[professordp]

As I was testing another fighter's rating with actual opponents, I found some confusion with 50s, 60s, early 70s heavyweight, Ollie Wilson.

The rating in the default pool seemed to have several typos (I don't think the team wanted to give him a CF of 9) and bio errors. Moroever, when I checked Fighterlist there was a totally different rating. Finally, I came accross a third rating (also different) in my files for TBCB 2.0 created by Chris years back.

Thus, I've created my own rating, in part a hybrid of the above but with my own take on Wilson.

Ollie's back story certainly fits into the general theme of this thread. An imposing figure at 6'5" and 210-plus lbs. had a two decade career (1952-1972) as an intinerant journeyman, compling a record of 20 wins (13 by KO) against 42 defeats (kayoed 20 times).

Starting in New England, he took root in Flordia for the first half of the 1960s where he wore the state heavyweight crown for several years. A brief European adventure at the end of 1964 (he was stopped by Karl Mildenberger and Franco DePiccoli) didn't work out, and he left boxing only to return 2 1/2 years later.

His 1967 comeback had him fighting in the Bahamas with mixed results over the next three years. In 1970 he left the islands, losing his next eight fights. He was kayoed by Boone Kirkman in Minnesota, decisioned by both Bepi Ros and Dante Cane in Italy, defeated by Bob Benoit in Maine, knocked out by Jeff Merrit back in the Bahamas, flattened by George Foreman in Texas, and finally calling it a career aftrer Jimmy Ellis stopped him in Ohio.

Several months after the Eliis fight, Wilson was stabbed to death in Hartford. Connecticut. He was forty years old.

Besides the above mentioned, he was defeated (often knocked out) by Thad Spencer, Levi Forte, Roberto Davila, Eddie Machen, Cleveland Williams, Harold Johnson, Alonzo Johnson, Willie Pastrano, Charlie Norkus, Art Swiden, and Waban Thomas. There were others, far less noteworthy, who also recorded wins over Wilson.

Those thirteen wins by knockout were generally against guys who were bottom feeders. Nevertheless, given his size, Ollie could pack a wallop. His record indicates that he sent Stamford Harris and Norkus home early.

In the first fight with Norkus, Wilson was down and almost out in the third. During the fourth frame, he drove Norkus through the ropes and then decked him. For one reason or another, Norkus was unable to continue, and Ollie was declared the winner via TKO.

Wilson appeared to be somewhat of a "headcase" and that's how I set his conditioning. In his 1958 fight with Harold Johnson, BoxRec reports that Ollie was "scared stiff" and was decked four times before the match was stopped in the second. Several years later against Roberto Davila, he refused to answer the bell in the eighth round. Finally, despite having a twenty pound plus advantage along with a substantial height and reach over Bob Benoit, Wilson moved around the ring with his hands at his sides for ten rounds, losing a unanimous decison in 1971.

My rating is pretty much limited to Ollie's performance from the late 50s until his hiatus from boxing in 1964. When he returned to boxing he was thirty-five years old. When he lost to Ellis and Foreman, he was pushing forty.

Thus, I suggest you adjust his career stage to either "Post-Prime" or "End" if you're using him in sims for post-1964 bouts.

The photo below was posted by Chris and modified by Tosti some years ago,