I just copied and pasted this from Boxrec. "Rudi Pika was an outstanding amateur who as a junior won the national schools title before representing his country at international level and going on to win the senior Welsh title at heavyweight, aged just 17. He was also ABA runner-up twice at heavyweight; on the second occasion dropping a controversial points decision to future WBC champion Frank Bruno. Pika turned professional under the management of Mickey Duff at 18 and at the time was rated as a real prospect. Some predicted a re-match with Bruno once both had entered the paid ranks. However, despite being undefeated as a professional, he was not active enough to really fulfill his potential and Pika had drifted out of the sport by his mid-20s. Tragically he took his own life shortly after this. Rudi's brother Heino Pika also boxed, both at amateur and professional level."
Yes I spoke to both Glen mcrory and Frank Bruno about him. Glen fought him as a pro and Bruno in the ABA final. They both rated pika but neither seemed to know what became of him or why his career stalled. They both seemed as puzzled as I was that Being with Micky Duff should have given him access to the best route for success. Maybe it was personal problems or that the secret cartel (that Duff was a part of with Bruno's management) wanted to finance only Bruno into the World scene. Horace Notice, Garry Mason, Funso Banjo and David Pearce were all kept away from each other or any real international routes into world ratings. It could have been a lively British scene with Pika and all of them fighting each other but it cannot have been what the British promotional monopoly wanted at that time.
Career Record settings pdf print date This content is protected opponent 1986-04-09 Glenn McCrory 14 1 0 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom W PTS 12 1985-07-01 Steve Gee 16 14 2 Grosvenor House, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom W PTS 11 1984-09-25 Franklin Otts 21 10 1 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W TKO 10 1984-05-13 Lynwood Jones 2 8 0 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W PTS 9 1983-09-22 Winston Allen 11 13 0 St.David's Hall, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom W PTS 8 1983-05-31 Eddie Neilson 29 7 0 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom W TKO 7 1982-03-30 Steve Gee 10 6 1 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W PTS 6 1981-09-15 Bobby Hennessey 9 6 0 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W PTS 5 1981-06-20 Bob Young 10 8 1 Empire Pool, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W TKO 4 1981-03-17 Ricky James 5 7 0 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W UD 3 1981-01-27 Reg Long 9 13 2 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom W TKO 2 1980-12-08 Derek Simpkin 13 21 3 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom W TKO 1 1980-11-26 David Fry 10 22 6 Wembley Arena, Wembley, London, United Kingdom W TKO W Win L Loss D
I do think had there been more promotional rivals operating in the U.K rather than one big monopoly there would have been more career prospects for fighters like Pearce and Pika. Pearce was practically sidelined as a British champion who could not get fights even before his career was ended after failing a scan. This whilst Pika, Bruno, Bugner, quarless, Huroy Curry and Funso Banjo were around. Bruno was moth balled from the domestic scene and was groomed on internationally "selected" imports in order to bypass a potentially competitive british ranks . A generation earlier the Cooper twins, Brian London, Pete Bates, Duck Richardson and Joe Erskine fought each other from day one.
Yeah its interesting that you had a fair amount of talent during the 80's in GB that never squared off. Part of the problem I imagine however is that Frank Bruno, Gary Mason and Horace Notice were all manged and trained under Terry Lawless. Fighting stable mates against each other is a dicey thing.
It is significant that Mason, notice and Bruno were in the same stable but they had the option of a Micky duff and George Francis set up all under the same umbrella if they wanted to match them up, It's just not how the cartel wanted to play it. They wanted to pool their recourses into one major fighter at a time and stagger the development of the other two to come along under and after that. Even so there was nowhere for anyone outside of that stable to go. Banjo and David Pearce were out in the wilderness. Quarless was a danger man that was deliberately matched hard. There was no where for them to go. At the same time perhaps the British monopoly signed other prospects they had no intention of developing (like Pika) in order to prevent a rival outfit gaining momentum. They had all the venues sewn up too so it really was impossible for anything outside of their plans to come to fruition.
Interesting stuff. I don't know much about that whole 1980's British boxing scene, so your insight is very much welcome. From the looks of things, David Pearce turned pro in 1978 and after losing back to fights to Neville Meade and John Rafferty in 1980-1981 was pretty much finished as an entity. So it would stand to reason that his career really didn't coincide with Mason's, Bruno's, or Notices. Horace Notice apparently suffered some sort of eye injury in 1988 ( no source cited just word of mouth ) that ended his career.
Pearce coincided with Bruno because he was the British champion at the time Bruno began to top bills in London. Pearce had an impressive knockout run over Meade and Ferris and beat one American opponent as British champion called Johnson who never won another fight later winding up as an early Tyson victim. The cartel did not want young Bruno to tangle with Pearce. He was too live. Then once Pearce lost his license to box (whilst still the GB champion) Hughroy Curry and Banjo were matched for the vacant title. NOT Bruno. I think (though it need not have) the plan was for Frank to bypass the GB championship to allow Notice challenge the winner of the vacant belt. Bruno headed for European title instead. It was unprecedented at that time. Later Notice "retired" as British champion . Then Mason was brought in to fight for his vacated British title. It was like each was put on ice for the other to fight for the British title. Often the same run of American imported "opponents" Frank already beat were booked for return trips for Notice and Mason to practice on. That whole scene was controlled by the monopoly of Lawless, Astair, Duff, Barrett. They knew who they wanted to win what title and when. It was all sewn up.
