http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/blog/?p=22110 An interview with Curtis Parker. I've been checking out some of his bouts on youtube. An all-action fighter if there ever was one.
Parker was a tough , exciting fighter that had some nice network exposure back in the day when that existed in an era of tough middleweights ..
Parker, Mustafa Hamsho, Frank Fletcher, Wilford Scypion, Ramos....NBC was showing all these great jr.middle and middleweight fights in the late 70's and early 80's.
He came a few years after Briscoe, Monroe, Hart and Watts. Had some good exposure on NBC in the early 80's, lost some iffy decisions and kind of faded away if I remember correctly. Good action fighter, maybe just a class below the top guys
Good read, thanks. Parker was a "chap" back in the day, no doubt about that. Seems a pretty realistic, humble guy, I wasn't aware of the weight stipulation in the Mugabi fight. I remember being shocked that Curtis got blown out in 1. Glad to hear that he's doing well...when I saw the thread title I thought oh no...thought it maybe bad news...good that he's doing fine...
It was actually late ,70's to mid 80's, Don't forget Dwight Davison. Also, Brit. Tony Sibson was in the mix. The American Middleweight contenders of the early '80's got a lot of TV exposure, but the drawback was that they had to fight very tough competition. Anyone out of this group who got a title shot really had to earn it. Conversely, a guy like Fully Obel, with his WBA connections, could fight stiffs and still get TWO title shots. I'm not saying all these guys would necessarily beat Obel, but they didn't have the political connections and all fought tougher competition as contenders. Also, it's a travesty that Caveman Lee got a title shot, and most of these guys didn't. I think Lee was a replacement for Mickey Goodwin, who was even less deserving than Lee. I think Hearns pulled out of a title fight with Hagler, and Manny Steward was allowed to pick his replacement from his stable.
I believe Parker's coming out party was his win over David Love, a Californian who was on a run against Philly fighters: Willie Monroe, Boogaloo Watts and Bennie Briscoe. That fight put this Pocket Joe Frazier on the map and led to a nice string of high-profile fights. We won a few, lost a few against top-drawer competition, but he was never dull and was a handful for anyone.
Parker i believe lost a very close decision to Hamsho around 82-83?, great fight.. He had a very close duel with Animal Fletcher around 82? it's been so long ago i can't recall who won?:huh Parker, Fletcher, Hamsho, Sibson, Scypion, Davison, Ramos, Czyz, Auntfermo, throw in Hard rock Green, they were all the JV players, to the Varsity team of Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran from about 1976-1985.. Those were the days
A personal favorite of the time period. I had heard that his sparring sessions were wars and that he may have left some of his best fighs in the gym.
I just recently checked out one of his fights on youtube, against a fighter named Philip Morefield. You got to check this out. Parker's at the end of his career and Morefiled was undefeated I think. But, oh man, how many times I yelled out, "Ohhhhh!" Just a good old-fashioned slug-fest.
Enjoyed that a lot, thanks for sharing it. I saw his Mugabi fight, was not aware of the weight stipulation either, probably hurt him much more in the same day weigh in era, he just got hammered, but that could happen easily enough with Mugabi. I saw the 2 Hamsho fights, I recall the 2nd one more vividly, and it was not even close, I also thought Hamsho won the 1st, but not by much. Anyway, he was a good fighter, and he did look like a mini Frazier stylistically, didn't he? Glad to hear he is doing well.
He actually fought Fletcher in early '85 when Fletcher was pretty much shot - stopped Animal in the second round. If they had fought in '82 it would have been a great fight.
He was trained by Willie Reddish and apparently regularly got the better of Michael Spinks when sparring. He also tells a story about getting rocked by Bennie Briscoe while sparring.