I'm intrigued by sparring and background stories.

not so, after the first round of sparring which had caught Lewis by suprise things changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-qwtodQ_XE

 

That was in the Brittish documentary "Lennox Lewis - the undisputed truth".
I like that one actually. And yes, it went exactly as you said it did. Lewis was pretty much handling Williams with combinations on the ropes, Williams felt embarrassed and got mad, tackled Lewis. Lewis got up mad and tried to tackle him after that but got dropped again. I think they fired Williams little after.

 

Ali floored by Mac Foster, Jimmy Ellis in sparring.

 

Never heard of that

Lewis got body slammed by Rahman too, he wasn't too much of a wrestler.

 

When did Pedroza and Chandler spar?

 

Tony Tubbs giving Larry Holmes fits.

 

A youg Ali is supposed to have embarrassed Johannson in sparring.
Gunboat Smith nearly put Jack Johnson out of the ring when he was his sparring partner.
Tommy Loughran made a fool out of a rusty Dempsey prepping for his first fight with Tunney.
Doc Kearns stopped Harry greb and Dempsey sparring because Greb was getting the best of it,Larry Gains said Dempsey was brutal on sparring partners,breaking noses and badly bruising ribs.
Toxie Hall dropped Marciano in sparring,some of his camp tried to keep it quiet ,but Rocky was amazingly open about it ,calling it "an embarrassing position",and quite laid back about it
Marcel Cardan used to spar with a flyweight,never landing on him,just practising getting in position to land ,without following through.
Jimmy Wilde sparred with his Wife she would wear a protector,and he rehearsed his moves and tactics to trap adversaries.

 

A friend of mine who was in Catskill at the time said Tyson gave it to Lewis pretty good and bloodied his nose up but he also said lewis gave it to Tyson a little as well but Tyson was all over him for most of the session

 

What happened when Holmes and Frazier sparred i never heard that one?

 

These tidbits are fascinating, Mc, especially the one about Wilde.

I never saw Cerdan spar with flyweights. I watched him train every day at Gleason's in the Bronx when he had a fight in the states. He mostly worked with a rugged Italian middleweight, Italo Scortichinni.

 

i heard oliver mccall and smokin' bert cooper had many intense sparring sessions, mccall actually admitted he got hurt (not concussed but felt pain) by cooper's devastating left hook, cooper was the 80's and 90's version of earnie shavers

 

yea tyson just ploughed through him they said he was gun shy more than anything...but i got to say the pro fihgt was a bit more conclussive

 

and called him matthew becuase of the orphanges patent saint was saint matthew

 

zarate aswell. right hand it. didnt break the the bracket but it made a split down the wood seam

 

Evey so often i have read that George Foreman dropped Sonny Liston in Sparring, on some other occassions it was Big Mac Foster, - so Who did drop Sonny in sparring, George ? Big Mac ? Both ? Neither ?

Amos Johnson supposedly (According to Amos ) Floored George Chuvalo in sparring, and handled him so easily that he was sacked.

Ali was Floored by Al "Blue" Lewis in Sparring, some time later Blue got the chance to do it for real in Dublin, suffice it say, a sub-par Ali with Headcold, still had enough to teach Alvin the difference between sparring and the real thing.

Liston Trainer Milt Bailey once discussing Sonny's Punching Power recalled a Time that Sonny was Sparring with Amos Lincoln, and Sonny caught Amos with a shot so hard it knocked Amos's Headguard clean off and sent it flying, Milt remarked that for a split second there they thought Sonny had Knocked Amos's Head off ! ( Sonny did it for real further down the road )