Manufactured Fighters

[Rover]

How about Alex Garcia? He got to 32-1 and #3 in the world (and turned down a Foreman fight) and then got smoked by Mike Dixon and never did anything of note after that.

[Rover]

How about Nelson Bolanos, the guy with a long unbeaten streak who got stopped by Pazienza.
Another one who comes to mind is Chad Broussard, who had a gaudy record and was a tuneup for Meldrick Taylor.
Speaking of Chads, Chad Parker also comes to mind. He was unbeaten if I remember right, and Dana Rosenbladt blew him out in a round on the DLH/Ruelas undercard.

[Dart340]

Rover, I love the Bolanos reference. When his undefeated record was criticized before the Pazienza fight, Vinnie said in his defense; "I don't care if he fought his mother sixty eight times, you'd figure she'd have gotten lucky once.." .

Remember the two Chad's as well from their write-ups in KO Magazine back in the day.

How about "Super D" John Duplessis? Another 30something and 0 fighter that Chavez ran out of the ring.

I'm thinking Kenny Klingman, who retired "undefeated" fits this bill as well.

[Rover]

Rover, I love the Bolanos reference. When his undefeated record was criticized before the Pazienza fight, Vinnie said in his defense; "I don't care if he fought his mother sixty eight times, you'd figure she'd have gotten lucky once.." .

Remember the two Chad's as well from their write-ups in KO Magazine back in the day.

How about "Super D" John Duplessis? Another 30something and 0 fighter that Chavez ran out of the ring.

I'm thinking Kenny Klingman, who retired "undefeated" fits this bill as well.

I think Super D was actually 36-1 when Chavez took him apart.
As for Bolanos, for some reason not all those wins are listed on Boxrec, but he still fought no one of note.
Speaking of manufactured fighters, how about another Chavez victim, Kyung-Duk Ahn? I remember on that telecast Merchant said Ahn almost became Kyung-Duk Off due to a promotional dispute.

Another one who comes to mind is Sean Fitzgerald, who was undefeated until he was fed to Duran and did nothing much after that.
Jonathan Reid also comes to mind; Joppy took him out on the Tito/Vargas undercard, and that was his highlight.

[Rover]

Fred Ladd just came to mind. I'd never heard of him until he fought Leija, and it was pointed out that he started out 44-1. Leija beat him easily.

[scartissue]

Jose Urtain
Charlie 'White Lightning' Brown
Sol 'Bagel Boy' Nazerman (he really was manufactured)

[dempseyfire]

"Big Jim" James J. Beattie

Definitely a 'manufactured fighter' who only won because of his size and being matched against
a steady flow of 'Class C-Level' opponents.

He did develop some boxing skills over his run, but the boxing experts knew he was nowhere near
a World Class level fighter.

? Beattie was a regional GG champ, and lost 3 of his first 20 fights. Also shows in the Mathis film that he was a decent boxer. So I don't see how he was in any sense 'manufactured'

I think manufactured is the wrong term to use here. "Protected" might be more appropriate. Guys who built up impressive records over a long string of tomato cans would fit that bill, like Clark and the infamous Don "Man of" Steele. You could throw in Brian Nielson in there too.

Worth noting that Nielsen was an Olympic and European Championship's bronze medal winner. As a pro he had beaten a shot to poo Bonecrusher, Tony Tubbs, Carlos De Leon, Phil Jackson, Mike Hunter and an old Holmes. Hardly fair to compare him with Steele.

I agree, Nielson had a decent AM background and as clearly a level above Steele (who he knocked out). But pretty much all of the 'names' he feasted on were over the hill, got some questionable decisions, never left Denmark, and lost his 0 to journeyman Dicky Ryan. Also got beat around the ring like a punching bag by a shot Tyson.

[BoxBuzz]

I've mentioned it before, but I was on board with Ed Mahone, and the USA channel. Not sure they "manufactured" him, but he was "developed, groomed" etc by their crafting. I thought he was going somewhere....and he was, down to canvasville twice by the older K bro before Rudy stopped the beating.

