Fights who suffered damage due to sparring wars?

I imagine Katsidis went to war every day in the gym lol

 

The guy I always think of when this topic comes up is Zack Padilla (because I really liked him). He was an okay lightweight, retired for several years, put on a lot of weight, then took up boxing in the gym again to drop some pounds. Then he decided to try the sport again.

He won some fights on ESPN, went on a roll, scored some upsets, got a surprise shot at the guy they were hyping as the "next Pipino Cuevas" in Carlos Gonzalez, and Padilla registered a monster upset to win the WBO Super Welterweight title. Made a handful of defenses. Was a really good boxer.

Then he sparred with Shane Mosley (back when Mosley was a lightweight - and Mosley was a big puncher at lightweight ... he lost that power when he moved up). And Mosley was trying to impress and they went to war in the gym and Padilla suffered a brain bleed (I believe). So he had to retire.

And it sucked. I never really liked Mosley all that much after that.

 

He definitely was that

 

As already mentioned: James Toney, Terry Norris, Mike Quarry and Curtis Parker.

Gerald McClellan was known to being in sparring big guys with no headgear. That was one of the many reasons why he ended up getting brain damage following his fight with Nigel Benn. Weight cuts, gym wars, and fights with big punchers like Jackson and Benn are a horrific combination.

 

There is a saying that some of the best fights we didn't get to see, happened in the gym. I've seen pros spar and a few of fight dirty (mainly rabbit punching) and sparring can be competitive and respectful but it can also be heavy and guys start unloading on each other. It's also a reason we often don't get to see certain fights because the boxers have already experienced what it is like to fight their prospective opponent already. Joe Frazier broke Larry Holmes ribs sparring. Kronk had a reputation of being known as a sparring gym. Oliver McCall was Mike Tyson's sparring partner for a long time and one may conclude he could have inccured a bit of damage. Theres a lot of fights that didn't get made in the UK I suspect because of sparring.

 

Jerry and Mike Quarry despite being brothers had some wars sparring together.
Matthew Saad Muhammad late in his careeer sparred with Michael Moorer and Moorer broke Saad's ribs so badly that when a doctor saw the damage he couldn't believe that the damage was caused by a fist. Moorer seemed like a dickhead when sparring.

 

Good post
To be fair though JCC trained in the same manner. He's still good though. Hopefully that doesn't change. Phila and Detroit are both famous for hard sparring. Many Phila fighters were damaged permanently from those battles

 

Apparently Wlad and Vitali agreed that sparring each other was highly unpleasant and they stopped that activity.

 

There's a bishop in the denomination I grew up in, who's also a gospel music artist, his name is Bishop Richard "Mr. Clean" White. I remember him saying that his father was a sparring partner for Joe Louis back in the 1940s.

 

Most of the damage is done in the gym.

 

James Toney is the first to come to mind, but I’m sure it happens a lot.

The Norris brothers. Many Philly fighters. Probably a quite a few in Mexico too as they’re also known for gym wars. Donald Curry reportedly had over 400 amateur bouts.

When Saad was getting beat by Qawi, the commentators talked about the punishment Saad had taken in fights and Gil Clancy said “in Philly, you’re supposed to the king of the gyms too”

Sparring just helps prevents cuts, but your brain is still rattling from the punches. And your head is a bigger target too from the headgear

 

I feel like us boxing fans knew this long ago before all these recent studies came out and started making the news because of the NFL.

Whenever there’s a ring tragedy, it’s almost always a guy taking a long beating over the course of the fight. And not often when a guy gets KO’s for the count.

 

Earnie Shavers claimed to spar around 250 rounds whenever he had a big fight coming up. Also said his sessions were almost always wars. Even outside of camp the guy would spar a lot.

 

Terry Norris is the first to come to mind.

 

“During sparring, Holmes worked over his hired hands with savage intensity, and when he was done he had boxed 210 rounds. “He was averaging 75 punches a round,” said Giachetti. “I counted rounds as high as 95. Now you know why he pays his sparring partners $1,000 a week and offers them a $10,000 bonus if they can knock him down. When Ali spars he’s playing; when Larry spars he’s all business.”