Boxing

Famous Sports Stars

Muhammad Ali Biography - A Stolen Bicycle, The Louisville Lip, A Controversial Champ, In And Out Of The Wilderness - SELECTED WRITINGS BY ALI:

1942- American boxer His nickname, "The Greatest," almost says it all. The fact that it was self-anointed says the rest. Today, Muhammad Ali is the universally admired three-time heavyweight champion, lauded by boxing fans and civil rights leaders, both in America and throughout the world. He is remembered respectfully as the man of principle who threw away his Olympic medal in disgu…

less than 1 minute read

Oscar De La Hoya Biography - Poor Boy, Chronology, Golden Boy, Champion, Awards And Accomplishments, Still The Champion - CONTACT INFORMATION

1973- American boxer Called the "Golden Boy" since he became the only American boxer to win a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Oscar De La Hoya has always had a simple plan in the ring: "You should hit but not get hit," as he once explained it to a Sports Illustrated reporter. The plan seems to be working. By the time of the Olympics, De La Hoya's amate…

1 minute read

George Foreman Biography - More Than Enough Fury, Chronology, Turning Pro, Champion, Difficult Years, Where Is He Now? - CONTACT INFORMATION, SELECTED WRITINGS BY FOREMAN:

1949- American boxer George Foreman The George Foreman of today, genial, gentlemanly, and widely popular, bears little resemblance to his early thuggish person. Indeed, some have called him a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in reverse, who transformed himself from the monster into the good and pleasant fellow. He captured the hearts of boxing fans when he reentered heavyweight compe…

less than 1 minute read

Joe Frazier Biography - South Carolina Childhood, Chronology, Olympic Gold Medalist, Monumental Fights Against Ali And Foreman, Awards And Accomplishments - SELECTED WRITINGS BY FRAZIER:

1944- American boxer Joe Frazier Holder of the unified World Heavyweight Champion title from 1970 to 1973, Joe Frazier is best remembered for the title fight that he lost to Muhammad Ali in the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. Yet his matches with Ali were only part of the rags-to-riches story of Frazier's life. Growing up in the rural community of Laurel Bay, South Carolin…

1 minute read

Rocky Graziano Biography - Rough-and-tumble Childhood, Professional Debut In 1942, Classic Series With Tony Zale

1922-1990 American boxer In his ten years as a professional boxer, Rocky Graziano held the title of World Middleweight Champion for less than a year; yet he remained one of the most famous athletes in the sport through the time of his death in 1990. Indeed, the 1955 film adaptation of his autobiography, Somebody Up There Likes Me, a series of appearances on comedy shows and television advertisemen…

1 minute read

Evander Holyfield Biography - "you Finish It Out", The Rise Of A Boxer, Chronology, A Plethora Of Titles - SELECTED WRITINGS BY HOLYFIELD:

1962- American boxer Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield is a three-time world heavyweight champion who consistently beat heavier opponents through determination and faith in himself. But for many, he will always be the man who got his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson. That event actually was a perfect illustration of the differences between Holyfield's calm, professional style and that …

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Sugar Ray Leonard Biography - Chronology, Olympic Glory, Awards And Accomplishments, 'everything I Did Worked', Ringside Politics, Where Is He Now? - CONTACT INFORMATION

1956- American boxer Olympic gold medallist Sugar Ray Leonard generated broad interest in the sport of boxing during the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1981 he beat Thomas Hearns for the unification of the WBC and WBA world welterweight titles, winning a prize purse of more than $10 million. It was an unprecedented sum for a welter-weight bout, in a sport where the spoils of fame rested traditionall…

2 minute read

Lennox Lewis Biography - Introduced To Boxing, Success As Amateur Boxer, Turned Professional As A Boxer, Won First Professional Title - CONTACT INFORMATION

1965- British boxer In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lennox Lewis was the boxing heavyweight champion of the world. He was Great Britain's first heavyweight champion since 1897 when he became the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion in 1993. After not posting a loss in his 109 amateur bouts, Lewis had a professional record of 40-2-1 through 2002. While Lewis had a great right, he oft…

1 minute read

Sonny Liston Biography - Birth Of A Prison Boxer, From The Big House To The Big Time, Chronology, The Champ Nobody Wanted

