When Mike Tyson signed to fight James ‘Buster’ Douglas on February 11, 1990 in Tokyo, Japan, most thought it would be another easy night for the reigning champ. No one in Vegas or Atlantic City wanted the fight, and the odds favoring Tyson were 42-1, with only a handful of casinos in Vegas actually taking […]

When Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman in October of 1974, I was more interested in baseball, more specifically the Baltimore Orioles. Ali was such a famous figure though, that I was very aware of the fight. I read Sport magazine and Sports Illustrated, which both covered the fight extensively, and I couldn’t help but get

I was working for a local Philadelphia airline at the time Sugar Ray Leonard was set to fight Kevin Howard on May 11, 1984 in Worcester, Massachusetts. I wanted to see Ray train, so I flew up standby to Boston a week or so before the fight, rented a car and drove to Worcester to

Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican pro boxer who moved to Canada and won their heavyweight title. He came to prominence in 1980 on the undercard of the first Leonard-Duran fight in Montreal by knocking out former WBA champ John Tate. The following April he went the 15 round distance with WBC champ Larry Holmes and

When Larry Holmes lost for the second time in a row to Michael Spinks in April of 1986, it was pretty much assumed that he would never fight again. But in boxing, you never know. By the fall of 1987, Larry was talking of making a comeback at age 38. When Mike Tyson easily knocked

Joe Cortez was born on October 13, 1945 in Harlem, New York. He had a successful amateur boxing career that included several Golden Gloves titles. In 1963, he turned pro and compiled a record of 10-1 before retiring. He spent many years as a hotel executive before starting to referee fights in 1977. He quickly

When I sat down to watch Lennox Lewis fight Tommy Morrison on October 7, 1995, HBO called the fight a tossup in the opening promos. I laughed out loud because quite frankly I thought it would be a blowout in favor of Lennox. Tommy had a history of a subject chin and when he was

Ray Leonard had signed to fight contender Kevin Howard on February 25, 1984, but the fight was postponed until May. An exam  by Massachusetts doctors discovered that the retina in Ray’s eye was loose and needed surgery. His originally injured left eye passed the examination with flying colors, and the bout was set for May

After announcing his retirement from boxing in November of 1982, Sugar Ray Leonard faded from the boxing scene. He still was a color man for CBS and HBO so he was still involved in the sport, but no longer the star attraction. In his absence, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns tried to fill the void,

Not longer after his fight with Roger Stafford in May was cancelled, Sugar Ray revealed that he had first hurt his eye in training for Thomas Hearns in September of 1981. No symptoms prevented him from fighting however, and he knocked out Bruce Finch in February of 1982 rather easily.  In training for Stafford however,