Livingstone Bramble RIP

First Estaba a while ago, then Haugen,l then Foreman, then Bramble..geez I hope we get a long rest!

RIP champ!

 

Bugger. We were talking about him just days ago in here.

 

The full story -

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A few minutes of highlights -

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RIP Champ.....

 

Ras-I Alujah Bramble was born Livingstone Bramble in the West Indies and raised in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

He was, and to some degree remained, a mysterious character. He either did or did not practice witchcraft (there’s tales of him skinning a dead cat and hanging it on his wall) and he basically identified himself as a Rastafarian and raised his son under those beliefs, but wouldn’t answer questions (at various times at least) about his true religious/spiritual beliefs. He did say that he hated chickens and was known to strangle them.

He did not, however, eat chicken. He was a pescatarian (I have a friend who is also such, and my understanding is they eat fish/seafood but no other meat) but I’ve also seen it written that he was a vegetarian. People’s diets can change, so he could have been either or both at various junctures.

When he showed up to fight Ray Mancini, he did so with a ‘witch doctor’ named Dr. Doo (as in voodoo), whom he later said was a friend and his youth basketball coach. He claimed it was a publicity ploy cooked up by Lou Duva, and it may well have been.

But he also came to the ring (and posed for a cover for The Ring magazine) with a boa constrictor around his neck.

In fact, Bramble had a ferret named Spider and a dog named Snake. I’m not sure if the snake was named Dog or Ferret. He also at some point owned an alligator, a parrot and a cockatoo.

He wore colorful berets and apparently danced to the beat of his own drum, or at least reggae.

Boxing history is chock full of characters. I’m not sure any of them were more colorful nor animated than Mr. Bramble. He was truly one of a kind.

He gave a lot to the sport. He always came to fight, as far as I know, and he damned sure wasn’t shy about stepping in the ring with anyone. Boxing was better for having him as part of its landscape.

Rest in peace, champ.

 

Someone mentioned him just a couple days ago on here. I trained at the same gym as him as a kid, before the Mancini fight. A colorful, interesting fighter. What horrible news for boxing lately.

R.I.P. Champ.

 

RIP

 

Saddens me to hear this. Bramble was a tough guy. Watched a lot of him on ESPN and regular television. Very exciting fighter

 

RIP Livingstone Bramble.. He was one tough hombre.

 

Bramble was also a marathon runner for years after he retired from boxing. He took part in the annual marathon at the International Boxing Hall of Fame many times, apparently.

 

I remember seeing photos of him racing across the finish line in old Ring mags.

 

Looking back @Bramble's career, he caught a lot of bad breaks in his post-Rosario years that might've made the difference in whether he could've returned to the top. He got cut early in his rematch w/ Pendleton & battled thru blood periodically flowing into his eye until the fight was stopped in the 10th. Shortly after that, he had surgery for bone spurs in his elbow. After he recovered, he briefly revived his career w/ a 2-rnd blowout of Harold Brazier, but then he lost a series of close, often debatable decisions & also suffered a bad shoulder injury in a fight. I think the final straw was his robbery "loss" to Oba Carr, which may have finally broken him mentally if not physically. After that he fairly quickly descended into journeyman/opponent status for the remainder of his career.

 

I met him years after he had lost his title and he was still having success but not like he did when he was a lightweight.
He was I believe at the time in the jr.welterweight division.
So supposedly they were in search of tall boxers to work with him and my trainer knew someone in his camp and said I could work with him if they wanted.
Now keep in mind I'm an amateur fighter at this point and the prospect of sparring Bramble actually made me incredibly nervous.
So we go to the gym he was at and I get to meet him and he's very nice and he comments on how tall I am.
I'm looking at him and he looks like he is built out of bricks.
So that day I just work out in the gym he is in and I was going to spar him the next day supposedly.
Well they put this tall jr.middle in to spar with him that day and Bramble man handles him in a heated sparring match.
Now I'm thinking I'm am truly going to get it- I'm a freaking featherweight who is 6'1 and he just man handled a freaking 6'1 jr.middleweight who was a pro.
Well I can't remember if it was a cut or he messed up his hand in that sparring match -he sustained some type of injury where his trainer said he wasn't going to be able to spar for awhile.
And nobody was happier then me lol.
The thing I remember is that during the gym session Bramble would disappear and go outside and comeback in and he was always going to his car.
And if you happened to go outside right when he went back in I swear you could smell a slight odor of weed.