Does anyone here know anything about a Canadian heavy weight names Gordon Racette? I noticed his name appearing on the records of Tony Tubbs, Trevor Berbick and Jimmy Young a few years ago, but never got around to asking anyone about him.. Apparently, he held the Canadian heavy weight title for a brief period, and began his career with a pretty good record, but never really beat anyone of serious note. He appears to have been active in his early years and stayed busy as a prospect. I think I also read somewhere that he refereed some fights, following his boxing career. Does anyone know what kind of a fighter he was or have any information about him? I've cut and pasted his record off of boxrec below. http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=2422&cat=boxer
Thanks Jorodz. I just noticed that there were several occasions, early in his career where he fought multiple times in a single day in tournaments, against boxers with no records.. Many of them were first round knockout wins. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but that reaks of a fabricated career and pehaps even some fixed fights.
You never know, but I don't ever recall hearing anything about Don King sticking his hands into obscure tournaments abroad, or at least nothing like that.. Some of those events that Racette participated in, had 3 round fights.. It almost seems like he was racking up amatuer bouts and getting credit for professional wins.. This might actually make for an interesting discussion if we can find some guys who have something to share.
I've never really heard of the guy, but I do know where Nanaimo is as it's not far from where I live, which is in Vancouver. There was another highly touted boxer from Nanaimo who never panned out by the name of Shane Sutcliffe.
This content is protected http://www.fightnews.ca/2006/news/racettep220060912.htm Tried to PM this to you, but it came out in light yellow, illegible, it has an earlier part 1.
I used to read his name in the monthly results back in the day, but it was always listed as "Gordie," not Gordon. Beyond that, I gots nuthin'.........
Wow!! That was a lot of great information.. Thanks my friend. I don't know if I read this correctly, but at one point he said that he sparred with Jimmy Young for his fight with Trevor Berbick, and said that Young smoked a pack of cigarettes and drank a case of beer per day???? I may have misread it, and frankly find it hard to believe... I also never knew that Sylvester Stallone took an interest in him as a fighter, nor that Racette was a world kickboxing champion.. He also worked with troubled youth.. Unbelievable history there.
Yeah, I remember reading a story about Racette that indicated that he was pretty embittered about the way his boxing career was handled. And he may have a point. Although he wasn't ever going to be a champion (I remember watching highlights of his fight with Berbick on the news, and he was handled pretty conclusively), the Young fight indicates that he was kind of thrown to the wolves before he had any real chance to truly develop as a professional boxer. It's quite a jump to fight someone like Young when your previous opponents are Ernie Smith and Roy Wallace.
