awsome and interesting! ... i always thought the term coming up to scratch came from dogfighting, as back then dogs had to do the same thing (come to the line) interesting... thank you
During the filming in one of the Rocky movies (whichever one durans in) either 1 or 2 which was filmed at the Main Street Gym(now a parking lot) . Sly and Duran were sparring and Sly was complaining that Duran was hitting him to hard. When Duran was asked to tame it down,He replied "Im barely tapping him pinche maricon"
In 1866 the Marquess of Queensberry gave his support to a new set of rules, which were named in his honor. These rules limited the number of 3-minute rounds, eliminated gouging and wrestling, and made the use of gloves mandatory. Bareknuckle bouts did not cease immediately but did begin to decline. A new era dawned in 1892, when James J. CORBETT defeated the last of the great bare-fisted fighters, John L. SULLIVAN, under the new rules.
M.Ali didn't throw his Olympic gold medal over the (?) bridge in protest at not being served in a cafe. He simply lost it, but it made for a better story. Source: Thomas Hauser's bio book and davis Miller interview.
freddie roachs youngest brother, joey was also a boxer. He hung up the gloves at 8-3. He became rich by other means. He operated a multimillion dollar telemarketing operation. He drove ferraris and bentleys. In local newspapers in vegas it said he was very tight with the 'mafia cop' lou eppolito and the lucchese crime family. The government was trying to have roach work with them but he died 9/1/09.
Frank Bruno has the ring he won his WBC title in when he beat Oliver McCall. He used to train in it when he retired. Nigel Benn is now a preacher. Bruce Lee was a fan of Jack Dempsey's and once wrote to him asking for an autograph. He got one sent back to him with a 'best wishes' message on a postcard.
James Toney played Joe Frazier in the movie 'Ali' with Will Smith. Toney never was a drug dealer, that was made up later to give him some street cred; in fact James spent his teenage days playing high school football and sitting in his mothers bakery eating pastry. He moved down from over 200lbs to around 160lbs when he started pro boxing.
In 1910, the editor of San Fransisco Bulletin had a very bad luck. He was too confident that James J. Jeffries, would easily KO the remaining Heavyweight Champion at that period, Jack Johnson. That was why he publish his preview edition with the big headline "JEFFRIES Knocks outs Jack Johnson". He got so panic when he received a telegraph telling Johnson KO Jeffries. The bad luck editor then asked his staff to withdraw all the newspapers with very high price!