Seldon v Hipp
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Chopping Right
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 588
- Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:39
Seldon v Hipp
Dear oh dear. Just looking over a few old fights, can anyone remind me how this dismal pair of non-achievers ever came to be fighting for the WBA heavyweight title? I honestly cannot think when there was a worse champion and challenger contesting a "Big 3" heavyweight title. And we thought it was bad now
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overhand_right
- Heavyweight
Seldon & Tucker had fought for the vacant WBA belt because Big George, in 1995 The Man, declined to deal with Don King or fight Tony Tucker, instead wanting to handpick an easy stiff.
Ina fight Tucker was supposed to win to set up Tyson/Tucker II, Seldon bust Tucker up & became champ.
Joe Hipp for whatever reason had been lingering around WBAs top spot for over a year (having lost to both ranked heavies he had fought) & was basically in the picture for bumping off a series of the Usual Suspects and being a Black Foot tribe Indian.
The fight was pretty one sided and Seldon busted up Hipp slowly the same way he did Tucker, with the obligatory eye injury ending a Seldon jab-fest.
Decent fight. More credible pairing than Ruiz/Golota or Byrd/Lyakavich etc.
Ina fight Tucker was supposed to win to set up Tyson/Tucker II, Seldon bust Tucker up & became champ.
Joe Hipp for whatever reason had been lingering around WBAs top spot for over a year (having lost to both ranked heavies he had fought) & was basically in the picture for bumping off a series of the Usual Suspects and being a Black Foot tribe Indian.
The fight was pretty one sided and Seldon busted up Hipp slowly the same way he did Tucker, with the obligatory eye injury ending a Seldon jab-fest.
Decent fight. More credible pairing than Ruiz/Golota or Byrd/Lyakavich etc.
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Chopping Right
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 588
- Joined: 08 May 2005, 17:39
yes he did.KOJOE90 wrote:Didn't Hipp fight with some sort of knee brace?
hipp did give tommy morrison all he wanted before he got knocked out. in fact, i think he was winning the fight until that point.
seldon had some skills he just couldn't take a punch for anything. i liked him and it really sucked to watch him come back and get beat (he pretty much quit after getting thumbed in the eye and running out of gas) by Gerald Nobles.
I liked Seldon, too, until the Tyson fight. It didn't look to me like the punch Tyson bounced off the top of his head was KO-worthy. It just looked like Seldon wanted out of there.
Saw several of Hipp's fights and thought he was a pretty tough guy. Obviously nothing to look at physically or stylistically, but he was a southpaw and that seemed to give some of the more defensively-challenged HWs he fought problems.
Thought his fight with Bert Cooper (another guy I liked) was an intriguing matchup -- actually a bad loss for Hipp. It was one of those fights the real Bert Cooper actually showed up for.
Saw several of Hipp's fights and thought he was a pretty tough guy. Obviously nothing to look at physically or stylistically, but he was a southpaw and that seemed to give some of the more defensively-challenged HWs he fought problems.
Thought his fight with Bert Cooper (another guy I liked) was an intriguing matchup -- actually a bad loss for Hipp. It was one of those fights the real Bert Cooper actually showed up for.
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overhand_right
- Heavyweight
Joe Hipp was definitely an entertaining heavy & an extremely honest humble & likeable guy.
Difficult to imagine why anyone would dislike him, although he didnt really earn a ranking. His battles with Morrison & Cooper were great fun. The way he iced Jose Ribalta was pretty impressive too.
Seldons chin wasnt that bad- he was whacked in 1 by Bowe, no big deal. Against McCall he ran out of gas. Against Tubbs he was outpointed. Jesse Ferguson nailed him with several clean hard left hooks & couldnt budge him. Tony Tucker & Greg Page & Joe Hipp, none of whom were feather dusters, hit him but couldnt put him down.
Seldon quit against Tyson without taking a solid blow but IMO he redeemed himself as a man v Gerald Nobles.
Difficult to imagine why anyone would dislike him, although he didnt really earn a ranking. His battles with Morrison & Cooper were great fun. The way he iced Jose Ribalta was pretty impressive too.
Seldons chin wasnt that bad- he was whacked in 1 by Bowe, no big deal. Against McCall he ran out of gas. Against Tubbs he was outpointed. Jesse Ferguson nailed him with several clean hard left hooks & couldnt budge him. Tony Tucker & Greg Page & Joe Hipp, none of whom were feather dusters, hit him but couldnt put him down.
Seldon quit against Tyson without taking a solid blow but IMO he redeemed himself as a man v Gerald Nobles.
A recent Bruce Seldon interview.
Bruce Seldon stared at the floor and laughed ruefully. The events of Sept. 7, 1996, still evoke too many emotions for him to discuss.
Now 37, Seldon said he still is in good fighting shape. The former WBA heavyweight champion looks physically imposing even though he was out of boxing for 7 1/2 years.
He returned to the ring in March and has won two fights by knockout. But he knows they mean little. Seldon hears the whispers and anticipates the questions.
He will fight Gerald Nobles on Saturday at Mandalay Bay on the undercard of the Roy Jones Jr.-Antonio Tarver light heavyweight title fight. But Seldon doesn't anticipate a single question about Nobles. Nor does he get one.
All anyone wants to ask is, "What happened Sept. 7, 1996?" That's when Seldon defended his WBA heavyweight title against Mike Tyson. The fight lasted 109 seconds, but unlike Tyson's 91-second win over Michael Spinks about eight years earlier, the victory over Seldon had little historic impact.
