......from the family that first managed ezzard, and some other things, not on this particular post from ezzard himself. i've been thinking about some other ezzard charles stories to post here.....nothing huge or sensational....just a few things that might be of interest. and here's one from the topic in itself.....his right hand man, richard christmas, a good friend of mine who passed away last august told me whenever i had a chance to talk to ezzard himself told me never...never....to mention the name of sam baroudi.
Nah. Tyson had a big interest in boxing history. He is always at fights and even has a promotional outfit. I also remember him going crazy ringside when Judah stopped Mabuza. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQLxRV65Sk
Doesn't matter that he only had two losses...his loss to Hopkins devastated him,...put him in a tailspin of alcoholism...the loss to Martinez compounded the problem. Hell, he wasn't ko'ed or even decked in either fight. Seriously, think of the fighters of history who had more crushing defeats than Kelly had...ko losses....and had the drive, gumption and determination to learn from those losses and rebuild their careers....but no, not Kelly...he didn't have it in him.
He once said that he would rather be a champion hunter, or a champion fisher, for those were his true passions.
But woiuldn't it be true to say that after the Hopkins fight, that the problem went spiralling out of hand....and even more so after losing to Martinez?
...rocky graziano said if he had a son who wanted to box, he'd cut his son's arm off to stop him. he said after one of the tony zale fights he urinated blood for three days. he also said he was one of the lucky ones who had a good post career life, but so few of them did.