Andrew Tyler "Kid Thunder" Hartley

His third-to-penultimate pro bout was three years ago today (the Bryant Pappas rematch, in which Hartley was KO1ed...his seventeenth time getting blitzed in the first round, in 30 bouts).

He came up today in a group PM, obliquely by way of his connection with infamous online wannabe-pugilist stooge Charlie Zelenoff. Both of them used to post here a decade ago, when their rivalry was running a sort of a low-level trailer-trash parallel to Mayweather's and Pacquiao's. Somebody had asked what Zelenoff's username here was.

Someone (names omitted to protect the innocent) asked: did you?

I just consulted Google to refresh myself and remembered, it gets even sillier:

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They actually did meet under the same roof for a scheduled rematch, in 2010, like the first contest set to be a real, sanctioned pro bout - and Zelenoff visited Hartley in his dressing room before they walked out, and laid him out cold with a sucker punch, causing the fight to be called off. There were multiple rumored postponement dates, but the rematch never did come to fruition...and so Hartley's last best chance to get a third professional victory went up in smoke. He went 0-15 after defeating Zelenoff, stopped 14x.

Here is his greatest achievement, "Zelenoff I":

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At one point Charlie implores the referee "tell him I agreed on bodyboxing! I'm just a bodyboxer, dawg! Tell him to stop hitting my face! I didn't train for that"

...I'm dead serious. For a long time back then I wanted to put "I'm just a bodyboxer, daaawg!" as my signature or custom title. On its own even without knowing any context that is just such a choice quote, but knowing makes it all the sweeter.

Shades of Ali Raymi. (the late Yemeni military colonel turned "pro boxer" whose fraudulent career was fabricated of whole cloth, taking on local novices in a series of bouts where not one person appeared to ever throw a head shot in anger...somehow culminating in Raymi entering the world rankings before a bomb took him out)

@Rumsfeld @The Professor do either of you remember exactly what Andy's nom de guerre was on here? I think he mostly posted in just the old Lounge, perhaps exclusively.

 

Such was the internet's obsession with the scene peripheral to Zelenoff & Hartley (along with promoter/fighter Stacy Goodson), dubbed "TPS" "Trailer Park Series" boxing, that Hartley actually has a three bullet point blurb on his bio page on BoxRec:

• Known as 'Kid Thunder', Andrew Hartley is an enthusiastic, though not talented, journeyman welterweight club fighter from Arkansas. For the most part, since Hartley has lost almost all of his pro bouts, he is only able get fights in a very few Midwestern American jurisdictions where licensure rules for such 'fighters' are less stringent, requiring only a standard physical examination, not more.

• He was (also) featured in the 2011 award winning indepent film "Chicago Mirage" alongside Antonio Canas.

• Hartley had a very popular podcast on blogtalkradio entitled "The Kid Thunder Diaries" on the ATGRADIO network. While with ATGRADIO founder Frank Stea arranged the infamous "rematch" between Hartley and Charlie Zelenoff in Los Angeles, California for the "ATG Junior Middleweight" championship. Zelenoff sucker punched Hartley before the contest could take place while Hartley was changing clothes.

Mind you, there are quite a few world champions who don't have a single word on their bio stub. Just a picture and their stats, if that.

 

I don't know but sanitariums no longer exist (thanks Reagan).