bits and pieces

Nel Tarleton from liverpool became the British featherweight champion in 1931, and fought for the world title in 1934...and he had only one lung !!
He fought 50 x 15 round fights in his career, a total of 148 fights and was never knocked out.

 

"The Gator"...Craig Bodzianowski....in 1990 he fought for a world title belt...with one foot !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wWPEezN2w

 

In his old age and brain damaged state after decades of hard fights, he was locked up in an attic and brutally tortured by his family members for years...he barely got anything to eat for days on end, he had to sleep in his own sewage and he was physically beaten.
When the police came to his daughters house and entered that attic in 1998 after a tip-off, they found Jimmy Bivins, former No.1 contender for the world heavyweight title, wrapped in a blanket covered with urine and feces, he weighed only 110lb, he was near death and he had bed sores, broken bones and bone cancer.

..................................

"When Bivins' third wife, Elizabeth, died in 1995, his life forever
changed. He spent less and less time at the gym. He grew weak and
depressed. And finally he quietly moved into the Collinwood, OH home
of his daughter and son-in-law, Josette and Daryl Banks.

As months passed, Bivins' boxing buddies worried. No one knew where
Bivins was.

In April 1998, Cleveland police found him. They had gone to the Banks'
house to investigate a report of child neglect. They found no child,
but in the attic, they found Bivins.

The former heavyweight had withered to 110 pounds, about 75 pounds
below his fighting weight. He was wrapped in a urine-soaked and
feces-caked blanket that covered his face. At first they thought he
was dead.

But when the officers asked Bivins if he was OK, he politely responded
that he wasn't doing so well. Then he asked the officers how they were
doing.

Police initially charged Josette and Daryl Banks with felonious
assault. Daryl Banks later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was
sentenced to eight months in jail. Charges against Josette Banks were
dropped after investigators determined that her husband had made all
decisions regarding Bivins' care.

Many 78-year-olds might not have survived, but Bivins proved to be as
tough as his leathery hands.

He spent most of his remaining years in the Shaker Heights home of his
sister, Maria Bivins Baskin. Slowly, he started showing off the road
map of his scars again, carefully unfurling his boxing stories to the
nurses and visitors who tended him.

In 2009, Baskin died, and Bivins moved into McGregor. The Ohio State
Former Boxers and Associates threw birthday parties for him there.

"It's been quite a life," Bivins told The Plain Dealer. "It's been
quite a life."

According to his family, Bivins outlived his two sons, three sisters
and a step-daughter. He left behind a daughter, Josette Banks; four
grandchildren and many great-grandchildren and
great-great-grandchildren. "

from - cleveland.com/obituaries
..............................

Jimmy Bivins, who died in 2012 at the age of 92, was a boxing great of the 1940s and '50s who defeated some of the greatest fighters of his time.
He never fought for a world title, but in 1942 he was given the unprecedented ranking of No 1 contender in the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. He met seven fellow Hall of Famers, beating four, and 11 world champions, defeating eight.
Bivins retired from boxing in 1955 after more than 100 professional fights and was inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. He won bouts against numerous world champions, including Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Gus Lesnevich, Melio Bettina, Anton Christoforidis and Teddy Yarosz. He also went the distance with Joe Louis and fought Jersey Joe Walcott to a split decision.

 

The story of Del Fontaine, the 1930's middleweight who mixed with the likes of Mickey Walker and Tommy Farr, who was the only boxer to be hanged for murder in England...

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d100/dougm1970/fontaine.jpg

 

june 1958...unbeaten 13-0 prospect 140lb jay fullmer, 21 year old younger brother of former middleweight champ gene fullmer, stepped up in opposition and took on 147lb veteran joe miceli....meceli promptly stopped young fullmer in the 3rd round, knocking him down 3 times.
5 months later jay's older brother got to meet miceli in a ring.....this happened....don't blink at 1.18 here...you'll hear it if you don't see it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HuD-s3gfq4

 

A 13 round fight.
Doug DeWitt beat Tony Thornton over 13 rounds in 1987.
The result after 12 rds. was a draw so an extra round was fought to decide the winner...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVERyfOxMdk


*which also happened when sanderline williams fought ronnie esset the following year

 

