THE WAR ZONE: Revisiting Classics (Vol. 10 - William Horatio Butler Jr. vs. Rudell Stitch)

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edit: was going to redo the video embed per the new media formatting protocol under xenforo, but the original uploading account has been terminated and it appears there was never any backup on YouTube. :sad2 What a ****ing loss.

Rudell Stitch vs. Yama Bahama, Novermber 26th, 1958 - the day before Thanksgiving.

Don't mind the bright lights, kid.

Rudy didn't.

Cool as a cuke, he intentionally let the first slip the way of the vastly more seasoned (and more acclimated to being on camera and in front of large crowds) man from Bimini. Soon enough, however, the young Louisville Slugger had waded into waist-deep and turbulent surf, braving the wily Bahamian's sharp left jab and getting to him with clubbing right hand power with a fair number of sneaky body shots to even it up on the newfangled 10 point must system under which this bout was being conducted.

From there we had a tone set for a terrific crossroads match between a young man working hard to recapture the glory of his amateur days and the celebrated road warrior biologically a month younger but with thrice as much professional experience already - distilled of much higher quality to boot.

Their swashbuckling of hard jabs created such a mesmerizing effect that Stitch's huge right hand in the middle of the fast-paced third shocks the viewer as much as it did poor Yama. Both men were hooking with unchecked spite by the bell.

Now it was the hometown boy up 29-28 under 10 point must.

He would soon have tangible proof of his punches' effectiveness, shredding Yama's flesh open in the fourth, and the resultant discomfiture had the suave West Indies battler in retreat mode and swatting in a mild panic with as many counters as he could muster.

Now with a bit of daylight between them after the first four frames, Rudell champed the bit and kept the pressure piled on for most of the next four, with an especially raucous sixth seeing Yama nearly felled (and Stitch himself did go down two rounds later, but ruled correctly a slip although Bahama had like a ferocious cornered animal gotten off with a pretty neat salvo just prior). It wasn't until the ninth when a confluence of factors saw the momentum swing back in Yama's direction - Stitch's own penchant for late fading (this was just his fifth time going the full 10rd monty - always losing the final round or two - while it was old hat for Bahama, having gone that stretch now sixteen times himself) and Bahama's bail-out tactic of fouling up as much of a storm as he could reasonably keep off the doppler of meteorologist (referee, for the less literary reader :yep) Dan Asbury. Limping to the finish line, Stitch nonetheless lapped the invading favorite, to his Kentuckian partisans' delight, and despite the late trail-off it was no photo-finish.

Not a bad night's work for a small-town pug with four defeats already in nineteen tries (albeit three of them were via split decision, and the other a rematch with a man Stitch had already beaten). Especially so when you consider that just five months earlier Bahama himself scored an upset over the legendary Kid Gavilán, in the faded but still dangerous Cuban Hawk's final career match.


Here's a glowing contemporaneous review from Rudy's local paper:

Stitch Power Gains Unanimous Decision

A candidate for the Carnegie Hero's Medal, Louisvillian Rudell Stitch made himself a bigger hero than ever with hometown fight fans last night when he scored an upset 10-round decision over Yama Bahama.
Rudell's clear-cut victory at the Fairgrounds in his national television debut was decisive and carried not the slighest taint of a "hometown decision".
A 9-5 underdog, the heavy-punching Stitch earned the important triumph with a smashing, slashing attack in the sixth and seventh rounds.
He jolted the more experienced Bahama, a veteran headline performer for the past few years, with roundhouse rights and crosses that went over and under Yama's left jabs. And he crashed home punishing left hooks.
Nominated for Medal
His talented left ineffective in this surge, Bahama was in a bit of trouble but managed to weather the storm. Indeed, he appeared to get slightly the better of a tiring Stitch in the last two rounds.
But by then, Stitch, fired by desire and determination, had this hard-fought, interesting fight won -- his 16th victory in 19 professional outings.
Rudell, who has been nominated for the Carnegie Hero's Medal for recently saving a man from drowning in the Ohio River here, wearied some at the end because once again he had to give away weight.
Stitch weighed in at noon at 145½. Bahama, of the Bahama Islands, who now has lost his eighth bout in 62 against 51 wins and two draws, scaled in at 150, but probably was a couple of pounds heavier by fight time.
He's a middleweight who agreed to come in at 150.
Judge Walter Beck scored the fight 47-45, Judge Tom Nuckles 46-43, and Referee Don Asbury 49-43. The Courier-Journal scorecard has it 49-43, the United Press scored it 49-43, and the Associated Press 49-41.
Next Fight Dec. 29
The next fight for Stitch, who has risen fast in the welterweight division, probably will be December 29th at the Armory. Promoter Rich Keeling, who got Stitch his first important fights, said last night, "He doesn't have an opponent yet."
Meanwhile, promoter Bill King of the Fairgrounds, who stages the television bouts with the International Boxing Club (which must have been impressed with Rudell last night), is trying to get Stitch for another video card out of here on January 12.
Prospects are Stitch will be on both shows.
The victory, seen by millions throughout the land on television, was a big one for Stitch. He not only impressed with his power, but with his boxing ability as well.
He was the aggressor most of the way, effectively trading left jabs with Bahama, noted for his ring skill. And, indeed, in a couple of rounds Stitch outboxed his adversary.
Bahama's Eye Cut
Bahama suffered a rather bad cut over and to the side of his left eye in the fourth round and by the sixth it was on the nasty side.
Stitch got a mouse under his left eye in the seventh round. He also was bothered, he said afterwards -- confirming what ringsiders thought they saw -- by Bahama using his thumb. Stitch was visibly angry in the ninth round, gesturing to Referee Asbury that Bahama had almost torn his eyeball out with the thumb.

(courtesy of Larry Boeck/the Louisville Courier-Journal, 11/27/58)

Clearly he was much beloved in Louisville - and indeed he would have a mural erected there in his memory decades after his untimely passing, just over three months ago. He died, in a bitterly ironic twist, in that same Ohio River attempting to save yet another person from drowning - still in the full bloom of his fighting prime. :verysad He was actually scheduled to have fought El Feo Rodríguez a few months later.

His opponent would, interestingly, go down a very different path - nearly the antithesis of a heroic one. Yama Bahama was arrested for a bungled attempt to rob a bank in 1965. It was referred to in media of the day as up there with the dumbest, most hare-brained and poorly-planned & executed heists on record, with aspects of it "rivaling a Peter Sellers comedy". Talk about disparate trajectories & legacies!