Tyson sneered and snarled, and Seldon seemed to melt in the middle of the ring. A Tyson hook appeared to graze the top of Seldon's head. He went down the first of two times, meekly surrendering his title. Seldon was so distraught, he cried in the dressing room and didn't fight again for almost eight years.
Referee Richard Steele initially thought Seldon had slipped, saying that night, "I thought he missed the punch." But something floored the thickly muscled Seldon, who had trained three months for Tyson.
"Maybe the moment is bigger than any of us can imagine," said Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission who visited Seldon in his dressing room that night and recalled that the boxer was "extremely tense."
Cries of `Fix!' arose from the crowd seconds after Seldon went down, but Ratner -- though unhappy with Seldon's effort -- doesn't think he took a dive.
"We watched the tape and a punch landed, more on the top of the head than anything," Ratner said. "But they weren't the kind of punches that should have knocked out a world-class fighter like that, especially a guy who seemed to be in such good shape. He just didn't seem to be hit square."
Seldon winces as he talks about Tyson. When asked how he could have been hurt so badly by a punch that didn't appear to land squarely, Seldon shakes his head no. The subject is off limits.
Seldon said he learned who his friends were after the Tyson fight and that he was surprised by the reactions of some of those who had been close to him.
"I have a whole lot of regrets about what happened that night," Seldon said. "That wasn't me in that ring. The real me was a much better fighter than anyone saw. I have no idea what happened, honestly.
"But it's in my past now. I don't like to dwell on the past. I feel different about things and I don't like to dwell on the past."
But now that he's back in boxing, Seldon will have a hard time dodging talk of Sept. 7, 1996. Only something dramatic, like a win over Tyson, will erase the cloud that follows Seldon's every step in boxing.
Seldon got the urge to return, he said, one day thinking about his career while taking a jog. Although he is 35-4 with his losses to former heavyweight champions, Seldon knows that everything he accomplished will be ignored until he rights the wrong.
"I would love to fight Mike Tyson again one day," Seldon said. "It probably won't happen, but all I can do is go out and keep fighting and winning and hope I'll get another chance. Other guys lost and they got a chance to come back. Why not me?"
Bruce Seldon stared at the floor and laughed ruefully. The events of Sept. 7, 1996, still evoke too many emotions for him to discuss.
Now 37, Seldon said he still is in good fighting shape. The former WBA heavyweight champion looks physically imposing even though he was out of boxing for 7 1/2 years.
He returned to the ring in March and has won two fights by knockout. But he knows they mean little. Seldon hears the whispers and anticipates the questions.
He will fight Gerald Nobles on Saturday at Mandalay Bay on the undercard of the Roy Jones Jr.-Antonio Tarver light heavyweight title fight. But Seldon doesn't anticipate a single question about Nobles. Nor does he get one.
All anyone wants to ask is, "What happened Sept. 7, 1996?" That's when Seldon defended his WBA heavyweight title against Mike Tyson. The fight lasted 109 seconds, but unlike Tyson's 91-second win over Michael Spinks about eight years earlier, the victory over Seldon had little historic impact.
Tyson sneered and snarled, and Seldon seemed to melt in the middle of the ring. A Tyson hook appeared to graze the top of Seldon's head. He went down the first of two times, meekly surrendering his title. Seldon was so distraught, he cried in the dressing room and didn't fight again for almost eight years.
Referee Richard Steele initially thought Seldon had slipped, saying that night, "I thought he missed the punch." But something floored the thickly muscled Seldon, who had trained three months for Tyson.
"Maybe the moment is bigger than any of us can imagine," said Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission who visited Seldon in his dressing room that night and recalled that the boxer was "extremely tense."
Cries of `Fix!' arose from the crowd seconds after Seldon went down, but Ratner -- though unhappy with Seldon's effort -- doesn't think he took a dive.
"We watched the tape and a punch landed, more on the top of the head than anything," Ratner said. "But they weren't the kind of punches that should have knocked out a world-class fighter like that, especially a guy who seemed to be in such good shape. He just didn't seem to be hit square."
Seldon winces as he talks about Tyson. When asked how he could have been hurt so badly by a punch that didn't appear to land squarely, Seldon shakes his head no. The subject is off limits.
Seldon said he learned who his friends were after the Tyson fight and that he was surprised by the reactions of some of those who had been close to him.
"I have a whole lot of regrets about what happened that night," Seldon said. "That wasn't me in that ring. The real me was a much better fighter than anyone saw. I have no idea what happened, honestly.
"But it's in my past now. I don't like to dwell on the past. I feel different about things and I don't like to dwell on the past."
But now that he's back in boxing, Seldon will have a hard time dodging talk of Sept. 7, 1996. Only something dramatic, like a win over Tyson, will erase the cloud that follows Seldon's every step in boxing.
Seldon got the urge to return, he said, one day thinking about his career while taking a jog. Although he is 35-4 with his losses to former heavyweight champions, Seldon knows that everything he accomplished will be ignored until he rights the wrong.
"I would love to fight Mike Tyson again one day," Seldon said. "It probably won't happen, but all I can do is go out and keep fighting and winning and hope I'll get another chance. Other guys lost and they got a chance to come back. Why not me?"
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 4900
- Joined: 29 May 2005, 00:32