New HW Boxers Rated

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/07/67 Saturday

Laval, France
Guy Pinault – LHW (0-1-0) vs. Francis Dupuy – LHW (3-3-0)


Guy Pinault - France Rating 1
Light HEavyweight 1966-68

8 wins / 2 losses / 1 draw / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Defeated Francis Dupuy three times, the first time in 1967. Fought all his fights in Laval, France except his last against Dupuy which was in Sedan, France. I would guess being all the fights in Laval, Guy was from around there and all his opponents were local club fighters.


Francis Dupuy - France Rating 1
LIght Heavyweight 1965-68,75-76

6 wins / 11 losses / 0 draw / 3 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Dupuy fought from 65 to late 68 accumulating a 5-8-0,3Ko record. He'd lost 2 consecutive fights to Guy Pinault when he then disappeared from the boxing scene for 6-1/2 years. He then came out and fought 4 times in 1975-76 winning the first fight by disqualification and then lost the last 3.

Dupuy is rated based on his career from 65-68 only.

A club fighter from somewhere in France but traveled around a little in his career fighting once each in Germany, The Netherlands and Lubembourg.He fought and lost to Pinault 3 times. He lost a 6 round decision to Arno Prick whom vistamann rated.

The fight......

Another club fight somewhere in France between two local thumper in this bout. Pinault is in only his 2nd fight and Dupuy in his 7th so there’s not a lot of experience in the ring between the two. The real thing back in 1967 ended up a 6 round decision for Pinault giving him his 1st career win and the first of 3 wins he’d have against Dupuy.
In our replay, Dupuy accredited himself well in the first round landing a sharp combination a little more then a minute into it. Pinault lands a couple jabs to recover what could have been judged an even round, but, all three judges give the edge to Dupuy. That’s pretty much it for Dupuy though as Pinault ever so slowly builds himself a slight advantage over the 2nd and 3rd rounds and then just takes over the fight in the last 3 rounds. It finishes a unanimous decision for Pinault, 58-56, 59-55, 59-55 on the scorecards.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/07/67 Saturday

Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Albert Duscha – LHW (11-17-7) vs. Yvan Prebeg – LHW (14-11-3)


Albert Duscha - Germany Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1955-68

12 wins / 20 losses / 9 draws / 2 KO

Hometown/Birthplace: Herne, Germany

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Not much of puncher with only 2 KO's in 41 fights. A so so chin with 7 stoppages of Duscha in his career. He beat Jose Peyre early in an 8 round decision early in each of thier careers. He was KO'd in 2 by Uwe Janssen, lost an 8 round decision in Mariano Echevarria's first career fight in 1957.

In 1963-64 he beat Frankie Daniels, was stopped by Ray Patterson in 4 rounds, lost a 10 round decision to Wim Snoek, then drew 10 rounds with Yvan Prebeg and stopped Snoek in 7 rounds. That all led up a shot for the German Light Heavyweight Title in November 1964 against Klaus Peter Gumpert(24-2-4,12KO). Gumpert stopped Duscha in the 7th round.

Duscha fought about 3-1/2 more years but with little success going only 2-7-5 the rest of the way. His only success were 6 round decisions over a Klaus Langhammer(16-19-9) and against Burghard Lembke(4-20-0) in his last career fight. He managed draws with Karl-Heinz Guder(25-20-5) and Rudolf Nehring(28-21-11). In January 1967 he lost a 10 round decision in a rematch with Yvan Prebeg who was about half way through his career and was actually approaching an upswing in success in his career that would see him go 17-1-1 during the late 60's.

Yvan Prebeg - Croatia Rating 2
Light Heavyweight 1961-71

31 wins / 15 losses / 5 draws / 22 KO

Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia(Hrvatska)
Birthplace: Josipdol

Rated by: Rocco Del Sesto

Prebeg fought the majority of his fights in the Light Heavyweight division, but fought a number of Heavyweight bouts throughout his career. A small sprinkling of middleweight opponents were thrown in. His record against Heavyweights was 11-6-2 with 7KO's. Against LH's and the MW's it was 20-9-3,15KO.

He fought only a couple of pretty good LHW's out of the game, Pekka Kokkonen whom he lost to by 4th round KO, and Piero Del Papa who decisioned Prebeg in 15 rounds to who he lost the European LH Title to in Feb. 1970 after having attained that crown in June 1969 against Eddie Avoth. Others that he's fought are Lion Ven, Yao Kouame, Paul Roux, Albert Duscha, Moussa Sangaree, Ireno Werleman and Victor Chapelle.

Heavyweights he fought included wins against Buddy Turman, another busy journeyman in the 50's-60's who fought a few "name" HW's, Dave Bailey,Jose Peyre, and Mariano Echevarria. Some that he lost against, Jack Bodell, Jurgen Blin and Karl Mildenberger with whom he battled 15 rounds for the European HW Title in June 1966 only to loose by decision to Karl.


The fight......

Two fighters who careers were going in definite opposite directions. Duscha from Germany was reaching the tail end of his career that was in the mist of a 2-7-5 record over the last part of it. For Prebeg he was just starting to reach the peak of his career. His record stood at 13-9-3 when he’d fought Karl Mildenberger about 7 months earlier for the European Heavyweight Title, loosing a 15 round decision to Karl. After that Prebeg, apparently not recovered maybe physically and mentally from his bout with Mildenberger, was shocked in a 7th round TKO loss to Moussa Sanagree. He then managed to come back a couple months later to defeat a Daniel Leullier, to set up his bout here with Duscha. In 1967, Duscha gave Prebeg a real fight, going the 10 round distance, but Prebeg pulled out the decision win, thus giving him the first 2 wins in a 17-1-1 streak over the next 3 years that would include winning the European LHW Title in 1969.
Our replay fight here was an entertaining one with a lot of good back and forth action. It was a very close fight on the scorecards until lightening struck in the 7th round! The Scoring through the first 6 rounds had it 57-57 by judges 1 and 2 with Judge 3 having it 58-56 Duscha. Round 1 was the difference in the judging. Judges 1 and 2 had it Prebeg, while judge 3 had it Duscha. Duscha strikes first with some hard jabs, but I just don’t see it being Duscha’s round as Prebeg counters with some jabs and hooks that I feel clearly outscores what Duscha managed. Round 2 all three scored it Prebeg. A few punches were landed each way, but was Prebeg’s round. In round 3, was a lot of dancing around and blocking punches when late, Duscha landed a quick hook and then fires a jab that finds it mark and it ends in the books as Duscha’s round on all cards. Round 4 had a lot of good action back and forth between the two fighters with the judges scoring it 10-10. Then in the 5th round, Prebeg began to really press the action inside a couple minutes into the round with it being a standoff again it looked. Suddenly a jab, a cross and then a little uppercut find their marks but, Duscha steps out of complaining to the referee and the referee has an ear for Duscha’s complaints as he issues a warning to Prebeg for holding and hitting! After the fight is momentarily stopped by the referee issuing the warning, Duscha steps in with a hook, but Prebeg blocks it an Yvan counters with a nice hook of his own that finds the mark! The points clearly go to Prebeg in this round but he looses a point on the scorecards with those warnings and it ends a 9-9 tie on all the judges cards. The 6th round then starts and about a ½ minute in, Duscha suddenly lands a solid jab that drops Prebeg! He gets up though on the 6 count. Prebeg takes his time avoiding Duscha then to recover himself then late takes the action back in to land a good uppercut to ends the round at least a close 10-9 in Duscha’s favor. Prebeg knows though he’s got a close fight on his hands with the judges and he’s got to press the action hard to pull this out.
The 7th round starts you can tell that Duscha is starting to tire though as his hands are starting to drop and that can spell trouble fast! Duscha manages to rip a hook to the head, then Yvan counters with a straight jab that splits Duscha’s gloves. The fighters are trading shots, but Prebeg seems to be winning the exchange when he suddenly lands a hard cross that decks Duscha! Albert manages to get up in 8, but it’s clear he’s in trouble! The referee waives the two fighters together, then Duscha absorbs a wicked jab to the head and he staggers backward and goes down again in a heap! This time Duscha manages to get up again by the 9th count. Prebeg quickly gets Duscha back on the ropes. Can he finish this! Prebeg throws a leaping shot that misses the mark but then lands another crushing Jab! Albert is stopped in his tracks by that shot! Prebeg motions for the referee to stop the fight….and he’s going to do it! The fight is stopped at the 2:37 mark for a 7th round TKO victory for Yvan Prebeg!!

