Mike Weaver televised fights (1972-2000)

[Caractacus]

-2018-

[Caractacus]

here are some of Mike Weaver's earliest televised fights

Mike Weaver vrs LeRoy Jones August.19.1978
Mike Weaver vrs Stan Ward January.18.1979
Mike Weaver vrs Oliver Phillips 2 March.1979

couldn't find any of these fights per se on youtube, but you can see high-lights of them in the
John Tate vrs Mike Weaver television broadcast.

[Caractacus]

I wonder if Mike Weaver's fight with Bernardo Mercado was also televised ?
that and the 2rd Stan Ward fight got him his shot for the Heavyweight title fight with Larry Homes.

[Caractacus]

Madison Square Garden-June.22.1979 HBO Live-a great night of Boxing Entertainment

the preliminary


Who is Mike Weaver ? That was the question asked by some newscasters just before this fight.
28th professional fight
wonder what hi-lights of Mike Weaver's previous fights were shown at beginning of this HBO programme ?
(and That was the upper-cut punch that Larry Holmes had tried to set Mike Tyson up with in their fight but Holmes's arm got
caught up in the ropes doing it)

[Ambling Alp II]

I remember that so little was thought of Weaver none of the three the networks in the United States (ABC, CBS, NBC) would broadcast the fight. This was pretty rare for a heavyweight title fight during this time. HBO did do it, but few people had HBO back then.

[Onetimeonly]

Madison Square Garden-June.22.1979 HBO Live-a great night of Boxing Entertainment

the preliminary


Who is Mike Weaver ? That was the question asked by some newscasters just before this fight.
28th professional fight
wonder what hi-lights of Mike Weaver's previous fights were shown at beginning of this HBO programme ?
(and That was the upper-cut punch that Larry Holmes had tried to set Mike Tyson up with in their fight but Holmes's arm got
caught up in the ropes doing it)

I saw that on closed circuit

[Caractacus]

How much did the ticket cost and where did you watch it ?

I thought I saw it on TV but been so long must have just seen the high-lights on the 10 o'clock news that night june 1979
( and back in 1979 if you missed that they weren't going to re-peat it for you)

[Caractacus]

then there must be another video of Howard Cossell of ABC-TV doing ringside commentery ?
( and from a different ringside angle ?)

[Onetimeonly]

How much did the ticket cost and where did you watch it ?

I thought I saw it on TV but been so long must have just seen the high-lights on the 10 o'clock news that night june 1979
( and back in 1979 if you missed that they weren't going to re-peat it for you)

I was 10, dad paid. I think it was $19. Baltimore arena

[Caractacus]

Harry Terrell looks like he may have been from the "Jimmy Young" school of Boxing.

[Onetimeonly]

I loved cosell. Who really sucked was Ferdie Pacheco. How come you only watched abc? Clancy and Ryan were great too.

[sweetsci]

Harry Terrell looks like he may have been from the "Jimmy Young" school of Boxing.

Muhammad Ali Professional Sports (MAPS), the promoter of this card, put on some great cards. This was the organization that was run by "Harold Smith" (real name Ross Fields) before Smith was nailed for embezzlement from Wells Fargo (I think) before his spectacular "This Is It" card in early 1981.

It's amazing how many fights were televised on channels I didn't have access to back when I was a kid. HBO was quite active in 73 and 74, but most of those fights are lost, unfortunately.

When they introduced Frankie Duarte he was prepping to fight Ruben Olivares. In checking BoxRec, that fight never happened and Duarte only had one fight during that 5-year period.

[Ambling Alp II]

Chris Schenkel did some of the fights on ABC; I always thought he was pretty good. Can't remember who did the fights in the 1970s on CBS and NBC, don't know if they had one guy for a long time. I know Dick Enberg did some fights.

[geoffreysadao]

Weaver is one of my all-time favorite fighters. In Spring of '79, after he had beaten Stan Ward in their re-match, he was scheduled as Larry Holmes' next challenger. Based on his recent performances, including close loses to Ward and Leroy Jones, and an interview in Boxing Illustrated, I had a feeling that he was much better than his record indicated. I had a hunch that he would give Holmes a real struggle, and he most certainly did. He boxed beautifully behind his left jab against the always tough Scott Ledoux in defense of the USBA title that he won against Ward. When he knocked out undefeated Big John Tate in Spring of '80, I was elated. It was one of the best boxing memories of my life. Weaver was a tough, talented fighter with a big punch. He wasn't always consistent, but this made him all the more exciting. I really admire him.

