Famous boxers, boxing people that you met.

Ali....twice
Hagler
Tyson
Benn

Those 4 are the biggest names by far and have met a few lesser names back in the 80s.

Friendliest by far was Gary Mason, in a charity football match.
He was one genuine nice guy.

Meeting Ali was like being in the presence of God himself, that is the only way to describe it and it was surprising just how bloody big he was.

Not a bad list i suppose.

 

Al Bernstein. Sorry, that's the best I can do.

 

Darryl Tyson, Kamuel Odom, Lavander Johnson, Bobby Butters (a good ol' boy opponent type who hung out in the stands after being stopped by Maurice Blocker).

and....Bernard Hopkiins.

I was in Miami Beach in late Dec.-early Jan. 2008. I stopped at a grocery store in North Miami Beach and saw Hopkins talking on his cell phone. I made eye contact and said "How's it going?" He said "How are you doing?" I don't think anyone else there knew who he was. I didn't say anything else to him as he was on the phone.

Lavander Johnson seemed really cool. I fist bumped him. I think he was happy anyone recognized him.

Kamuel Odom had just stopped some Italian/American hope who had a good record but couldn't fight.

This was in '99 and Odom was way past his best.

I saw him at the bar and he asked me to buy him a drink as he hadn't gotten paid for the fight yet.

I said, "I remember seeing you fight Razor Ruddock on CBS."

He said "I was kicking his a$$................"

The Blocker/Butters fight took place on the under card of Vincent Pettway/Simon Brown in '95 at US Air Areana. What a card!! And my buddy got free tickets for us through his work. I remember taking a pi$$ and I made the mistake of telling some dude we got in free. He was like "I paid $100....'white priviledge'".....LOL.

http://boxingalongthebeltway.blogspot.com/2005/08/best-beltway-boxing-card.html

 

What a card that was. Almost any fight could have been a headliner.

 

Met Joe Frazier a couple of times in the local bars, shook hands with Duran in the ring after the Viruet fight. That's about it

 

Hands down, Frazier is the one fighter I most wish I could have met ... seemed like of of the most genuine guys out there.

 

Mike Tyson, September 2005, when he visited Kiev.

Vitali Klitschko, 2008, Kiev

James Ali Bashir (when he trained Usyk and was often in Kiev)

Also: Henry Akinwande, Oleksandr Usyk, Denys Berinchyk

 

Joe was a very kool guy

 

Foreman, Curtis Cokes, Donald Curry, Terry Daniels (a Joe Frazier victim)

Does "well respected" referee Laurence Cole count???

 

Had lunch with a small group (like 6 or 7 others) that included Earnie Shavers two summers ago. His fists are the size of canned hams. Very, very nice guy.

Back when Paul Hodkinson was WBC featherweight champ, I happened to be in England. Me and my gf went to Liverpool to do the Beatles tour thing and stopped for lunch. Of course I’m a huge boxing fan, and we turn a corner and there’s a small clothing shop and a guy is putting out a sign saying Hocko’s going to be there in like an hour for a meet-and-greet ... and Paul’s standing right there. I stopped and chatted and he let me check out his green belt and we took a couple of pictures together. The thing hadn’t even started but he was very engaging and accommodating.

 

Carl Frampton, no bs with him, no pretend nice guy for a PR boost, very genuine guy, speaks to you the same he would his brother, nice guy

 

Willie the worm Monroe
Harold Johnson
Joe Frazier
Marvis Frazier
Larry Holmes
Meldrick Taylor
Maurice Blocker
Michael Spinks
Iran Barkley
Bernard Hopkins

MMA
Fedor Emelianenko
Dan Henderson
Igor Zinoviev

 

I remember an interview with him where he said his momma taught him, “There’s no wrong way to do the right thing and there’s no right way to do the wrong thing.” Classy

 

Geeze Robert, that's a tremendous list of names there... surely there are some fantastic stories to go along with some if not all of those meetings?

Don't leave us hanging!