Brief Lives: Virgil "Honeybear" Akins

[thenonpareil]

Finally, after all the hard years toiling in hothouse gyms and all the years crisscrossing the country as an itinerant journeyman—smoke-filled halls, catcalls and hisses when facing the local hero, narrow losses tallied on doubtful scorecard after doubtful scorecard—Virgil Akins became one of The Chosen. It took “Honeybear” more than a decade to win the welterweight title, and when he did, it vaulted him into nefarious proceedings that would lead, ultimately, to the downfall of the capo di tutti capi of boxing himself: Frankie Carbo, aka (depending on the day) Mr. Fury or Mr. Gray. And while Akins never openly rued his limited reign as champion the way his successor, the radioactive Don “Geronimo” Jordan, did, he never saw the title as a blessing: “Some get the breaks, and some don’t,” he said once. “Being world champion was the biggest break I ever got, but it didn’t lead nowhere.”

https://hannibalboxing.com/brief-lives-virgil-akins/

[petersmith99]

that is my favorite sport. Thank you for the motivation to stay passionate.