I would say the most entertaining fight yet of my 67 replay! One thing I want to note. I’d adjusted Prebeg’s ratings before this fight. I’d rated Yvan sometime earlier in this HH fighters thread, having given him split ratings of a 1 for HW and 4 for LHW. I went back and looked at him again strictly as a LHW rating against the variety of HW and LHW opponents he face. With a better selection of the kinds of opponents he faced I came up with a downgraded 2 rating for him as a LHW. Main difference being a little better control rating and little more HP but weakened his chin some which I felt needed to be. Overall I feel a little more satisfied with Prebeg’s rating now as a LHW.

[Buddy Whatshisname]

Rocco, you deserve some kind of award for services rendered to the members of this board. If anyone ever makes one, you've got my nomination. You and Cube.

Buddy

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Thanks for the kind words Buddy. Believe me though, I'm a novice rookie here compared to guys like cube and MANY others on this forum who are MUCH more knowledgeable in the sport of boxing then I. I've just found that what I really enjoy with this game is looking up these obscure fighters and taking a wack at rating them. The mid-late 60's heavyweight boxing scene always has been my real interest so this 67 replay I guess I've found to be I thought a neat "universe" to work on to play the game and at the same time be it a tool to help contribute to this community of ours in TBCB.

Glad you and others are enjoying the replay and the fruits of it!

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday

London, England
Julien Van Mechelen – MW (6-7-1) vs. Gerry Hassett – LHW (18-10-0)


Julien Van Mechelen - Belgium Rating 1
Middleweight 1964-68

7 wins / 15 losses / 2 draws / 2 KO

Birthplace: Charleroi, Belgium

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Middleweight club fighter out of the Lowlands of western Europe. The latter half of his career he fought some guys with decent looking records at least but with little success. In his 2nd career fight he lost a 6 round decision to Victor Chapelle. He was 5-3-1 early in his career then the losses piled up against the better competition.
The opponents in many of those losses were Harry Kneipp(24-12-5), Tom Bogs (77-8-1, rated in game), Souleymane Diallo (41-5-3), Gerry Hassett (21-12-0), Jupp Elze(34-5-2), Horst Wieczorek(26-9-6), Jacques Marty (21-7-0), Klaus Stockman (28-9-10), Luis Felledo (121-6-1, rated in game), and Arno Prick (29-24-5). Julien managed a draw with Manfred Graus (32-17-4).

Some decent looking middleweight opponents there, at least by just looking at thier records. Not sure of the overall quality of the opposition.


Gerry Hassett - UK (Northern Ireland) Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1950-53, 60, 64-69

21 wins / 12 losses / 0 draw / 5 KO

Birthplace: Belfast, Northern Ireland

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Hassett's career was really two parts. He fought from 1950 to 1953 compiling an 11-3-0 record with all the fights but one in his hometown Belfast. He then didn't fright for 6-1/2 years until finally climbing back in the ring in July 1960, winning that fight. He didn't fight again until Feb. 1964 from then on till his last fight in April 1969 he fought off and on compiling an 9-9-0 record. A lot of those fights were again just in his homeland, Northern Ireland. He fought a Lloyd Walford in Manchester England, and John (Young) McCormack in London. In 1966 he traveled to Pavia, Italy and fought Giovanni Biancardi, loosing an 8 round decision to Biancardi. He then traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden to loose a fight to a Teofil Pollex.

He then traveled back to England, to Bristol and won an 8 round decision over Stan Cullis whom Rasmuth had rated into the game. That set up his fight in early 1967 against middleweight Julien Van Mechelen. In his last career fight in April 1969 he fought Terry McTigue for the vacant Northern Ireland Light Heavyweight Title. McTigue KO'd Hassett in the 5th sending Gerry into retirement.

Interesting to note that while Hassett lost two fights to disqualification he also won 4 fights that his opponent was DQ'd. Wonder how much it was Hassett egging on his opponent?!

The fight......

Hassett out of Belfast, Northern Ireland was in the middle of the second phase of his career have fought regularly from 1950-53 then fought only 1 time in the 10-1/2 years before making a comeback in early 1964. Van Mechelen, a middleweight out of Belgium was entering a phase of his career where he was meeting some better class of middleweights and lights heavies that would prove to show his own short comings in his boxing career.
Our fight here in Jan. 1967 was a scheduled 10 rounder that went the distance with Hassett the victor in a decision. Our replay also went the full 10. Hassett in the replay though was what appeared to be more dominant then the real thing in 67. Gerry controlled the action throughout. Judge one gave a very close round 2 to Van Mechelen and judge 2 gave the 4th and 5th rounds to the Belgian also, though I’m not sure why. Judge 3 after scoring the first 8 rounds to Hassett apparently felt some pity on Van Mechelen as he gave the round to the Belgian. The 10th round, Hassett was the clear point winner, but a head butt earned him a point penalty from the referee and thus a 9-9 round by the judges. At 1:10 in the 3rd round Hassett caught Julien in the head with a wicked cross that sent the Belgian down for a 6 count and then a minute into the 7th round Hassett landed an uppercut sending Van Mechelen down a second time in the fight. He manages to get up though in 8 and finished the fight. Too much for Van Mechelen though the man from Belfast was as the judges scored it a unanimous decision victory for Hassett, 98-89, 97-90, 98-89.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday

Manchester, England
George Dulaire – HW (3-1-1) vs. Roger Tighe – HW (4-0-1)

George Dulaire - UK Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-1971

10 wins / 20 losses / 4 draws / 5 KO

Hometown: London, England
Birthplace: St. Lucia, BWI

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

In Oct. 1966, Dulaire fought Jim McIlvaney(13-12-3) who as 10-2-1 at the time. Dulaire TKO'd him in 4 to then set up his Jan. 1967 fight with Roger Tighe (21-13-3), Dulaire's first test of any caliber. It was in fact to be the first of 3 fights these two fighters would stage in 1967. Dulaire would later go on to fight Dave Ould(22-11-0), Rocky Campbell(22-18-3), Raimo Nisula(14-3-1), Bunny Johnson, Joe Bugner, Dennis Avoth(23-21-3, whom he fought 3 times), Billy Aird, and Richard Dunn twice. He split the fights with Dunn and lost to Aird and Johnson. The first fight with Dunn, in November 1969 was a TKO loss in the 2nd round in a Heavyweight Competition final in England.

In May 1971 in his next to last career fight he went up against Jeff Merritt who was 14-1 at the time an who had won his last 9 fights. This was Dulaire's only fight in the USA and only his 3rd outside of England, staged at the Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Florida. Dulaire had no chance as Merritt put him down 3 times in 47 seconds of the 1st round! Dulaire went backt to England and fought one more time in 1971 loosing an 8 round decision, then hung up the gloves.

Roger Tighe - UK Rating 1
Heavyweight 1964-72, 75-76

21 wins / 13 losses / 3 draws / 11 KO

Hometown: Hull, England

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

A Southpaw out of England, Tighe fought from 1964 til Oct. 1972 when he lost an 8 round decision to Lloyd Walford(25-37-3). It was his 4th straight defeat, and 7th in his last 9 fights after starting his career out 20-3-2. Tighe announced his retirement after that loss to Walford. He stayed "retired" for 3 years when he came back into the ring in November 1975. He fought 3 times thru Jan 1976 loosing all 3 fights. He hung them up for good after that.

