Its certainly near the top of the pile, what are some of your picks for the weirdest/most mysterious endings or happenings in the ring and out With this Johnson-Mederos one we still dont know who drugged Johnson or how they did it Does anybody have any theories of their own or any other interesting information relating to it Dont know about this stuff but a search shows the drug found in his system seems like a sedation type drug where an overdose can cause staggering, in-coordination, faulty judgement and in bad cases death/coma, he certainly seemed to have most of those symptoms "Harold Johnson, the No. 1 light heavyweight contender, entered his fight against Julio Mederos as a 2-1 betting favorite. Shortly before the bout, the odds favoring Johnson had been 4-1. Five months earlier, Johnson had defeated Mederos by a ten-round unanimous decision. Johnson stumbled entering the ring, but it was thought he tripped over a rope. He danced around in the first round, hitting Mederos with a sharp left jab. Mederosa caught him with a solid right to the chin just before the bell, and Johnson staggered to his corner. In the second round, Johnson continued to jab and move until he suddenly fell to his knees without being hit. When he regained his feet, Mederosa moved in for the finish but didn't appear to land any damaging punches. At the end of the round, Johnson staggered to his corner and had trouble finding the stool. Shortly after sitting down, he collapsed onto the canvas. Johnson was carried from the ring on a stretcher. A trace of a barbiturate was found in a urinalysis performed on Johnson at Hahnemann Hospital. Pennsylvania Governor George M. Leader said a report by Dr. Alfred S. Ivella, the commission's physician, and several specialists who examined Johnson "show they are of the unanimous opinion that a barbiturate was administered to Harold Johnson prior to his scheduled boxing match with Julio Mederos." Based on the report, Leader suspended boxing in Pennsylvania for 90 days and instructed the commission to launch a probe during the 90-day period. The suspension went into effect on May 11, but didn't apply to bouts that were already scheduled. As the commission probed the charges, the ban was extended pending new regulations to tighten control over the sport. The suspension lasted 114 days. Clarence Davidson, Johnson's trainer, said his fighter began acting "*****" in his dressing room after taking a bite of an orange, which Johnson complained tasted "bitter." He said Johnson staggered about the dressing room but claimed he felt fine before entering the ring. A chemical ****ysis of a piece of the orange found in his dressing room after the fight showed no trace of a drug or barbiturate. Lie detector tests on Johnson and others substantiated their stories. Johnson testified before the commission that he didn't know how, or if, he had been drugged. He said the orange was probably the source of his illness and claimed the orange had been given to him on the afternoon of the fight outside the commission's office by a stranger who said he was a "long-time admirer." He also testified that Louis Saccaroma, one of Mederos' three managers, was in his dressing room shortly before the fight. Saccaroma, identified by Pennsylvania police as a narcotics convict, denied Johnson's statement, saying he was at his home the night of the bout. After a nine-day hearing, the commission ruled that Johnson knew he was not in condition to fight and failed to report that fact to commission officials on duty that night. Johnson was suspended for six months and his purse of $4,113.33 was forfeited. Johnson's trainer, Clarence Davidson, and his manager, Thomas Loughrey, also received six-month suspensions. The probe never did uncover who drugged Johnson or how the drug was administered."
This seems like a typical boxing thing to do: acknowledge the sport was shady in prior generations, but act as if everything is squeaky clean at the present. To maintain that image, if any modern situations (like the Johnson fight) arise, simply ignore any deeper ramifications or honest research and punish the fighter instead. Something wasn't right and got swept under the rug. While perhaps not to the level of Johnson, I'm sure screwy things still happen like this today, and the establishment and gullible fans will continue to ridicule or ignore such possibilities as foil-hatted conspiracy theories. At least they will until about 20-30 years from now, when the next generation will have no problem spreading the dirt on today's era, only to ensure that the 2046 boxing world is way too clean for history to repeat itself... The NFL follows the same template for how it handles drugs in that sport, so it's not a situation unique to boxing.
I Suppose The Ad Wolgast - Referee - Jo Rivers Fight Ending will stand out with 'Old Testament' Reviewers.
Ive never understood the controversy to this one. If you watch the film of it its cut and dry and the comments of Wolgast are pretty spot on in the newspapers after the fight. You can clearly see in the film that he leaps in and lands this punch that drops Rivers and his momentum carries him forward. As he falls on top of Rivers you can see Rivers knee accidently spear him in the groin or abdomen and this was what hurt Wolgast. The referee made the right call in that fight when he assisted Wolgast and continued to count over Rivers.
I know what happened. It was covered pretty extensively here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQ35sJzRkE
Harold was a marvelous technician with a. f*cked. up. luck. I admit I feel a little guilty every time I watch this scene.
According to what I read, but, cannot confirm, Al Blue Lewis was beating the hell out of Oscar Bonavena in Oscar's hometown of Buenas Aires. After Bonavena went down for the second time the ref disqualified Lewis. He never said what for.
