whilst Gene may not have been the most distinguished world champion he was a hell of a fighter - fit, relentless and all action. Perhaps the quick loss to a peak Lloyd Honeyghan is what a lot of people remember but that was the only time Hatcher was dispatched so easily. For a brief period Lloyd was on fire, never moreso than against Hatcher
The Mad Dog deserved to win that fight. Bumphus was doing all the crowing about it wont take long etc Gene was another friend from Ft Worth Texas great guy too. I'll never forget Lou Duva's face when Gene landed his " Left Hook From Heaven" & Bumphus was doomed. Gene's late Father was in his corner & Gene had a pic him, his Dad & the late great Dave Gorman in the ring with the belt. Three of the biggest smiles you ever did see. Lou Duva was having a hissy fit because Gene was a substitute & wasn't supposed to win. I'd have thought Lou would have known because Dave did the same to him when Stevie Cruz outlasted Barry McGuigan to take his title
For a short time until Serrano's handlers got the win overturned to a Techinical Decision for Serrano. Orginally it was a stoppage on cuts for Villablanca. Serrano's team protested and the WBA reviewed the film and ruled the cut was caused by a headbut. In almost any other case it seemed the Referee's decision would stand.
There were a bunch of them in the early cruiser days...Lee Roy Murphy, Ricky Parkey, Glen McCrory, Jeff Lampkin, Piet Crus, Masamillano Duran. Forgive me for assuming they were bad without watching.
Fully “Don’t Worry We’ll Keep Giving You Chances ‘Til You Finally Win A Belt” Obel. Based on what he looked like in the film I’ve seen, Eddie Gazo deserves a mention (although he made like three successful defenses … iirc all against unknown Asians who were gifted title shots).
Parkey was done after the loss to Holyfield. Though he KO'd a dude who was 24-0 to win the title with 1 decent title defense. He looked terrible against Holyfield. Though I attain that due to a prime Holyfield's greatness rather than Parkey's... awkwardness?
Murphy, Parkey and Lampkin were big punchers and at least in exciting fights. The same cannot be said for Duran and McCrory (exluding the Makathini fight). Glenn was a decent euro level guy who failed at HW and won a vacant CW title in a snoozer against Patrick Lumumba, defended against the aforementioned Siza Makathini and was then blown away by Lampkin.........then back up to HW to be walloped by a young Lennox Lewis in a commonwealth title fight i think
Bruce Seldon was one of the low points of the 90s heavyweight division. It’s no wonder everyone was praying for the second coming of Mike Tyson! To be fair to Seldon, he managed to make at least one defense of his title before his shameful showing against Tyson.