THE WAR ZONE: Revisiting Classics (Vol. 9 - Livingstone Bramble vs. Oba Diallo Carr)

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edit: new embedded media formatting per switch to xenforo

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We did it! :happy Er...you did it! Er...the regular viewers of Tuesday Night Fights on USA in 1991 ... did it. Not all of them, mind you - just whomever felt compelled to dial into the "You Make The Match" poll, run via telephone in the weeks leading up to a balmy "Indian summer" evening (the almanac registering 43° Fh on that October eighth in Auburn Hills, MI).

In any event, way to go, fans. You have chosen...wisely.

The records alone - Oba Diallo's 20-0 (14) versus Ras-I Alujah's 31-6-2 (20) - made this a clear exemplar of youth matched against experience. Bramble had as many knockouts as Carr yet had bouts! They had a dozen years between them, and just under a decade buffering their respective professional debuts. Carr had (likely, unless precocious to a statistically rare degree in physiological terms) not yet sprouted a full bush of pubes when he watched on TV as his then-idol Bramble fought Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini and took his title.

Carr was a scion of Kronk, led to ring center for referee Sam Williams' instructions by a still youngish Emanuel Steward (with a full head of hair!!! ...stuck between the Hearns-centric first act of his legacy and the Klitschko-centric third act to come, and with his era-bridging star pupil Lennox Claudius Lewis still a year or so away from coming into his own and becoming an international sensation at heavyweight) while Bramble, a well-seasoned pro at this point and probably in little need of a coach anymore, save to mop his brow and hold the spit bucket, came seconded by Rudolph Joseph and the rest of his ride-or-die team of Rastafarians, doubling as coaches-by-committee and motivational hype squad.

The fans had made their selection (augmented by over a hundred phone calls placed to USA Network by Livingstone himself ) and from the opening bell they reaped their just desserts. Carr's punches came like rifle cracks, as straight as if guided by a laser or leveler, in signature Detroit red-and-gold fashion. Bramble, sure enough, brought his full brunt of wily veteran ring awareness to bear and made things just awkward enough to surprise Carr with shots nobody had ever given him opportunity to prepare for in the gym. This was no slow boil. The kettle was screeching in but a couple of minutes...

Carr went down twice in the first, yet maintained his composure very well given his youth & the newness of the sensation - and especially given the way Bramble, no slouch in the finishing department, fixating on his goal like a dog with a bone clenched between its teeth. Once the dust settled and it became apparent that Carr would survive to lose the first - but, strangely enough, not the only - 10-7 round of his career, it became a series of tactical counter-adjustments, with Carr looking to cautiously peck & claw his way up from this hole, while Bramble teased and stabbed at the young bull, too clever to be gored himself and yet alarmed that his commanding lead might be threatened.

Bramble was then very badly hurt - and the closest to getting dropped anyone had ever seen him - in the 5th. Now the Carr takeover was in full swing, and he carried that momentum for a few rounds...until a big rally from Bramble in the seventh, which swung the pendulum his way again. Terrific action was sustained into the final stretch, the venerable clown and the serious-faced vanguard going toe-to-toe and tit-for-tat in the eighth. LB pulls a flourish worthy of SRL to put his stamp on it.

Sean O'Grady now had it 4-3-1 in rounds, which put Bramble "comfortably ahead" factoring in the knockdowns. "I was a fighter" he moaned, "don't sweat me on the math..." :yep

The last two were fought hammer & tongs, although Carr finally began to get up on his toes and box a bit more in stretches - with another, subtler conflict having raged in his corner as Emanuel Steward verbally sparred with his father Eddie Carr, jockeying for control after they spent the first couple of rounds jabbering over each other in a confused jumble of words that didn't penetrate Oba, sitting with a visage as perturbed by the discord in his camp during the minute-long stool breaks as by Livingstone's intense physicality during the interstitial periods between them.

As the last bell was rung, its timber still mellifluously vibrating throughout Auburn Hills Palace, the presumed victor - and more satisfied fighter - Bramble puts his arms up, straightened vertically, with his eyebrows seeming to reach up with them in parallel as he broke into a toothy smile. Carr walked up to him and can be plainly seen on camera mouthing the word "congratulations", believing himself - as his opponent did - to have gotten bested. This was in Oba's backyard, mind you - and he was a Kronk-ite...but the crowd booed the first scorecard, read in his favor, and then cheered the second, for Bramble. The final result, a SD in his favor, was met with a very mixed reaction.

Bramble is a gentle & humane soul outside the ring - passing on his knowledge of the fight game to help empower youths and keep them on the straight & narrow, and harboring a lifelong affinity with all corners of the animal kingdom. He turned vegetarian at the age of ten - before Carr was even born - and might just hold the all-time record for most exotic pets (most as in quantity, as well as qualitatively superlative in terms of exoticism) known to have been kept simultaneously by a world champion boxer: at one time housing 4 pit bull terriers, a pair of alligators, eight birds, one iguana, one ******, and one 5½-foot boa constrictor named Dog. That is seventeen, perhaps rivaled only by Michael Gerard "Kid Dynamite" Tyson with his tiger and umpteen pigeons. Certainly the most non-avian pets I've yet heard of - among pugilists or civilians!

Inside the ring, of course, he was a pit-bull, for the entire duration of his campaign, spanning the 1980's and extending into the nineties, where he served as the junkyard's gatekeeper mutt, ever at the ready to send any unready pups scampering off with tails betwixt their legs. The moment he was off the clock, however, the huge ear to ear grin spread like a golden dawn over his broad features, and he was an indefatigable font of chill and good-will. He thought he did enough to beat Carr, but didn't register even the phantom of a scowl when the scorecards were read out, and his interview directly afterwards is as unsalted as you'll ever find with a fighter in his position.

A lot of people didn't take it so well, including Bramble's manager (quite vocal about the perceived home cooking in the media) - plus many of the same fans that had "made" the match in the first place, with USA's queue filling now with angry callers. In the years to come, this would even find its way onto many a list of the "worst decisions of all time"!!

The man closest to the action wasn't among the decision's detractors, seeing it close (and very hard-fought) but clear for the hometown favorite:

"Another fight I remember was Oba Carr and Livingstone Bramble," said Williams of the USA Tuesday Night Fights 1991 Classic between young lion and cagey veteran. The nineteen-year-old Carr was 20-0 and considered the best prospect in boxing -- headlining the event against former champ Livingstone Bramble in the monstrous Auburn Hills Palace. Bramble was thought to be done but surprised many by flooring Carr twice, with Carr squeaking out a close ten-round decision. Carr is considered by many to be one of the best modern-era fighters to never win a world title. "It was like man versus boy," Williams recalled, "Bramble had so much strength. Every time they clinched, you could see the expression on Carr's face. Carr had the speed, he was more polished and quicker. That was what got him through."

- from "Third Man In The Ring: 33 Of The Best Referees in Boxing and Their Stories", courtesy of Mike Fitzgerald/Patrick Morley)


A shame the most some folks ever hear of this excellent but stigmatized 10-rounder - if anything - is the controversy around the scoring. It warrants a watch, if you've never given it one...and Bramble warrants a round of applause for still having fought this well this deep into his career, while Carr (who later went on to run the gauntlet of all the best 90's welterweights: facing De la Hoya, Trinidad, and Quartey and not acquitting himself too shabbily!) deserves a hand of his own for rebounding from that disastrous first round with a poise rarely seen outside Pacquiao vs. JMM I, and going on to eke out a close decision...or at least to hang tough & remain highly competitive for the following nine. :good

 

It's possible the upload that was embedded in my OP was the one and only. Hopefully it resurfaces.