[professordp]

A name befitting an adult film star! Lovelady, along with Clint Jackson, was a product of Alvino Pena's famous storefront youth boxing program in Davenport, Iowa. He compiled an impressive record as an amatuer, ultimately winning the 1972 National Golden Gloves crown in the 156 lb. weight class.

Turning pro at the end of 1972, Lamont put together a 5-0 record in his first year of competition. His handlers were guilty of a bit of a stretch matching him against ring warhorse Ron Wilson of Canada in 1974. Wilson was a light heavy who had eighty-eight pro fights at the time and proved to be just too skilled and too big for Lovelady. Lamont was stopped in the seventh round of their scheduled ten rounder.

From there, Lovelady's career hit the skids. He lost his next four bouts. Two of his losses came at the hands of Melvin Douglas, who picked up a national Golden Gloves title in 1970. He then dropped a ten round affair to 1968 Olympic gold medalist Johnny Baldwin. Lovelady went on to face Marvin Hagler in September 1975 and was stopped in seven after taking a rather severe beating.

After the loss to Hagler, Lamont appears to have called it a day. He returned to the ring, however, nearly three years latter, pulling off three wins including a seventh round kayo if Leo Saenz. From that point on, he seemed to slow down a bit with only four bouts in nearly two years. His performance was not very impressive with a record of 1-3.

At thirty years old, Lovelady left boxing again after dropping a decision to former Olympian Fulgencio Obelmejias of Venezuela. But once more, he climbed back into the ring after an eighteen month layoff and was knocked out in eight by Dwight Davison in November 1981. Six months later he lost a ten rounder on points to Bernard Mays and quit for good.

Doing the research on Lovelady, I had one question concerning his career progression. Why would you start setting up ten round fights for a guy who had less than a year's pro experience and only four fights under his belt.

Granted, Lamont was twenty-four when he turned pro, but he really hit the ground running. While I'm not suggesting that Lovelady was ever top tier material, he did have some talent winning a National Golden Gloves title. I can only conclude that this was just one more case of a fighter not reaching his full potential as the result of poor managerial decisions. Something tells me he had more going for him than his 9-10 career record would indicate.