What's interesting with that span of Tighe's career when he amassed the 20-3-2 record and the down turn period leading up to his first retirement was he didn't fight the usual array of club fighters who were like 0-1,1-0,0-0,1-2 and so forth. He fought mainly guys who at least had some experience to them or were headed to some careers that amounted to at least some bit of longevity to them.

He started out his career against a South African heavyweight named Jimmy Richards who was 5-0 at the time and would go on to post a 27-11-4 record. Those two fought a 10 round draw. He later fought his three fights with George Dulaire in 1967. He defeated a Ron Redrup(23-25-5), Des Cox, Bunny Johnson twice, Lion Ven, and Dennis Avoth. He lost fights to Ray Patterson, Gregorio Peralta, Richard Dunn, Billy Aird and Bunny Johnson. He fought Rocky Campbell(22-18-3) three times going 1-1-1 to name the better looking opponents he faced.

The fight.....
Not a much to talk about with this fight. A short 4 round affair in England between two fighters very early in thier careers both showing some early promise. It turned out to be Dulaire’s day in 1967 as he won by 3rd round TKO over Tighe. In the replay fight, Dulaire was again victorious winning a Majority Decision, 38-38, 39-37, 39-38.

[LeeSkye]

I posted a pic of Fossie Schmidt that I took from a cover I found online of a 1954 issue of Australian Ring Digest. It called him the Samoan Sensation. I guess he must have been pretty good to be featured on a cover but his BoxRec record shows only 6 fights. He won 4, all by KO, and he lost his 2 by KO so there must have been fireworks when he fought. But talk about 6 degrees of separation! To compare him, I had to find a fighter he fought...who fought a guy...who fought a guy...who fought a guy in our database! He and the other guys around him seem to all have pretty good power but I don't know if that is truly representative of their talent or just fighting in their own little world. If anyone has any info to tweak these ratings it would be appreciated. And I can only hope that one of our Aussie friends might have access to a copy of this magazine to give us more insight. All these fighters fought in Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding South Sea Islands. I'll try and do more of these fighters when I can.

Fossie Schmidt
Steve Zoranich
Harold Davis
Ross Jenkins [another with only 2 wins in 5 fights but all end in KO!]
Rudy Crivic
Barry Chalker
Isimeli Radrodro
Jim Woods
Ken Brady
Joveci Bau
Allen Williams [Held Australian Heavyweight Title and New South Wales State Heavyweight Title]

[LeeSkye]

and the rest

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Getting back into the replay here after needing to catch up on some baseball league stuff....

01/09/67 Monday

Manchester, England
Zeke Ukario – MW (1-4-0) vs. Sean Dolan – LHW (3-0-0)


Zeke Ukario - UK Rating 1
Middleweight 1964-67

1 win / 5 losses / 0 draw / 1 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

KO'd in 3 of his 5 losses. Fought a welterweight named Wesley Williams (7-9-0) in 3 of his fights. Wesley beat Zeke 2 out of 3.Lost a 6 round decision to light heavyweight Sean Dolan in his last career fight in Jan. 1967.


Sean Dolan - UK Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1966-72

11 wins / 14 losses / 0 draw / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Well, not much to talk about here. Club fighter from the Manchester and London area it would look like by the location of his bouts in BoxRec. Fought a Ray Ako in 1968 for the British (Central Area) Light Heavyweight Title. Lost that fight by 3rd round KO. AFter starting out 9-1-0, Dolan began fighting some guys with a few fights under their belts and he couldn't stack up at all going 2-13-0. We're going to see this guy 9 times through the course of 1967! Oh wow!

The fight.....

Zeke was a Middleweight out of the south England area, possibly Liverpool where his first 2 career fights were staged. After compiling a 1-4 record in 1964-65, he’d not climbed into the ring for close to two years when he came out on this early Monday evening in Manchester to go up against a fairly new lightheavy club fighter named Sean Dolan. Dolan was 3-0 with three, 6 round decisions against other local Manchester fighters. Both of these fighters were not heavy hitters at all packing much punch so this fight would probably turn out to be more of who could just land the more punches to score points with. The real thing in 1967 turned out to be a 6 round decision win for Dolan. Our rematch here is not much different. After a close first round, with both fighters feeling each other out, Dolan was in control the rest of the way, landing punches at a 5-1 ratio to Ukario. The finally tally would have been further in Dolan’s favor had it not been him getting a point deducted for head butting in the 3rd round. Final judges scores had it 58-55, 59-54, 59-54 for the Unanimous Decision to Sean Dolan.

The next fight up, I need to back track one day to Sunday, the 8th. I'd missed a fight in the schedule between a couple Italian HW's, Vittorio Verrengia (12-4-5) vs. Giancarlo Bacchini (12-21-6). See you next time in Aprilia, Italy!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Back tracking 1 day for fight I previously missed.....

01/08/67 Sunday

Aprilia, Italy
Giancarlo Bacchini – HW (8-13-5) vs. Vittorio Verrengia – HW (6-0-1)

Giancarlo Bacchini - Italy Rating 1
Heavyweight 1960-1970

I'm thinking I got the ratings for this Italian HW from someone off the forum here or somewhere, but, I didn't record in his bio who it's from. Anyone recognize your ratings let me know. I fought Bacchini as he was rated by whoever whom.
12 wins / 21 losses / 6 draw / 2 KO

Birthplace: Padova, Italy

Rating by: ??

Lost fights to Franco Badalassi, Lion Ven, Giuseppe Ross twice, Benito Canal, and Peter Weiland to name some guys rated in the game. Other fights with opponents of mentionable were Dave Ould(22-11-0) whom Bacchini lost to in 1966 in something called the Phillips Electric 2000 Heavyweight Competition, a loss to Hans Jorgen Jacobsen(22-6-1), two losses to a Vasco Faustino(17-47-6) and losses to Peirmario Baruzzi(37-12-0) and Charly Graf(18-4-4) to end his career.

Vittorio Verrengia - Italy Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-70
12 wins / 4 losses / 5 draws / 5 KO

Hometown: Roma, Italy
Birthplace: Latina, Italy
Manager: Sconcerti

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Vittorio compiled a 12-0-5 record up in 3 years up through 1968. Including were a couple wins over Benito Penna and two draws against Giancarlo Bacchini. In 1967 he beat Remmington Dyanty twice in consectutive fights. Dyanty's record then stood at 0-6-1. He later went on though to capture the South African Non-White Heavyweight Title. After an 8 round draw with Paul Kraus(11-17-5), he lost two fights to Piermario Baruzzi(37-12-0) and Hans Jorgen Jacobsen(22-6-1) in 1969 and then lost by 4th round TKO in each of his last two career fights to Jimmy Richards(27-11-4) and Vasco Faustino(17-47-6).

The fight.....
This is the second of two fights between these heavyweights from Italy. They’d fought to a 6 round draw in November of the 1966 in Verrengia’s birthplace of Latina. This time their squaring off for another 6 rounder in Aprilia. In the real match up in 1967 the two fought for a 2nd consecutive draw.
The replay here turns out to be maybe the first real upset, a pretty big one I thought of the fights I’ve replayed here in 1967. How quick the ending came was especially surprising. About 20 seconds after the opening bell, Bacchini lands a solid uppercut then comes in with a hook to the body. Verrengia manages to come back with a straight right that hurts Bacchini for a moment, but, Giancarlo comes back quickly and counters with a solid shot that lands Verrengia onto his back! Vittorio is down for an 8 count, looking shaken when he finally regains his feet. Bacchini traps Verrengia into the corner and lands a hard right hand then a solid hook drops Vittorio for the 2nd time in the round! Verrengia makes it to his feet in 8, but, the referee calls and end to the fight. A TKO victory for Bacchini at the 2:57 mark of the first round!!

