He was very fast and was a good technical boxer, but he didn't have the power or the chin to be an ATG. He was a very, very tricky boxer with excellent movement.
Had tons of speed and actually his speed created some suprising kos.Could have been so much more but had alot of ot of the ring problems.
In 1994 i was in a las vegas gym talking to James Broad about an old fight he had years back against a man named Eddie Gregg, the fight featured in a book named The Black Lights, a great book may i add, while we were chattering away about old time garbage remminissing , we started on more about the book its self, when i mentioned another fight in the same book , Billy Costello and Lonnie Smith, James stopped me in my tracks and shreaked like he had seen a ghost, He hollered out loud to the other ring room , a kinda private room where you could train almost in peace to get in the zone, I could not beleive what had happened , while we were talking ironically about the book, Lonnie had walked into the gym after being retired for a long while to hit mitts with a friend, James and i strolled in and watched a while before i actually recognised him, he was shaven headded and extremely muscled , around 20 pounds muscle heavier than i remember him , James told Lonnie what had just happened and the book and Lonnie was taken back by it, It was like spooky how this occurred and later we ate dinner in a local fish restaurant, Lonnie knew Crocodile, a Tyson team member who was also a friend of ours and we all kinda had a common bond .. Crocodile (Steve Fitch) was in the gym later that week and what began as a small conversation about a passage in The Black Lights, ended up with about four people who were in the book actually appearing out of the blue in the gym at the same time, Lonnie was a very quick handed guy with a wicked snap to his work, but in life he is far more quick witted and funny than you would imagine.. I just thought i'd share that one with you, James passed away a few years ago sadly , and i miss him, memories like that are still very dear to me.. God Bless..
Thanks for the story Bigcat. Lonnie Smith had incredible physical talent. I thought he'd hold the title for several years. He always seemed like an interesting guy. I'm sorry to hear about James Broad passing. Somehow I hadn't heard that before. I saw him stop Rodney Frazier in AC a long time ago.
Yes , thanks, James was broke and homeless unfortunately , and died of hyperthermia in a bus shelter in Henderson Nevada.. Rodney Frazier, wow, he was the Frazier no one remembers much, he was a decent heavyweight , i saw him getting stopped by Carl The Truth in the late 80's .... everyone remembers Marvis, but Rodney was a very tough guy.. I do miss James.... God Bless.....
Man you have brough back some great memories, Eddie Gregg and Barry Funches, Funches came to Britain to fight Frank Bruno years later.. Eddie looked quite the part against Broad, he was tall rangy and really looked athletic, while Broad was quite the opposite, i remember hearing that Mickey Duff sat ringside (and shrewdly knew a lot more about James pedegree than his friend) and offered a wager on the outcome of the match before hand. On the appearence of the two his buddy took the wager and put a sizable sum in place that Gregg would easily beat the quite chubby lump Broad, but Duff knew too much how Broad was a class above Eddie, Broad started slow and ended up beating Edie easily , not to read a book by its cover.. Duff hustled his buddy and won the cash.. That was the tale i was telling James in the Gym that day....... co incidentally Duff was actually Bruno's manager too.......
I remember seeing Smith beat Costello and he looked like the second coming of Sugar Ray Leonard! I remember thinking he could be boxing's next big thing until a few months later I read in the Ring mag he got KOd by Rene Arredondo (I think). I wonder what happened to all that flashy skill?
