John’s first bout of the new decade was on January 10 ,1990 in Kensington, England. ‘The Beast’ knocked out a guy named Carlos Antunes in one round, and weighed in at 163 lbs. Two months later he traveled back to his hometown of Tampa to make the first defense of his 154 lb. championship against Terry Norris on March 31. This is the same Norris who was knocked senseless by Julian Jackson the previous July 30 in Atlantic City.
I taped the fight on ABC TV while I was working that Saturday at my mall security job. When I got home and saw John get knocked out in the first round, it was a certainly I wouldn’t save fight to my collection, and I quickly erased it. It was sad to me to see Mugabi knocked out like he did, and what made matters worse, was the fact that you head to read it in all the boxing magazines for months afterwards! I wondered what he would make of his career at this point, and had my doubts that he would ever win another world championship.
Even though he had just turned 30 that March 4, some fighters are shot by that age. He stayed out of the ring for 16 months, and won two fights by knockout in July and September of 1991. However when he traveled back to England to face the young and powerful Gerald McClellan on November 20, the death blow to his career came via another one round KO defeat. He announced his retirement after that loss at age 31, realizing there was no reason to continue.
Foolishly though, five years later he made a comeback that lasted from December of 1996 until January of 1999. His record in his 8 bouts was 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. The last fight of his career was against Glen Kelly in Sydney, Australia as a light-heavyweight on January 16, 1999 and he was stopped in eight rounds.
‘The Beast’ finished his career with a record of 42 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw. He was inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011, and remains one of my favorite fighter of the 80’s.
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