Throughout the long history of boxing, there have been many tragedies from the ring and beyond the ring. Classic tragedies in the ring include the likes of Benny Kid Paret, Davey Moore, Johnny Owen, Lavern Roach, and others. Outside the ring, there have been numerous tragedies and sad moments with deaths such as Al (BummY) Davis to war casualties such as Garland (Ripper) Randall, and the many accident victims such as Rudel Stitch, Chic Calderwood, and Zora Folley. For some their story was a tragedy such as Georgie Small. Following his victory over Lavern Roach in 1950, his life spun out of control due mainly to the guilt of having beat his friend Lavern Roach who died following the bout. And many are now aware of the years of turmoil for Emile Griffith following the tragic death of Benny Paret. A must watch is the "Ring of Fire, The Emile Griffith Story". A river of tears, teardrop by lonely teardrop, can never wash away the sorrow of the lost potential, the ruined lives, and the pain of family and friends, but we can remember them.
Very True mate , when Johnny Owen died i stopped watching boxing for a long time , whether this was because of the tragic way in which Johnny died or that i was a young man starting a family i just don't know , but Wales is a small country by comparison to others and it hit us as a nation very hard indeed , his loss to us is no way worse than any other nations pain when one of its favorite sons dies but it did bring with it this nation a time of mourning , least we forget these fallen warriors , i agree .
While what McClellan did with the dogs is atrocious, I really don't see a man being beaten into brain damage, memory loss, blindness, and being for the most part deaf pretty much all for the entertainment of others as something "he had coming." Obviously he was a bad person, but the effects of that fight are things I wouldn't wish upon nearly anyone. Apart from in the ring tragedies, a lot of boxers had tragic life stories, such as Esteban DeJesus.
I feel the tragedy that George Chuvalo suffered in his family life is an incredibly sad story. Three sons became heroin addicts, one committing suicide,the other two dying from OD's. Then to top that off, his wife commited suicide. Geoge now spends alot of his time touring Canada and speaking to young kids about the tragedy he endured in hopes he can save other people from what he had to go through. A incredibly tough man in and out of the ring.
Yeh what’s happen to Chuvalo is really sad to lose so much ESPN did a piece on him for those who haven't seen it here it is. http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3552690&categoryId=2491554&n8pe6c=2
Chuvalo's story is awful. Huge respect to the guy. Someone posted a story in the general forum the other day about a guy called something Perez. He was Jewish and after his 100+ fight pro career was taken to a German concentration camp, and make to fight every week to save his life. I'll try and find the story now and edit this and post it. EDIT: