7/31/69 Bob Cleroux,,,,,,,Canadien Heavyweight 'Robert Abord-a-Plouffe Lion' 31 year-old, 6' 1", 217 lb. tough-guy. Sitting on a Top WBA Heavyweight Ranking. 48-5-0 (38 KO's) Riding a 9-bout winning streak since coming back. A signed guarantee fight with WBA Champion Jimmy Ellis, for the fall of 1969. Takes an easy tune-up, versus 192 lb., Billy Joiner with a record of 9-5-3. Joiner, who has not won a fight since 1966, has gone 0-4-3 in his last 7-fights. The fight is held in Montreal, Canada, Cleroux's home city. Billy Joiner, from Cincinnati, is now nothing more than a traveling opponent. And Bob Cleroux loses a split decision, with Canadien officials scoring. And with it, goes a Title shot,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:hi:
That's unfortunate, but there are examples of worse management decisons involving fighters on the cusp of a world title shot. Frank "the Animal" Fletcher was signed to fight Marvin Hagler in 1983. His manager inexplicably had him fight a "tuneup" against the dangerous Wilford Sypion. Sypion won a decision and got the shot against Hagler. Herol Graham was all set to fight for the WBA Middleweight Title in 1987 that was vacated by Sugar Ray Leonard. He instead defended his European Title against Sumbu Kalambay, who won a decison and took Herol's place against the beatable Iran Barkley. Cleroux's management should have just waited for the Ellis fight, but at least they thought they were putting him with a safe opponent. Fletcher and Graham's management was dumb enough to have their charges take on top 10-15 contenders instead of some warm body.
Eddie Machen taking on Ingemar Johansson in Sweden,,,,,,,,,,'bonehead' Duane Bobick taking on Ken Norton Ken Norton taking on Earnie Shavers Joe Frazier taking on George Foreman 1/73 Muhammad Ali taking on Ken Norton 3/73 If they both just waited, and fought each other, in early 1973. Mac Foster taking on Jerry Quarry.
Kennedy McKinney and Tracy Harris Patterson. Both exciting super bantamweight champs, both well known to the American public, both poised to make 7 figures when they put pen to paper for the unification match we were all talking about. What happens? They preen, they pose, they fart around with 'safe' opponents and they both lose their titles to Vuyuni Bungu and Antonio Cermeno respectively, within weeks of each other if memory serves me. 2 fighters that wouldn't draw flies. If there is one thing about this business one learns. You strike when the iron is hot, because anything can happen. Scartissue
Frank Bruno wins 9 rounds in a row. The guy never learned how to clinch or grab properly. Doug Jones vs. Billy Daniels
Doug Jones fighting Eddie Machen before a light heavyweight title shot wasn't the smartest move either, but he got the title shot anyway. Harold Johnson proceeded to outclass him for 15 rounds, but later Jones somewhat salvaged his career at heavyweight.
At some point, Duane had to convince the public that he could defeat (or at least be competitive with) top flight opposition, and put the ghosts of Munich to rest. Ken was actually a slower starter than Frazier historically. Norton's punching power was questioned despite breaking Ali's jaw (which was known to have been triggered by an impacted wisdom tooth). If Ken had taken his own usual few rounds to get going, and afforded Bobick a chance to warm up as he needed to, Norton still would have won, but Duane only needed to be competitive as I see it, not necessarily victorious. A 59 second win by either participant was wholly unpredictable though. Two months later, Bobick stopped LeDoux in a rematch, a credible result and a prompt rebound. He later rebounded from Knoetze by stopping Schutte the following month. But Tate followed a script Duane himself could have written (complete with four right hand leads), and there was going to be no recovery from that, a bad loss when Bobick was in the best shape of his life. (Duane's physique was derided for all that "baby fat" hanging down, but imagine a 6'3" heavyweight weighing 207 today! He was a well conditioned attrition specialist who trained diligently. No matter, if he couldn't be fully charged at the opening bell, or if he couldn't stop crushing rights crashing in over his low left.) John Tate actually succeeded, something often forgotten today. Mercado, Knoetze and Coetzee were all extremely dangerous punchers who could have easily have replicated what Stevenson did in Montreal. The 20-0-0 Mercado in particular was a risk John did not have to take. But Tate won through where Bobick couldn't. These are three boneheaded moves which weren't boneheaded because he won. (In his case, the boneheaded move was made by his corner, telling him to stop smothering Weaver and back off for the final round. Big John was always one to listen to his corner and carry out their instructions and strategy. This time, it ruined his life.)
Duo, John Tate had alot more to prove, as he wasn't that highly regarded coming into the pro's. If Duane Bobick had been, lets say from England or Belgium, with that 38-0-0 record, he would have never had to go through Ken Norton. He would have gone straight through to the Title. They took that fight for $250,000, and cost him $1,500,000 for a fight with Ali.
I don't think putting Tate against Coetzee could be considered boneheaded, even if he had lost becasue it was for a title, and alot of money. Can't fault a manager for taking that fight.
In good conscience I can't go with anything but the Campbell-Peden incident. That was really the dumbest thing i've probably ever seen. Ali signing a fight with Holmes is nearly as dumb. Maybe.
Ali would have lost decisively in any event, but he had trimmed down to 217, and Dundee said he was in better shape than he was for the rematch with Leon Spinks, a situation where he could dance for 15 rounds, albeit ponderously. (This bout left his leg muscles sore from the exertion. Nonetheless, his legs never really deserted him. It was the decline and loss of his coordination and reflexes which made him call it a day after Berbick. During Spinks II, this deterioration was already much in evidence despite the winning effort. I trace this to motor neuron damage Shavers inflicted on him.) Muhammad's boneheaded move was in doubling his dose of Thyrolar surreptitiously. If he hadn't done that, then Holmes would have retired him, and Berbick-Ali would never have taken place.