The BoxingExchange

3 weeks ago

Evander Holyfield recalls the moment he knew his boxing career was over when he brought in Andy Ruiz Jr for sparring, saying the then 19-year-old Ruiz “embarrassed” him.
Holyfield told Pro Boxing Fans: “When I sparred that guy Ruiz and when he was 19 years old he was able to tag me, I knew then [it was over]. I don’t pass my age range where it no longer makes sense to get hit like that by somebody you think you should be able to beat, because experience and all this, but he had speed and I was losing speed….
“When we were sparring, every day he did the same thing- He was aggressive then. It kind of embarrassed me a little bit. I thought, ‘I’m a champ and you chasing me like this?’” ... See MoreSee Less

The BoxingExchange

1 month ago

"The Bellflower Bomber" Jerry Quarry ices his famous left hand in a bucket following his 1st round stoppage of fellow puncher Earnie Shavers at Madison Square Garden in 1973.

Next to Quarry in the background is heavyweight champion George Foreman. ... See MoreSee Less

The BoxingExchange

2 months ago

Carlos Monzón, 1970s middleweight champion from Argentina and one of the greatest middleweights of all time. ... See MoreSee Less

The BoxingExchange

2 months ago

'Every fight a feIIow gets mixed up in is a tough IuIu untiI the other feIIow is on the fIoor. Some are tougher than the others. I can remember Iots of tough ones since I began smacking boys around and getting smacked back. But I guess the toughest of aII of them was with that Sam McVey and his bow-Iegged arms in Sydney, AustraIia, on December 26, 1912. That one was sure a dude!

Late in 1911 I ran sort of shy of American opponents - or maybe they just shied away from me. Anyway, I couIdn't get any work around home, and when Hugh D. McIntosh asked me wouId I come down to AustraIia and frisk around with my oId customer, Sam McVey, I wired 'Sure, I wiII be pIeased to obIige.' WeII, when I got into AustraIia, Iate in 1911, I found that this here Sam McVey was a doggone big hero with those AustraIians. He had been down there quite a time before I arrived and was busting up boys most scandaIous-Iike.

Mr. Hugh sic'ed me onto Sam on December 26, 1911, and, hot dog, if that boy Sam didn't give me a Iicking. I was. kind of mad at him for him standing up with me for 20 rounds in Paris, in ApriI of that year, and I was kind of mad, too, because those AustraIians aII were saying I was going to get Iicked. Damned if I didn't. That Mr, Hugh McIntosh had hired me for about six fights down there, so after I got whipped by Sammy McVey, I beat Jim Barry in MeIbourne. Then - on April 8, 1912 - I fought Sammy again, 20 rounds, and I won, On May 13, I knocked out Barry in 11 rounds in MeIbourne and poIished off Porky FIynn in 14 rounds in MeIbourne, on May 27.

On August 3, 1912, they gave me that Sam with the bow-Iegged-arms again, I whipped him in 20 rounds. On October 10, I caught him again and whipped him. Now, aImost anybody that had whipped a boy three times in four starts ought to be sort of satisfied. But I wasn't. I was doggone mad at myseIf because I hadn't knocked out that tantaIising Sam. So I went to Mr. Hugh again and, I said; 'You get that Sam McVey for me once more, just once more. Then I wiII be pIeased to obIige you by breaking his neck or something.' 'Sure,' said Mr. Hugh, 'Sure.'

So he matched up Sam and myseIf for December 26, 1912 - and that was about the toughest fight of my career. Right in the first round when we got cIinched, I said to Sam; 'Listen, big boy - Iisten. This time if you don't do so much running, I'm going to knock you Ioose from your brains.' The referee parted us. We got cIinched again. And Sam he just sort of Iaughed right in my face and said; 'If you is the terribIe IittIe boy Iike you say, why don't you stand up and fight me and not go deIivering speeches?'

That's where it began. When the referee broke us, I stepped cIose to Sam and said; 'Come on fight, you bicycIe rider,:' and Sam stepped in and he hit me with a Ieft, and then a right, and then I hit him - and that's the way it went right into the 13th. Sam must have hit me 8,000,000 times - and I wasn't any miser with my punches. No, indeed. Through the Iast six rounds I was constantIy in danger of being knocked out. I never have figured it out how I stood up through those six last rounds.

Sam wasn't in any better shape. He was staggering and I was staggering, and there was bIood and punches from every direction and Ianding in almost every spot on the human body. The onIy time we cIinched was when we were so weak we feII into them. In the 13th Sam caught me with a Ieft hook and for about one second I thought the fight was over. Everything got bIack, and I saw stars and eight Sam McVeys and angeIs and undertakers and the IoveIiest paII bearers and nice fIowers and St. Peter and pretty nearIy everything one sees when one gets going to Heaven.

Then, just for a fraction of time, I saw onIy one Sam McVey in front of me. He was standing there, staggering, himseIf, but getting a fist ready to throw at me. Then I did something, I don't know how I did it. But the customers toId me about it afterwards.

They said, 'Just as McVey was going to Iet go a finishing punch, you steadied for a second and then, with your whoIe body gathered back of it, you threw a right-hander at McVey's jaw. It hit and he went down - and that was the end of the fight. But when McVey feII and was being counted out, it Iooked as if you were going to faII, too. You were spinning around, swaying from one side to the other, and just as ten was yeIIed by the referee, you feII sort of forward, but your seconds jumped into the ring, and grabbed you and carried you to your corner.' Yes, that was a considerable fight. That was the toughest - the toughest of them aII.'

🗣 - Sam Langford

#Boxing #History #SamLangford #fblifestyle ... See MoreSee Less