BoxRec

Wasn't Big John Tate order (by court) to have a carer to help him?

Frank Bruno is another who could get rid of the drug that is boxing.

yeah joe, it was either morphine or anti malaria drugs, i cant remember now. he was decorated for bravery and wounded when he was in the marines at guadalcanal.
i think his parents were jewish immigrants from russia and they settled in chicago. three or four of their kids died in infancy and the dad (barney`s) was murdered by youths robbing his grocery store. his mum had a misscarrage with the shock.
barney was permently injured (arm) with a crowbar in a streetfight and nearly lost an eye in another fight when hit in the face with a brick.
he started to get involved with street gambling and ran errands for al capone. all this when he was a kid!!
then he turned to boxing to escape the streets.
after his boxing career he joined the marines and after he beat his addiction he helped other addicts.
he died of cancer at 57.
i remember reading a book that had quick resume`s of fighters lives but barneys was about half a page long. the poor bloke had some terrible misfortune.
rest in peace champ.

A vast majority of sucessfull boxers come from rough begginnings and the odds are against them ...

Unfortunately, for many of these guys Their boxing careers are the only sucesssfull interlude in their lives.thats why its so hard for many of them to give it up.

Sadly, many just eventually return to the poverty from whence they came ...

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young is another sad story, very talented, some say he beat Ali in their Title fight, could have been a Champ, would have given Holmes all he could handle (IMO).

Leon Spinks within a few fights was Heavyweight Champion of the World, then went downhill fast.

Aaron Pryor, top quality fighter of the 1980's fell prey to drugs, thankfully seems to have turned his life around in recent years.

Wifred Benitez World Champ at 17, shot at 24, then came the brain damage.

Jerry Quarry, fought them all in the 1970's and beat many of them, ended up brain damaged, for the last few years of his life couldn't even shave himself.

Frank & Antoney Fletcher top class fighters in the 1980's now both in prison.

Micheal Dokes, talented former Heavyweight Champ, got into drugs and is know in prison for beating his girlfriend to a bloody pulp.

Greg Page, Former Heavyweight Champ, Brain damaged.

Micheal Nunn, one of the best and talented Middle and Super-middles of the modern era, now in prison for drug dealing.

Iran Barkley, triple world Champ, but still lives with his mother in the Bronx and has vision problems.

It's a very long and sad list.

Larry Holmes is a credit to the sport.

John Mugabi is another tragic case, no money and going blind.

There was another boxer, I think it was Beau Jack, who ended up shining shoes for a living a few short years after retiring from boxing.
Maxie Rosenbloom also springs to mind. His career earnings were rumoured to be between 250,000-1,000,000 dollars, plus he had a successful acting career, starring in around 100 movies. After the acting oppertunities dried up, he embarked on a theatre tour with former heavyweight champ Max Baer, earning as much as $1500 a week, but the both of them discovered horse racing, and were always broke as a result.
He died,penniless, in a convalecent home in 1976 at the age of 71.

knockout artist wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young is another sad story, very talented, some say he beat Ali in their Title fight, could have been a Champ, would have given Holmes all he could handle (IMO).

Leon Spinks within a few fights was Heavyweight Champion of the World, then went downhill fast.

Aaron Pryor, top quality fighter of the 1980's fell prey to drugs, thankfully seems to have turned his life around in recent years.

Wifred Benitez World Champ at 17, shot at 24, then came the brain damage.

Jerry Quarry, fought them all in the 1970's and beat many of them, ended up brain damaged, for the last few years of his life couldn't even shave himself.

Frank & Antoney Fletcher top class fighters in the 1980's now both in prison.

Micheal Dokes, talented former Heavyweight Champ, got into drugs and is know in prison for beating his girlfriend to a bloody pulp.

Greg Page, Former Heavyweight Champ, Brain damaged.

Micheal Nunn, one of the best and talented Middle and Super-middles of the modern era, now in prison for drug dealing.

Iran Barkley, triple world Champ, but still lives with his mother in the Bronx and has vision problems.

It's a very long and sad list.

Larry Holmes is a credit to the sport.

John Mugabi is another tragic case, no money and going blind.

Going blind? I was also interested in what you had to say about Matthew Hilton on the Boxers of the Past forum a while ago. You said he was left cross-eyed after a baseball attack. Can you tell us any more (on both fighters)?

Paul Weir and Gary Jacobs - both involved with drugs.

Jimmy Murray - horrible ring death scenes.


