How good was Jimmy Clark?

Outstanding amateur. Average professional.

 

If I'm right, as an amateur, Marvis beat Jimmy. Even as an amateur, he was just very good, not totally outstanding.Should've won those last two against Teo, however.

 

Jimmy got a lot of national exposure as an amateur back in the days when ABC and others would televise. He was expected to at least be a contender in the pros.

I remember seeing him often in the amateur ranks. I'd like to know more about why he didn't pan out as a pro, too. He was active and fed a lot of soft touches early in his career, as you might expect with a prospect, but only fought two or three times a year after a fast start. Ran into Reggie Gross, who would later be Mike Tyson's first "test" and lost by KO late in the fight. Said he wasn't in shape, listened to people who told him he'd beat Gross easily.

IIRC, Jimmy was in college before turning pro. He was supposed to be on the plane to Poland that went down, killing the U.S. boxing team in a real tragedy, but missed his flight somehow. He would have been on the 1980 Olympic team, but the U.S. boycotted the Summer Games.

I suspect these two incidents took a bit out of him. I also think maybe he was a little too "civilized" for boxing. Perhaps there's more to it.

 

Don't see Jimmy beating Marvin Frazier, or Mitch Green for that 80's spot on the Olympic team.

 

Thought I’d revive this thread as Clark is being discussed a good bit on the Marvis Frazier thread.

 

From an interview with Clark about 10 years ago that is no longer online. It's a little hard to follow, but the information is in there:

Jimmy Clark was attending West Chester University in Pennsylvania studying criminal justice. When he got into the ring there was no justice and he treated his opponents like criminals! He lived in nearby Coatesville where Jimmy “Pops” Johnson was his trainer. He was an excellent boxer who had some power.

“At West Chester Al Macheski coached me until they realized I was too experienced for college boxers,” said Clark. He was the 1977 National Golden Glove heavyweight champion defeating future world champion Greg Page for the title.

“I fought Marvin Stinson (1976 AAU champ) many times. Pat Duffy and Frank Cariello were sending me all over,” said Clark.

“I fought him five times. The one time I lost I thought, I ain’t worrying about that knucklehead and didn’t train as hard as usual. He beat me good,” said Stinson.

Clark defeated Russian Igor Vysotsky in Russia who defeated Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba.

Clark boxed Stevenson three times. The first time in February of 1978 he lost a 2-1 decision at the World Championships in Havana, Cuba. In October of that year he was stopped with less than a half a minute to go in New York. In February of 1980 he lost a decision in Charlotte, NC.

In 1980 Clark was “late as usual”, said former world champion Bobby Czyz. “I once told him he’d be late for his funeral,” he added. If Czyz hadn’t broken his nose in a car accident he would have been on that airplane.

We were discussing the missed airplane going to Warsaw, Poland. A dozen of his teammates and officials went down to their death.

“After missing the plane, I went back to my hotel where I was staying that night. The next morning my mother called and upon hearing my voice, she stated “Thanked God you are safe”. I asked her what she was talking about. She then stated “everyone was killed on the plane that you were supposed to have caught yesterday, that was headed for Warsaw, Poland. When she told me that, I immediately and nervously called the AAU up to verify this,” said Clark.

“God works in mysterious ways, not in boxing but in that plane. God saved me. No matter what else happens in my life or future, God preserved my life,” said Clark.

He had over 100 amateur fights and traveled once to Germany on a team with the Spinks brothers.

When President Carter pulled a boycott on the 1980 Olympics Clark finally decided to turn professional.

“I moved to West Philly and Bob Brown was training me and at the 23rd PAL Quenzel McCall trained me,” said Clark. “I had sparring with Bennie Briscoe and Richie Kates there,” said Clark.

In January of 1981 Clark debuted in Chicago scoring a 1st round stoppage over Steve Sandborne. After another win by the short route in Atlantic City, Clark would headline at his former high school in Coatesville knocking out Johnny Blaine.

"Claudie Magnum and Angelo Dundee were doing my business for me. Otis Matthews was helping Johnson,” said Clark.

Wins in Philadelphia and Madison Square Garden (undercard of Cooney-Norton) by stoppage would follow. In Atlantic City Clark beat the Jamaican Oliver Wright, 16-15-1, in a 6 round decision.

“He was tough,” said Clark.

Six more knockouts would follow over names like Lupe Guerra, 18-7, and Ishaq Hussein, 15-13, from the UK. “He was another tough opponent,” said Clark.

His first 10 rounder would be against a former amateur foe in Bermuda’s Clarence Hill, 16-2-1. Hill, a southpaw, was a bronze medalist in the 1976 Olympics.

He was no stranger to Clark. They split in two bouts with Clark being the only one to defeat Hill in Bermuda. “I hit him with a good body shot and he walked out of the ring. I have never had anything like that happen,” said Clark.

Now as a pro Clark would win a split decision in a tough fight in New York. “Hill is an outstanding fighter, but must learn to live right,” said Clark.

Hill would have problems later with the law in Bermuda.

Clark would score another pair of knockouts before 1984 ended, but wasn’t getting enough fights. After starting 1981 with 7 fights, 1982 (3), 1983 (2), and 1984 (3) were not busy times.

In March of 1985 he would oppose his biggest challenge since the Hill fight in Baltimore’s Reggie Gross, 14-3. Though on a 3 fight losing streak, Gross had 10 knockouts on his record. In the 9th round in Scranton, PA, Clark would be stopped, losing for the first time in 16 fights.

