drastically which could / is a reason Rickey lasted the distance.
Yes no doubt Duran lost weight just prior to the bout, he was like that at that time for sure. Stackhouse was ok, but just ok. He didn't have any great attributes that separated him from the pack.
