After doing the work on Skinny Jimmy Rothwell (see above), I started to revisit Philadelphia fighters from the 1970s who pretty much stayed within the friendly confines of the City of Brotherly Love for most of their bouts but didn't fare very well once they left their backyard. Thus, the subgenus in this thread, "Philly Cheesesteaks". I'll be posting more, in an irregular manner, in the future.
Welterweight Mike Everett was a prime example of this type, fighting twenty-two of his bouts in various Philly venues. Six of his ten professional losses were fights outside of Philadelphia.
But Everett's problems were not only caused by "homesickness." He was the younger brother of top lightweight Tyrone Everett, and pretty much operated within the shadow of his older sibling.
Still this was not all bad. As Tyrone's little brother, Mike did have a bit of local gate appeal and was able to land a few main events that most likely would not have come his way.
More importantly, Tyrone, who was viewed as a local hero, provided Mike with a certain degree of protection on the tough streets of Philadelphia as the following illustrates.
"As Everett’s brother Mike, also a boxer, tells the story, one afternoon Mike Everett was sitting on the stoop of his row house when gang bangers from another neighborhood approached and pulled pistols, intent on shooting him. Before they could open fire, one of the assailants recognized him as Tyrone Everett’s brother and called the others off and they passed on."
Broad Street Review: Death and the boxer
Tyrone was murdered in late May 1977, and Mike seems to have taken his death hard. Inside the ring, his career went into tailspin. He fought eight times after Tyrone's death, losing six times before hanging up the gloves in 1979. To account for this, I gave Everett a condition rating of 9--"Head Case".
Everett was sort of a knockoff of Tyrone, but not nearly as good as the original. Like Tyrone, he had good boxing skills, but lacked the older Everett's punch. Outside of catching Joergen Hansen cold to pick up a first round kayo win, the other ten guys who failed to finish against him were local Philly stiffs.
Mike failed to finish seven fights himself, but was counted out only twice. He suffered TKO's at the hands of Johnny Copeland, Sammy Ayala, Sansak Muangsuin, Ronald Whyms (very early in his career), and of course, Skinny Jimmy. It seems that Mike was a bit inclined to fold his tent when he started to take a beating!
In the final analysis, Everett couldn't claim that he didn't have his opportunities. His problem was he couldn't capitalize upon them. In 1977 he had chances at three different titles but didn't take home th prize in any of them.
His loss to Rothwell derailed his projected match with Alfonso Hayman for the PA state title. Mike was part of the U.S. Championship series in the late 70s, but dropped a unanimous ten rounder to Saoul Mamby in the semi-finals. He had a title shot for the WBC light welter belt but was halted in six by Muangsuin. Earlier that year, he was stiffed in one by Miguel Montilla in bout that was not directly tied to a title but would have greatly advanced Everett in the ratings had he pulled out a win.
Along with the rating, I've posted two rather different pictures of Mike. The one with less prominant hair was posted by Rom and reworked by Tosti.