"Cavemen" Lee

Many years ago, ESPN had an aniversary special of top rank boxing. This was right around 1990. The clips and highlites they showed went back to 1980.

During this presentation, they showed a fight between Caveman Lee and a fighter named John Locicero. The two battled it out in what was deemed as one of ESPN's best fights ever. I have never seen the full fight in it's entirity, but was impressed by the brief clips shown.

Caveman Lee unfortunately led a life of crime and has served a substantial amount of prison time over the last couple decades.

 

In Philly he is best known for being KO'd by The Animal in 4 rds. he looked good against mediocre comp. When faced with a solid (not a great) Fletcher he came up short. He didn't really beat any notables on his way up that really warented a title shot either...As long as Hagler had to wait for his shot, I would have thought that he could have offered a shot to a more deserving contender...he did start his pro carear in Philly, so he is in a way like hagler (fighting there often enough) an adopted son of philly. decent boxer...good power...was probably way overmatched in even being pitted against Hagler while fighting c level comp and then taking on an ATG.

 

I really don't remember Lee fighting Fletcher. Was this prior to the Hagler fight for Lee? I was a huge Frank"the Animal" Fletcher fan, He had a great run, beating "Hardrock"Green, Singletary, Clint Jackson. & I believe the run ended Against Wilford Scypion.

 

In truth, he's probably best known for his insane fight with LoCicero, which featured one of the craziest rounds that has ever been fought inside the ring. Good puncher with a suspect chin...had a lot of heart, too.

 

Lee/LoCicero was a fantastically exciting brawl, but it was obvious Caveman would blow over from the wind produced by any punch Hagler missed. The originally scheduled Hagler/Goodwin match had some positive expectations attached to it, but when Mickey got injured somehow, Marv wound up with the one garbage title defense of his reign. (Cosell editorialized in a pre-fight tirade against the outrageousness of the Hagler/Lee mismatch, a fight everybody knew Marv would win in a single round.)

However, the fact that Lee even got a shot at Hagler is probably the reason he's mentioned here at all.

Lee was an exciting fighter with a good punch and lousy chin, who could rebound from being hurt against other quality clubfighters like LoCicero. He was the sort who would be an excellent mainstay of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN when paired with appropriate competition, and somebody who might challenge for, but never win a regional title (of the NABF or USBA variety, for instance). How he took out Geraldo in a single round in the first bout Marcos had after giving Hagler ten rounds of hell is a mystery to me. (Does anybody here believe Lee KO 1 Geraldo was truly on the level?)

Caveman was a good nickname for him, considering his style and primitive nature of the wars he could have.

 

With a coach like Manny Steward, Lee couldn't help but have developed something in the way of decent skills. Ultimately, his chin would do him in more than anything else. It's been ages since I've seen Lee/LoCicero, and from dim recollection, the wildly unpredictable outcome when viewing it live is what lingers in my mind.

 

You summed him up well. I don't consider Hagler an all time great though.
A very good champ. The guy in your avatar, if that is Matt Franklin, is a guy who does not get remembered enough. I did not think 70's -80's were great boxing decades, but there were some excellent fighters of course. Matt Franklin (or Saad Muhamad as he was known later) fought in lightheavy divison, the most talent-stacked divison of that time period. Galindez, Conteh, Rossman, Yaqui Lopez, Eddie Gregory, Marvin Johnson. Oh yeah, Jesse Burnett too. Pieir Fouri (sp?) That division was solid.

Duran bought attention to his division, as did Hagler, but lightheavy's of that time were a group that was as good as any time in sport.

 

We will have to agree to disagree on the greatness (or lack thereof) of hagler. But yes, that is Franklin or saad Muhammad which ever you remember him by. He gets quite a few positive reviews on these esb boards from time to time especially for some of his great battles, so at least here he is remembered well IMO!~

 

Yes, Fletcher beat Lee handing him his 2nd loss (it was only fletchers 8th fight) in 16 fights. From there lee beat not one major contender that I can recall..LoCicero was probably the most prominent among his victories by a long shot. Fletcher IMO would have been more deserving of a shot against Hagler than Lee...Although as you said Scypion ended his run w/ a decision he was then Ko's by Roldan and a still unbeaten Mugabi. Probably shows that as much as we liked him, he also would not have been on par for Hagler...but still a better challenger than Lee...Not trying to bash Lee as he is not a bad guy, but probably just short of even deserving a shot.

 

& Don't forget James Scott & Jerry "The Bull" Martin!

 

Good call, I forgot James Scott. I can't remember Jerry Martin, but that division was so packed I guess I forgot him. For those unfamiliar, Scott was an inmate who was fighting in prison. He was doing life, and was promoted big on televion. He did thousand push-ups a day, did nothing but work out, and so on. He was good, and had what announcers said was an intimidation factor working for him (I did not buy that one) since he was con, and you had to fight him in prison, in front of crowd of inmates.

Naturaly, he was saying he was framed, and wanted ot of jail. After some good wins Dwight Braxton, who had done time in same prson, came in to fight Scott, and Scott seemed intimidated a bit. They had sparred befroe Braxton got out. After loss to Braxton Scott started fading out of picture.

 

Those were definately the glory years of the Light Heavyweights. It would have been interesting to see how fighters like RJJ would have done back then