http://boxrec.com/boxer/765503 Found this when looking over Earnie Shavers record on boxrec. What could possibly be the explanation for this fight. A guy in his pro debut takes on the hardest puncher ever to live 4 fights removed from a title fight? There are so many questions. Who sanctioned this. WHo thought this was a good idea? Who was this guy's manager? I'm deeply confused and disturbed.
From Shavers' autobiography: "On October 17, 1980, I knocked out somebody in a fight in West Palm Beach, Florida. The only thing I'm sure about is it happened in the second round. Most official records list the guy as Ted Hamilton, but it might have been Ted Wadkins. Whoever he was, he agreed to fight at the last minute when somebody else took a powder rather than face me, which wasn't that unusual." If Shavers is right, can "Ted Wadkins" have been this elderly light heavy weight? http://boxrec.com/boxer/24750
I feel sorry for some of these guys that lose for a living. Even if he took a dive in half of his stoppage losses, that guy was still knocked out 13 times. That cant be good for you, however much he got for that fight, IMO isnt enough for that.
I find Shavers' explanation reasonable. His opponent is a no-show, the crowd is in the venue and the clock is ticking. Cue some dude who agrees to step in at the last minute. He can then say he fought Earnie Shavers as a pro. There's guys like that out there. Looks like Shavers was even nice to him and let him get out of the first.
Well, it looks like Ted Wadkins was actually Ted Hamilton. Boxrec doesn't include the Shavers fight on his record, but it does say he had a bout in December 1980 under the name Ted Watkins.
I hear your concern here, but I would probably limit your worry. Promoters are prepared for last minute cancellations and usually have "jobbers" at their disposal who are perfectly willing to fight under an assumed name for a quick payday. And if they picked a "new" name, then BoxRec will naturally list them as a "debuting fighter". This happened in Indy with one of Marvin Johnson's fights in the late 70's. Listed fighter no showed. They pulled in a "jabroni" from Texas the day before the fight and listed him as a 14-4 "Ismael Vargas from Mexico" when it was really a guy named Roberto Reynosa from San Antonio who was actually a very experienced ex-Golden Glove champ and who was perfectly competent to put up enough of a show to satisfy the crowd and do it without getting hurt. Sure enough, he was listed as a "debuting fighter" for years at BoxRec as there were no known results for an "Ismael Vargas" until I explained who he really was and they changed the record.
https://josportsinc.com/catalog/view.php?id=21331 Ran across this and thought about this old thread.... Here's a poster with "Texas Ted Watkins" listed as having over 50 fights with a winning record and references him fighting Shavers and stopping a "Bobby Howard". Creative license when it comes to the promotion. Seems to suggest that Ted Hamilton used the name "Ted Watkins" and claimed the Shavers fight as his. I suppose the surreal option is that some guy got pulled off the street to use the "Ted Watkins" name and then the "Real Ted Watkins", who was actually Ted Hamilton, claimed the fight as his to bolster his resume.