The attached file for Bacchini again is the work of someone else. I just don't remember whom if you can tell me. I added the bio info.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday

Washington, DC, USA
Rudy Brown Holliday - HW (2-1-0) vs. Bill Hardney – HW (3-1-1)


Rudy Brown Holliday - USA Rating 4
Heavyweight 1965-67, 70

5 wins / 3 losses / 0 draw / 2 KO

Hometown: Washington DC

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Fought a Roger Russell(12-18-2) twice in his career loosing both fights by decision. Won two consecutive decisions in January 1967 over Bill Hardney(27-27-1). Those were the hilites of HOlliday's brief career. He fought 4 times in 1967 loosing the last two fights including his 2nd bout with Russell and then did not step into the ring until July 1970 for one more fight which he did win over a Don Branch.

Bill Hardney - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1965-76

27 wins / 27 losses / 1 draw / 15 KO

Hometown: Newark, NJ

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Wild Bill must have been that as a boxer, just all out swinging with little attention to defense. That or he just couldn't take a punch as would the 21 times he was stopped in a fight! A decent punch by his 15 KO's.

His career started against the usual set of club fighters, including two straight fights against Ruby Brown Holliday in one week in January 1967. Hardney lost both of those fights by decisions. Later on in 1968 and 1969 he was KO'd in two fights with Roy (Tiger) Williams, KO'd in the 4th in 1969 by Larry Middleton and in the 1st round by Ted Gullick and then lost an 8 round decision to Light HW Billy Wagner(31-9-2). In Feb. 1970 Bob Foster stopped him in the 4th round. Later on in the 1970 he won 8 round decision against Wagner and Moses Harrell(15-16-4), Harold Carter(22-48-4), Jose (King) Roman, and Ron Stander who was 12-0 at the time in Aug. 1970. In June 1971 he went up against Earnie Shavers only to be KO'd in the 1st round. That put Harney's career record at 13-18-1 and he would from there out the rest of his career see little top flight opponents. He fought again and lost by 1st round KO to Harold Carter again in 1972 and in his second to last career fight was KO'd in the 3rd round by Bob Foster who was nearing the end of his great career.

The fight.....

A couple of beginners in the heavyweight scene in the US. Holliday out of the DC area up against “Wild Bill Hardney” from Newark, NJ. These two would actually stage this fight and the battle in a rematch the next week. In 1967, Holliday defeated Hardney in a 6 round decision. Both of this fighters packed some punch and it would show in the replay. Less then a minute into the first round, Holliday lands a hard shot to Hardney’s body that drops him to the canvas for a quick 3 count. Holliday follows up with some hooks and jabs that land that leaves Hardney dazed but somehow “Wild Bill” manages to stay on his feet and fend off enough of Rudy’s blows to stay in the fight. The first round Bill lands nothing to score with. The second round starts like the first with Holliday landing a quick jab and then a hook, but Bill counters with a smashing jab that staggers Rudy and Bill maneuvers Rudy into the corner. Rudy works himself clear and the action slows until he manages to land a cross. Hardney regains his senses and manages to land some punches that ends the 2nd round in his slight favor. The 3rd round is pretty evenly matched. The in the 4th round Hardney manages to jab in that lands Holliday to the canvas for a quick 3 count. This rounds ends with Hardney totally dominating the action. Hardney then controls the 5th round totally also to the point that even though Holliday manages a bit of a comeback in the 6th and final round, it’s not enough to overcome the scoring on the judges card that gives Hardney a Unanimous Decision 58-55, 57-56, 58-55 in a very close fight.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday
Worchester, MA, USA
Bob Hazelton – HW (0-1-0) vs. Pedro Agosto – HW (8-0-0)

Bob Hazelton - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-80

20 wins / 11 losses / 0 draw / 18 KO

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Hazelton's career interestingly showed a lack of success in it's early first couple of years. He was only 4-9-0 starting out. He recorded 2 KO's in his 4 wins, but was KO'd in all 9 losses. On December 6th, 1969 he was part of an uncard match for a show staring his South Philadelphia neighbor, Sonny Liston. That match took place at the Las Vegas Hilton. Before Liston was defeated by Philadelphia journeyman Leotis Martin, Hazelton was stopped at 2:56 of round 1 of his fight by a shot that caused extensive damage to the interior of his mouth. Blood was everywhere. The winner of that fight and sender of that devestating shot to Hazelton's mouth, "a menacing Liston disciple named George Foreman." Foreman was 10-0 in his early professional career.

Hazelton did not fight for two years after that. He lost 2 of his next 3 fights before winning 16 of his last 18 career bouts. All 16 of those victories were by KO. He could obviously pack a pack attested by the 18 career KO's in 20 wins, but all 11 of his losses were by KO. Interesting to note that of his 31 career fights only 2 went beyond the 5th round. He lost by KO in the 7th round to a Ray White (32-14-4) in 1972 and his lost by KO in the 10th round in 1977 to Bob Foster.

Other noteable fights included his first 2 career fights against young fighers, Jack O'Halloran and Pedro Agosto in Jan. 1967. He lost also to Jose Luis Garcia in 1975, defeated Manuel Ramos by 2nd round TKO in 1977 just before his fight with Foster. He KO'd Carl Baker in 1 round and came back in 1978 and defeated Bob Foster, stopping him in the 2nd round. He lost in the 3rd round to Lucien Rodriguez in his next to last fight.

Hazelton's career was ruined and his health ruined by steriod use, the story of which is documented in an article that you can read from the web link included. Interesting article that might be good for some of today's athletes to read.


Pedro Agosto - Puerto Rico Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-79

I used the game's Agosto. The file I've attached only adds the bio info here.
27 wins / 14 losses / 1 draw / 21 KO

Alias: (Schoolboy) Agosto Ortiz
Hometown: Washington Township, NJ
Trainer: Lee Black
Manager: Bill Daly/Cain Young

Started out with an 18-0 record with the biggest fights being a 3rd round KO over Bob Hazelton and a 12th round KO over Jose (King) Roman in November 1969. After that great start Pedro then lost 4 of 6 fights including losses to Chuck Wepner and Floyd Patterson.He managed an 8 round decision win over a Bob Felstein (16-14-1). He won 5 straight fights in late 1972 and 1973 including a 10 round decision over Charley Polite but he then finished his career 2-10-1. One win was for the Puerto Rican HW Title in 1973 against Jose Roman, a 12 round decision.

During that late span of his career other fights included a 9th round TKO loss to Randy Neumann, 10 round decision losses to Bunny Johnson and Rodney Bobick. In January 1977 he fought George Foreman. Agosto was knocked down twice in the 3rd and 3 times in the 4th round, which forces an automatic stoppage.That was the first of 7 consecutive losses to finish Pedro's career. There were losses also to a young Leon Spinks(3-0-0 at the time), Boone Kirkman, Duane Bobick, Grady DAniels(8-18-0), Calvin CRoss(8-0-1) and Bill Connell(12-4-1).

The Fight.....

Not sure the scheduled length of this bout, but were going to go with a scheduled 6 rounder being this early in both careers. Back in 1967, Pedro had little problem with Hazelton, as he KO’d Bob in the 3rd round. The replay, well it wasn’t much of a replay. It starts out with Hazelton picking off a jab by Agosto then lands a couple little shots to Pedro’s chest and neck area when Agosto then counters with shot to Hazelton’s ribcage and Bob crumples to the canvas. He makes it to his knees but can’t make it back up and is counted out in 10! A 1st round KO for Agosto at the 0:42 mark!!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday
Worchester, MA, USA
Jose (King) Roman – HW (8-0-0) vs. Joe Webb – HW (0-1-0)

Jose (King) Roman - Puerto Rico Rating 2
Heaveyweight 1966-78, 81

The attached Roman file has the bio info added. I changed his career stage to be from 66 to 78 since he was inactive until that one fight in 1981. Otherwise its the file from the game.
54 wins / 26 losses / 3 draws / 27 KO

Manager: Bill Daley

Started out career 14-0-0 when in April and June 1967 Jose suffered consecutive losses to Hal Carroll by 8th round decision and to Herman Harris by 10th round TKO. He was only 3-3-1 the rest of 1967 and much of 1968. That included a win over Charley Polite and a 12th round KO loss to Pedro Agosto.