1966...former world champion sonny liston, was now living and boxing in sweden, and was preparing for a fight when a new sparring partner was brought in...none other than the lesser-known, lesser-talented younger brother of floyd patterson....ray patterson......ray never did that much as a boxer at world level....but that day, behind closed doors, the younger brother of the man who was beaten twice in one round in world heavyweight title fights by liston, did this...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NN0HUi83d...811_436900756454943_6254847594988805221_n.jpg

 

rocky marciano speaks about joe louis and jersey joe walcott in this personal letter from 1968...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qC6w5_maZ...9564_436812236463795_683371840457585027_n.jpg

 

I have no other info on this one....maybe one of you may know more about it....
I have no more of that article either, so haven't got the missing text.....Boxing has all the best stories

"Wolgast funeral off...as Ad comes to life !!"....

http://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...796_495683367243348_1804470353487368713_o.jpg

 

"I was at home watching 'Kojak' on tv when the phone rang.
"Chuck! Chuck!"
She was all excited.
"Mom, what is it? I told you to never call me during 'Kojak'"
"Did you see the paper? Did you see that news ??"
"No, I didn't Mom...What's in it ?"
"Go out and get it"
"Mom, tell me what's in it. I'm not just going to run out."
"On the back page....the whole back page!!...it says 'Ali to defend against Wepner in Cleveland March 24.' "
So I put my clothes on and ran up to the Embassy Theater at Forty-seventh and Broadway. The kid had four papers left. They sold them in front of Theaters in them days. I said "Give me those four papers". I turned over and sure enough..."

(Chuck Wepner)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e8BeA_NxE...815_495943310550687_8139855993975419372_n.jpg

 

29 Aug 1960

A fight between spectators, officials and boxers ended the European Heavyweight title fight between holder **** Richardson and former European Champion Brian London, at Porthcawl, Wales. Trouble started when referee Andrew Smyth stopped the match after the eighth round due to London's badly cut left eye. He awarded the fight to Richardson, whereupon London dashed across the ring and attacked his victor.

Richardson's trainer was knocked to the floor by London, spectators swarmed into the ring and the battle began. It took 20 policemen to control the two rivals and their supporters.

(Source - REUTERS)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wAp_am2cxTM/U_4_JEsLNMI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/dYNp3a8Tf1g/s1600/ghgf.jpg

 

March 27th, 1982.

Both Wilfredo Gomez and Jeff Chandler respectively defended their world titles, winning in the 6th round, on the same night.
Both fights officially ended at 2:28 of the round!!

 

Langford says Wills wears plate in skull...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/05/2yru2ysa.jpg

 

A knock on the Broztell Hotel door. Les opens it. It is the young hotel porter, a painfully thin Negro, and he is deeply sorry suh, but there is someone downstairs who is insisting on seeing Mistuh Darcy. Sez he is an Oss-tralian, too. And he used to be a boxer. The thing is, Mistuh Darcy, it is difficult to know much of him, ‘cos he might be drunk, but he sez his name is ‘Griff’, ‘Griffa’, sum’n like that? Young Griffo? The boxing hero of Australia, who had left home shores in 1893 never to return? Great! Show him up! But Mistuh Darcy, he very drunk, not too good dressed, terrible, rotten, black teeth, and thuh hotel probably wouldn’t want likes of him in the building… Fine, but please get him!

And so the young porter does, returning shortly afterwards and furtively pushing a fat old drunk man into Mistuh Darcy’s room before skedaddling. He is going to catch hell from management, if they find out.

And so there they are, Les Darcy and Young Griffo—each a hero before heading to America to seek their international fame and fortune—meeting in a New York hotel room in the early days of 1917.

They talk… The fact that ‘Young Griffo’ is no longer young is obvious, as is the fact that the young porter hadn’t been exaggerating in his description. Griffo’s teeth are terrible, he reeks of alcohol, and is evidently doing it very tough indeed. These days one of his tricks to get more alcohol is to take a handkerchief into a bar, stand on it and bet someone that they can’t lay a single punch on him for a whole minute while he doesn’t take a step off the hankie, but simply dodges and ducks all their blows! No, he couldn’t win a real fight in the ring these days, but by God he can still keep himself in grog.

They laugh and talk. Les is delighted to meet this Australian legend, and later tips the porter a quarter, telling the disbelieving young man that the ‘fat old alko’—as the porter would later describe Griffo, whom he brought up to Les’s room—was once one of the greatest featherweight boxers of them all.

(by Peter Fitzsimons)