JEFF MERRITT, AKA "CANDY SLIM"

[overhand_right]

haha! i dont really care bout merritts hair!

but any more inside info on merrit, sims or even jumbo cummings would be appreciated!

[enrique]

Ferdie Pacheco told me that when they placed the mike in the corners for color commentary, Jumbo came back to the corner huffing and puffing- it might have been the Frazier fight- and Jumbo sat down looked at his corner and said in a tired voice- how much is left? and the corner answered- second round coming up,

[overhand_right]

Simms -another head case- was a character that could be jovial one day and surly as Sonny Liston the next day. He spent a long time in the joint, abused drugs and alcohol regularly, was shot several times, had a long criminal record and was sweldom in good shape. He could box fairly well but I think that once he went from prospect to journeyman he became cynical about the fight game and only cared for the payday in the second half of his career.

i am confused mate. sims always had that cut body.

was he out of shape? did he do drugs as well?

[overhand_right]

its about that time of year when overhand likes to resurrect his thread of jeff merritt.

ron stander said nobody hit him like merritt. ron stander took earnie shavers best shots and knocked him out. ron mixed it with smokin' joe frazier.

remember candy slim? dks 1st fighter? he was massive, lennox sized. punched like a truck.

opinions, recollections? any video tape of candy slim?

[phil]

I'm going to find that damn article if it kills me!!!

Must be in Boxing Illustrated mags which I haven't been through yet....

I Know I have an article form Boxing News as well -

Phil

[Nile4000]

How did his fight with Roy Williams go?

[sweetsci]

You can find cool stuff when digging through old posts.

Anyone know how Jeff Merritt is doing nowadays? For some reason I thought he'd passed away sometime in the last decade or so, but BoxRec doesn't list a death date, so I assume he's still with us.

[Saurfang]

http://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing ... art-series.

That article says he passed away June 1, 2014

[sweetsci]

Ah, thanks. Looks like a well-written story. RIP Jeff Merritt.

[evrenb]

Ah, thanks. Looks like a well-written story. RIP Jeff Merritt.

It's a brilliant article. Can't think of many who would put the time and work in like Steve does....and furnish the tale with facts. Brilliant.

[sweetsci]

Now that I've read it thoroughly, it is a brilliant article. I hope, over time, we'll see many more articles profiling fighters of Merritt's caliber. There's got to be loads of interesting stories to be told.

I'm kind of curious as to why the article didn't mention Merritt's draw with Billy Daniels a few months after the Stan Ward loss.

And Steve says that the Ward-Merritt fight was nationally televised, as it was on the undercard of the Foreman-LeDoux fight. Anybody ever seen footage of it? I remember watching Foreman-LeDoux on television as a nine-year-old kid, but I don't remember the Ward-Merritt bout. Not that I would at that age. There's nothing on YouTube, including on the Foreman-LeDoux video. I thought maybe there's be a highlight with the Lyle-Ward fight, but the YouTube video I found starts right at round one.

[scartissue]

Now that I've read it thoroughly, it is a brilliant article. I hope, over time, we'll see many more articles profiling fighters of Merritt's caliber. There's got to be loads of interesting stories to be told.

I'm kind of curious as to why the article didn't mention Merritt's draw with Billy Daniels a few months after the Stan Ward loss.

And Steve says that the Ward-Merritt fight was nationally televised, as it was on the undercard of the Foreman-LeDoux fight. Anybody ever seen footage of it? I remember watching Foreman-LeDoux on television as a nine-year-old kid, but I don't remember the Ward-Merritt bout. Not that I would at that age. There's nothing on YouTube, including on the Foreman-LeDoux video. I thought maybe there's be a highlight with the Lyle-Ward fight, but the YouTube video I found starts right at round one.