1932-1970 American boxer When Sonny Liston became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Floyd Patterson in 1962, he hoped his criminal past and unsavory reputation could be put behind him. It was too late. At a time of growing racial unrest, he was cast in the public imagination as the angry, dangerous black man. Even the NAACP had asked "good guy" Floyd Patterson not to…

1 minute read

Joe Louis Biography - Growing Up, The Amateur Years, Turning Pro, Chronology, The Brown Bomber, Awards And Accomplishments - SELECTED WRITINGS BY LOUIS:

1914-1981 American boxer In his day, heavyweight champion Joe Louis was the most famous black man in America, virtually the only one who regularly appeared in the white newspapers. By breaking the color barrier that had been imposed on boxing after black heavyweight Jack Johnson outraged white sensibilities, Joe Louis began a process that would eventually open all of big-league sports to black ath…

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Christy Martin Biography - Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments, Further Information

1969- American boxer Christy Martin, named the best woman boxer in the world by the World Boxing Council in 1996, has, in the words of Bob Raissman, writing in the Daily News of New York, "put women's boxing on the map." Represented by the famous promoter Don King, Martin has worked to bring the sport of woman's boxing from the status of a fringe or novelty sport into w…

4 minute read

Archie Moore Biography - Grew Up In St. Louis, Makes Professional Debut, Chronology, Wins Light-heavyweight Title In 1952 - SELECTED WRITINGS BY MOORE:

1913-1998 American boxer Archie Moore was one of the most colorful and respected figures in the modern history of boxing. His professional career, which included well over 200 bouts, spanned from 1936 to 1963 and included matches against Rocky Marciano, Cassius Clay (as Muhammad Ali was then called), and Floyd Patterson. The world light-heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1962, Moore's most n…

1 minute read

Max Schmeling Biography - Born In German Village Of Uckermark, Faces Off Against U.s. Boxers, Chronology - SELECTED WRITINGS BY SCHMELING:

1905- German boxer Widely vilified as a willing propaganda tool of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, Max Schmeling was Max Schmeling nevertheless one of Europe's greatest boxers of all time. His professional career stretched from 1924 to 1948, during which time he compiled a career record of fifty-six wins, ten losses, and four ties. World Heavyweight Champion from 1930 to 1932, Sch…

1 minute read

Felix Trinidad Biography - A Power Puncher, Welterweight Champion, Chronology, Don King's Middleweight Tournament, Awards And Accomplishments

1973- American boxer Throughout most of the 1990s Felix Trinidad was perhaps the most underrated professional boxer in the world. In a sport where the heavyweights get most of the publicity, recognition of Trinidad was hampered further by the more glamorous of the smaller champions. By the end of the decade, however, Trinidad proved he was a fighter to be reckoned with. Felix "Tito" …

less than 1 minute read

Gene Tunney Biography - A Boxing New Yorker, First North America, Then The World, Chronology, The "battle Of The Long Count" - SELECTED WRITINGS BY TUNNEY:

1897-1978 American boxer Considered one of the giants of sports in the 1920s, Gene Tunney became heavyweight boxing champion of the world when he defeated Jack Dempsey in 1926. In a rematch with Dempsey in 1927, Tunney held on to his title in the hotly debated "battle of the long count," Gene Tunney in which Tunney got the benefit of an extra long count when the referee, follo…

less than 1 minute read

Mike Tyson - Mike Finds A Mentor, Iron Mike, Chronology, The Troubled Champ, Related Biography: Trainer Cus D'amato - CONTACT INFORMATION

1966- American boxer He was one of the best, and he blew it. The youngest heavyweight champion in history, the most inspiring champ since Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson became the most notorious modern boxer when he went to jail for rape, and then, in his comeback tour, for biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear. Even before that, Tyson was the man who bragged about wanting to kill his opp…

less than 1 minute read

Jersey Joe Walcott Biography - Born In Merchantville, New Jersey, Blackburn Takes Over As Trainer, Loses To Four Top-ranked Fighters

1914-1994 American boxer One of the most persistent boxers of the 20th century, Jersey Joe Walcott refused to give up his dream of winning the world heavyweight title. Long after most boxers would have abandoned all hope, Walcott battled on. On July 18, 1951, he became, at the age of thirty-seven, the oldest boxer ever to become the heavyweight champ, knocking out Ezzard Charles in the seventh rou…

less than 1 minute read

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