AFter that loss to Agosto, Roman got things turned around. Starting in early 1969 and thru the next 4-1/2 years Roman piled up a 27-2-0,15KO's record. Included were wins over Jack O'Halloran, Chuck Wepner, Bowie Adams(22-12-4), O'Halloran again, Bill Hardney, Manuel Ramos, Jose Manuel Urtain, Charley Polite, Tony Ventura and Terry Daniels. The two losses were a 10 round decision lost to Jack Bodell in July 1969 and a 10 round decision lost to a Robie Harris(5-11-1) in October 1971.

Despite that fairly recent lost to the club fighter Harris, with his record now standing at 44-7-1 after his 3rd round KO of Clyde Elmo Brown in June 1973, Jose Roman was given a shot at the heavyweight title. In September 1973 he climbed into the ring in Tokyo, Japan against undefeated George Foreman(38-0-0) for a 15 round bout for the WBA/WBC Heavyweight Titles. 2 minutes into the 1st round, Big George KO'd Roman's chance for the title, if there ever was really any kind of chance! A little more then 3 months later in December 1973, Roman climbed back into the ring against Pedro Agosto for the Puerto Rican Heavyweight Title. Roman lost by decision to Agosto.

The rest of Roman's career, the only kind of title he ever got a chance for was the Florida State Heavyweight Title. He fought and lost twice for that title to Bobby Lloyd(15-28-1). After the Foreman/Agosto fights, Roman finished up his career 10-17-2 with 1 no contest. He did have a number of fights with some name opponents, unfortunately for Roman, most were without success. Did did manage wins over Ibar Arrington, and Terry Daniels and a draw with Jose Manuel Urtain. He lost fights to Mike Quarry, John (Dino) Dennis, Mike Schutte twice, Jimmy Young, Randy Stephens, Ibar Arrington, Boone Kirkman, Walter Moore(18-1-0), Arrington again and Alfio Righetti in November 1978. After the Righetti loss, Roman did not put the gloves back on until March 1981 when he came back for one more fight, which turned into a 5th round KO loss to Tony Severance(13-6-1). He also fought LHW Eddie Owens in August 1974 but the fight was stopped in the 9th and declared a no contest.

Joe Webb - UK Rating 1
Heaveyweight 1955, 67

0 wins / 2 losses / 0 draw / 0 KO

Hometown: Camberwell, England

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Fought once in November 1955 loosing by 2nd round KO to a Burt Singer. Then came back for whatever reason in January 1967 against Jose (King) Roman. Roman Ko'd Webb in the 2nd round.

The Fight.....
This is one of those fights that you wonder how and why did it get set up and why was Roman, who even though was still very young in his career, get matched up with a guy like Webb. Who was Webb that he fought once professionally in 1955 according to BoxRec and then had not fought again until 9 years later here in Worchester against Roman. Webb is one of those kinds of guys you just wonder what to do rating him. Not much to do, give him some real terrible ratings and use him or not however you may choose. In 1967, Roman made pretty quick business of Mr. Webb, KO’ing him in the 2nd round. Webb retires for good with an 0-2-0 record, KO’d in both his fights. In our replay, it surprised me it went as long as it did. In my 6 round scheduled replay, Roman totally dominated the first two round but Webb avoided him enough to last through the rounds. The 3rd round was more of the same, as Roman lands punches almost at will. He doesn’t manage to put him down on the canvas, but finally at the 2:42 mark of the 3rd round, the referee stops the fight and Roman is awarded the TKO victory to up his record to 9-0-0.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/09/67 Monday
Billy Marsh – LHW (28-20-7) vs. Filifili Alaiasa – LHW (1-1-0)

This is Marsh’s 2nd fight here in 1967. Previously back on Jan. 3rd, Marsh won a UD over welterweight Johnny Brooks. (Note here that I’ll be accumulating fighters records by what they do in the replay to see how things shape up later on for the possible heavyweight tournament.) For Alaiasa, it’s his 3rd career fight, having fought twice in 1966 to begin his professional career.

Filifili Alaiasa - USA Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1966-76

11 wins / 8 losses / 0 draw / 6 KO

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Birthplace: Hawaii

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

BoxRec lists Alaisa as a heavyweight, based I suppose again that his last two fights were against fighters also listed as HW's, Koroseta Kid(13-7-0) and John Baca(13-4-1). Alaiasa is rated here though as a lightheavy since a majority of his opponents were lightheavys and even middleweights.

His career started out 2-5-0. Most noteable fights were all losses to Billy Marsh, MW-Ralph Palladin(30-7-2) and LHW-Ron Wilson(69-36-7). He then ran up a streak of 9 consecutive wins including 5 KO's. The combined career records of those 9 opponents was only 18-54-5 and two guys, Scott Wissoper(7-14-0) and Johnny Wise(6-25-3) had the majority of those decisions. AFter the 9th win in Feb. of 1970 he then drew a chance to go into the ring with Mike QAuarry who was undefeated at the time at 20-0-0. That fight was in March 1970. Alaiasa managed to go the full scheduled 8 rounds with Quarry but, Mike got the decision. It was over 2 years before Filifili fought again, loosing to Koroseta Kid. He then was out of the ring almost 4 more years before loosing his last career fight to Baca.

The fight.....

Back in 1967 Marsh won a 6 round decision over Alaiasa. Our replay started out fast for Marsh but Filifili fought back to make it close over the next couple rounds. After Alaiasa lands a beautiful hook that dazes Marsh for a moment, Billy comes back to land a quick jab and a thundering shot to the body to floors Alaiasa for a quick 4 count. Filifili manages to recover and lands some decent punches to get through the round. Round 2 is a close, not much action round. Round 3 again was a close round with Marsh maybe carrying a bit more of the advantage. Both judges scored Marsh the advantage in round 2 but one actually scored it even in round 3, so Filifili was by no means out of this fight yet. The first 2 to 2-1/2 minutes of the 4th round was more of the 2nd and 3rd, a lot of maneuvering without a lot punches being landed by either fighter. Marsh again was carrying maybe the slight edge when lightening struck suddenly at the 2:18 mark. Marsh lands a perfect jab that sends Filifili to the canvas. He never gets up as Filifili is counted out at the 2:30 mark of the 4th round! KO win for Billy Marsh as he improves his record to 28-20-8 while Alaiasa drops to 1-2-0.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/10/67 Tuesday
Kansas City, MO, USA
Lou Bailey – HW (13-25-5) vs. Ron Marsh – HW (18-1-0)

Lou Bailey -USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1957-74

BAiley was rated in the game I believe or by someone else. I've just added the bio info to the attached file.

17 wins / 44 losses / 5 draws / 4 KO

Hometown: Peoria, IL

Lou fought for quite a long time considering his lack of any real success in the ring. Of his wins, the most noteworthy being two over middleweight Al Andrews(45-36-2), Memphis Al Jones, and Harold Carter.

The list of losses is longer with some pretty good looking names. Sonny Ray twice, Jesse Bowdry, Frankie Daniels, Thad Spencer, Floyd Joyner, Bill Nielsen, Amos Johnson, Roberto Davila, Doug Jones, Aaron Eastling, Ron Marsh twice, James J. Beattie, Tony Doyle, George Foreman, Danny McAlinden, Fred Lewis, Jerry Quarry, Earnie Shavers, Rodney Bobick, Ron Lyle, Oscar Bonavena, Boone Kirkman, Duane Bobick, Terry Hinke and Emer Rush. A pretty decent who's who of heavyweight boxing of the late 60's, early 70's.