Here's a haunting recent article about Benitez.

bennie wrote:

knockout artist wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young is another sad story, very talented, some say he beat Ali in their Title fight, could have been a Champ, would have given Holmes all he could handle (IMO).

Leon Spinks within a few fights was Heavyweight Champion of the World, then went downhill fast.

Aaron Pryor, top quality fighter of the 1980's fell prey to drugs, thankfully seems to have turned his life around in recent years.

Wifred Benitez World Champ at 17, shot at 24, then came the brain damage.

Jerry Quarry, fought them all in the 1970's and beat many of them, ended up brain damaged, for the last few years of his life couldn't even shave himself.

Frank & Antoney Fletcher top class fighters in the 1980's now both in prison.

Micheal Dokes, talented former Heavyweight Champ, got into drugs and is know in prison for beating his girlfriend to a bloody pulp.

Greg Page, Former Heavyweight Champ, Brain damaged.

Micheal Nunn, one of the best and talented Middle and Super-middles of the modern era, now in prison for drug dealing.

Iran Barkley, triple world Champ, but still lives with his mother in the Bronx and has vision problems.

It's a very long and sad list.

Larry Holmes is a credit to the sport.

John Mugabi is another tragic case, no money and going blind.

Going blind? I was also interested in what you had to say about Matthew Hilton on the Boxers of the Past forum a while ago. You said he was left cross-eyed after a baseball attack. Can you tell us any more (on both fighters)?

Mugabi and Hilton were favouries of mine.

Mugabi would spend money like it was going out of fashion, lived on junk food, beer and cigarettes. What he acheived is incredible when you consider how he lived.

He had cataracts growing when he was refused a licence to fight on the Ambrose/Mendy Alan Lacey bill at Brixton Academy in JUly 1993. He fought an exhibition aginst Andy Wright of Tooting.

He managed to get licenced in Australia by could not afford to have the cataracts removed. Allegedly he had an opeartion on the cheap which made matters worse.

He trains fighters on the gold coast and does bouncing work etc, but his sight is getting worse. A great shame.

Hilton is a very heavy drinker who suffers with depression. He gets drunk and starts fights. As you would imagine he usually wins, but apprently he based a bloke up in a pub, the bloke came back with a bat and literally KO'd him, he's never been able to focus properly since.

shit thats a harrowing article.

The problem is that unlike many other sports, boxing doesn't have any sort of scholarship programme, or any foundation to underpin their careers.

Tennis is a middle class sport played by kids of wealthy parents. There is no way a poor working class family could afford to hire Tennis coaches at 20 quid an hour for years, that's why the Venus sisters story is so remarkable, because the father basically bought himself a book on coaching and did it all himself.

Boxers by and large are young men with an excess of testosterone (literally in most cases), who often find their way into boxing as a way to channel their aggression and stop them getting into bother, even the seemingly mild-mannered Audley Harrison was a bit of a bad-man in his day.

The regimen of boxing requries tremendous discipline to succeed, and highly successful fighters are by the very nature of the sport going to be the ones who maintain their focus the best and longest, and that means giving over a very large portion of their life to fighting.

However, often the underlying problems which were the cause of their violent youth are not addressed, they are merely re-channeled into boxing, which is fine as long as their career last, but then one day, the career ends, and with it goes all of the attention, the regime of training, all the purpose of their lives, suddenly it's all over.

Because fighters earn their money in large chunks, rather than a regular wage like most of us, and usually have large amounts of money flooding here and there, and big bills which can always be paid as long as the earnings come in, they rarely have to worry about their finances during their career, at least not if they are successful.

However, once the career ends, suddenly they have no income, but what they do have is enough money to indulge themselves heavily, and a taste for extravagant living acquired because of the nature of the way they have always earnt.

With loads of free time on their hands, money to burn (if they are lucky), and often no other skills outside of fighting, they have no focus, and no motivation, and that is where the struggle really begins.

I think this is precisely what happened to Bruno, when he was sectioned, the people who had been caring for him, said that they thought the mental problems he had, (basically manic depression), is something he had probably suffered from since adolescence, but because he had gotten into boxing, the regime and the regularity of his life mollified the problem, and so it was never diagnosed.

As soon as he quit, things got difficult for Bruno, although he had other outlets such as DJing and Panto, it couldn't quite cut it compared to boxing and he gradually unravelled.

