One of the fighters still around from the 70's, but suffers from CTE. Duane Bobick (born August 24, 1950) is a retired boxer from the United States. As an amateur he won the gold medal at the 1971 Pan American Games and fought at the 1972 Olympics. he had an amateur record of 93-13 with 61 knockouts. He then turned professional and retired in 1979 with a record of 48 wins (42 by knockout) and four losses, all by knockout. Dated 2012: "For Bobick, his eventual diagnosis with CTE began about 15 years ago (1997) His wife started noticing gradual changes in his behavior, around the time he suffered a massive blow to the head in an industrial accident at the paper mill in Little Falls. It wasn’t until two years ago (2010), though, that the changes became more pronounced." https://www.hometownsource.com/morr...cle_b4a9475c-f30b-50f2-b531-ad02b2feaf26.html http://www.thesweetscience.com/articles-of-2008/5651-duane-bobick-sadness-prepared-me
Ahhh, that's terrible. Bad enough the boxing career, when I read that he was involved in a bad industrial accident I physically cringed. I've always had a small soft spot for Bobick. A mildly underrated fighter in my opinion, that could float in and out f the top 10 in many heavyweight eras. Not the most durable fighter, but you have to remember that he was getting knocked out by top tier punchers and very good fighters... with the Norton fight being a bit odd to me. If you listen to the post fight interview with Bobick in the dressing room he sounds like he's been smoking 10 packs of cigerrates a day for about 40 years. His voice is raspy, breaking. He claims he was hit in the throat and he seemingly still can't talk properly well after the match is over. Reminds me of when Genaro Hernandez was punched in the throat, except people cared when that happened to him. Poor Duane didn't get the same benefit. Great stuff, Longhorn.
If he'd beat Kenny, supposedly he was going to win the Ali sweepstakes as the next opponent. At that point in time, that's a winnable fight for Duane. Ali and those bad hands was having tough times even hurting other fighters. And I can see Muhammad coming in less than stellar shape for the guy. Imagine how Bobick's life could have changed---even though you'd figure him to have, at most, 1 title defense. I actually fess up to going to a few of his fights when Futch was hauling him around on the small club circuit.
