BoxRec

Every once in a while in boxing history, an athlete from another sport thinks he or she can come waltz right over into our arena and steal the show. Some were successful, most were the biggest flops and disappointments in pugilism. Here is a list I complied of some such atheletes and others:

1.) "Iron" Mike DiBiase (Southern Heavyweight Wrestling Champion)
2.) Jim Culley "The Tipperary Giant" (Professional Wrestler circa 1940's)
3.) Tony Halme "The Viking" (WWE Professional Wrestler in 90's)
4.) Paul Berlenbach (Amateur/Professional Wrestler)
5.) Daniel Hodge (Amateur/Professional Wrestler)
6.) Paul E. Anderson (Powerlifter)
7.) Ed "Too Tall" Jones (NFL Football Player)
8.) Alonzo Highsmith (NFL Football Player)
9.) "Big" Wayne Munn (Professional Wrestler/Football Player)
10.) Monte Munn (Football Player)
11.) Meyers KO Christener (football player)
12.) Randy Shields (Actor)
13.) Tony Danza (Actor)
14.) Mickey Rourke (Actor)
15.) Tonya Harding (Ice Skater)
16.) Anthony Quinn (Actor)
17.) Jack Palance (Actor)
18.) Louis L'Amour (writer)
19.) Lyle Alzado (NFL Football Player; did exhibition bouts)
20.) Jim Thorpe (football/baseball.track/olympian; did exhibitions)
21.) Theodore Roosevelt (Politician)

And there are scads and scads of others, including such other men as Wilt Chamberlain who was given lucrative offers to face Muhammad Ali, but the fight never came into fruitation.

Anyone else has others to add to the list feel free to do so, cus there is alot of them.

Who did Jack Palance fight? never mind... I looked it up Joe Bakski....who lost to Ezzard Charles. Doesnt surprise me that Palance gave it a go.

ANother one, I forgot to mention was former Football Player Charlie Powell who fought during the early 50's to late 60's. His biggest win was an upset victory over Nino Valdes, but failed to do anything with Patterson, Ali and other more well known contenders.

N.y. Jet Mark Gastinuae tried his hand at boxing, even went as far as to say he could be world champion. I don't know if that was hype or if he really believed it, of course he turned out to be a bust.

Currently you have Tom "The Fighting Irish" Zivikowski, Notre Dame football star, one of the best college football players in the game today, he fights as an amature. And Kendell "The Fighting Illini" Gill Former College basketball star from the university of Illinois and NBA player.

Kedill Gill (Basketball) is fighting at Cruiserweight
Willie Dennis (Rapper, Willie D of the Getto Boyz) fought at Super Middleweight, He wasnt that good but he did fight Kevin Butts who fought Stripe Drews, and Anthony Hanshaw

don't forget anthony mundine who was a top rugby league player.

dalek wrote:don't forget anthony mundine who was a top rugby league player.

You beat me to it.....
P

mike dibiase is a funny story. this huge 230lb man comes into boxing to try to do something, and he gets KTFO by a 52 year old man:lol:

actor victor mclaglen was a decent ish fighter.he played the rival to john wayne in that very famous bareknuckle fight in the quiet man.although i think he doesn't qualify as he was a fighter first.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:mike dibiase is a funny story. this huge 230lb man comes into boxing to try to do something, and he gets KTFO by a 52 year old man:lol:

I was there in Phoenix when this happened very nice chuckle at that.

I've come across a story in several different sources about Ernest Hemingway once sparring with Jack Dempsey. Hemingway always fashioned himself a tough guy, and as the story goes, Dempsey was under the impression that they were just horsing around (no gloves) and was taking it easy on him. Then Hemingway uncorks one upside Dempsey's head, and Dempsey grabbed him by the collar and said something to the effect of "don't EVER do that again!" and shoved him to the floor. Then I guess they all got drunk and made up.

Thats a good point they think that boxing looks easy until they step in the ring. The one guy who has adapted very well Tom Zbikowski who I mentioned earlier has had over a hundred amature bouts and has only lost a few. So he actually is a real boxer and could turn pro right now if he wished. What looks like will keep him from it is he has a promising career in the NFL. By choosing the NFL over boxing he stands to make a lot more money a lot quicker.

mercman wrote:Gastineau has a lot of wins on his record but I have heard that many of his opponents were hand picked and lot of his wins were dives. Apparently he was a pretty poor boxer. Then again lots of big powerful guys think they will make good boxers - until they actually give it a go. Most things are harder than they appear and this is shown better than with almost anything else with boxing.

Very true indeed. It looks easy on tv but the reality is much different. In the mid 80's one of the actors from Hill Street Blues apparently fancied himself as a fighter so had a few pro fights. They had a pic of him in KO of him on the canvas after being put there by a real fighter The look on his face was one of total shock "surely this can't be happening to me, I'm an artiste "

Mike Evans - Fought Michael Moorer a few years ago. He was an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestlers for the '84 games.

Jevon Langford - Former Bengals tackle and you know who his grandfather was.

And don't forget...Tanya "Triple Axle" Harding

5.) Daniel Hodge (Amateur/Professional Wrestler)

Did anyone see Danny Hodge last weekend on ESPN? He crushed an apple with one bare hand. He is well into his 80's now. It is rumored that back on the day, he actually broke a pair of pliers due to his great grip strength.

