Been watching all I can on him recently, and looking around for what little info I can find online. It’s crazy how a guy like Mims, controlled by the mob and always on the wrong side of Split Decisions to the elites (or those with the proper backing) can fall through the cracks over time. There was essentially nothing separating him from a guy like Joey Giardello, among others, ability and skill wise. 14 of his 28 career losses (27 by Decision) came by either SD or MD. Only 8 of his 55 Decision wins came as such. That alone says something to me about how unfairly he was treated, to the point of being used. His lone stoppage loss came from a brutal clash of heads which should’ve resulted in the fight going to a TD. As usual, no one raised a fuss or spoke up for him, though. I think he was a genuinely great fighter. The prototype for “no school like the old school”. He knew every trick in the book and how to respond to every situation. Apart from late career bouts in his mid 30s against Griffith and Rodriguez, (two young all-timers in their prime) every loss I’ve seen of his has been an either way type of affair. If you want to watch skilled infighting at its best, check out some of his stuff
Stole this post from someone else who'd previously looked into Mims and said more than I ever can on the matter. One name that doesn't show up in boxing history writings too often, or that i see anyway - Holley Mims. It is written that his fight with a prime Sugar Ray Robinson was a points win for Ray but "..there were scattered boos when the decision was announced" with him cutting Ray over the left eye.....he also beat (an albeit young) future WBA heavyweight champ Jimmy Ellis...lost to Hurricane Carter on points but not before flooring Carter...lost a very tight decision on paper to Dick Tiger (one judge had it a draw)...he beat Johnny Bratton twice...and lost to Joey Giardello on a split decision. ..and after what was to some a dubious split points defeat, when he was an old fighter at that stage, against Joey Archer, he said afterwards - "That's OK with me, I beat Archer even if I didn't get the decision. But that's an old story with me." (A poll of 14 boxing writers had 8 scoring it for Mims, 5 scoring for Archer and 1 called it a draw) .................................. "Joey Giardello, blood gushing from a slashed face, thrust himself into the middleweight sweepstakes Wednesday night with a heroic finish that gained him a 10 round split decision over Holly Mims. Giardello rallied from a beating in the 8th round and won the verdict in the nationally televised slugfest. Mims opened a slight cut over Giardello's left eye in the 1st but really tore a gash on the right side of Joey's face in the furious 8th. A left-right hurt Giardello early in the session and a jolting left buckled him near the end. But Giardello, who had to win to stay in the running for the middleweight title stripped from Ray Robinson by the NBA, held off Mims in the 9th and won the chips-down 10th on all three cards." -Associated Press .................................. "Sugar Ray Robinson pounded out a 10-round unanimous decision over tough and aggressive Holly Mims of Washington, DC, tonight in his first fight since winning the middleweight championship. The 23-year-old Mims, who had to drink several glasses of water at the weighing in ceremonies to come in over the 160-pound limit, opened an old cut over Robinson's left eye in the first round and surprised the champion several times by coming out of a crouch and scoring with lefts and rights to the jaw. Ray scored his only knockdown in the second round with a right and left to the head, but Mims was not seriously damaged. Mims was the aggressor most of the way." - Associated Press There were scattered boos when the decision was announced. In his dressing room after the fight, Robinson was apologetic about his "bad showing" and blamed it on the virus infection that had postponed the bout from its original date of March 8. Robinson said. "I guess that virus had me worse than I thought. A couple of times I had him lined up, but I couldn't get him." .................................... "Using his familiar inside tactics, veteran middleweight Holly Mims, 155 3/4, carved out a unanimous decision over George Benton, 159 1/2, Wednesday night in a nationally televised 10 round fight. Mims outclassed his younger opponent with a close-in aggressive body attack and good combinations. He staggered Benton with a left-right flurry midway through the 7th round and pressed his foe throughout. Mims forced Benton to fight his style throughout the contest. Only in the 10th did Benton succeed in scoring with stiff punches from long range." -United Press International ................................... 1962. Rubin Carter was scheduled to meet Gomeo Brennan, but Brennan withdrew the day of the fight due to an illness. Mims accepted the bout at 3:00 p.m. and flew from Washington D.C. to New York City. At 6:30 p.m., Mims passed a physical examination and was cleared to fight. Carter was a 4-1 favorite. Mims, who had been fighting since 1948, had only been floored by Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951 and Charley Green in 1955. Mims floored Carter in the fourth round with a right to the chin. Carter went down on one knee and jumped up at the count of one. Sugar Ray Robinson, who outpointed Mims in 1951, was in the audience.
I absolutely love that quote from Mims after the Archer fight. One of my favorites ever. Anyways, I appreciate the contribution.
Mims was a great talent and with right management a grest fighter possibly. Maybe a exagerated example but a bit of a 1950s Emanuel Augustus.
Always thought Mims was a similar fighter type to someone like Bratton. He was very good, can hang with anyone ever, but ended up with a spotty record and didn't have the backing of star, despite having the talent. I've only seen a couple Mims fights, but I enjoyed them all and could appreciate his skills. Robinson's most underrated win IMO.
I thought similar of these two at first, with Bratton being sort of his outboxing equivalent. Not so much anymore, though. The big difference between them was that Bratton was an underachiever because of himself. He had all the talent in the world, but he tailored his approach around that talent. He didn’t put in the work consistently because he didn’t feel the need to. Only briefly was he able to put it all together, and Gavilán made sure that didn’t last. Regardless, when his natural talent started to go, so did the rest. It was the pillar on which his success lied, and he paid the price for it. He was a shell of his former self by age 27. Mims took a different approach. One which enabled him to hang with the best from his early 20s until his late 30s. A mastery of the fundamentals and a style built entirely around them. This made him an ever expanding encyclopedia of advanced skills and tricks of the trade. Experience that gave him no hesitation when asked to take a fight with the #1 contender on less than a day’s notice. Not to lay down, but to give him everything he could handle in the ring, despite being 10 years his senior. To age gracefully inside of those ropes regardless of how mismanaged and mistreated he was outside of them. Unfortunately, those outside forces kept him from reaching his ultimate potential as world champion. That quote of his I mentioned earlier sums up his career. The way he seemed to accept it with a shrug is sad in a way, but it’s at least good to know he was at peace with things before his untimely death a few years later.
"That's OK with me, I beat Archer even if I didn't get the decision. But that's an old story with me" Some boxers are genuinely OK with believing they're the best regardless of what others believe. Hopefully with how often he fought he was able to carve a worthwhile living out of the sport and not look back with disdain.
Mims has always been one of my favorite fighters ever since I saw him fight Archer and Carter on TV. I've watched the films of those fights since, though not recently, and I thought he won both of them. He was at a disadvantage against middleweights, however. He was really 154 pounder at a time when there wasn't a junior middleweight division. He was particularly behind the eight ball against guys with big upper body strength who knew how to fight like Bobby Boyd, Deeck Tiger, and Joey Giardello, for instance. And though he could punch well enough to get your attention, he wasn't really a power puncher. He won his fights on fundamentals rather than speed or physical superiority. That's why he's so fun for me to watch. He really knows what he is doing. It is a testament to his craftiness that he was never kayoed in fights against all the great fighters in the division over a 15-year period, especially when he was outweighed by so many of them. His only stoppage was against Joe Louis Adair near the end of his career due to a bad cut caused by a head butt. Under a more modern set of rules, the fight either would have been ruled "No Contest" or the officials would have gone to the cards to determine a winner.