[Caractacus]

to answer some questions.
The reason I watched only ABC-TV (at least in the mid-late 1970's/early 1980's)
was because the CBS affliate iocal station n the region I lived in lost their licence to broadcast
CBS shows (they use to show up on the local news and just laugh all the way thru it
they must have been stoned looking back)
they also were paid NOT to show the CBS Late movie on Friday nights,
paid off by Jim Baker to show his PTL Club and rake in some money that way instead)
The other local channels ABC and NBC had to show some of the CBS primetime shows
on their channel even.
as far as Dr. ferdie Perchenko, did you ever read his book on Ali ?
It could have been written by anyone,really boring no anteotes.
BTW do you remember Howard Cossel's own TV show in 1974 ?
It was called "Saturday Night Live"
I think there was a thread about it here years ago (started my me of course).

[Caractacus]

30th professional fight
November 1979
( CBS Sports Spectacular)

[Ambling Alp II]

I remember that so little was thought of Weaver none of the three the networks in the United States (ABC, CBS, NBC) would broadcast the fight. This was pretty rare for a heavyweight title fight during this time. HBO did do it, but few people had HBO back then.

Correct. In retrospect, it is quite ironic that the networks broadcast Holmes against Evangelista and Ocasio, but not Weaver. Just think about how brutally Weaver could have KO'd those two had they ever fought.

Weaver was rejected by the networks (at that time) because of his crappy looking record. TV executives are very concerned about the win-loss-draw records of the fighters they broadcast. That's because the broadcasts are designed to attract lots of people who regularly wouldn't watch boxing. Such viewers know nothing about the boxers except the records they see in TV Guide. More than three losses on a guy's record, I've heard, equals box office poison.

Ocasio actually was pretty decent for a few years. He was coming off of the wins over Jimmy Young.
Plus, ABC had Norton-Shavers as the preliminary fight, which sure to help the ratings.
I remember that they replayed the Norton-Shavers fight several times since it was over so quick.
In the Ocasio-Holmes fight, the three-knockdown rule was in effect. After Holmes knocked Ocasio down the third time, Holmes waved of the ref and the ref actually continued the fight! It was over after the fourth knockdown.

ABC still had a ton of time to kill, so they played a rerun of Battlestar Gallactaca.

[Onetimeonly]

Was it really turning down Weaver or testing Duran's drawing power? Palomino was a big fight.

[Ambling Alp II]

Guess I never thought about it.
For about three years, from about 1978-1980, Ocasio was pretty good fighter. I think he would have given Weaver a lot of trouble.
He certainly had more marketing power than Weaver going into their fights with Holmes.

Going into the Ocasio-Holmes fight, Ocasio had twice beaten Jimmy Young, both on national TV, one in prime time.
Weaver was an unknown before he fought Holmes. I never heard of him before their fight.

Of course Weaver did turn his career around after a bad start.

[Caractacus]

man, i remember watching this on ABC-TV (live) on 31.March.1980
on a Monday Evening.
3 hours of 'chock-fUll of Boxing Entertainment
with two of the most memorable punches ever seen on the TV screen.

[Ambling Alp II]

I remember that night very well also. The Weaver and Leonard ko's were brutal. If Tate would have held on to beat Weaver, he probably would have had a huge unification fight with Holmes.
Jones-Holmes was bad, but it still a great night.
Eddie Mustapha Muhammad beat Marvin Johnson in a very good fight as well.

Unbelievable that you had four fights like that on one night on national TV for free.

[Onetimeonly]

I also remember it vividly, I got in trouble at school and wasn't allowed to watch as punishment, so I listened on the radio in bed with headphones.

[Caractacus]

man, i remember watching this on ABC-TV (live) on 31.March.1980
on a Monday Evening.
3 hours of 'chock-fUll of Boxing Entertainment
with two of the most memorable punches ever seen on the TV screen.