Nick Wells 61 years old today .Interesting article link found from 1972 .

72 amateur first round KO's for this fellow also.

http://www.**************/news.php?news_id=2451&y=2013&m=02

Well that link didn't work so well did it. Courage Tshabalala is the guy I'm talking about.

 

Kolcade, as far as i am aware, is Nick Wells Jr.

 

Harold Brazier worked full time in an auto body shop and trained at night during his prime.

 

Didn't Bennie Briscoe work full-time as a garbage collector during his pro career? I'm sure I read this somewhere.

Regardless, it can't be easy to juggle a full-time job and a boxing career.

 

Maybe Wells should've fought Stevenson.Good chance he could've beaten him, and the legend wouldn't have started.

 

The amazing thing about Wells was, he was like 5'10 187. For some reason, there just was no such thing as an American southpaw heavyweight until the 1980s.

 

Correct, but while that's an open secret, he doesn't make anything of it on this open forum, and doesn't really need to. Enough posters know about his father or have witnessed him in action. What Kolcade does is set and keep the record straight about certain facts and details which wouldn't be available to the rest of us, filling in blanks like how Winky Groom screwed him up when Dave Gorman was also in Fort Worth (although Kolcade has cited Doug Lord as a preferable alternative to Groom).

Wells did reportedly tend to cut (a risk which obviously increased as a match continues, and he did probably benefit from avoiding many cuts with the use of headgear that was mandatory in the armed forces competition), and all those short bouts didn't help when it came to developing stamina as a professional, but the one time he won a match which lasted longer than three rounds, it was by a seven round knockout over 3-1 future NABF HW Champion Larry Alexander. Snipes, Page and Ruddock would be three of the only other four guys to ever stop Alexander.

A southpaw with legendary power, but as to how far he could have gone with a perfect trainer and perfect matchmaking in legitimate competition, I have to be a little reserved, with all due respect to father and son. The father himself might be the best one to speculate on this. Stamina is a concern, but if he somehow could have gotten Holmes in late 1977, things might have been interesting. Larry had long since established himself as a ten round fighter, but Nick would certainly have had a psychological advantage.

 

Well put.

Intersting decade of amatuer fighters. Perhaps the best 3 didn't translate to the pro game with Stevenson/Igor/Wells. The guys that did well in the pro's were boxer types in Holmes/Tate and then that 76-78 crop of Page and Dokes and ****ey maybe. And Coetzee and the K man.

But the southpaws were Igor and Wells. Both had bad skin and cuts/scar tissue back then was a far bigger problem than today. But even Wells was different than Igor in that his Sunday punch was a right hook coming from a southpaw. Rarest of breeds and by far the rarest punch to deal with. Where in the world would a guy get training and sparring for that back then?

But in boxing, always look at the management. Bad or even mediocre management does not make for great careers. A boxer trying the pro game simply has to have it.