[Rover]

How about Bernardo Mendoza? This Chilean fighter beat no one noteworthy but got a title shot v. Vazquez and was dominated. He then fought Tim Austin two divisions lower and was stopped inside a round. He had a glossy record but that's about it.

[Rover]

Obed's two challengers, Gardner and Robinson, seem to fit the bill. They racked up nice records against weak comp to get title shots, lost and weren't heard from after that.

[SenorPipino]

Arum's tagteam of Butterbean and Mia St. John were strictly manufactured for the eyeballs (and $$$$) they brought to his PPV cards.
Mia could fight a little but she was presented for her looks, not her skills.
And how could a fighter not be manufactured if he's referred to as the King of the 4 Rounders?
Sadly these 2 did indeed pump up the PPV sales.

[Rover]

Arum's tagteam of Butterbean and Mia St. John were strictly manufactured for the eyeballs (and $$$$) they brought to his PPV cards.
Mia could fight a little but she was presented for her looks, not her skills.
And how could a fighter not be manufactured if he's referred to as the King of the 4 Rounders?
Sadly these 2 did indeed pump up the PPV sales.

Good calls on both.
How about Tocker Pudwill?
24-0 against nobodies and then ran into Hughes.

[HomicideHenry]

I am sort of ashamed at myself cus I cannot remember the man's name, but in the 90's there was a man based out of Tennessee who was called the 'Knockout King' and was a heavyweight, whose father was a multimillionaire who bought him tons of wins. The moment he stepped up though he was kayoed. Anyone else remember this guy?

Big John Poore is another man who had alot of easy wins, and moment he stepped up he lost. However, I dont think Poore had the backing of alot of people. He was strictly a Toughman fighter who went into the pros.

[Rover]

I am sort of ashamed at myself cus I cannot remember the man's name, but in the 90's there was a man based out of Tennessee who was called the 'Knockout King' and was a heavyweight, whose father was a multimillionaire who bought him tons of wins. The moment he stepped up though he was kayoed. Anyone else remember this guy?

Big John Poore is another man who had alot of easy wins, and moment he stepped up he lost. However, I dont think Poore had the backing of alot of people. He was strictly a Toughman fighter who went into the pros.

Keith McKnight?

[HomicideHenry]

I am sort of ashamed at myself cus I cannot remember the man's name, but in the 90's there was a man based out of Tennessee who was called the 'Knockout King' and was a heavyweight, whose father was a multimillionaire who bought him tons of wins. The moment he stepped up though he was kayoed. Anyone else remember this guy?

Big John Poore is another man who had alot of easy wins, and moment he stepped up he lost. However, I dont think Poore had the backing of alot of people. He was strictly a Toughman fighter who went into the pros.

Keith McKnight?

Had to look back into the BoxRec archives cus I know I talked about the man before. Keith McKnight is a good example, but the man I was referring to was Mark Carrier.

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

Had 34 fights and only boxed 99 rounds. Goes to show you that the majority were set ups.

[Rover]

How about George Tahdooahnippah? Man Rodriguez tore him up on FNF.

[Dart340]

Ah yes, Mark "The Shark" Carrier.

I saw his ESPN fight against Jimmy Lee Smith, which is where he got kayoed in seven. His father was reportedly the owner of Bristol Motor Speedway, which they talked about on the commentary, and he was a decent puncher with a not very imposing physique that simply wore down against Smith. As I remember, he won the early rounds fairly easily but threw a lot of showy arm punches and wore out like a humpbacked ditch digger. More than anything else, he was stopped due to exhaustion.

Good call again, guys.