He is correct. It was televised and I remember it well because Merritt was such an enigma to me after the events in '73-'74. So I was stunned to see him back in action. Just with his jab Jeff had Ward in a bad way. He had his eye completely closed and he looked like he was on his way to a stoppage victory. But in the 3rd, Ward just exploded with a combo and Merritt was hurt and down. This was the issue with Merritt. He had such a slender frame I think he lacked resiliency.

[oogiebe]

Latest article I could find on Merritt ended with this from Ringside Report:

The man known as “Candy Slim” was all but forgotten and fell deep back into the world that he tried so hard to escape from. He resurfaced in 1991 in Las Vegas, a homeless addict begging for money and ranting and raving about Don King, who was in town promoting a Mike Tyson – Razor Ruddock fight. Barefoot at the Mirage Hotel, he told the gamblers and fight fans: “I was Don King’s first fighter. I’m Candy Slim. Give me a dollar.” It was a sad ending, but thankfully, there is redemption even without the assistance of the ring.

“Candy Slim” is now reportedly working on his life story, cleaned up his act, and is living with his family. His past is sorted and his ring exploits were exciting. He fought in the golden age of heavyweights, held his own in sparring sessions with some of the best of the time, and may have been a major part of that era had he not had the problems that he did. “Candy Slim” is another one of those comets in boxing, burning out quickly but leaving quite the impression. He had the potential to be a star, but never achieved it.

[klompton]

Now that I've read it thoroughly, it is a brilliant article. I hope, over time, we'll see many more articles profiling fighters of Merritt's caliber. There's got to be loads of interesting stories to be told.

I'm kind of curious as to why the article didn't mention Merritt's draw with Billy Daniels a few months after the Stan Ward loss.

And Steve says that the Ward-Merritt fight was nationally televised, as it was on the undercard of the Foreman-LeDoux fight. Anybody ever seen footage of it? I remember watching Foreman-LeDoux on television as a nine-year-old kid, but I don't remember the Ward-Merritt bout. Not that I would at that age. There's nothing on YouTube, including on the Foreman-LeDoux video. I thought maybe there's be a highlight with the Lyle-Ward fight, but the YouTube video I found starts right at round one.

I didnt discuss the Merritt-Daniels fight which appears on his record here on boxrec because it never happened.

Merritt-Ward was nationally broadcast.

[overhand_right]

Have to commend Steve Compton on that fantastic article. He's filled in all of the many gaps in the obscure saga of Jeff Merritt. It must have taken an immense amount of research. A classic piece in my view.

[overhand_right]

I didnt discuss the Merritt-Daniels fight which appears on his record here on boxrec because it never happened.

Merritt-Ward was nationally broadcast.

Are you Steve Compton? Your article is an absolute treat. Great writing and analysis, and brimming with new information that I think most of us Merritt nuts never thought would ever be unearthed. It reminds me of the long, colourful, richly detailed articles that used to feature in the second half of Bert Sugar's Boxing Illustrated in the 80s and 90s, which I would read again and again. The reason I no longer buy boxing mags is because none of them seem to contain works of this detail and standard anymore. It's actually too good to be in the bog of the internet; it should be anthologised or printed somewhere.

Have you considered writing one on that other ogre of yore, Roy 'Tiger' Williams? He's still in the land of the living, and to my knowledge has never been interviewed.

Anyway, I'm going to go read it again!

[sweetsci]

The article was indeed was an absolute treat. Thanks for the time and effort you put into researching and writing it, Klompton.

Klompton - if you care to answer this, do you have a copy of the Ward-Merritt fight? I wouldn't ask you to upload it to YouTube or anything. I'm just curious.

I'm also still a little curious about that supposed Merritt-Daniels fight. If it didn't happen, why is it on Boxrec? Boxrec even shows another bout on the card, though ONLY one. Is it a holdover from an old Ring Record Book? Is it a leftover from when - I forget his name - was entering false info into Boxrec? FWIW, in Ring's March 1977 issue in which they attempt to rank all active fighters, Merritt is graded as a "B" level fighter and Daniels isn't listed at all, indicating that he indeed wasn't active in 1976.