I got to see a few of this guy's fights way back in the day. He started off as a decent prospect who beat a few other fellow prospects. His fight with Ray Mercer was a tough entertaining bout. Ray had to work hard to win that match over 12 rounds. Then a few months later he got a shot at Ruddock when he was a top contender, and got blasted out.. From there Odum's career went down hill. He was a big dude from Indiana who could punch and take a shot. Not sure why he fell so far down and ended up a trial horse.
Funny I was watching his match with David Izonritei yesterday. He certainly gave it a good go in that match. On the other hand his fight with Akinwande was a debacle !
I didn't see either of those. I saw him get his butt kicked by Art Tucker until old Art wore out and Odum came back to finish him. Took a helacious beating from Mercer and hit Ray with plenty of shots too. Believe I caught his fight on USA Tuesday night fights with The truth as well. Dude went from being a half way decent prospect to being a house hold journeyman for anyone who had a name.
Kimmuel Odum wasn't really much better as an amateur. He was always good enough to qualify for a big tournament and maybe make the quarterfinals, but he'd lose to the name fighters when it got close to the end. He was on the U.S.A. boxing team after all the 1984 Olympians turned pro. He traveled to a few international tournaments to compete in Dual meets with other nations, but he never did well. So the U.S. team replaced him. I found this online. It's actually mislabeled by the person who uploaded it. It is the USA-USSR Dual Meet that took place in Moscow on January 24, 1986. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szjFKylBasg Here are the fights featured: Orzubek Nazarov vs. William Longstreet Vasiliy Shyshov vs. Nick Kakouris Israel Akopkokhyan vs. Frank Liles Andrey Akulov vs. Tim Littles Ruslan Taramov vs. Darrin Allen Nurmagomed Shanavazov vs. Nate Houser Alexandr Yagubkin vs. Orbit Pough Vyacheslav Yakovlev vs. Kimmuel Odum (begins around the 1hr 6 min. mark) Odum is skinnier in this fight than he was later as a pro, but he's still about the same.
I met him in January 1999. There was a shady bar on Rt. 1 near my hometown of Mt. Vernon, near Alexandria VA which was run by a mafiosa looking guy. The bar was in the basement level of a shopping center and had a huge game room attached. They cleared out he game room and put up a boxing ring and brought in a bunch of folding chairs. I don't know who the promoter was, but I think he was a small time NJ promoter. The card featured a bunch of NJ prospects against some really ****py fighters brought up from South Carolina and North Carolina. There were some real mismatches. I remember one of the NJ fighters was junior welterweight Michael Covington. Odum was brought in as an opponent for a very strong but unskilled Italian guy who I think was from VA but may have been from NJ. He had a glossy record but had not fought anyone. Odum was fading fast but as we know had fought some top guys. Odum weathered an early attack and beat the **** out of his favored opponent, stopping him along the ropes in I believe round 3 After the fight I was standing at the bar and Odum is standing nearby. I started talking to him saying good fight and that I remembered seeing him fight on CBS in the early '90s. He said he go screwed in one of his CBS fights, maybe the Mercer fight, I can't remember. Then he asked if I would buy him a drink because he hadn't gotten paid for the fight yet. LOL. I bought him a Rum and Coke. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. On the same day I got to talk to Lavander Johnson. His fight was cancelled. He was just hanging out eating a plate of food (that bar had terrible food by the way. ) I remember thinking I was surprised he hadn't retired after the beating he took form Nasarov. We fist tapped and I said good luck in your career. He was obviously between big promoters and was fighting for the small time NJ promoter at the time. It was a sad day when he died after being kod by Jesus Chavez.
I met Jesus Chavez at a boxing show after the Johnson fight. That seemed like a really bad period for him.
