BoxRec

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

raylawpc wrote:
Well, he did get out of France, he met my great grandmother in Mexico, I of course never met either one of them, Bennie, I have no desire to go to France or any place out of the barrio.

Except fishing . . . right Frank?

Right Tom, an I'm going next month.

Tom, I think you have seen this pic. of the fish I caught a couple of years ago in the Hight Sierra,
hope to catch some more like that next month.

Hey guys, when Frank posted photo a few days ago it got me thinking about this book that I read a few years ago. I had to dig it up but I found it. The book, though centered around fishing is really about the relationship between a father and son. The son, author William Plummer discovers his father's fishing diary, after his father's death. He uses the diary to trace his fathers fishing experiences. Fishing where his father fished. As he fishes he learns much about his father that he was too busy to learn about while he was alive.

It's not a large book and can be read in a day or two but I liked it and thought that one of you might want to read it. It's a pretty good book in a small, charming kind of way. The book is called Wishing my Father Well, A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Fly Fishing by William Plummer. Here is a link to the Amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158567 ... roduct_top

Randy,Very nice touch. It's funny,before my father died I tried to find out as much about him as I could. No more fighting. I wanted to know all I could about him. I knew the end was coming up fast. But after he died,I still realized I didn't get to know him like I wanted to. I still try to put it together.I think I became a lot like him after his death. It's almost like he never left.

kikibalt wrote:RSR Looks Back At Curtis Parker: A Throwback to the Tough Philly Middleweights of the Seventies
By Mike “Rubber Warrior” Plunkett
Ringside Report

If there was ever a city that was specialized in churning out tough as nails middleweight prospects and contenders, that city would no doubt be Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Through the years and specifically the latter part of the sixties and well into the decade of the seventies, the hardened boxing gyms of Philly were basically top of the line assembly plants for many of the most skilled and rugged old school-brand middleweight contenders our sport has ever seen.

Philadelphia churned out names such as Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, Gypsy Joe Harris, Wllie “The Worm” Monroe, Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, “Bad” Bennie Briscoe and the like. All of them were forged over time in the worn, dank Philly boxing gyms which were essentially a proving ground for men that were given to one on one ring warfare. They were forged in these gyms to be iron men of sorts. Their skills were developed over time in bouts with the best available opposition and a loss was viewed as an exercise of education rather than a red flag for dismissal.

There was no quit in their code and each of the aforementioned had their fair share of heartbreaking disappointment and defeat. In the cases of “Boogaloo” Watts and Bennie Briscoe, clear-cut defeats at the hands of all-time ring greats such as “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler and Carlos Monzon were required in order to turn back their challenge. It was a time, literally, when one could honestly state that Philly middleweights were some of the toughest fighters to ever grace the one-hundred and sixty pound ranks. Some years later, Philadelphia would produce Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, a throwback of sorts to this period and arguably one of the greatest middleweight champions of all-time.

Not unlike the aforementioned group tough middleweight contenders, the decade of the eighties produced a Philly middleweight fighter named Curtis Parker who followed a similar forged in the fire path over the course of his twelve year-long career. There was nothing notably flashy about him, just an honest to goodness product of the homegrown Philadelphia boxing scene that gave fans his very best effort every time out. This unheralded fighter had an all-action style that served him well considering that he was following on the heels of Harris, Briscoe, Hart, Monroe and Watts, legendary middleweights that would cause the sport to take notice when they were fighting at their very best.

Parker was the Pennsylvania 1976 Golden Gloves amateur champion and at one point had hopes of reaching the 1976 Olympic trials. When his Olympic ambitions didn’t pan out as hoped, he went on to win the National Golden Glove Championships at 156lbs. the following year. In December of 1977, Parker would turn professional looking to earn a living fighting in the ring. Willie Reddish, both senior and junior served as his trainers at the Frankford PAL. At various points in his career another legendary former Philadelphia middleweight, George Benton, would train him at Joe Frazier’s Gym. Others such as Slim Robinson would serve in that capacity when up at Muhammad Ali’s Deer Lake training camp. While at Deer Lake, Parker had the opportunity to spar with Ali, an all-time great heavyweight champion who by that time was in the late autumn of a storied ring career.

During that period a noted California journeyman named David Love was making a name for himself beating up Philly fighters which included decisions over Perry “Lil” Abney and Bad Bennie Briscoe. In between those wins he flattened remnants of Willie “The Worm” Monroe and Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts. When Love looked to make a victim of yet another fighter from The City of Brotherly love in March of1980 he took on the young and undefeated Parker who had up to that point won all fifteen of his professional contests which included wins over Willie “The Worm” Monroe and former WBC Light Middleweight Champion Elisha Obed. On that occasion, Parker fought with marked passion as though he was looking to get back some for Philly, handing Love a thorough thrashing, stopping the Californian in round nine.

