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Leon Spinks vs David Pearce???
Posted: 11 Aug 2005, 12:57
by KOJOE90
Former British Heavyweight Champion David Pearce lost his Boxing licence in 1984 due to a failed brain scan. Sadly this was something that the big Welsh fighter never really came to terms with.
Now my question is after many years trying to regain his licence and talk of fighting on unlicensed cards etc the late Pearce tried to make a comeback in the USA.
Around this time (early 90's) there was a lot of talk of him fighting former Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks, does anyone else remember this?
http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=002365
Posted: 11 Aug 2005, 15:53
by silkov
I remember when they were talking about this... it was at the point where Leon was really washed up too. But it didn't come off and David ended up having a fight with someone else who I can't remember.
Do you know anything about Pearces death?... I was shocked when he died at just 41... was his death connected with the reason he lost his licence?...
Posted: 11 Aug 2005, 19:43
by Owain
Read on a Welsh website that, "Pearce's final years were marked by epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease".
Don't know how accurate that is though.
Posted: 12 Aug 2005, 04:34
by KOJOE90
Posted: 12 Aug 2005, 07:10
by silkov
I remember reading that Pearce went into the Rodriguez fight with a damaged hand and did no sparring in the run up to the fight. I think his manager didn't want to call off the fight.
An interesting fight would have been Pearce vs John L Gardner... they were both about the same size with the same style..... wouldve been a very good fight... Hard to pick a winner from this one!...
Posted: 14 Aug 2005, 13:26
by silkov
mercman wrote:Some really interesting links about David Pearce. Thanks. It seems a terrible shame he died so young. I always liked Pearce, he was very rugged and a good puncher although his skills were not that polished. I remember seeing his European Title fight against Rodriguez and thought that David would stop him when he knocked him down. I also thought that the decision was a bit harsh on David although it was close to call.
I agree Pearce v Gardner would have been an interesting fight. I think I would favour the Welshman though. However, my memories of Gardner are a bit coloured by seeing him get stopped by Noel Quarless in pretty emphatic style. I also remember after the Gardner fight there was a short time when Quarless was being touted as a prospect. With hindsight this seems a bit bizarre but there was quite a fuss around him and a lot of stuff on the TV and in the papers around '83, '84. I wonder what happened to Quarless and what he's up to now.
Quarless stopped Gardner pretty quickly but its fair to say that Gardner was past his best... he was on the comeback trail and hadn't looked good in his previous comeback fight. I have Gardner vs Sykes and Gardner really looked pretty useful... good stamina and high workrate... very simular in style to Pearce... if they had fought it would probably go down to who had the best chin/stamina which is pretty hard to call.
Quarless did look very useful at one point he had fast hands and a good punch other than his win over Gardner he also koed Anders Eklund early ....but he was erratic and didn't have the best of chins... tended to either win early or lose early. Entertaining fighter to watch though!.
At one point there was talk of Quarless fighting Bugner or Bruno who were both around at the same time but these fights never came off which was a shame as they'd have been interesting.......
Posted: 14 Aug 2005, 16:08
by silkov
mercman wrote:Agreed. Noel Quarless v Bruno or Bugner would have been very interesting although I think he would have come second against both of them. As you say his chin wasn't the best and I could see Big Frank stopping him. As for Bugner, I think Joe would have been too cagey to be caught by Quarless' big swings and would have been too good a boxer for him. I think Bruno and Bugner were a class above Quarless. Still, like you, I would liked to have seen those fights happen.
Fair comment about Gardner being past his best when he fought Quarless too. I suppose his peak was the late 70s when he beat both Sykes (now he was an absolute and complete loose canon!) and Billy Aird (don't know much about him though) for the British Title and was European Champion too. I remember Gardner KOing Lorenzo Zanon pretty spectacularly. However, I also remember him taking a hammering from Michael Dokes where I guess he was out of his class. The loss to Quarless is the only defeat to a British fighter on his record though. I wonder how Gardner at his peak would have done against someone like Bugner?
I agree both Bugner and Bruno would have been too much for Quarless but it would have been an interesting fight and Quarless was a dangerous puncher he'd have had a punchers chance.
I think Gardner would have been outclassed by Bugner but again it would have been an interesting match and much would depend on Bugners mood... if he was in one of his negative moods I could see Gardner making things interesting and perhaps outhustling Bugner much like Marvis Frazier did... but Bugner at his best would be a class above Gardner.
Posted: 14 Aug 2005, 17:35
by silkov
mercman wrote:Quarless v David Pearce could have been a good fight too. Two big punchers. Potentially explosive stuff. Pearce v Sykes could have been even better, a real slugging match between two very tough guys. I'd fancy Pearce to win though as Sykes wouldn't be able to bully him and he could get very frustrated when things didn't go his way. This happened against Gardner and also against Neil Malpass when he was disqualified fighting for the Central Area Title. In fact I remember Sykes and Malpass had two real wars fighting for that title in the late 70s.
I thought Sykes was a good 'winning fighter' but when things didn't go his way he didn't really seem to have a plan B and seemed to have a tendency to 'flip'. Mind you, Sykes (mainly due to incarceration) didn't turn pro until he was nearly 32 and perhaps if he had started earlier his career would have been different. However, he was so unpredictable things were never going to run smoothly for him.
Yeah Sykes was a very useful fighter himself but had a very erratic personality... the last I heard of him was that he is living rough in Wakefield and a fullblown wino... very sad. I've read his book 'Sweet Agony' and he was a intelligent guy and could really write.
Posted: 15 Aug 2005, 07:38
by KOJOE90
silkov wrote:Yeah Sykes was a very useful fighter himself but had a very erratic personality... the last I heard of him was that he is living rough in Wakefield and a fullblown wino... very sad. I've read his book 'Sweet Agony' and he was a intelligent guy and could really write.
Yes, the last I heard of Sykes he was basically a homeless drunk. I also heard his son was up on a murder charge although I don't know what the outcome of that was.
Strange fellow Sykes, he obviously had Boxing talent and was an intellegent, articulate man. But his life is a life full of drink, violence and prison time.
He obviously had many inner demons that he could never come to terms with. I also have heard some
very unpleasent rumours about the man.
Posted: 15 Aug 2005, 08:29
by silkov
KOJOE90 wrote:silkov wrote:Yeah Sykes was a very useful fighter himself but had a very erratic personality... the last I heard of him was that he is living rough in Wakefield and a fullblown wino... very sad. I've read his book 'Sweet Agony' and he was a intelligent guy and could really write.
Yes, the last I heard of Sykes he was basically a homeless drunk. I also heard his son was up on a murder charge although I don't know what the outcome of that was.
Strange fellow Sykes, he obviously had Boxing talent and was an intellegent, articulate man. But his life is a life full of drink, violence and prison time.
He obviously had many inner demons that he could never come to terms with. I also have heard some
very unpleasent rumours about the man.
From what I've read and seen on a that documentry about him Sykes problems stemmed from a rather fraught relationship with his parents especially his father. I think its no coincidence that Sykes father was a prison warden and that Sykes ended spending so much time in prison.
What were the rumours you heard about Sykes?...
Posted: 15 Aug 2005, 08:55
by KOJOE90
A bit of trivia about Paul Sykes.
During one of his many prison stays Sykes used to train and spar with future unlicenced fighter Roy'Pretty Boy' Shaw.
A few years later Shaw beat the shell of Ron Stander in a unlicensed fight in the UK.