He is the only NCAA wrestler in history to have never been taken down. No opponent had ever scored an offensive point on him. However, it does look like he was KO'ed twice as a pro boxer.

Olympic boxing silver medallist, Snowy represented Australia in two more Olympic sports as well. The consummate athlete, he excelled at any sport he turned to - football, swimming, polo, fencing and more

In addition to his sporting prowess, Snowy was a bookmaker, promoter and managed to become Australia's first "Matinee Idol" when he starred (and performed his own stunts) in The Enemy Within (1918), Then came The Lure of the Bush (1918). While shooting in Hollywood, Snowy saw opportunities to break into the international market. He returned to Australia and formed a production company with E. J. Carroll. They imported a Hollywood crew, including director Wilfred Lucas, 3 films starring Baker - The Man from Kangaroowas the first of these.

Snowy moved to California in the early 1920s, appearing in several films and tutoring US stars in horse-riding and boomerang-throwing. He taught Rudolph Valentino horse tricks, Douglas Fairbanks whip techniques and it's rumoured he tutored Elizabeth Taylor for National Velvet.

p.s. Snowy Baker wuz robbed at the 1908 olympics - the ref just happened to be his opponent's old man :x

mercman wrote:Interesting point Kick Asner. I think boxing is losing lots of potentially good fighters due to competition from other sports. To some degree I think this is happening with football/football here in the UK. The rewards on offer, for much less risk (and probably less skill too for that matter), are much much greater than most could make in the ring. Going back a few decades boxing was one of a very few ways that a working class kid could make big money. Now there are far more opportunities - both legit and otherwise. In particular, I think the pausity of talent currently apparent, especially at heavyweight, is a reflection of this. Basically there are now lots of easier ways for a big, powerful athlete to earn a good living.

Agreed, in boxing you could earn big money but their is no gurantee. Plus you have to work your way up through the ranks. In other sports you get a lot of money up front if you negotiate a big signing bounus. On top of that if you get hurt playing a major sport you are covered by insurance. In boxing as was discussed on other threads you are on your own. No pension no insurance no benifits of any sort.

Did anyone see Danny Hodge last weekend on ESPN? He crushed an apple with one bare hand. He is well into his 80's now. It is rumored that back on the day, he actually broke a pair of pliers due to his great grip strength.

He is the only NCAA wrestler in history to have never been taken down. No opponent had ever scored an offensive point on him. However, it does look like he was KO'ed twice as a pro boxer.

He was also on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in the 50's or 60's I think.

As far as the apple and pliers thing goes, I've done that myself, but Hodge from what I heard from most "professional" wrestlers who wrestled him said that when he grabbed ahold of you...you couldnt get out of his grasp cus his tendon strength was just phenomenal.

The story of the fight between Gene Lebell and Milo Savage is worth a read. Its at GeneLebell .com. Milo would have had a better chance against Lebell if he didnt agree to wear a gi top. Lebell is still a very tough man . In the early 60s he was a beast.

zojo, wrote:Mike Evans - Fought Michael Moorer a few years ago. He was an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestlers for the '84 games.

I think that´s highly unlikely

wouter wrote:

zojo, wrote:Mike Evans - Fought Michael Moorer a few years ago. He was an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestlers for the '84 games.

I think that´s highly unlikely

OK, he actually was the US's Greco-Roman 90 kilo representative in the Pan-American Games back in 1979.

Sorry for the confusion.

Jack Dempsey and Jack Johnson during their careers fought boxer vs wrestler competitions or straight out wrestling bouts.

Before Dempsey was even a well known fighter he lost a wrestling match to a man named "Big Ed" in Colorado somewhere. Ironically Dempsey's last exhibition match was against wrestler "Cowboy" Clarence Luttrell whom he knocked out in two rounds, and he was 45 or 47 then.

The whole incident started when Dempsey refereed a wrestling match, in which Luttrell was a part of, and Dempsey, thinking the contest was legit, disqualified Luttrell for illegal tactics---of course during the 40's alot of the wrestling matches, at least a solid 40% of them were legit, and Luttrell hit Dempsey.

Dempsey got back into shape, and somehow managed to get Luttrell to do the exhibition, but when he started hammering Luttrell, the poor wrestler tried to get off his gloves and choke Dempsey, but The Manassa Mauler knocked Luttrell threw the ropes ending the fight.

Hodge was an amateur boxer before being a wrestler.

Same thing with Bearcat Wright Jr.

Jack Palance started out as a boxer, then became an actor, same as Tony Danza.

George Trafton was a star football player at Notre Dame andplayed for the Bears. He was 4-0 as boxer and then fought Primo Carnera and was ko'd in the first round. He then q1uit boxing.

Richard Dawson and Bob Hope both fought as amatuers.

There are a couple of other ones that I'm not sure about. Did Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) box? The database has a Chuck Connors listed. He did play in the NBA and minor league baseball.

Another one I was wondering about was Red Pollard, Seabiscuit's jockey. In the movie, he also boxed. However, I haven't been able to find him in the database.