Ron Marsh - USA Rating 3
Heavyweight 1965-1970

32 wins / 4 losses / 0 draw / 21 KO

Hometown: Omaha, NE
Birthplace: Boise, ID
Manager: Vern Gagne

Ron packed a pretty good punch and good chin as his 21 KO's and only 2 occasions he was stopped himself would attest. He built a 22-1-0 record up thru mid year 1967 fighting mostly the usual array of local area club fighters. His only loss in that time period was an 8 round decision to an Ed Hurley(11-9-1) in April 1966. They fought a rematch a month later and Marsh KO'd him in the 3rd round. He fought and beat Memphis Al Jones twice. He stopped a decent light heavyweight in Tommy Sims(33-36-4) and won a 10 round decision over Lou Bailey in January 1967. He also defeated Hurley in a third match between the two.

Finally in September 1967 Marsh got his first real test in the ring, at Madison Square Garden non the less! He went in against undefeated Buster Mathis(20-0-0 at the time), but could not stay long with Mathis being stopped by Buster in the 4th round. In his next fight in March 1968 he got another pretty good test going way down south to San Juan, Argentina to take on South American great Gregorio Peralta. This fight ended in Marsh's 3rd defeat as he was DQ'd in the 9th round?! That would be Marsh's only fight outside the USA and the Midwest for that matter as he finished up his career going 10-1-0 over the next 2 years. Beating Billy Marsh twice along with Lou Bailey and Andy Kendall were his most noteable accomplishments in that time. The only loss was in June 1970, a 3rd round TKO to Vic Brown.

Marsh is one of those fighters who you could give an overinflated rating to if your not carefull. His high number of KO's and the few times he was stopped in a fight along with is really good W/L record can tend to make you end up with a too high of a rating. What I started out with was having him rated a 5 overall. I said to myself looking at his career and the fights he had, there is just no way he should be a 5. So I really messed around with the play testing on this guy, trying to come up with a good mix of fighters to play test him against that I thought was representative of the quality of opponents he'd faced. In the end. I ended up with a 3 over all rating and that was will a mix of some pretty bad club type fighters like he faced in much of his career.

The Fight......

Both of these fighters were entering phases in their careers where they were beginning to meet higher caliber of competition but Bailey would seem to far more have the better experience between these two heading into this fight. Marsh’s most noteworthy opponent up this time being Memphis Al Jones whom he had fought and beaten twice, most recently in November 1966. Bailey on the other hand had fought guys like Sonny Ray, Jesse Bowdry, Frankie Daniels, Thad Spencer, Floyd Joiner, Bill Nielsen, Amos Johnson, Roberto Davila, Memphis Al, Doug Jones and most recently Aaron Eastling. This was a scheduled 10 round affair. The real thing back in 1967 would appear to have been close fight, maybe a very good one that lasted the full 10 with the less experienced Marsh coming out on top with the decision win. Our replay turned out to be a real exciting fight, maybe better then the real thing.
In round 1 Marsh starts out in front midway through but, Bailey fights back to take a close round on the judges cards. Round’s 2 and 3 are all Marsh as he puts Bailey down to the canvas in each round. The 2nd round Bailey goes down for an 8 count at the 2 minute mark after a hard shot to the body. Then in the 3rd round Bailey goes down for short 5 count about 40 seconds into the round. In both instances though, Marsh fails to fully take advantage of the knockdowns and does not put Bailey away. He’ll pay for his lack of killer instinct later on in this fight. In round 4 Bailey doubles up on some jabs then Marsh counters with a clean hook that has Bailey blinking. After maneuvering around for awhile Bailey lands an uppercut and then a cross and then two quick jabs. The round goes to Bailey. Round 5 Bailey scores early then Marsh comes back with a nice cross. The action slows for a bit then Bailey misses with a jab but follows up with a cross that scores. Marsh tries to push Bailey back to gain some room to work then Marsh comes in with a solid cross of his own that stops Bailey cold. Bailey works into a corner to regroup. Both fighters are playing with their jabs when Marsh catches Bailey clean with a hook that opens up a cut over Bailey’s left eye. The fighters continue to exchange punches with Marsh seemingly getting the better of it. Marsh traps Bailey in a corner and then catches Bailey with a sweet uppercut. Bailey manages to sneak in a right cross then Marsh hits Bailey with strong combination that catches Bailey cold right at the end of the round. Judges 2 and 3 rightfully scored the round to Marsh but unexpectedly judge 1 had scored it 10-9 to Bailey. That would make a difference in the ending of this fight.
Round 6 Marsh takes command again winning that round. At this time, Marsh has a seemingly commanding lead to win this fight. But again, he does not take advantage of it and take advantage of those two early knockdowns as for rounds 7 through 10 Marsh goes into a defensive posture and just seems to run out of gas and does not land much of an offense at all through those rounds until very late in the 10th round. Bailey meanwhile has caught a second wind and regained control of this fight. Two judges score it 10-9 to Bailey and one scores round 7 a draw while all three give rounds 8-10 to Bailey 10-9. It all adds up to Judge 1 scores it 95-93 Bailey. Remember that 5th round that Marsh would appear to have won at least to the other judges and probably everyone else in the arena watching this fight, but judge 1 scored that round to Bailey instead, thus avoiding a 94-94 draw on judge 1’s card. Judge 2 who had scored exactly like judge 1 except for that round 5 indeed scored the fight a draw at 94-94. Judge 3 though, he had scored round 7 a 10-10 draw while the other two gave it to Bailey. That ended up giving Marsh the narrowest of victory 95-94 on judge 3’s card. It all ended up with the fight being declared a Draw! A good fight it was. Marsh should have and could have won this fight, but he sat on his laurels in the later rounds and let the fight slip from his fingers. Bailey really was fortunate to come out with the draw.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/10/67 Tuesday
Kansas City, MO, USA
Brian Kelly – LHW (5-2-0) vs. Henry Burton – MW (0-14-1)

Brian Kelly - USA Rating 4
Light Heavyweight 1965-74

43 wins / 12 losses / 0 draw / 25 KO

Alias: Kelly Burden
Hometown: Oklahoma City, OK
Birthplace: Cushing, OK
Manager: Pat O'Grady

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

BoxingRec show's his first professional fight being a 6 round decision loss to an Eddie Mendez in October 1962 and then Kelly did not fight again until August 1965 from which he began fighting reguarly. Thus I put his career starting at 1965.

Kelly started going up against fighters with a fair amount of ring experience early in his career. In his 5th fight in May 1965, he climbed into the ring against MW Art Hernandez who is rated in the game. Kelly KO'd Art in the 3rd round! They would fight 2 more times, in December 1966 Hernandez won the rematch in a 10 round decision. Then in February 1967 Hernandez won again in another 10 round decision.

Some other opponents of Kelly that we've seen thus far in the game include wins over Billy Marsh, Roger Rouse, Jimmy Cross three times. Losses included those to Chris Finnegan, and Mike Quarry.

In December 1971 with his record standing at 31-5-0 including winning his last 22 straight bouts, Kelly got his one big shot in the spotlight when at the Fairgrounds Arena in Oklahoma City, OK, he fought Bob Foster for the WBC Light Heavyweight Title. Kelly did not have much of a chance against Foster though as referee Earle Kell stopped the fight at the 1:56 mark of the 3rd round after Kelly had been put down twice in the 2nd round and then again in the 3rd round.

Henry Burton - USA Rating 1
Middleweight 1954-67

0 wins / 15 losses / 1 draw / 0 KO

Hometown: Monroe, LA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

KO'd 5 times in his 14 losses. Burton's career was sporatic for the most part. Fought once each in 1954 and 1956, twice in 57,once in 58, once in 59, thee times in 60, once in 62, once in 64 and then all of a sudden it cut loose in 1966 and early 1967 with 5 fights! All losses though.

His fight in 1959 was against a pretty good Middleweight in the game, Joey Archer. Burton managed to take Archer the full scheduled 10 rounds of the fight. The rest of his opponents in his career at least as far as thier records go were a pretty decent looking collection of fighters. It can be said I guess that Burton didn't fight any total stiffs and guys with no ring experience.He just couldn't beat any of these guys.

