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Old 11-30-2009, 12:27 AM   #20
professordp
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Sunshine Stalwarts-Milton "Black Widow" Owens

Not much venom in this arachnid! Owens ran up a record of 23-0-0 with twelve kayos in his first four years as a pro. All of those matches were held either in Orlando or Tampa Bay against the Sunshine State's somewhat weak middleweigh talent pool.

He either fought a bunch of novices or regular area punching bags. In the latter class, he beat Eddie Davis (career record 15-45-6) three times and Henry "Slick" Mitchell (career record 26-46-1) twice. I guess in those days you had to beat up poor Ol' Slick a few times to make your mark as a Florda middleweight!

Still an unbeaten boxer with twenty-three wins is hard to ignore, and the October 1977 issue of The Ring listed the Black Widow among America's top prospects along with the Spinks brothers and Aaron Pryor. Not bad company.

Owens took his notoriety along with his unbeaten record and hopped a plane to Denmark to face Ayub Kalule in August 1978. There his bubble was burst as the Black Widow was halted in the sixth round.

Following that unpleasant bit of business, he beat a hasty retreat back to the Orlando-Tampa region where he resumed his career against local stiffs.

His comeback was strong enough to earn him a state title shot against local legend Dennis "Alligator Alley" Riggs in May 1979. Riggs just snapped him up kayoing the Black Widow in the sixth heat of their twelve round title match. It was the thirty-four year old Alligator Alley's last professional match. With no more worlds to conquer, he retired to run his rather lucrative sign painting business.

The Black Widow also retired. He returned to the ring more than a year later decisioning Nick Ortiz who had previously kayoed Rocky Mosley, Jr. to win the USBA light middleweight crown.

Now here's where Milton's story gets a little strange. In May 1980 he defeated Colombian Sigfrido Colorado via a unanimous twelve round decision and was awarded the WBC Continental Middleweight title. What's strange is that this was Colorado's first professional fight! Sigfrido fought two more times before retiring with a pro record of 0-3. Such were the ways of the WBC back in those days.

Sixth months later Owens travelled to Brooklyn where he lost his crown on points to Manuel Melon. This led to another hibernation by the Black Widow. He stayed out of the ring for two years but returned in 1983 only to be halted in one round by Don Lee.

After this loss it looked like Milton's boxing days were finally over. But I guess arachnids have several lives. And yes, two years later, the Black Widow was back inside the squared circle.

Apparantly the now thirty-one year old Owens had a new strategy--he'd fight as a heavyweight. The inactivity caused his weight to balloon to 195. Sadly for Milton, that extra thirty pounds was mostly fat.

Rogelio Bolanos stopped him in four on September 13, 1985. A month later Robert Daniels crushed the Black Widow with a fourth round kayo, thus sending him into permanant retirement.

Owens was not particularly aggressive in the ring when facing an opponent who was a bit more than a stiff. There are very few accounts of his matches, but the following comes from an account of his match with Melon printed in the July 1981 issue of The Ring.

"Owens proved to be a purely defensive fighter who waited much too long to make his move. He let the fight slip away by just trying to parry Melon's punches and not mounting a serious attack of his own."

BoxRec makes no reference to Milton's stance, but The Ring's 1977 profile states he was a southpaw, and that's how I rated him. After all, isn't The Ring the Bible of boxing?
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Last edited by professordp; 11-30-2009 at 12:33 AM.
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