Philadelphia legend Stanley "Kitten" Hayward had one of the best and most colorful careers in Philly boxing history. He was a tough, exciting, and extremely popular boxer who fought in a golden era of welterweights and middleweights. His 32-12-4 (18 KO) run included big wins over Curtis Cokes, Emile Griffith, and Bennie Briscoe. He also earned a crack at the word junior middleweight championship against Freddie Little in 1969. Already a member of the PA Boxing HOF, Hayward will be enshrined in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Tuesday night (2012) Good boxing info below: http://www.doghouseboxing.com/Ken/Hissner052809.htm http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=158789 http://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/fight_stories/stories/2012/20120409_hayward_01.htm
One of my favorites. What a character. After his first fight with Briscoe (which he won) he had a concussion and went nuts in the dressing room afterwards. Literally lost his mind. Had the guy trained more and fought more, essentially been more dedicated he would have made a lot more noise. He embarrassed Bouttier in France, still cant believe they gave that fight to Bouttier but they robbed Griffith against Bouttier as well.
The Kitten's win over Griffith was a well known robbery...no one at that time could believe that Haywood got that decision...and sure enough in the rematch Griffith won and won comfortably. Hayward's biggest win IMO was that ko over Curtis Cokes.....the only time until meeting Jose Napoles that Cokes was ever stopped. Stanley Kitten Hayward would feast on the welters of today I believe.
People need to quit with calling close fights robberies. Hayward dominated the first half of his bout with Griffith. The local papers had Hayward winning a close decision while the New York (where Griffith was a house fighter) papers called it a robbery. Bull****. The difference in the second fight wasnt fair judging it was the fact that hayward took the fight less than two months after losing to Little. In the Little fight Hayward suffered a very deep cut and against better advice took the Griffith rematch before that cut had healed. Just like in their first fight Hayward controlled Griffith until the fifth round only this time in the fifth Griffith opened the cut Hayward suffered against Little. From that point on it was all Griffith. This fight is on film and you can see this all play out. Without that cut the rematch could have easily gone the way of the first fight. You can see throughout his career that when he was cut Hayward, ever the ladies man and concious of his looks, stopped fighting and let the fight go. This happened numerous times.