Middleweights Norris Burse(16-5-2), Ramon Hernandez(14-16-1), Mickey Brown(28-3-2), Duane Horsman(45-11-2,34KO's), Lee Ballard(13-11-1), and Milo Calhoun(24-14-6). Light Heavyweights include George Price(16-6-2), Rudy Rodriguez(20-17-6) and Brian Kelly(43-12-0).

The fight.....

Two guys on the opposite spectrums of their careers with Kelly coming off his first loss, a 10 round decision to Art Hernandez a month ago, after winning his last 5 fights. He’d lost his first career fight back in 1962 then picked up his career again in 1965. For Burton, this would turn out to be the end of the road for him after a sporadic career that some him climb into the ring on and off since 1954 with no success. In 1967, the middleweight Burton turned out to be no match for the light heavy Kelly with Burton KO’d in the 4th round.
The replay here turned out even shorter. In round one in less then 10 seconds Kelly quickly drills Burton with a left and then a right and then another left. Kelly then unloads a flurry of other punches which Burton manages to deflect off. Kelly then scores with a jab, then unloads another volley of punches, one of which lands cleanly. Kelly lands a good hook to the body but fails to follow up cleanly. But then Kelly lands a short clean hook that catches Burton flush and Henry drops like someone shot him. He goes down and just manages to get up in 9. Kelly manages a few more punches in here and there but nothing hard enough to send Burton down again. The round ends, but it’s a resoundingly won round for Kelly as all three judges end up scoring it 10-7 for the light heavy. Round two the action slows quite a bit from the first round but it’s still a clean win for Kelly with Burton again doing very little if anything at all in the round. Round 3 starts quickly for Kelly as he puts Burton down on the canvas for a second time in the fight with a hard shot to the ribcage. Burton gets up in 5 this time but his legs look shaky at best. Kelly’s killer instinct sets in looking for a knockout. He lands a sweet uppercut that snaps Burton’s head back. Burton his hurt again by a quick follow up hook from Kelly and then he folds like an accordion as he walks into a jab by Kelly. Burton goes down again at 1:16 in the round. He manages to gather himself back up in 6, but he doesn’t look good. The referee asks Burton if he can continue and he nods that he can, but for how long? Not long at all as Kelly then lands a perfect hook and Burton goes down for the 3rd time in the round. That’s it, the fight is done, TKO for Kelly at the 1:45 mark of the 3rd round!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/10/67 Tuesday
Tacoma, WA, USA
Eddie Cotton – LHW (55-22-2) vs. Bobby Rascon – LHW (33-8-1)


Eddie Cotton - USA Rating 6
Light Heavyweight 1947-67

Cotton was rated originally in the game and used that in this replay. I've added the following bio info which is contained in the attached file on him.

58 wins / 23 losses / 2 draws / 34 KO

Hometown: Seattle, WA
Birthplace: Muskogee, OK
Manager: Frisco McGale/Geo. Chemeres

Cotton in his 20 year career fought quite a few guys who've we've seen in the game thus far. He had wins against Don Lee, Rusty Payne, Henry Hall, Frankie Daniels, Roque Maravilla, Johnny Halafihi, Mike Holt, Rory Calhoun, Pekka Kokkonen in two consecutive fights, Von Clay, Chic Calderwood, Henry Hank, Johnny Persol, and Andy Kendall.

He was dealt losses at the hands of Mel Brown, Roy Murphy, Clinton Lee, Rusty Payne, Frankie Daniels, Dave Whitlock, Archie Moore, Sonny Ray, Sixto Rodriguez, Hank Casey, Harold Johnson (with whom Cotton lost a 15 round split decision in August 1961 for the NBA World Light Heavyweight Title, scoring was 147-145, 147-145, 144-148), Mauro Mina, Johnny Persol(a 10 round split decision in which Persol was knocked down in the 6th round), Wayne Thorton in three consecutive fights(a 10 round split decision, then 9th round KO, then a 12 round decision), Piero Del Papa, Roger Rouse twice(also drew a fight with Rouse), Jose Torres (a 15 round split decision loss for the WBC Light Heavyweight Title in August 1966, 1966 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year), and finally Bob Foster.

Some other noteable record opponents included MW-Bill Corbett-Lanza(58-25-3), MW-Roy Wouters(29-20-3), LHW-Joe Kahut(47-27-6), LHW-Ron Whittle(26-24-7), LHW-Lonnie Malone(31-18-4), MW-Neal Rivers(42-18-3), LHW=Bob McKinney(24-8-1), LHW-Bobby Rascon(40-33-1) and MW=Ernie Gipson(35-38-6).

Bobby Rascon - USA Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1958-77

40 wins / 33 losses / 1 draw / 15 KO

Hometown: Phoenix, AZ,
Birthplace: Agua Prieta, SO, Mexico

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Rascon's career started out winning 25 of his first 27 bouts including the first 20. His first 18 bouts were in his native Agua Prieta, Mexico before he went to Tucson, AZ and fought three times. In this 3rd fight in Tucson he lost for the first time to a LaVerne Williams who was 0-4 at the time. Rascon had earlier defeated Williams in Aqua. His other loss in that 27 fight span was to a MW, Gene Bryant(35-28-6) who was 7-2 at the time of that fight in Sept. 1961. If you discount the records of Bryant and Williams the combined records of all the fighters in Rascon's first 24 wins(not counting the win against Williams) was 0-13-0! He fought a number of local club fighters in Aqua who did not even sport a record at the time Rascon beat them.

So to say the least, Rascon was very untested at the time he traveled for the 3rd time to Arizona in May 1963 to climb into the ring against a young Archie Ray who was 10-2-1 in his early career climb. Rascon stayed in the total 8 rounds with Ray, but lost the decision. The two rematched a couple months later again in Arizona and again, Ray came away with an 8 round decision over Rascon. Rascon then in September fought a 6 round draw with a Charlie Hall in Phoenix.

After running his record up to 29-4-1 Rascon began to meet higher caliber opponents, opponents he could not match up with at all as his 11-29-0 record over the 12-13 years of his career. The downfall all started with 3 consecutive losses to Wayne Thornton, Lino Rendon and then Bob Foster, his first real great name opponent. He then beat journeyman heavyweight Johnny Featherman in consectutive fights, the first for the Arizona Light Heavyweight Title. That was in March 1965. Two years later he lost to a Tony Montano(49-32-3) for the Arizona title. Just previous to that in Jan. 1967 he lost to Eddie Cotton. Over the next years some other fighters seen in the game that Rascon fought were losses to Roger Rouse and Mark Tessman and then wins against Billy Marsh and Andy Kendall. In Feb. 1974 he lost a 10 round decision to Mike Quarry and 3 months later lost another 10 round decision, this time to Len Hutchins for something called teh American (US) Light Heavyweight Title. Rascon later lost two more fights to Mike Quarry and ended his career with a 10 round decision loss to Dale Grant.


The Fight.....