[Jaclem]

harry "kid" mathews might fit in this one. decent light heavy ....well managed...but then moved into the heavy weight division for a match with marciano and got kayoed in the second round.

senya....i agree occam's razor is a good way to make an assessment here.....so, if the writer's said it was a fake, if the knowledgeable fans thought it was a tank job....if the bookmakers were suspicious...and if jake himself testified he threw it......the occam's rule seems to apply here....the easiest and most obvious decision applies.


oops...forgot to ask....what was jake's injury you mentioned? not arguing against it.....just asking about something i don't know about.

[Rover]

How about Leonard Townsend, who built up a nice record and got a world title shot. He lost and then later was served up to C.Spinks. He's now doing a long sentence for murder. He beat no one of note on his way to the title. I think he was 36-4 when Spinks got a hold of him, but that was impressive in numbers only.

[Senya13]

senya....i agree occam's razor is a good way to make an assessment here.....so, if the writer's said it was a fake, if the knowledgeable fans thought it was a tank job....if the bookmakers were suspicious...and if jake himself testified he threw it......the occam's rule seems to apply here....the easiest and most obvious decision applies.

oops...forgot to ask....what was jake's injury you mentioned? not arguing against it.....just asking about something i don't know about.

Writers and fans make a lot of assumptions abouts fights being fake, that doesn't mean a whole lot. Neither the writers, nor the fans knew at the time the bout had taken place, of Jake's injury. Bookmakers often were suspicious, like I said, it wasn't the first time, nor the last, when the betting was suspicious, but it turned out to be wrong, including first Billy Fox's bout with Lesnevich. So we are left only with Jake's own testimony as the evidence.

So as not to look-up the clippings for Nth time...
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Human:9030
"Suspecting the fight was fixed, the New York State Athletic Commission withheld the fighters' purses and launched an investigation. LaMotta's doctor told the commission that LaMotta was suffering from an injured spleen, and LaMotta said that a punch by Fox to the injured side hurt him and led to the stoppage. After the commission found no evidence of a fix, the purses were released. However, LaMotta was suspended for entering the fight without disclosing the injury."

Quoting from book "Raging Bull II, continuing the story of Jake La Motta" by Chris Anderson & Sharon McGehee with Jake La Motta (ie Jake himself supposedly took part in the process of writing this book):

La Motta: When I signed for the Fox fight, after a couple of weeks I received an offer of $100,000 to lose to Billy Fox, which I refused. I said I was only interested in the championship fight. It was said it could be arranged, a championship fight might be arranged. That is all I heard for about a couple of weeks, and while in training I hurt myself and I went to a doctor and the doctor examined me and took X-rays and found out I had a ruptured spleen. He said I couldn’t possibly fight, but I thought I could, and I started training again, and I instructed my sparring partners to concentrate their punches on my face, which they did. But as the fight kept getting closer, I found out—I realized that I had no strength in my arms. So, therefore, when I was told again if I would lose to the Fox fight, I kept stalling them off because I still felt I could win. But as the fight kept getting closer, I realized that it was going to be kind of difficult. But toward the end, when I realized that I couldn’t possibly win, I said I would lose to Billy Fox, if I was guaranteed a championship fight.

[orbtastic]

His first book says it was fixed?

[Rover]

O'Grady beat Kenty, though. He was legitimately one of the best lightweights in the world. When I think of manufactured fighters, I think of guys who compiled glossy records and then got wiped out when they stepped up. Kenty was a step up, and O'Grady did well.

[Jaclem]

..thanks kenya for your reply. i must have read about the spleen injury from the book, but forgot it. i also remember there were some doubts about the injury itself, but no valid proof.

as for the fix.....we'll just continue are opinions about it as each of us have given our different interpretations. at this stage probably only jake really knows.

[Rover]

..thanks kenya for your reply. i must have read about the spleen injury from the book, but forgot it. i also remember there were some doubts about the injury itself, but no valid proof.

as for the fix.....we'll just continue are opinions about it as each of us have given our different interpretations. at this stage probably only jake really knows.

Did Fox ever say anything about it?

[orbtastic]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm