A SLICE OF BOXING DID YOU KNOW THAT? By Thomas Hauser
as the magazine’s “Sportsman of the Year”: Ingemar Johansson in 1959, Muhammad Ali in 1974 and Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981.
Jess Willard, Benny Leonard, Henry Armstrong, Juan Manuel Marquez and Bernard Hopkins are Hall of Fame fighters who share a dubious distinction. Each man lost his first pro fight. Ernest Hemingway was at ringside for Joe Louis’s fourth-round knockout of Max Baer at Yankee Stadium on September 24, 1935 and, writing for Esquire afterward, said that it was “the most disgusting public spectacle
one hundred percent certain the rounds for Hunsaker were two minutes,” Bottjer says. “I reviewed loads of old newspaper articles when I started working on the project years ago, and that was in them. They were two-minute rounds for Cassius Clay’s second fight, which was against Herb Siler, too.”
George Chuvalo is the only man who fought Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. He was stopped by Foreman and Frazier and lost by decision twice to Ali. Chuck Wepner is the only man who fought Ali, Foreman and Sonny Liston. But he was stopped short of the distance each time. Lou Savarese and Alex Stewart each fought Foreman, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield but couldn’t beat them. Stewart lost to Holyfield twice.
On November 6, 1993, James Jarrett Miller made headlines when he parachuted into the ring during the second fight between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield. Nine years later, Miller disappeared while hiking in Alaska. Six months after that, a group of hunters found his body hanging from a tree. Police ruled the death a suicide. Many of boxing’s universally recognized heavyweight champions ended their career on a loss. James Corbett, James Jeffries, Marvin Hart, Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson, Jess Willard, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, Max Baer, Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Michael Spinks, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Hasim Rahman and Wladimir Klitschko all lost their final fight. Muhammad Ali fought in 12 countries, giving true meaning to the term “world champion.” Ali fought in the United States, England, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Ireland, Indonesia, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Malaysia, the Philippines and the Bahamas.
M arvin Hart is the highest price in today’s memorabilia market. Following James Jeffries’ retirement, Hart defeated Jack Root on July 3, 1905, for the
the heavyweight champion whose signature commands
Before Emanuel Steward was a Hall of Fame trainer, he was a very good fighter. Steward compiled a 94-3 record as an amateur and won the 1963 National Golden Gloves bantamweight championship.
outside of a hanging that your correspondent ever witnessed.”
Muhammad Ali was once in jail, but it wasn’t for refusing induction into the United States
During Jake LaMotta’s ring career, he was known as “The Bronx Bull.” “Raging Bull” didn’t attach to his name until the publication of his autobiography titled Raging Bull and the Martin Scorsese film that followed. Lee Epperson had only one professional fight – a third-round knockout loss on March 17, 1947, to a fighter billed as “Rocky Mack.” But that fight gave Epperson a touch of immortality. Mack was Rocco Marchegiano (later known as “Rocky Marciano”), who was making his pro debut and fighting under a pseudonym to maintain his amateur standing. When Cassius Clay made his pro debut against Tunney Hunsaker at Freedom Hall in Louisville on October 29, 1960, the fight was scheduled for six two-minute rounds because Clay’s camp was worried that he might
vacant heavyweight title. In his next outing seven months later, he lost to Tommy Burns. Hart’s reign was undistinguished, and relatively few people asked for his autograph. So authenticated Marvin Hart signatures with good provenance are hard to find. Collectors who want a complete set of signatures from boxing’s lineal heavyweight champions can expect to pay at least $10,000 for Hart’s signature even if it’s only on a plain white card. Can you imagine Don King or Bob Arum refereeing a heavyweight championship fight? I didn’t think so. But George Lewis “Tex” Rickard refereed the July 4, 1910, “Fight of the Century” between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries in Reno, Nevada, and also co-promoted it. Rickard later promoted Jack Dempsey’s fights against Jess Willard, Georges Carpentier, Luis Firpo and Gene Tunney (twice), and is on the short list of greatest promoters of all time. Benny Leonard, who reigned as lightweight champion from 1917 to 1923 and is widely recognized as one of the greatest fighters ever, collapsed and died in the ring while refereeing a bout at St. Nicholas Arena in New York on April 18, 1947.
Army. In December 1968, while the appeal of his criminal conviction for draft evasion was pending, Ali was sentenced to 10 days incarceration in Dade County, Florida, for driving without a valid license. He later said of the experience, “Jail is a bad place. I was there for about a week until they let us out for Christmas, and it was terrible. You’re all locked up. You can’t get out. The food is bad, and there’s nothing good to do. You look out the window at cars and people, and everyone else seems so free. Little things you take for granted like sleeping good or walking down the street, you can’t do them no more. A man’s got to be real serious about what he believes to say he’ll do that for five years. But I was ready if I had to go.”
In 1963, Cassius Clay recorded the song “Stand By Me,” which had previously been a “Top-40” hit for Ben E. King. Clay’s version was released as a 45 single in the United States and England. You can listen to it on YouTube. The Ring has designated a “Fighter of the Year” every year since 1928 with one exception. In 1966, the editors decided that Muhammad Ali deserved the award on the basis of his in-the- ring accomplishments but that his public statements with regard to race and United States military involvement in Vietnam were so abhorrent that he should not be held up as a role model for the youth of America. A half- century later, The Ring righted that wrong and retroactively bestowed 1966 “Fighter of the Year” honors on Ali. Ten men who won Olympic gold medals were later widely recognized as heavyweight champions of the world: Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
Max Baer won the heavyweight championship by brutalizing Primo Carnera over 11 rounds on June 14, 1934. Baer entered the ring that night wearing the robe he’d worn in the 1933 feature film The Prizefighter and the Lady with the name “Steve Morgan” (the character he’d played in the movie) emblazoned on the back.
Jack Sharkey is the only man who fought both Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. On July 21, 1927, in the next-to-last fight
Mike Tyson was only 23 years old when he was dethroned and his aura of invincibility shattered by James “Buster” Douglas in 1990.
not have the stamina to fight six three-minute stanzas. Credit matchmaker Eric Bottjer with that bit of information. Bottjer has been researching Ali for years in conjunction with a book he’s writing. “I’m
Thomas Hauser’s email address is
of Dempsey’s career, the Manassa Mauler knocked Sharkey out at Yankee Stadium in seven rounds. Fast-forward to August 18, 1936. Sharkey fought Louis and was knocked out in the third round.
thomashauserwriter@gmail. com. His most recent book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing
– is available at Amazon.com and other platforms. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Only three boxers have been honored by Sports Illustrated
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