Cotton a top contending Light Heavyweight of the 50’s and 60’s is nearing the end of his career. Five months previous he lost a tough 15 round split decision for the WBA LHW Title to Jose Torres. Ring Magazine has proclaimed that fight the 1966 Fight of the Year in boxing. But it ended up being in fact a very sudden and quick end to Cotton’s great career over the 1967 year. Coming into this first bout in 1967 for him, Cotton is coming off a 12 round decision loss to Roger Rouse and then a 1st round KO win over Charlie Hall (6-28-3 at the time) in November and December. Rascon is from out of Mexico. After compiling a very impressive 25-2-0 record around his native Agua Prieta, Mexico, he’s finding things much tougher going here in the states against American boxers where his record is a less then sensational 8-6-1 over the last 4 years. Rascon in fact has not stepped into the ring in over a year, having last fought in October 1965 when he won a 12 round decision over the same Charlie Hall whom Cotton had most recently defeated. So a top contender in the twilight of his career against a younger Rascon who’s yet to really prove himself here in the states. In 1967, Rascon would further show that he really probably wasn’t up to fighting outside of Mexico. The fight was stopped on cuts in the 6th round with Cotton getting the TKO victory.
Our replay starts out looking maybe some of the same from 1967. Cotton comes out connecting with some uppercuts. The fighters exchange some crosses and then Cotton connects again with the uppercut some more to finish the first round in his favor. Round two starts out with some mild connections by both fighters when suddenly lightening strikes and Rascon connects with a hard cross and Cotton goes down! He manages to gain his feet in 7. Rascon though, does not tack advantage of the situation and fails to put Cotton away. Round 3, both fighters are cautious. A lot of grabbing and holding by both fighters with a few punches landed on both sides maybe giving Rascon the slight advantage that round. Has he lost the big chance though with that 2nd round knockdown? Round 4 starts out with Cotton tentative again while Rascon muscles his way inside and lands a good hook. Finally Cotton rips a hook to Rascon’s body. A lot of jockeying for position going on. Rascon manages to land several hooks throughout the round while Cotton’s bets shots mostly miss ending the round in Rascon’s continued lead in this fight. Round 5 starts out with Cotton more aggressive trapping Rascon in the corner and bulling in to land a sharp jab. Rascon counters with a cross and hook, both of which with not much on them. Rascon later manages to land some uppercuts. The round ends with Rascon again controlling matters. Cotton’s going to have to come out in the 6th and start making some things happen to get back into this fight.
Cotton finally does start to take control of things from the 6th round on. Even though Cotton works himself ahead on the judges’ cards over the last half of the fight, he does not press the action enough to score any real decisive advantage. The fight ends up going the full scheduled 10 rounds. Cotton takes 4 of the last 5 rounds but its not enough with that 2nd round knockdown he suffered being the difference in the judges’ scoring, 95-94, 95-94, 96-94, winner by unanimous decision, Bobby Rascon!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/10/67 Tuesday
Tacoma, WA, USA
Larry Buck – LHW (4-0-1) vs. Edmund Deroches – MW (0-1-0)

Larry Buck - USA Rating 4
Light Heavyweight 1966-72

25 wins / 5 losses / 4 draws / 20 KO

Alias: Lawrence Little
Hometown: Toppenish, WA
Birthplace: Mason City, WA
Trainer: Eddie Cotton & George Chemeres
Manager: George Chemeres

Original Rating by: Todd Colegrove, Rasmuth

I revised his Cb/s from 7/6 to 5/5 and his Chin's from 2/2 to 1/0 it actually made his overall rating calculate at 4 from the 3 of Rasmuth's ratings. Buck was stopped 1 time in his career. I built a schedule with all the fighters in the game plus a lot of the 0/-1 type 1's I got now in the data base and I was pleasantly surprised how Todd's ratings worked. In my replays Buck's overall W's and his KO's and times he was stopped came out a bit high. The changes I made pulled those numbers in closer to his real stats. But overall a great job rating Buck by Rasmuth even if you leave all his original ratings. What you build a test schedule with of course can alter results from one tester's results to another.


Defeated Johnny Featherman, Billy Marsh twice, drew twice with Andy Kendall, lost to Roger Rouse, lost to Kendall and lost to Pierre Fourie in his last career fight to name some guys we've seen in the game.

Edmund Deroches - Canada Rating 1
Middleweight 1965-68

1 win / 2 losses / 0 draw / 1 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Defeated MW - Jim Meilleur(9-17-2) in his first fight in April 1965, loosing a 6 round decision. Did not fight again til January 1967 when he KO'd Larry Buck in the 2nd round. Buck was 4-0-1 at the time. Edmund fought 1 more time in his career, a 2nd round KO loss to MW-Gary Broughton(30-47-6).

The Fight....

The outcome of this fight in 1967 would seem to be very surprising. Buck, a decent LHW of the 60’s to early 70’s was of course very early in his career and thus quite inexperienced. Deroches on the other hand, a Middleweight had only 1 career fight according to BoxRec up to this time, a 6 round decision loss back in April 1965! I would think Buck would handle Deroches, but in reality, Deroches knocked out Buck in the 2nd round of the scheduled 6 rounder!!
In our replay fight, I set Buck to Beginning career stage and left Deroches at prime. It was really no contest. Buck had a knockdown of Deroches in the 2nd round and while Edmund staged a bit of a comeback in the 4th round, it could not do enough to ward off a Unanimous Decision loss to Buck, 59-55, 59-54, and 59-54 on judges cards.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/10/67 Tuesday
Tacoma, WA, USA
Tony Anchondo – HW (1-8-0) vs. George Gaston – LHW (5-2-0)

Tony Achondo - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1962-71

3 wins / 15 losses / 0 draw / 0 KO

Alias: Antonio
Hometown: Tucson, AZ

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Glass jaw Anchondo is probably what they should have called this guy. Stopped 10 times in his 15 losses and those were all knockouts. In his first pro fight in August 1962 he was KO'd in the 4th round by middleweight Leonard Coleman(15-7-0,10KO). Tony didn't fight again till March 1965 when he climbed into the ring against Elmer Rush whom we've rated into the game. Rush KO'd Tony in the first round. He managed a 6 round decision over a Clifford Gray(3-23-2), then lost his next 8 fights, 5 by KO. Those losses included ones against Archie Ray and Tony(Kid) Longoria(20-1-2). He lost two consecutive fights to George Gaston(6-4-0).

Nothing much else to note in Anchondo's career. He won two fights in a row and then lost his last 5 decision with 1 no decision fight. Only opponent of any kind of note was a Bowie Adams who sported a 22-12-4 career record. Bowie's defeat of Anchondo happened to be his last career fight and then he lost his last 8 fights.

George Gaston - USA Rating 2
Light Heavyweight 1964-67

6 wins / 4 losses / 0 draw / 3 KO

Hometown: Seattle, WA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Won his first 4 professional fights including a 2nd round KO of Leroy (Roy) Smith(20-26-5). Lost 2 straight fights by KO to Roger Rouse and Joey Orbillo(17-4-1). Next up was his two fights with Tony Anchondo whom he KO'd in both fights. Lost his last two career fights both in May of 1967, the first one a 6 round decision to Bill Hardney whom we rated into the game and then was KO'd in the 1st round by Ray (Junior) Ellis(6-12-0).

The Fight.....

These two fought just the month previous on December 13th, 1966 also in Tacoma with Gaston dropping Anchondo in the 5th round. Their 2nd bout here in January, I’ll take it to have been a scheduled 8 rounder. It lasted early into the 7th round when at the 0:39 mark, Anchondo was counted out for this 9th loss and Gaston’s 6th victory and what would turn out to be his final career win.
The replay fight was not even what the real thing was. Gaston packed some punch apparently with 3 of his 6 wins being KO’s. That was not a good mix with Anchondo’s glass jaw. The first round actually was very close and Anchondo showed himself well. Tony built himself an advantage through the first couple of minutes with some jabs and hooks landing then held off Gaston’s late rally to actually having won that round on all three judges cards 10-9. The 2nd round though Gaston backpedals into a neutral corner starting out the round and picks off an Anchondo jab then wards off a hard shot by Tony. Gaston quickly counters with a huge uppercut that catches Tony clean and Anchondo goes down for the count. A KO victory for George Gaston at the 0:50 mark of the 2nd round!

That ends our action here on this Tuesday in January of the year 1967. Coming up on Wednesday the 11th, not a lot of fights on hand, but one big match up in San Francisco we’ll be looking at as Jerry Quarry (20-1-3) will be taking on Memphis Al Jones (2-8-2). We’ll see you there soon!

[IceTea]

Alonzo Highsmith HW 27-1-2 23 KOs

I watched him fight a few times on USA way back when and thought he was just, OK. He does diserve props for a KO of Mark Gastineau.

MJ