Does anyone recall this guy? He had a record of 180-20-2 with 120 ko's and a whopping 25 no contests. That sounds like a boxing record from a hundred years ago. It is speculated he fought more under phony names. He fought a ton of what would probably be considered, would be fighters, but he did have some good wins over Kirkland Laing and 88 gold medalist Robert Wanglia. Although he lost ,he managed to go the distance with Buddy McGirt in 95 , before losing to a 24-1 Gary Murray, going the distance in a scrap for the World boxing union title. After that he was stopped by Mark Breland, Antonio Margarito and Julio Chavez as he was about done as he fought light heavys towards the end. He didn't have a win in his last 17 fights with 4 or 5 no contests .I guess you could call him a true,,professional journeyman.
I met him a few years ago in Oklahoma City at a fight card that was being held to benefit a school that had been hit by a tornado. He was setting up tables at ringside and I was putting up the ring and we took it all down afterwards. He was a good guy.
I used to watch him on ESPN all the time in the late 80s and 90s. A lot of their shows were held in the Midwest, and he was often on them. He didn't fight people under assumed names or anything. He just took fights on the undercards of basically every show he could find across the Midwest. What was interesting about Buck Smith was he could box and punch (he had a lot of KOs) and he never really sparred. That's why he fought so often. He said why spar when I can just fight and get paid. So that's what he did. If you just look at his record, for instance, in the first week of March 1993, he fought four times in six days. He fought in Kansas City, Missouri on Monday. Drove to Louisville, Kentucky, and fought on a show on Wednesday night and again on Thursday night. Then he drove home to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and fought on Saturday night. Spent a day or two with the family. Then he was back on the road driving to Nashville and fought on Tuesday night. He just treated it as a job. You drive to the location. Do your work. Go to the next spot. Do your work there. Go home. When I see people fawning over pioneers with a lot of fights, and how much experience they had, and how they all must've been so superior to today's fighters who don't fight as often, I always think about Buck Smith. You didn't necessarily have to be "great" to have a couple hundred fights and a couple hundred wins. You just needed to take basically every fight offered, know your fundamentals (don't fight like a novice) and don't worry about spending hours in the gym sparring for months before fights. Most of the fighters today spend all their time in the gym sparring instead of fighting. They're still putting in the work and the rounds. But their records don't reflect that.
Came across these videos about Buck Smith and it’s insane just how active he was with the amount of fights that he fought each month. Granted he’s mainly fighting no-names and is a journeyman fighter but I have huge respect for fighters like him who don’t have the support of big promoters or a team. He represents the average Joe everyman who do what they can to make a living and use the most of what they have even if it means treating boxing as a full time job. This content is protected This content is protected
If you don’t appreciate guys like Buck Smith and Harold Brazier, you probably don’t like boxing. Buck and Harold, btw, fought a 15-rounder in Oklahoma City in 1990 (a year in which Smith stepped into the ring like 30 times). The commission wouldn’t sanction it as 15-rounders had gone the way of the dinosaur but both just wanted to do it … so they fought it as a no contest/no decision match. I wish Boxrec or someone would find an account by the Oklahoman or some other outlet that might have covered it and rendered its own verdict so we could make it the last newspaper decision fight.
I remember him coming to the UK to get beaten up by Kirkland Laing, and won by KO Really good boxer. Underrated
Good puncher, is ko of Kirkland Laing was legendary. Laing was one of my favourites but couldn´t begrudge Buck such a great win. His rematch (dropped him in the 1st fight and lost a dubious decision) ko over Olympic Gold Medallist Robert Wangila (who unfortunately would later die in the ring) was his second best win and arguably his best complete performance. This content is protected
I heard or read somewhere years ago that Buck Smith used to drive across country to different cities and boxing venues looking for whatever fights he could take on short notice .
