By Brent Matteo Alderson
After pondering Kelly Pavlik’s achievements, I realized that there was a dearth of accomplished American-born Caucasians fighters. In fact, Kelly Pavlik is the only Caucasian American-born fighter since the 1960’s that has without question established himself as the best fighter in his weight class.
Historically boxing has always attracted fighters from the lower socio-economic rungs and through the first 60 years of the 20th century “white” fighters regularly competed at the sports most elite levels. Many of these fighters came from different immigrants groups which hadn’t completely assimilated into American society. Jewish fighters such as Barney Ross and Benny Leonard and American-Italians such as Willie Pep and Jake La Motta all achieved an enormous amount of success. Even Stanley Ketchel whose real name was Stanislaw Kiecal was of Polish origins.
Due to a number of factors which include a decline in European immigration, American born fighters of European origin have become a rare breed and successful ones even more rare. Despite the lack of truly great American fighters of European ancestry, I’m going to rank the best one’s of the last quarter century and I’m going to call the list “Boxing’s Baddest White boys.”
Timeline of 1983 to 2008
1. Kelly Pavlik - I must say I was very biased in my early appraisal of Pavlik. Even after he beat contender after contender I doubted his ability and was sure that Jermaine Taylor would have his hand raised in triumph after their first encounter and even after Kelly stopped Taylor, I thought he was lucky to have escaped Jermain’s assault in the first round and figured Pavlik would lose the return match, yet Kelly proved me wrong again. Now with out reservations I rate Pavlik as the best Caucasian American-born fighter of the last twenty-five years and the best since Joey Giardello in the 1960’s.
Pavlik is an enigma in every sense of the word. In a 1995 interview Nigel Benn spoke about Gerald McClellan’s punching power, “I couldn’t believe it, this guy didn’t look like he had all these muscles but he hit so hard. Tommy Hearns was skinny, but he had freaky muscles everywhere. This kid looked weak, but woo, this guy could hit.” Even though Benn was talking about McClellan he could have been talking about Pavlik. Kelly’s ordinary physique and thin frame are deceiving and he hits with unbelievable precision and power. His knock out ratio illustrates how punching power is something that comes naturally from the snap in punches and proper technique and not from artificially developed muscles.
2. Ray Mancini - Mancini was knocked in 1981 by WBC Lightweight champion Alexis Arguello in the 14th round of a very competitive fight. The very next spring in 1982 Mancini annexed the WBA lightweight with a first round knock out over Art Frias. At the time that he won the title, Arguello was still the reigning WBC champion and many insiders scoffed at Mancini’s title claim since he had just been knocked out by the division’s other champion less than a year before. In actuality losing to Arguello shouldn’t be considered a profound stain on his record since there are probably not more than ten guys in the last 35 years that weighed 135 pounds or less that could have beaten Arguello.
After winning the WBA title Mancini defended it four times before losing two fights to Livingstone Bramble, but here’s a lot more to Mancini’s career than wins and losses. Mancini became a household name in the early eighties fighting regularly on national television and won over the public with a sentimental story line about how he wanted to win the title for his father Lenny who was a promising Lightweight in the 1940’s whose dream of becoming a champion was cut short after he was wounded in World War II.
The public and the networks embraced Mancini and his boy-next-door image, but everything changed in November of 1982 when Deuk Koo Kim died as a result of injuries sustained in their bout which was televised nationally. Kim’s death had far reaching implications and the publicized tragedy sparked criticism and negatively impacted the sport’s trajectory. The American Medical Association intensified their attack on the sport, which prompted boxing’s regulatory bodies to reduce title fights from fifteen to twelve rounds.
Much like the death of Benny Paret, the networks significantly reduced their boxing coverage. Even though Mancini was a flawed fighter in many ways, it’s obvious that the tragedy negatively impacted his psyche as well as his career.
Still, even though Ray’s reign wasn’t very lengthy, he made four defenses of the WBA title and had wins over Bobby Chacon, the dangerous Jose Luis Ramirez, and Ernesto Espana. And he gave Arguello one of the toughest fights of his career and after a four year lay off, came back in 1989 to give Camacho a good fight in losing a twelve-round split decision. Also Mancini was never really chased out of the ring and stood competitive with everybody he fought except for when he came out of retirement a second time in 1992. Its close, but I rank Mancini a shade ahead of Haugen because of his competitiveness with Arguello and because of his win over Ramirez who was a perennial top contender in the 135 pound division through out the eighties.
3. Greg Haugen - Haugen is mostly remembered for the beating he took from Julio Cesar Chavez in front of over 136,000 fans in Mexico City in 1993, but Haugen was actually quite an accomplished boxer and from the time when he was competing against men over 200-pounds in Alaskan Tough-man contests to when he called Vinny Pazienza’s workout buddy a steroid monkey, he always made for interesting print.
