George Foreman, in his autobiography “By George,” says that (and I paraphrase as best I can off memory) “Boxing has always had an element of ‘come see the bearded lady.’” Which is to say, boxing has always had something of a circus element to it. Let’s examine pugilism’s sideshow side by looking at some guys who had colorful gimmicks: Wilbert “Vampire” Johnson, a pretty good club fighter mostly middleweight from the Midwest in the 1980s, had no front teeth (a la Leon Spinks, hence the nickname) and found a way to cash in on his dental shortcomings: Johnson wore a Dracula-style vampire case as a robe but that wasn’t all — for his bigger fights, he was carried to the ring in a coffin. Johnson was stopped early by John Mugabi, had a draw with Nino Gonzalez and split a pair of fights early in his career with Donny Lalonde. Jorge Paez was an actual circus performer/acrobat before he took up boxing. With crazy hairstyles (which involved shaving off various portions of his hair) and a signature somersault that he would perform before or after fights (or both), he was quite the character. Captured WBO and IBF featherweight titles in a career that spanned nearly 20 years, ending in 2003. Who are some other fighters with great gimmicks?
Ray 'Windmill' White was a must see on the west coast in the early to mid 70s with his bag-of-tricks. What that entailed was an assortment of crazy punches like the Rooster-punch, the double-uppercut and his famous Behind-the-back punch. He would also interact with the audience, feign injury and he could actually fight a bit. Man, my Dad loved him. That takes me back.
I remember Paez coming to Ft Worth Texas to fight Troy Dorsey. He pulled out just before the fight claiming a busted hand "sparring". Troy fought a mexican clubfighter as last minute opponent. Give Paez his due he did show up Fight night his hand in plaster & dressed as a Christmas Tree lol The crowd yelled for him to do his flip so he obliged twice. The rumor was he got into a fracas in a south side bar & accidently hit the wall lol because no one spars 2 days before a fight
Mike Tyson's gimmick was to have no gimmick. Black trunks, black shoes, no robe, no socks. In addition to his mostly spectacular performances the first few years of his career, people & the press took notice of this. It gave them another reason to tune in. Butterbean was the personification of "gimmick." It worked for him. He got far more notice and earned far more money than he would have had he taken a more traditional route. In his 1984 comeback, Gerry Cooney's managers tried to turn him into "America's Fighter." He wore white, red and blue trunks with stars, and his managers made sure there were small American flags in every seat. Not an effective gimmick, in my opinion. If Cooney had stayed the course and kept winning, it might have worked.
Agree on Butterbean because he really did have a gimmick: King of the 4-rounders. No aspirations to try to move up to main event status and contend. He was a toughman contest guy, bald and round and he could definitely punch with some power. Rode that thing as far as he could. To me, to be a gimmick guy has to have some consistency into what the gimmick is — just ‘he has a fancy/crazy/strange ring entrance’ isn’t a gimmick, it’s just something to spice up a fighter’s personality and help make him an attraction. But if you’re a vampire or King of the 4-rounders or a circus clown ... now we’re talking. Clowns seem to be a big thing. Battling Bozo, a light heavyweight in the 1930s from Alabama, was known for, well, clowning around — he’d look to his corner in clinches and cup his ear for instructions, make faces and noises, etc. Had a barely winning record over about 100 fights, including a couple of draws (and a couple of losses) with Maxie Rosenbloom.
Koichi Wajima's frog punch. The extreme squat and spring into the uppercut always makes me laugh, and he actually caught top guys with it too.
Almost 20 years ago I got sent to Hawaii for like 4 days for work along with a co-worker. He moved his return flight back a few days so he could stay and have an island getaway vacation only paying for his room and food, etc. (with the company paying the return trip, as it didn’t cost any more to fly him home later than when we were done). So he tells me he’s going on a whale-watching tour where they go out on a boat and try to spot whales. I told him I would pay for the tour and give him extra money and also pay for a harpoon if he would show up on the dock carrying it and tell the fellow whale-watching tourists ‘I hope we get a big one today’ just to see their reactions (as obviously the people who take these tours are very ‘pro-whale’ and environmentally sensitive). He thought it was hilarious but turned down my offer.
Paez is a good call. Mayorga smoking cigarettes and drinking after fights to go with his brawler style was a good gimmick (or just his real persona?) Id like to nominate one of the cringiest, Goofi Whittaker......
There’s Bigfoot Martin, but it’s a nickname rather than a full gimmick. People would always point out that he wore like size 8 or 9 shoes, wondering how he got the name Bigfoot. They somehow ignored the fact that he didn’t shave his upper body and was one hairy son of a gun.
