I knew Ray fairly well, actually. He hung around the gym a lot in Tacoma when I fought. It's been 20 years since I've seen him, so I have no idea what he's up to now, but at the time, he was a bit down on his luck, selling Amway products in order to make ends meet, an inglorious end for anyone. Really bad cataracts, could hardly see at all. Basically, he just hung out at the gym encouraging the fighters; you could tell the trainers and older fighters were kind of embarrassed at his presence, because he was never really included in the "inner circle" of trainers and top fighters there, just hung out with us kids and lesser guys. I did get to meet Hagler through him, indirectly. There was a benefit in Seales' honor in '86, and I got to briefly meet the champ, my big hero at the time. Nice memory.
Were the eye problems he had (didn't know it was cataracts) diagnosed during his prime in boxing as I was told? If so, any idea when in his career?
............I'm not sure how or why cataracts appear, or if they had anything to do with his detached retinas, which I know he also had, but I know he had them. Not sure when that came about, I never asked. I do know it wasn't at the end of his career, and have heard that by the time he fought Shuler, he could barely see.
..............It was. They essentially thought of him as a bit of a bum, like people treat the homeless people they see on street corners looking for money; eyes straight, pretend not to notice, that kind of thing. I don't think many kids knew who he was, either. I was a student of boxing history then, and knew of him because he fought my hero three times, so I was hip to what he was all about, the '72 Olympics, all that. I was thrilled to have met him, so he liked me. My first sparring session went badly, and the first person I ran into coming down from the ring was Ray (not the trainer), taking me by the shoulder and telling me I did okay, just work on this or that, and I'd be fine.
That says somthing about his preception skills as a boxer, "feeling your way" through a 12 rd D to a top contender. I feel guilty for applauding that but there is a sick part of me that sees somthing admirable in that.
Shunning the "losing" in the gym was somthing I learned very early about in boxing. Nobody wants to get close, afraid they might catch "IT". Treat them like Leppers.
Funny thing about the third fight is that going into the bout Seales was the WBA # 1 contender. This despite losing easily to Hagler the first time and hanging on for a "disputed" (according to Don Sauer) draw. He then lost to Minter and Harris, while Marv virtually cleaned out the top 10. :huh
still was only stopped twice in 67 fights.minter gave him a bit of a beating in london in '75 stopped him in 5