“I was ill prepared having listened to people telling me I would knock him out in a couple of rounds. I wasn’t in shape,” said Clark.

Two fights later Gross stopped unbeaten Bert Cooper.

After a 21 month lay-off, Clark would return to the ring at Madison Square Garden and stop Mickey Pryor, 9-4-1, in the 2nd round.

It would be 7 months before another fight would come up, and that would take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July of 1987. He would stop Robert Obey, 5-9-1 in 3 rounds.

Clark realized his career was going nowhere and didn’t fight again for 22 months.

This would be his last fight and ended badly as he and Kimmuel Odum, 9-2, in Struthers, Ohio, ended up in a No Contest in the 2nd round. “I was beating him when he pushed me to the canvas and the referee waved it off and gave him the fight. It would later be changed to a no contest when he tested positive. I wasn’t in shape like I should have been,” said Clark.

“I once was supposed to fight Marvis Frazier and received 10k in training expenses after he pulled out on me. That was his dad’s idea not his. They wanted me to fight (future world champion) Pinklon Thomas who had twice as many fights as me at the time and my new manager Henry Mims turned it down,” said Clark.

“At the end of my career I saw a film clip of Ali and thought this is not how I want to end up. Thank God I was fortunate. Too many fighters end up in bad shape,” said Clark.

Clark had a brilliant amateur career. His professional career just never seemed to get started though he only lost once in 19 fights. His final record was 17-1-1nc (15).

I had met Clark at an amateur show months ago and we finally got together for this story. Another resident, the former IBF Featherweight champion Calvin Groves was also there. “Jimmy is a nice guy. He fought the top guys in the amateurs and may have waited too long to turn pro,” said Grove.

“Today I practice law and litigation and am running for district judge,” said Clark.

I have a feeling his new robe won’t have “Jimmy Clark AAU Champ” on the back of it.

I can just imagine some wise guy giving “Judge” Clark a hard time and him taking off the robe and handing the guy a set of boxing gloves and saying “let’s settle this now”!

 

Certainly a theme there of ‘I didn’t take guy seriously, didn’t train like I should have and lost’ running through his amateur and pro career.

According to Boxrec, btw, his stoppage loss to Teofilo Stevenson was in the first round, not with 30 seconds to go in the fight.

 

I have that fight. He stopped him in the third.

Here's the writeup from Sports Illustrated.

OCT 16, 1978
BUT CUBA, SI, U.S., NO
WITH OLYMPIC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION TEOFILO STEVENSON STOPPING JIMMY CLARK, THE CUBAN NATIONAL TEAM WALLOPED THE U.S. 8-3 AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

Pat Putnam

After performing dismally for the first 2½ rounds, Teofilo Stevenson, the illustrious Cuban heavyweight, hit Jimmy Clark on the chin with a right hand, which, as it turned out, was a kindness. While the blow crossed Clark's eyes and left him standing senseless, a loser by a knockout with just 23 seconds to go in the third round, at least it did spare the U.S. fighter from being robbed of the decision.

Although Stevenson had done little more than survive, slowly and awkwardly, while trying to hold the swarming Clark at bay, a check of the scoring showed that Stevenson had been leading two rounds to none in the eyes of one judge and was no worse than 1-1 on the card of another. And it is not without coincidence that those judges were both Cuban.

The third judge at Madison Square Garden last Friday night, Paul Konnor of the U.S., had Clark winning both rounds, which is the way everyone else had it, except for the two gentlemen from Havana.

Until the final minute, when he first dropped Clark with a hook and then destroyed him with the tremendous right, the best that could be said of the 6' 5" Stevenson was that he was having an off night. He was ponderously slow, often confused, and he certainly little resembled the legend who twice won Olympic and world titles.

"There is a fear in Cuba that Stevenson has lost something," said one Cuban later. "This is not the first fight lately that he has not looked like himself."

There was that, plus Clark, a 6'2½", 204-pound, 24-year-old senior at West Chester (Pa.) State College, who had fought and lost to Stevenson once before, but had found his weakness. To be effective, the Cuban needs a lot of room; in close, he is almost helpless. Stevenson's only response to infighting is to put his giant hands on his opponent's shoulders and to shove very hard. It works, but by amateur rules it also costs the shover points, a fact seemingly ignored by Romelio Santiago and Arturo Rodriguez, the two Cuban judges.

Throughout the first two rounds, and for most of the third, Clark kept Stevenson badly flustered with crisp jabs, jolting hooks to the body and darting moves to close quarters, from where he was free to do just about anything he wanted.

"He jabs too much," Stevenson complained later.

Until the end, the fight had gone exactly as Clark had planned it. And it was nearly a carbon copy of his fight with Stevenson in Havana's Sports Palace last February. There Clark had lost on a split decision: two Cuban judges gave it to Stevenson, both by 60-59; the American judge had scored it for Clark, 59-57.

"That decision was completely absurd," Clark had said before Friday's matches against the Cuban team, which the U.S. lost 8-3. "The decision was very unjust and I am looking forward to fighting Stevenson again. He doesn't intimidate me. That doesn't mean I don't respect him. I do. To tell the truth, it's an honor to box him. After all, he's the Olympic and world champion and he's got stature. He is supposed to be a puncher, but he never had me down, or even near it, in the last fight. I don't know about his right hand because it never landed. He kept missing with it; I could hear it going past my ear. Nevertheless, I am aware of it and I'll try to avoid it."