Alivin 'Blue' Lewis

Big ol' Alvin wasnt blessed with the coordination or skill of brother Hedgemon, but where Hedge couldnt crack an egg with his best shot, Alvin did have something of a Wrecking ball Left Hook, the Problem was his delivery service was a bit cumberome, so tempting targets that sometimes presented themselves were often a memory by the time Al tickled his firing pin, He fits right in with those early 70's Dangermen who seemed to be forever coming out of the woodwork to claim the Ring magazines Prospect of the Month Award, (often a curse award as defeat often Followed, - Opponents now wanting to knock off the new Goldern Boy ) Mac Foster, Joe Luis Garcia, Norton, Merritt, Morris Jackson Ted Gullick, etc etc Alvin fitted in with these ones to watch, as i recall he spent a fair bit of time as an Ali sparring partner, and Ali rewarded him with a spot on his Gobal Roadshow Roster, in Ireland, the Fight is actually Subject of a Book, Also Al added some intrigue to an Ali fight (Maybe Quarry 1st ?) by flooring him with a bodyshot in sparring, of course Some Suspected a publicity assist by Ali to help the build up.

AL's prospect ambitions were stalled by the excellant Leotis Martin twice, and Al by all accounts suffered an unjust skulduggery DQ against Bonavens, on Bonavena's home ground, after giving Bonavena a bit of a pasteing as i recall,

Al wa probably Lost in the Colourful Heavyweight numbers of the 70's, put him in with a Foster or Merritt maybe even shavers and his big left hook might just of overturned the odds against him,? he generated some good ink for the boxing scribes, he was good to have around and with a little more luck may of been better remembered than he is.

 

Tremendous response Area 53!

 

yes excellent response,

from the little i have seen of him
always thought he was an under rated fighter

 

Who was "Alivin" ?

Was he a "blues" singer down in the New Orleans in the 60's who performed with Satchmo?

 

tremendous post:thumbsup

 

His best wins were 3 over Bob Stallings who beat Earnie Shavers and an old Cleveland Williams
then he got a shot at Ali but a lot of Ali's opponents were overated with hype by him to build it up..fact is he lost 2 times to Leotis Martin I am not sure about what exactly happened in the Bonavena fight DQ

 

Can't really add much to AREA 53's tremendous summation. Ali-Blue is one of the more interesting performances in the Ali canon though, a rare display of Muhammad in flatfooted forward stalker mode, coming in underneath and targeting the body. Alvin was breathing very noticeably through his open mouth at the end, and I wonder just how much of an effective toll Ali's bodywork was having on him as their bout progressed. Lewis hoisting him up at the end and raising Muhammad's arm was a classy, crowd pleasing display, although I'm sure Ali was worried at the moment that his bladder might burst and cause him to pee all over them both.

Forced into premature retirement the year after Ali at 30, when, according to Ring Magazine, he stopped to help a priest with a broken down car, only to have the battery spark when he was looking in the engine bay, spitting acid in his eye, causing his boxing license to be revoked. (Once again, proof that no good deed goes unpunished.) So Al's yet another story of what might yet have been.

No afraid to take on talented competition, as his early trilogy with the highly underrated Bob Stallings demonstrates (Stallings beat Wepner, Shavers and Mac Foster, and could be a real headache to deal with), as well as his back to back with Leotis (improving from a ninth round stoppage to a split decision loss).

 

wow didnt know how his career ended
really preety sad

yes no good deed goes unpunished
and helping a holy man
is one great deed

 

I once heard Ali call him his worst opponent ever. "the man didn't do nothing" he said of Al's efforts in their fight.

 

After all thes years never realised he was the brother of Hedgemon Lewis!

 

I remember he was a big bugger 6ft 5 or something like that and he lifted ali upon his shoulders after ali knocked him out. And that he got a count that was like 17 seconds no joke.

 

Excellent post! Lewis actually damaged Ali's ribs in that spar.