BoxRec

Can anyone shed some light on Mike Rossman for me?I know his record,who he fought,and the details that everyone who read K.O.,or Ring magazine would know.But how did he fight?I know he had a pretty good right,and he was rugged,and beat Galindez,before getting beat in the rematch.But he is a fighter I've always wanted to see,but could never find any clips of.Any help is appreciated,
zuru

Unfortunatly the tv exposure Rossman got was when he was on the downslide. After the Galindez loss he was Ko'd by Ramon Ranquillo a fighter I would say was less skilled than Chuck Wepner. He then eeked out a couple of close decsisions against jouneyman Luke Capuono one of which was shown on tv where Rossman did not look good at all. After that he had a televised fight with Dwight Muhamed Qauwi where he was steamrolled. So none of those fights would depict Rossman in his prime.

I do remember watching when he won the title against Galindez. It was on the undercard of 2nd Ali-Spinks fight.
Galindez was a very good lightheavyweight champion, but Rossman surpisingly gave him a beating. I don't think Rossman was that big of a puncher but he had decent power. He was pretty aggressive. His performance in the first Galindez fight was impressive.

In the rematch against Galindez, Rossman hurt his hand and didn't finish the fight. I can't remember if he hurt his hand early or late in the fight. He wasn't nearly as impressive in this fight; I'm not sure how much of it was due to his hand injury.

Rossman was a basic stand-up boxer-puncher.

Offensively was all straight-line work everything from the jab and had little upperbody movement or defensive ability.

Very good power in the right hand.

A solid fighter, no more or less.

The galindez he beat was fading and not exactly dedicated anymore.Victor would have smashed him a few years previously.

Rossman was a middleweight from New Jersey.

He moved up above that weight class and Galindez picked him for an easy title defense, thinking he was a punk and a middleweight at that.

Galindez had been defending his title at that time in a "defending champion" style

letting his opponents do a lot of the work and try to take the title from him.

With Rossman, Galindez changed from that style and tried to bull Rossman out of the ring.

Unfortunately for Galindez, Rossman trained for this fight by sparring with Jerry the Bull Martin, at that time the best infighter in the world.

What Rossman learned from sparring with Martin he applied in his fight with Galindez.

When Galindez bulled Rossman to the ropes, Rossman, with his back to the ropes, took Galindez' punches on his arms and forearms, and then chewed Galindez up with short inside punches, both hooks and especially short uppercuts.

Galindez got chewed to pieces by the punches and stopped by Rossman.

Rossman should have given half his purse to Jerry the Bull Martin for educating him in this style in their sparring before the fight.

I saw Rossman's title defense at the Philadelphia Spectrum against Aldo Travesaro. Rossman wasn't doing much with the taller Travesaro,
and then he hit Traversaro across the forehead with an elbow, causing a cut which caused the ref to award Rossman a TKO.

For the return fight with Galindez, Rossman forget everything he learned from Martin which had worked in their first fight. He was slow, sluggish, didn't jab at all at longer range, and Galindez won.

Later against Dwight Braxton, Rossman was down for a ten count for the first time in his career. He took a steady, methodical beating from Braxton until he couldn't stay up any more.

That fight showed Braxton at his best. He was fast as lightning for a lightheavy, very accurate as a puncher, and got hit almost not at all.
His trainer who took him from a novice to that state was Wesley Mouzon.

By the time Braxton (Qwawi) fought Michael Spinks he was slow as molasses in comparison.

The Spinks-Qwawi fight stunk to high heavens. Spinks was a foot (I hardly exaggerate) taller than Dwight, so Dwight's chance was in close.

And what did he do in close? Nothing.

About the eighth round Spinks' legs started to go out from under him, he started staggering around the ring because of trouble with his knees.

BRAXTON DID NOTHING to put a away an opponent who was trying as hard as he could to collapse on his own.

Braxton's "performance" in that fight stunk to high heavens.

When Mouzon was asked about it, he wouldn't give a straight answer.

As lightheavyweight title fight it didn't pass muster as compared with the level of--for example--the Archie Moore-Harold Johnson lightheavywieght title fight.

Based on seeing Braxton against Rossman, James Scott and twice with Matt Franklin (Saad Muhammed),

Braxton was a better fighter than Spinks.

What was it that caused him to deteriorate later? I wonder.

Compare (an already deteriorated) Braxton's performance vs. Eddie Davis--with Spinks' performance against Davis.

Braxton knocked Davis down in the first round and stopped Davis later in the fight.

In comparison, Spinks scored no knockdowns against Davis, was bloodied and clearly beaten by Davis, and needed his helpmate Larry Hazzard to come to his rescue. Hazzard, as a judge in that fight, gave Spinks every round, enabling him to 'win' a phony decision and keep his title.

Later Braxton, who was only 5'5" or less, fought heavyweights in his fat and downhill physical state. I remember thinking he was going to have a heart attack trying to fight while he was so fat.

He actually had a fight with George Foreman in his later, fat heavyweight days. Foreman was at least 11 inches taller than Dwight.

As for Rossman, he fought a great fight in his first fight against Galindez. That is to his credit.

Later Galindez was clobbered and KO'd by Marvin Johnson, who concentrated on body shots and showed Galindez couldn't take body shots, even though he himself was known as a bull type fighter.

