BoxRec

The former Light Welterweight Champ Passed away 10th May
Had been suffering from Dementia and Diabetes.
R.I.P. Champ

Martin

Sorry to hear.
I knew his trainer/manager Frank Tommaso.He trained me a little bit many years ago. Frank talked about Eddie all the time. I was fortunate enough to hear a lot of great stories about Eddie.

......a superb fighter who never got the attention he deserved....

....i guess you have to die for a boxer to get any press these days .....today's (may 17th)chicago tribune has a good sized picture and write up on eddie. of course,he was a local guy so i don't know what news he made elsewhere.

Very underrated Champion, RIP

Expug wrote:Sorry to hear.
I knew his trainer/manager Frank Tommaso.He trained me a little bit many years ago. Frank talked about Eddie all the time. I was fortunate enough to hear a lot of great stories about Eddie.

Wasnt Johnny Coulon his trainer/manager?

Anyway, Perkins is one of the best. Completely underrated.

klompton wrote:

Expug wrote:Sorry to hear.
I knew his trainer/manager Frank Tommaso.He trained me a little bit many years ago. Frank talked about Eddie all the time. I was fortunate enough to hear a lot of great stories about Eddie.

Wasnt Johnny Coulon his trainer/manager?

Anyway, Perkins is one of the best. Completely underrated.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Frank_Tomaso

..........coulon did train perkins at one time...don't know when o for how long....

Coulon was managing and training Perkins until at least 1970. Given Coulon's advanced age at the time its likely Tomasco co-managed and/or co-trained Perkins when Coulon began finding it difficult to handle such duties. Sort of like how Cus D'Amato utilized Kevin Rooney.

Im not sure of the timeline.. I knew Frank in 1983.
What I remember was him talking about how he thought Eddie was a better fighter than ray Leonard.
He talked about Perkins all the time, They must have had a good relationship both during his fighting days and after. He gave me a 1976 Ring Record book. The funny thing is, all the pages of Eddie Perkins record were torn out. He wanted to save them even though he was giving away the book.

..today (may 18) the chicago sun times has a big write up on perkins.... quotes from boxers and trainers about his brilliant
defensive skils....hw he did it mostly without moving his feet....all upper body movement....and how, when he trained young boxers he would stand with his feet planted and how they still couldn't hit him and a lot of details about his life.all well and good.....but where were the write-ups during his career?

True,hardly ever hear about Perkins anymore.My guess is that even in his prime,he was flying under the radar.And Im talking about here in Chicago.Everywhere else Im sure he was underrated as well.
Maybe its that he fought over seas quite a bit.Or,the jr welterweight division hadn't caught fire,I dunno.Its always Johnny Bratton,Barney Ross,Tony Zale,and a few others when the reminiscing about great Chicago champs takes place.

Ive definately got perkins rated higher than zale and bratton. I just recently got a film of him being interviewed back ib the sixties and he seems like a real nice, quiet, down to earth guy.

When I was a bakery truck driver in Chicago in the early nineties,one of the other drivers who drove out of our north side depot used to bowl in a league on the south side with Eddie. He was a down to earth,regular good dude it seems.

Tomasso managed and trained Eddie but most of Eddie's career he was trained by Coulon. I trained at Coulon's and fought as an amateur from 1965-1970 and Coulon was Eddie's main trainer at the time. Eddie was a steelworker in Gary, Indiana and held a full time job even when he was still a top fighter.

Eddie Perkins was the SUPREME globetrotter in boxing who fought in over twenty different countries. Second place goes to Angel Robinson Garcia.

A very nice, soft spoken easy going man, very underrated as a fighter.

Coulon also managed Perkins. He wasnt just his trainer.