What i think needs to be done is to involve more fighters in other aspects of the game when they retire, get them involved in amateur coaching, conditioning, motivational roles, promotions, anything, rather than just let them get cast aside at the end of their careers, with no prospects and no idea what to do with the next 30-40 years of their lives.

Cheers, Knockout Artist. I think that was Mugabi in Justin Juuko's corner a few weeks back at Widnes. He looked flabbier, of course, but not too bad, given his eyesight and hard living. You know, the WBC have a fund which pays for cataract operations on ex-champions. Mugabi, as an ex-WBC light-middleweight champ, would be entitled. Might be worth getting in touch with them.

The Devil In Roy Jones wrote:Paul Weir and Gary Jacobs - both involved with drugs.

Jimmy Murray - horrible ring death scenes.


Here's a haunting recent article about Benitez.

Thanks for the article. Tragic.

Christ that's a sad story, poor bastard.

wonder what happened, from that story, sounds like something happened to him in Argentina, perhaps he got battered senseless in some unlicensed fights, it seems he was fine before he went there, or perhaps that's just wishful thinking from his mother.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Christ that's a sad story, poor bastard.

wonder what happened, from that story, sounds like something happened to him in Argentina, perhaps he got battered senseless in some unlicensed fights, it seems he was fine before he went there, or perhaps that's just wishful thinking from his mother.

Benitez suffered his brain injury when he was knocked out in sparring around 1990 I believe.

Ah right, didn't realise there was a particular injury. Thinking about it, it's not like he took that much punishment in his career, he was too bloody good for that. But I guess all you need is a few fights past your peak and a bit of bad luck, and the damage is done.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Ah right, didn't realise there was a particular injury. Thinking about it, it's not like he took that much punishment in his career, he was too bloody good for that. But I guess all you need is a few fights past your peak and a bit of bad luck, and the damage is done.

Yes, there was a particular incident in sparring in a Puerto Rican gym when he was training for one of his many ludicrous comebacks. These old fighters (old as in hard fights down the years) can take one shot too many after a period out and it accelerates the dementia. Jerry Quarry for example was fine till he came back and got knocked around in a 1992 fight.
Just one fight.

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=009385

bennie wrote:Cheers, Knockout Artist. I think that was Mugabi in Justin Juuko's corner a few weeks back at Widnes. He looked flabbier, of course, but not too bad, given his eyesight and hard living. You know, the WBC have a fund which pays for cataract operations on ex-champions. Mugabi, as an ex-WBC light-middleweight champ, would be entitled. Might be worth getting in touch with them.

Thanks.

I'll try and get in touch with him.

Trouble with Mugabi, he'd be liable to spend the money on beer, they'd have to pay the surgeon direct.

knockout artist wrote:

bennie wrote:Cheers, Knockout Artist. I think that was Mugabi in Justin Juuko's corner a few weeks back at Widnes. He looked flabbier, of course, but not too bad, given his eyesight and hard living. You know, the WBC have a fund which pays for cataract operations on ex-champions. Mugabi, as an ex-WBC light-middleweight champ, would be entitled. Might be worth getting in touch with them.

Thanks.

I'll try and get in touch with him.

Trouble with Mugabi, he'd be liable to spend the money on beer, they'd have to pay the surgeon direct.

The WBC paid for a recent eye operation on former world champion Genaro Hernandez, who had been suffering from double vision since his last pro fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"I would just like to thank the WBC for giving me the ability to see normally again," said Genaro.
They also paid for an eye operation on former WBC light-welter champ Saensak Muangsurin.

Yes, I heard about that too.

Ricky Womack also sadly took his own life a few years ago.

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=003048

J wrote:well publicised and discussed on here, Kirklaind Laing's fall into crack addiction and alcoholism leading to vagrancy is pretty startling.

I did not know this..very sad.

That's why I think Lennox Lewis is a dude. He'll be just fine and chilled out. But he'll still get slated for it.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread with a pro-Lewis thing, it's just that he earns my respect for the way he conducts himself.

Goz wrote:That's why I think Lennox Lewis is a dude. He'll be just fine and chilled out. But he'll still get slated for it.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread with a pro-Lewis thing, it's just that he earns my respect for the way he conducts himself.

here here !!!

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Ah right, didn't realise there was a particular injury. Thinking about it, it's not like he took that much punishment in his career, he was too bloody good for that. But I guess all you need is a few fights past your peak and a bit of bad luck, and the damage is done.

Sparring doesnt help either.