Duran was the best infighter in the world at that time.Not bull martin.

Arbachakov wrote:Duran was the best infighter in the world at that time.Not bull martin.

That's your opinion.

I doubt at you ever saw Martin.

Throwing a few body punches is not "infighting."

I saw a young skinny Martin in a fight in Maryland where he spent the entire fight pinned against the ropes by a heavyweight 20 pounds heavier than he was.

The heavyweight pounded away in all out fashion while Martin blocked with his forearms and gloves and slipped the punches.

After a number of rounds of this the heavyweight tired and Martin quickly knocked him out with a few short punches .

The Martin fight with James Scott was fought mostly on the inside by both fighters, with Scott coming out second best.

Martin used the same technique of fighting with his back to the ropes to beat Willie Taylor, a powerful light heavyweight who had ruined John Conteh's US debut.

In that fight Martin used the same technique he did in the Maryland fight, blocking most of what his opponent had to offer for a number of rounds and then chewing him up, and stopping him, mainly with a powerful right uppercut with his back on the ropes.

It was the first time Willie Taylor had been stopped.

So in your estimation Duran only "threw a few bodypunches".

Brilliant stuff

Arbachakov wrote:So in your estimation Duran only "threw a few bodypunches".

Brilliant stuff

As I wrote, you never saw Martin fight.

And obviously you wouldn't be able to describe what he was doing if you did.

LOL

Good stuff, granberry. Your assessment of Braxton is right on the money.
And his fight with Spinks was frustrating to watch, round after round I kept waiting for Spinks to collapse.. I still am every time I watch that tape again.

zuru wrote:Can anyone shed some light on Mike Rossman for me?I know his record,who he fought,and the details that everyone who read K.O.,or Ring magazine would know.But how did he fight?I know he had a pretty good right,and he was rugged,and beat Galindez,before getting beat in the rematch.But he is a fighter I've always wanted to see,but could never find any clips of.Any help is appreciated,
zuru

Mike Rossman's mother was Jewish. I think she married an Italain man in her second marraige and he got her son into boxing. Rossman was a pretty good, but not great fighter.

Broncano wrote:Good stuff, granberry. Your assessment of Braxton is right on the money.
And his fight with Spinks was frustrating to watch, round after round I kept waiting for Spinks to collapse.. I still am every time I watch that tape again.

Braxton's performance was suspicious in that fight.

I started to talk to his manager and trainer, Wesley Mouzon, about it after it took place, and Mouzon acted very strange, saying that he was climbing down out of the ring and still had his back to the ring when the fight started as Braxton walked out straight at Spinks and let Spinks hit him with a right hand.

(The same Braxton who earlier was so fast and hard to hit, walks right out and lets his opponent hit him with the very first punch of the fight? No thank you).

Mouzon acted differently when I brought up that fight than he did at any other time we talked, and we had spent hours on the phone over the years.

I am only interested in the best level in boxing, and after the Spinks-Braxton fight I had less to do with Mouzon.

At one point Braxton was fighting on a fight card card in my area and training there before the fight. Mouzon told me they were training at a certain location and asked me to come and see them. I said no. He asked me repeatedly in that conversation but I said I wouldn't.

I was disgusted with Braxton for what he did in his Spinks fight, and I wouldn't have been able to be around him without saying that. And even in his less than prime physical condition Braxton would have likely been a danger to me in such a situation. Besides, I had no interest in taking my time to see what was now a less than optimum fighter work out.

The first time I saw Braxton was at Frazier's gym in Philly. He was sitting down at the edge of the ring, and he looked like a powerfully built heavyweight.

When he stood up I was amazed to see he was about 5'5" (or less).

At that time he was a nobody and he and Mouzon told me they were going to travel to South Africa for a fight.

The first time I heard of Braxton was when Jerry Martin told me he hurt his hand in training. I asked him how it happened and he said he hurt it while sparring. I know there is always a reason for an "accident," so I asked him who he was sparring with.

He said it didn't matter, that it was just a new guy at the gym, a guy who tries to pressure you a lot.

I had to ask several times to finally get the name out oof Martin. It was Braxton.

That told me that this new guy Braxton put enough pressure on Martin in sparring so that Martin was forced to throw a punch that landed too high on the head or without his hand set to punch correctly.

The Braxton-Spinks fight was the last fight I took seriously.
I thought Braxton, even though he showed some deterioration against Eddie Davis, would be too much for Spinks physically.

I remember as I sat there in disgust and amazement and watched Braxton do nothing to try to win the fight for 15 smelly rounds,

the wife of a friend of mine whose house I was watching it at said to me,

"What is wrong with you? What are you doing? You always tell everyone else not to eat bad food, and you just gobbled up two whole big bowls of potato chips.'

Apparently my disgust as I watched the strange exhibition unfold before me unconsciously resulted in my trying to poison myself with junk food.

I had seen enough phony "boxing" during the Don King, Larry Hazzard, Ali, Ray Leonard era so that I stopped taking the sport seriously.

I was disgusted that for one last time, when I should have known better, I suckered myself into expecting a fight to be legitimate.

The PR fighter does not lose in the Don King, Larry Hazzard era.