Ricky Womack vs. Willie Chapman
Ricky Womack 206 lbs beat Willie Chapman 215 lbs by UD in round 6 of 6
- Date: 2001-11-23
- Location: The Palace, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA
- Judge: Frank Garza
- Judge: James Hoomaian
- Judge: John Parish
From A Prayer For Rickey Womack by Kelsey McCarson:
Rickey’s last fight was November 23, 2001 against Willie Chapman at The Palace at Auburn Hills. Rickey won a unanimous decision in front of 10,000 raucous Motor City fight fans but appeared sluggish and disinterested throughout the bout. The boo-birds let him hear it, too, and Rickey did not take it well.
“He was just so worried about what the audience was thinking that he wouldn't pull the trigger,” said [former cornerman Rick] Griffith.
Griffith said Rickey was so obsessed with the crowd that he even began talking about it between rounds. Spotting legendary champion Thomas Hearns at ringside seemed to make things worse. As “The Motor City Cobra” was milling around with friends and fans during the fight, Hearns cracked a smile and laughed.
“Is Tommy laughing at me?” Rickey angrily asked Griffith.
“What?” Griffith replied. “Well, he’s laughing, but I don’t know if he’s laughing at you. Should we even be thinking about this right now?”
Rickey was dead within two months.
From Redemption Song by Ted Sares:
In November, he [Ricky Womack] fought veteran Willie Chapman (13-11-1 coming in) and won a UD in six. However, at forty years of age, it was clear his dream to become a champion boxer was only an illusion, and Ricky probably knew it better than anyone.
After the Chapman fight, attended by some 10,000 people at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Ricky was highly upset with the less-than-stellar showing for which he had been booed. On the way out of the arena, Ricky gave indications to his manager, the much respected Dr. Stuart Kirshenbaum, former Michigan boxing commissioner from 1981 to 1992, that he would “end this thing.” Clearly, suicide was on Ricky’s radar. No one can really say what the final event was that precipitated the end, but surely a combination of clinical depression (likely undiagnosed), unrealistic expectations, and difficulties adjusting to society with no future or salvation outside of boxing represented a part of the final cascade.
Just two months after his last comeback fight, Ricky Womack sat down on a couch in his basement apartment, took out a gun, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger—some say in front of his wife. He was 41 years old when he died.