i read in a magaine that he was know as a stablemate of a good fighter, but out of the blue became a world champion. record indicates that he was a good fighter with wins over escelara, manley and at least one title defense.
...............Well, he split two fights with a very aged Escalera, beat Manley, Bumphus of course, then decisioned Ubaldo Sacco in a tough 15-rounder in his only successful defense. Sacco had his jaw broken in that fight. The WBA had them do it again, and this time Sacco sliced and diced Hatcher and stopped him in nine. From there it was downhill. Stablemate of the Curry's.
Ft. Worth had Gene Hatcher, Donald Curry, Bruce Curry, Stevie Cruz, plus Paulie Ayala all claimed some form of a title. Hatcher was just a tough hombre who kept coming forward throwing punches until someone went down or was stopped.
I know he scored a huge upset over Johnny Bumphes, when Bumphes apparently tried to slug with him (didn't see the fight myself, but it was on the same card as Livingstone Bramble's similarly huge upset over Ray Mancini). That result spoiled a possible match between Bumphus and Pryor. I know Hatcher himself was upset when he was beaten by a "shot" Escalera in Madison Square Garden. That fight took Escalera out of obscurity and back into the picture very briefly. Escalera was a very underrated fighter IMO. I really didn't pay much attention to Hatcher myself, I only know what others said about him. He was apparently known as a tough brawler and an exciting fighter, but I never got the impression that he was anything spectacular.
Hatcher was a white boy fighter in the mid-80s... He came from behind to KO Johnny Bumphus in 1984 for the WBA 140 lb. title.... My last recollection of Hatcher was him getting KTFO by Lloyd Honeyghan in the opening round in the late 80's..... I have not heard from him ever since.... MR.BILL:hi:
There was a lot of ranting and raving about him before the Honeyghan fight, about how awkward he was going to be; and to be fair he kind of fell awkward.....
I bought that video (yes video) years ago, The Upsets, its mostly a compilation of upsets that occurred in the 80s, apart from one or two which happened in the 70s, i think the first Ali-Norton fight is one of the exceptions. Anyway, it has some highlights of Hatcher-Bumphus and the Sacco rematch. Looks like a tough guy, not great, but came for a fdight.
I remember Hatcher from his second fight with iron chinned Argentinian Ubaldo Nestor Sacco. Hatcher ran into a lot of good fighters, and in Ubaldo he ran into an even tougher come forward fighter. They split two fights towards the very end of Ubaldo's career, each won 1. Hatcher by a SD and then Ubablo stopped him on cuts. Hell of a brawl, the second one.
He was a brawler from the word go and was brought up on ESPN. If I remember right, he came along right after the demise of another exciting brawler, Kenny Bang Bang Bogner. Those brawlers sure do well on the way up but slide down the ladder fast.
............Actually, Bumphus didn't slug with him; it was a boring, uneventful boxing match up to the 11th, and Bumphus, with all the tensile strength of wet tissue paper on his best day, succumbed to Hatcher's subtle pressure and caught a punch. He staggered badly, caught a little follow-up volley, and the fight was stopped. Then he and the Duvas attacked the ref.
was a dual championship matchup with Ray Mancini defending against Bramble, on the undercard, the Bumphus-Hatcher in an exciting upset which saw Gene finally take control, living up to his nickname and taking the coddled overrated protected media creation Bumphus out of his comfort zone and smoking him. After that I lost track what happened to him
Gene was a blue collar fighter. Very tough and determined. He beat Bumphus in Buffalo, NY, where the locals looked upon him like he was one of their own. It was a good moment for boxing when he TKO'd Bumphus, as the networks at that time were craming olympic fighters down our throat. That was a tremendous stable of fighters in Ft. Worth.