Greg was also a very good fighter and legitimately one of the best fighters in the lightweight division in the mid-eighties. He upset the then highly regarded Jimmy Paul for the IBF 135 pound title and then immediately lost the title by controversial decision to Vinny Pazienza in his home town of Providence. Haugen won the return match with Vinny and made two defenses before losing the title to Pernell Whitaker. Two years later in 1990 Greg shocked the boxing world by handing a 38-0 Hector Camacho his first career loss. The bout would have been scored a draw, but at the start of the twelfth and final round, Haugen refused to touch gloves which prompted the Macho Man to pity-pat punch Haugen in the face, which caused the referee to deduct a point from Camacho. All in all Haugen had a pretty good career. He won the IBF 135 title from an established champion at a time when there were only three alphabet titles and he lost that title to one of the greatest fighters of all time. Even though Camacho never lived up to his potential, the Macho Man came into their bout with a 38-0 record and was still perceived as one of the sport's stars. Also Haugen’s non-title opposition was pretty strong. He knocked out Charles White Lighting Brown in one round and upset a couple of guys he wasn’t supposed to beat on the way up.
A year before he fought Chavez, he sent Ray Mancini into permanent retirement on the Tough Guys Don’t Dance Pay Per View card. The main reason why Haugen is ranked so highly is that Caucasian fighters tend to benefit from strategic matchmaking and always seem to use their status as rare commodities to elude tough challenges, and Haugen never received that type of preferential treatment. He fought the best and fought his way to the top of the 135 and 140 pound divisions.
4. Bobby Czyz - I’m surprised someone hasn’t made a movie about Bobby Czyz’s life. At the beginning of his career he was the undefeated matinee ideal fighting on NBC as one of Tomorrow’s stars and carried the title of “white, bright, and polite.” The fact that he graduated at the top of his High School class and openly stated that he chose boxing over a possible career in medicine further differentiated him from other up-and-coming boxers.
After teeing off 20 straight wins he was upset by the always formidable Mustafa Hamsho. Then after getting his career back on track and coming to terms with his father’s suicide Bobby moved up to Light-Heavy and won the IBF 175 pound title. He made three defenses then was upset by Charles Williams in a thriller. After losing two of his next four fights Czyz retired and took a stab at the restaurant business. He came back to the sport a year later and surprised the boxing world by handing Andrew Maynard, an undefeated Gold medalist from the famed 1988 team, his first loss. That victory lead to a title shot against Robert Daniels for the WBA cruiserweight title which Bobby won by a close decision. He made two defenses of that title before vacating it due to injuries allegedly sustained in a car accident. At the time a number of observers thought that Czyz was purposefully dodging Orlin Norris, his mandatory.
After dealing with his chronic back injuries Bobby moved up to heavyweight and earned a couple of decent paydays in losses to Evander Holyfield and Corrie Sanders. The Holyfield fight is infamous because right before his corner stopped the fight, Czyz and his trainer were heard arguing about the reason they were stopping the fight, one of them said “it’s your back” while the other said,”it’s the eyes.”
Towards the end of his boxing career Czyz began working as an analyst for Showtime Championship boxing and was fairly successful and effective. He always tried to display his intelligence and talk about how “velocity and mass equal power.” Czyz couldn’t stay away from the bottle and was let go by Viacom after his license was suspended for a reported 20 year period for a ludicrous fourth D.U.I conviction.
Regardless of his personal problems, Bobby had a fairly successful career. He won the IBF 175 pound title by beating Slobodan Kobar, an undefeated Gold medalist who had beaten Eddie Mustafa Muhammed for the vacant title after Michael Spinks moved up to heavyweight. He used his experience to outclass, out-guile, and out outfight Andrew Maynard in a situation that was eerily reminiscent of his fight with Hamsho. The win over, Robert Daniels, a bigger younger fighter with some potential was also impressive. In analyzing Bobby’s career and his two world titles, one has to take into account that there were only three titles available. That being said, Bobby never solidified his place at the top of those weight classes and was probably the second or third best fighter in each of those divisions during his time as champion.
A case could be made that Bobby should be ranked ahead of Haugen and Mancini since he fought at the world class level all the way from Middleweight to Heavyweight and engaged in ten legitimate title fights, but I just think Haugen defeated a superior group of fighters and that his wins over Vinny Pazienza, Hector Camacho, Ray Mancini, and Jimmy Paul enable to take the top spot. Also even though Bobby fought some tough guys like Leslie Stewart and Uriah Grant, it always seemed like he used his status as a white fighter to dodge some of the more dangerous challengers (Orlin Norris & Alfred Cole) while Haugen almost always fought the best guys out there.
5. Tommy Morrison - Unlike most of the men on this page, Morrison never won an alphabet title unless you recognized the WBO back in the early nineties. Regardless Morrison had a fairly successful career. Even though it may sound discriminatory, from an economic as well as a historical standpoint, the heavyweight division carries more importance than the other divisions. Look at Michael Moorer, he won the heavyweight title from Holyfield and lost it to Foreman in his first defense and tell me whose career is more relevant in boxing history, Moorer’s or Orlando Canizales, who made 18 defenses of the IBF 118 pound title around the same time? That’s why Tommy is here.
