As the last days of December quickly fade away, we can step back and travel down that eternity road of golden memories and boxing history and revisit some past December happenings. Life & Death: Of some interest, December is the birth month of three great welterweight champions Jimmy McLarnin, Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong. But, on the sour side of boxing history it was the month of December when Battling Siki was shot in New York City in 1925. There have been hundreds of excellent fights in the month of December. Recently, in the news was the memory of the 1908 bout in Australia that saw Jack Johnson defeat Tommy Burns for the big title. But, let's not forget the many others including the wild knockdown brawl between light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore and Canada's brawling Yvon Durelle in December 1958. Some middleweight bouts were: Mickey Walker vs Tiger Flowers and Joey Giardello vs Dick Tiger. There are many other December bouts to remember or recall or rehash including the 1971 double header featuring: Olivares vs Pimentel (bantamweight) and Napoles vs Lewis (welterweight). But let's not forget Emile Griffiths last welterweight title defence before winning the middleweight title from Dick Tiger. It was December 10, 1965 when Emile outpointed Houston's Manuel Gonzalez in New York. Earlier in the year Manny decisioned Emile in a non-tile fight in Houston. For trivia buffs: Dec. 12, 1972: Ken Norton defeated Charlie Reno in San Diego, Dec. 11, 1969: Ray Lampkin defeated Al Foster in Portland Dec. 7, 1954: Dave Charnley KO's Pat McCoy in London.