After the Love win, Parker extended his undefeated streak to 17-0, 14 KO’s in winning the USBA Middleweight Title with a comprehensive twelve-round unanimous decision over talented contender Mike Colbert. Three months later Parker tasted defeat, losing a clear decision to the 26-0 Dwight Davison of Detroit. The loss would start a three-fight losing streak; a hard-fought and heartbreaking split decision loss to world-rated southpaw Mustafa Hamsho who was moving towards a challenge of World Middleweight Champion “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler and a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of future title challenger Wilford Scypion would follow.

He scored two wins by knockout to break the losing streak before taking a rematch with Hamsho in 1982, a fight that again culminated in defeat, this time by unanimous decision. From there Parker started his own winning streak, stopping four of his next five opponents with only Tony Braxton lasting the distance. The fifth opponent was one Eddie Flanning, notable in that it was Parker’s only return to Philadelphia during this period, a bout fought at the legendary Blue Horizon.

In his next bout some two months later, Parker was crushed in the first round by a future world middleweight title challenger, an 18-0, 18 KO’s John “The Beast” Mugabi, marking the first time in his career that he had lost a bout by knockout. Undaunted, Parker would rebound in early 1984 against the undefeated Donald Bowers, a win which earned him a shot at his old title, the USBA Middleweight Title, against the 20-2 Alex Ramos, a bout he would go on to lose by close unanimous decision.

In 1985 Parker would meet fellow Philadelphian Frank “The Animal” Fletcher in Atlantic City, winning by stoppage in the third round. After another win, a majority decision over fringe contender Ricky Stackhouse, Parker was moved toward a major showdown with the popular Michael “The Silk” Olajide, a 15-0 fighter out of Vancouver, Canada. The Olajide match would be of stinging consequence, a bout which found Parker on the short end of a hotly-contested split decision. Seven months after losing to “The Silk”, Parker found himself on the losing end of a wide unanimous decision to future IBF Middleweight Champion, Frank Tate.

Notable in the Tate bout was Parker’s lack of commitment and passion, qualities he seemed to previously have in abundance. Looking back, one can safely deduce that the Olajide disappointment had taken the wind out of his game and that by the time he faced the 13-0 Tate he was only staying in the sport for the money. In his only start for 1987, Parker earned an uninspired technical decision over the 17-0-1 Phillip Moorefield when the bout went to the score cards in the fifth round. His career finished-up in March 1988, almost eight years to the day of his inspired, Philly pride-infusing win over David Love, fighting for the NABF Middleweight Title against unbeaten, 28-0 future IBF Middleweight Champion Michael “Second To” Nunn, losing by technical knockout early in the second round. The writing was on the wall. Parker was thoroughly through as a winning fighter and the fire that had marked his early years as a professional had all but gone out.

Overall, Curtis Parker was unbeaten in fifteen fights in Philly. His final record was 29-9, 21 KOs. He always gave fans everything he had when that fire burned brightly from within and he was thrown into tough match after tough match against many of the very best from the middleweight division of that period. Had he managed to get past Mustafa Hamsho in early 1981, Parker very well may have moved on to challenge “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler for all of the marbles later that year in a bout that would be most fitting given Hagler’s previous experience with legendary Philly middleweights such as Willie “The Worm” Monroe, Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, Eugene “Cyclone” Hart and of course “Bad Bennie Briscoe. Given the level of the Marvelous One’s talent at that point in 1981, it would be an almost certainty that Parker would have been handed a loss, but there would have been an almost poetic congruency had he found himself in the opposite corner to that of Hagler.

Curtis Parker was inducted into the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame this past May, taking his rightful place alongside that group of legendary middleweight contenders that Philadelphia produced, some of the most talented and spirited fighters ever to compete in the middleweight division.

Rick Farris wrote:Patterson-Ellis This fight was televised live in the U.S. and Floyd's decision loss, preventing him from regaing the title an unprecidented third time, remains the worst decision I have ever seen in a heavyweight title fight. For U.S. TV reasons, the bout was held in the dark early morning hours, outdoors while snowing. I still recall both boxers entering the ring wearing ski pants. -Rick

kikibalt wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
John Thomas

Rick Farris wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
John Thomas

One of my two favorite L.A. ref's along with Dick Young.

kikibalt wrote:

BoxBuzz wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

Is it just me or is Blake doing his best impression of "Rocky" in that pic? Come to think of it they both sort of resemble that character at that moment.