Sugar Ray Seales

i like him better in 'judge joe brown'

 

He was a good fighter, with nice bouncey Laguna\marcel-esque movement and solid skills.Just unlucky to mostly fight a crop of contenders a bit better than him.hard to fight like that against precision straight punchers with long arms like hagler and kalule.Was doing ok against Minter, until Alan turned it into a 126 Pacman-esque herky kerky slopfest and caught him with his underrated straight left.

 

I knew him back in the mid-80's when I fought out of the Tacoma Boy's Club. He hung around the gym a lot, wanting to be a part of whatever was going on, but the trainers that ran the gym clearly didn't want him around.

He had bad cataracts in each eye and was selling Amway products to make ends meet. Sad story.

 

He was not promoted properly. Being the only Gold Medalist off of the 1972 US Olympic Boxing Squad should have garnered him at least the kind of economic payoff that failed heavyweight teammate Bobick somehow managed to accrue, but Seales was not emphasized for his exploits at Munich. His legacy seems to largely be how that error was rectified for his 1976 US Olympic successors.

That first professional loss was to Hagler at the WNAC-TV studio in Boston. Why the hell didn't that match take place in Seattle or Tacoma? Seales should have been the bigger attraction in August 1974, yet he's the one going onto the other guy's home turf? Taking on Minter in London also makes no sense. Again, Seales was a Gold Medalist, while Alan took Bronze at Munich. Seales didn't need to take such a risk on the road like that. Ditto for Kalule in Copenhagen. As for the disastrous rebound attempt from Minter against Ronnie Harris, they shouldn't have had to fight one another to each get a crack at the middleweight title.

It sure would have been interesting to see Monzon defend against a southpaw, like Minter, Seales, Harris, Kalule or Hagler. One of the really intriguing things about the reign of King Carlos is that all his title opponents were orthodox, despite the profusion of southpaw middleweights out and about as his career started winding down. (Did Monzon get out when he did in part to avoid southpaw opposition?)

Anyhow, with first rate handling, Seales may have been able to attain a shot at Monzon with an undefeated record, getting Carlos into the States for a lucrative defense. He did snag the NABF and USBA MW Titles, and beat Doug Demmings over the championship distance, yet Licata's management succeeded where his failed at reaching Monzon.

 

He had eye trouble early on,he was a very good fighter

 

That Seales Hagler fight had to have been filmed. I wish it would surface.

 

Back in 1974, WNAC-TV was Channel 7 in Boston. The call letters were changed to WNEV in May 1982, then to WHDH in 1990. Hagler-Seales I, with a screaming studio audience of 225 Hagler partisans paying ticket prices averaging $15, nailed down 25% of the television audience. I don't understand the intricacies of the station ownership changes and affiliation switches over the years, but I would imagine that Hagler-Seales I is the property of Boston's WHDH-TV, Channel 7. It was a major and unique event at the time in New England, and with Ali's return to the HW summit in Kinshasa, boxing's revival was fully assured. There's no way that fight doesn't exist on tape, and likely in pristine condition. It wasn't weekly Candlepin Bowling or kid's programming, something more liable to being recorded over. However, I don't recall even seeing footage of that bout during the massive buildup to their rubber match. So far as I can determine, it only aired live.