If you haven't seen this, enjoy! This content is protected Incredible 17 y/o beanpole Tommy lasted the distance. 132 at 6'0 Herein not exactly firing the right of his Cuevas and Duran future. Aaron on the other hand was 3 years older and by this time already well-established as the world's top amateur lightweight for a couple of years and also only a couple of stops at the drive-through window from his forever pro weight.
If not for the Internet and, more specifically YouTube and its generous uploaders, we likely would have never have gotten to see Gold like this. Footage of Kostya Tszyu’s AM career, including vs Vernon Forrest, are also terrific reflections of just how well rounded a boxer KT was before his power progressively took more of a front seat in the pros.
Similar to Hearns, it’s still hard for me to believe Bob Foster — all 6-foot-3 of him — was a middleweight (165-pound limit) for much of his amateur career, including 1960 in his final year (in some tournaments earlier he did fight at light heavyweight, which I’m pretty sure was 178 pounds in his day.
Such a bummer Vernon was murdered chasing some punk at a gas station. Amazing how he had Mosley's number X2 but then Mayorga had his X2 e.g., Mosley the consummate disciplined technical boxer always in top condition but Mayorga the polar opposite as total street brawler who guzzled beer in training camp and smoked in the dressing room. As would be expected Ricardo spiraled into addiction, continuous A&B charges and poverty post-career. I see where he was badly beaten a while ago and has been photo'd asleep in the streets. Ah, well.
Bob actually bailed on the 60 Olys because they only offered him the slot at 165 b/c 178 was earmarked for Clay and he was adamant he no longer could make 165. That never washed given the fact he was only 21 and yet went on to easily make 175 through his 30s as a pro and at age 31 in his toughest 15 round defense against Ray Anderson was only 170. As Bob himself said he could drink cases of beer and guzzle milkshakes and still hardly get into the 180s. Bob's poison was Coors and V.O. and I've always wished I could have bought him a couple of rounds and had a Q&A about opting out of the Olys at 165. After all, it wasn't like the weight limit was 160. As to 178, it continued to be the amateur LH limit to the present but true to form for the 2028 Olys they've tweaked it to 176 but no matter for one kilo (the Oly committee ruined the legacy of Olympic weightlifting with many major revisions of the weight classes). The AAU LH limit remains 178 (GGs as we know has always tracked the pro weights).
Even early at 17, you could see the fire in Hearns. He actually rocked Pryor on this fight. He only had 12 KO'S in 155 wins, but he was learning how to throw the right with some power by this point. I've a had a copy of this video since the early 90's.
Sometimes, boxing is about technical ability. Sometimes, it’s a matter of speed, power and/or athleticism. And sometimes, boxing is just caveman **** — who can conquer the other in a clobberin’ time slugfest/street fight. Mayorga was pure caveman. And when he could walk through your stuff and make it a caveman fight … oh boy.
Anderson wasnt even close to Fosters toughest defense or 15 rounder. He ran the entire fight and refused to engage, his own manager Yank Durham was disgusted and called him a coward after the fight. Terrible fight and terrible performance. Earnie Shavers told me that Anderson tried to trash talk Fosters to get him angry and off his game plan before the fight. Shavers warned him “You better not make that man mad!”
Hi Rocky. You are correct, he ran like thief, Foster is on record as having our own Finnegan as his toughest, I was there that night, and Chris was given a bad beating, he said Fosters jab, was harder than most of his opponents rights, and sickened him over the duration, as to making Foster mad, one such Vicente Rondon did as much, by implying Bob was afraid of him, and was avoiding giving him a title shot, as we know he was starched in 2 rounds, unlike Foster, who was nominally a slow starter, coincidentally the same fate befell Pruitt, who also accused Napoles of avoiding him, once again a normally slow starter, give Pruitt a terrible beating while the fight lasted, again 2 rounds, Peter Wilson " it was the biggest mismatch in these parts since Pancho Villa took on the firing squad " neat. stay safe buddy, chat soon. Mike.
