That was a shocking upset in 1979. 23 year old former lightheavyweight champion Rossman, on the comeback trail, gets KO'd by his tune up opponent. Ranquello was only 12-6-3 but he was rugged and could punch. I heard that Rossman was beating the cajones out of Ranquello for 4 or 5 rounds, including flooring him a few times, then ran out of gas and got stopped in the 6th. Was it a fluke? Fight took place in New Joisey. Joisey boys: give us your take on this.
Rossman landed him with a devastating hook early on a tape delay broadcast, one of two knockdowns he scored. My father looked at me dubiously and said doubtfully as Ranquello was sprawled face down on the floor, "He came back from this?" At the time, Ramon had only been stopped in his debut by My Dinner With Conteh favorite Eddie Mallard (Mallard's only career win in ten outings). But later, Ramon was wildly hurling looping right after looping right, repeatedly smashing over the top, and Mike wasn't able to stop any of these telegraphed mortar shots. Finally, he slowly sank down on his knees (this looked a lot like Frazier's body shot knockdown of Jerry Quarry in their rematch). When referee Paul Venti decided to call a halt after the second knockdown of Rossman, Mike animatedly grabbed him, and threw out his hands, getting in Venti's face and gesturing, "Why?" After all, Ranquello had been allowed to come back from two devastating earlier knockdowns, but those were largely the result of singular shots. Rossman, on the other hand, simply hadn't been able to defend himself from roundhouse right after roundhouse right. Today, a skittish referee might have stopped it in favor of Mike on the strength of those two earlier knockdowns, but Venti was justified in letting it continue on. I also believe he was justified in stopping it when he did. A competitor of Rossman's caliber had no business getting hit like that with all those amateurish swings. I don't think he gassed from exertion so much as he just crumbled from getting repeatedly hit. He'd never been down in his all amateur or professional career (even sparring), but his father in his corner kept admonishing Mike, "You've got to stop getting hit by all these rights!" (At the end, Rossman seemed clear headed, fully knew what was happening, and certainly demonstrated that to Venti, but the fact is he wasn't defending himself against those bombs, showed no signs of turning that around, and thus was no longer competitive.) Due to Mike's earlier success at blasting Ramon to the floor (some of the better displays of power I'd seen from Rossman), a highly anticipated rematch was promptly arranged. This time, I thought a determined Mike might kill him for redemption, but got injured in training, then a responsible and steady training last minute languishing substitute named Michael Spinks jabbed Ranquello into a bloody mess, spurring his own rise to professional boxing immortality.
Yep. It sure was a big big loss by Rossman though and one of those type of losses that really illustrates things for future opponents to exploit. It's one thing to drop a decision to the journeyman type fighters in a flat effort or not terribly sharp. lots of guys have those losses. What most of the top fighters do not have is those dreaded 'koby' results. Those "koby" results always seem to come back and haunt guys that fight in tough divisions when they take on future top shelf opponents. It ends up becoming a major issue with fighters and so very few go on to overcome that kind of loss efffectively. Boxing sure is an unforgiving sport in that aspect compared to the other sports where bad losses are not so crucial and not so devastating.
I remember the fight well. I was curious what other people's impressions were. The Ranquello bout was Rossman's first fight after a six month layoff due to his broken hand, suffered in the 1979 Galindez rematch. Far worse, though, was that Rossman no longer had his expert trainer, Jim "Slim" Robinson, for the Ranquello fight. This is because, after the Galindez fight, there was some kind of quarrell between Rossman and his father/manager, and that relationship diminished professionally. I think Rossman became more of his own manager, and this meant, somehow, that Robinson was scuttled as trainer. I think Jimmy Arthur was Rossman's new trainer after Robinson. Arthur was teaching Rossman an entirely new way of fighting, based on jabbing, boxing, and moving. That contrasted with Robinson's emphasis on combination punching, aggression, and slugging. As for the Ranquello fight, I honestly believe Rossman was mentally off that night, maybe trying too hard to put his new style to work. He had Ranquello hurt and ready to go in the 3rd, but for some reason, Rossman backed off and kept pumping the jab, rather than going for the KO. Even so, for four and half rounds, Rossman dominated the bout with his jabs, rights, and crosses. But he looked mechanical...something seemed really off about his performance. And, he was getting smacked occassionally by Ranquello's overhand right. Rossman's dominance continued in the early part of the fifth, but Ranquello came on hard with repeated overhand rights in that round, which he may have won or drawn with Rossman. For the first time, Rossman was weakening. The wild, sloppy slugfest continued into the 6th, with Rossman getting hit more and more. Finally he ran into a huge overhand right that dropped him on his back. He got up, but looked glassy eyed, then Ranquello attacked and battered him along the ropes, leading to another knockdown and the TKO ending. Rossman was a 6 to 1 favorite going into this fight. In some ways, it ranks as one of boxing's all time classic upsets. As for the rematch, it never came off because the fighting between Rossman and his father intensified. Finally Rossman fired his father, and the father demanded financial compensation. With all this happening prior to the scheduled rematch, Rossman's head was totally unfocused, so he correctly withdrew from the match. That's when Spinks stepped in and demolished Ranquello, which made Rossman look that much worse. When Rossman eventually returned to the ring later in 1980, he never again looked as sharp or as effective as he had prior to 1979.
Rossman just had some strange things happen to him...he was a pretty good fighter. That time Challenger Galindez wouldn't come out of the dressing room to fight Champion Rossman.....and the WBA made Rossman fight him a few months later anyway...was a bunch of crap (Galindez should have been removed from the Top Ten for that stunt). Rossman then had managerial problems....and the Ranquello upset/whuppin, and Rossman then just slowly faded away.
Fight took place in New Joisey. Joisey boys: give us your take on this.[/quote] Undercard, Scott "The Jersey Bomber" Frank from the not so mean streets of dear old Oakland New Jersey, defeated Big Bill Connell, Atlantic Highlands. Niño Gonzalez,the Fighting Bayonne truant officer, Tkos Rusty Rosenberger, a NJ transplant originally from Ohio. Needed to flex my Garden State roots a bit today.
Undercard, Scott "The Jersey Bomber" Frank from the not so mean streets of dear old Oakland New Jersey, defeated Big Bill Connell, Atlantic Highlands. Niño Gonzalez,the Fighting Bayonne truant officer, Tkos Rusty Rosenberger, a NJ transplant originally from Ohio. Needed to flex my Garden State roots a bit today.[/quote] I remember those guys: Scott Frank, Nino Gonzalez, and Rusty Rosenberger. As for Rossman-Ranquello, I'm still convinced it was a fluke. The Rossman of New Orleans (Galindez fights) would have given Ranquello a beating. No disrespect intended to Ranquello: he was one tough clubfighter.
Has anyone got a decent looking copy of the Rossman v Ranquello fight? I have just had a look at my own copy, and it is BAD. Woller
Could you upload it to youtube anyway? It has been many years since I've seen a copy of this fight. I'll deal with the shitty quality. Rossman should have rolled Ranquello, ripping him with combos and keeping the pressure on. Had Mike done this, he probably would have stopped Ranquello without too many problems, most likely around the 8th.
