Boxing Best Stories Thread

Chris Eubank working as a Librarian. For one day. Only he wasn't actually working at the Library. He pretended to be a Librarian.


Why he did it? Only he knows.

 

I totally wanna believe this.

 

Ketchell was known to carry a gun, and was acquainted with Emmet Dalton, of the notorious Dalton gang.

 

Like I’ve said before, everything should be on the backburner until Kassim Ouma’s story gets told.

 

Hi Buddy.
Believe it, I went to Ceasers in 1980 to see Minter fight Antuofermo, and Louis was playing the role of greeter at the entrance to the hotel, imagine how excited we were when told the great Joe Louis would gladly shake your hand, the moment was lost when his minder said after the handshake " ten dollars please " ...........
stay safe Salty.

 

Thats sounds true considering when Ketchell was murdered he drew his gun while staring down the rifle barrel of Dipley.

I remember reading about that and thought - not sure if thats cojones or suicidal tendencies when another man has you dead to rights and you still roll dice. Wild.

Thats Pretty cool about the Dalton gang btw.

 

Hi Buddy.
My pleasure, shame of it was, Stan had gone to the ranch to rest up, his somewhat hedonistic lifestyle had began to catch up with him, he wanted time away from the bright lights, his goal was to secure a second fight with Johnson, alas it was not to be, the owner of the ranch and close friend Colonel Dickinson was so angry and distraught, that he put up a $10,000 dollar reward for the whereabouts or capture of Dipley.
stay safe amigo.

 

There was the story where a promoter? fooled the meticulous Ray Robinson - Ray questioned that the ring was smaller than he specified - the promoter whipped out a measuring tape for Ray to measure for himself.

Lo and behold, the ring was sized exactly as Ray requested - but unbeknownst to Ray - the promoter had cut a portion of the tape out from
the middle and rejoined the ends. The portion cut was pretty much the exact length that Ray thought the ring was short by.

Can’t vouch for its legitimacy but a great story nonetheless.

 

Randall Tex Cobb banging on Ken Norton’s Motel room door, wanting to continue their earlier fight in the ring.

Ken correctly understood Tex to be crazy, a man not to be messed with external to the ring - so Kenny rang the cops.

That anecdote and it’s obvious non self promoting honesty is just one of the reasons I pretty much believe anything Norton had to say.

 

I ve heard most of Tex Cobbs famous stories first hand he never mentioned that one

 

There are more stories about Don Elbaum than you can count.

Elbaum promoted or was matchmaker (or both) on more than 1,000 boxing shows, and he was quite a character.

Who knows how much truth and how much bull there is to his stories, but among them:

Don had like 10 pro fights as a heavyweight, almost all of them on his own shows that he promoted, filling in for opponents who didn’t show up.

The story of one such fight is that he kept hoping a fighter would show up and it was near the end of the show and the guy hadn’t arrived. Elbaum wanted the card to be complete, so he put on gloves and trunks and such and then donned a robe with a hood and pulled it way over his face to make his way to the ring.

Someone in the crowd recognized him and shouted out, “I know that’s you, Don.”

To which Elbaum replied from under the hood: “Shuddup … it ain’t me!”

Then there was the time when he had a successful card and had made like $20K profit. He ended up, again, having to fight on his own show to fill out the card.

When the commission representative came to collect taxes, which were based on how much profit the show made, Elbaum pulled out his checkbook and wrote himself a check for $20K as his purse for fighting. And then opened his books to the commission to show that after paying himself as a fighter, the show had just broken even so he didn’t owe any taxes as a promoter. (They weren’t revenue agents so couldn’t claim a share of taxes out of his purse.)

Oh, and Elbaum once staged a card where every fighter was a winless heavyweight, billing it as a tournament to determine who the worst heavyweight in the world, haha.

 

It actually came from Ken Nortons book Going The Distance, page 168 - as per this BoxRec forum, it’s mentioned at least two times in the thread. Perhaps it’s an event that Cobb wasn’t too fussed to recount?

https://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=121126

 

I sold Richie Woodhall loads of fishing tackle.
. He became a regular customer in our shop him and his dad Lennie became friends rather than just another customer and his dad always sorted me tickets out for Woodhall fights in Telford

 

Hi Buddy.
Read an article many years ago where by the interviewer asked Cobb had he ever been really hurt in a fight, came the reply " yes... by a guy who weighed 8 stone, my mate was swinging him around by the ankles in a bar room brawl, and he accidently hit me " go Randy.
stay safe Puggs.