RIP Charlie "White Lightning" Brown
Posted: 14 Aug 2018, 06:18
Former world title challenger Charlie “White Lightning” Brown has passed away at the age of 53 after many years of poor health.
Charlie dies young but he did everything young. A decorated amateur, he turned pro at 18 in 1982 and secured his world title shot two years later against IBF lightweight champion Harry Arroyo and was halted in eight rounds after a bright start. His career subsequently nosedived, although he carried on fighting until 1995 when he was still only 31.
The good-looking kid with exposure and money in his pocket threw away his best years on the bright lights but he was also one of those unlucky fighters who ran into Harold Brazier straight after Arroyo, at a time when nobody knew how good Brazier was, and suffered another stoppage defeat to Greg Haugen at a time when “Mutt” looked OK but no more than OK.
The quick, aggressive, face-first Brown went unbeaten in his first 23 fights, including big wins over Alfredo Escalera, Remo Di Carlo and Louis Burke, and he won the first five rounds against the smooth-boxing Arroyo before Arroyo took over. Then came those Brazier and Haugen defeats, and the final years of his career were punctuated with retirements, comebacks and a few bad beatings, including one at the hands of Soren Sondergaard in Denmark. He stopped our own Gary Felvus in the unpaid ranks in the UK.
Sadly, Charlie never got over the end of his boxing career and spent many years drifting around his home state of Illinois before all the bad living and all the punches caught up with him.
Charlie dies young but he did everything young. A decorated amateur, he turned pro at 18 in 1982 and secured his world title shot two years later against IBF lightweight champion Harry Arroyo and was halted in eight rounds after a bright start. His career subsequently nosedived, although he carried on fighting until 1995 when he was still only 31.
The good-looking kid with exposure and money in his pocket threw away his best years on the bright lights but he was also one of those unlucky fighters who ran into Harold Brazier straight after Arroyo, at a time when nobody knew how good Brazier was, and suffered another stoppage defeat to Greg Haugen at a time when “Mutt” looked OK but no more than OK.
The quick, aggressive, face-first Brown went unbeaten in his first 23 fights, including big wins over Alfredo Escalera, Remo Di Carlo and Louis Burke, and he won the first five rounds against the smooth-boxing Arroyo before Arroyo took over. Then came those Brazier and Haugen defeats, and the final years of his career were punctuated with retirements, comebacks and a few bad beatings, including one at the hands of Soren Sondergaard in Denmark. He stopped our own Gary Felvus in the unpaid ranks in the UK.
Sadly, Charlie never got over the end of his boxing career and spent many years drifting around his home state of Illinois before all the bad living and all the punches caught up with him.