Here are some fights I recently uploaded of Joe Miceli, the famous perennial welterweight contender and trialhorse of the '50s and early '60s. Thanks to our Raging B(_)LL for sending me these fights. Miceli was considered a very formidable contender at one time. He was sort of like a WW version of Razor Ruddock. Like Ruddock, his best punch was a kooky-looking left uppercut, which could knock a fighter out cold with one shot. Miceli's peak as a contender was in 1950 and '51. In that time, he won 2 out of 3 with reigning lightweight champ Ike Williams, permanently foiling his efforts to earn a shot at the WW title, and also lost a very close, hard-fought split decision to Kid Gavilan just a few months before Gavilan won the WW title. In that time, Miceli also fought to a draw with future MW champ Joey Giardello and beat future WW champ Virgil Akins. In late '52, however, he was stopped for the first time in his career by Johnny Bratton after a brutal slugfest. The loss proved to be something of a turning point in Miceli's career. Following that loss, he fought fellow comebacking contender Gil Turner, who was coming off a stoppage loss to Gavilan in a title challenge. The result is here: [yt]fpAJnrW4frc[/yt] After that fight, Miceli lost his status as a serious prospect and instead settled into the role of a gatekeeper - losing most of his big fights, but still retaining enough to test and occasionally even upset other contenders. His training habits also became increasingly questioned as his career progressed. However, he still remained a dangerous opponent throughout the decade, as this fight with up-and-coming future LW champ Bud Smith demonstrated: [yt]dPaBfTWCfJw[/yt] Probably his most notable feat in the latter part of the decade was ending the career of two-time welter champ Johnny Saxton with a brutal 4th round stoppage, not too long after Saxton's second title reign had ended. By the end of the '50s, Miceli was pretty much washed up and was just being used as fodder for the decade's new crop of rising stars, ie: Curtis Cokes and Luis Rodriguez. Here, he is thrown in with a prime Gene Fullmer in what proved to be a total mismatch. The fight was hyped by the fact that Miceli had recently KO'd one of Fullmer's brothers, thus giving it the "grudge match" angle. In reality though, it was just a quick workout and payday for Fullmer in between his more important fights. [yt]9HuD-s3gfq4[/yt]