He was a genuine contender in the heavyweight division from 1991 until 1996, during a period when the division was as strong as any other time in history with the exception of the 1970’s. Even though he was pummeled by Mercer in 1991, he had a solid win against Foreman in 1993 and pulled out a barnburner against Razor Ruddock in 1995 to set up a fight with Lennox Lewis. Morrison’s presence helped shape the landscape of the division in the 1990s and his complexion, knock out power, and shaky chin lead to exciting brawls that represented the potential explosiveness of heavyweight boxing.
6. Vinny Pazienza - Vinny Pazienza was a poor man’s Arturo Gatti. He made a lot more money and gained a lot more fame than most fighters with his level of ability. Even though he wasn’t as exciting in the ring as Gatti, he was always charismatic and fought with the heart of a warrior. Pazienza burst on the scene in the mid-eighties with support of the community of Rhode Island as well as a contingent of fans known as Pazmaniacs. Vinny could throw fast multiple punch combinations in what could be described as punches in bunches and always displayed a sturdy chin in the lower weight classes. He won the IBF 135 pound title from Greg Haugen by split decision in the Rhode Island civic center. Most experts felt that Vinny received a home-cooked decision and Paz lost the title to Haugen in an immediate rematch. Afterwards he lost in title bouts to Loreta Garza, Roger Mayweather, and Hector Camacho.
Then after a rejuvenating break, Vinny moved up in weight and defeated Gilbert Dele for the WBA 154 pound championship in a surprise win on the USA network. Unfortunately six weeks later he got into a car accident that left him with broken vertebrae as well as a metal halo bolted into his head. Amazingly Pazienza worked out in the contraption and came back and fought before the end of the year. Considering the injuries he sustained, his comeback was miraculous especially after taking into account that he did it in less than a year. After the accident Vinny fought commercially appealing fights that generally weren’t at the elite world class level. He fought two fights with an ancient Roberto Duran, a shot Lloyd Honeyghan, and was destroyed by Roy Jones Jr.
The fight that stands out during that part of his career is his win over Dana Rosenblatt. Bob Arum was promoting Dana and said that his dream “was to have Oscar De La Hoya fight Dana Rosenblatt for the middleweight title,” and he was maneuvering Dana’s career brilliantly and matched him with Vinny so he could put a former world champion on the kid’s resume. Dana performed excellent in the first four rounds, rocking Paz with straight lefts and busting up his eye with a jab, then in the fourth Vinny hit him and had him out on the ropes and kept hitting him, even knocking down the referee as he continued his assault. That episode exemplified Vinny’s competitive spirit and warrior mentality that attracted a legion of loyal followers and helped him remain a commercial success for over a ten-year period.
7. Paul Spadafora - He had a very successful career. He won the IBF 135-pound title that Shane Mosley had vacated with an impressive win over Israel Cardona in 1999. At the time of the bout, Cardona was somewhat favored since he had scored a 3rd round knocked out over Ivan Robinson who had recently beaten Arturo Gatti twice. In all Spadafora made eight successful defenses of the title which included a draw with the WBA 135 pound Champion, Leonard Dorin, in a rare unification bout. He also holds solid title wins over Angel Manfredy and Victoriano Sosa, probably his most reputable challengers. Spadafora’s championship run was cut short due to legal problems that ranged from domestic problems to drug use and is still undefeated and active today, although he isn’t currently considered to be one of the top 135 or 140 pounders in the world.
As champion, Paul was swift-afoot and would give his opponents a variety of angles. He was just a real tricky southpaw and was extremely fast for a “white fighter” and his style alone beat a lot of guys. There are some negatives. He lacked punching power and his quality of opposition was marginal and he never solidified his position as the number one lightweight in the world. During Paul’s tenure as champion, Stevie Johnston, Jose Luis Castillo, and Floyd Mayweather shared the WBC title and any odds maker in Vegas would have made Spadafora at least a 3 to 1 underdog against any of one of those guys. Still Paul did engage in a unification bout with Leonard Dorin who is underrated on these shores, partly because he suffered a second round knock out at the hands of Gatti, but Dorin was an Olympic bronze medalist and came into their fight undefeated.
Spadafora would have been ranked higher, but Angel Manfredy is probably the best fighter Paul beat, and Manfredy had already lost to Mayweather, Corrales, and Stevie Johnston and he won that decision by three scores of 115-113 in his hometown of Pittsburg. Even though he had more defenses than Pazienza and Haugen combined, they fought a higher caliber of opposition and most experts would favor both of those fighters in their primes over a prime Spadafora.
8. Micky Ward - Mickey Ward never won an alphabet title and in his only title fight against Vince Philips, the bout was prematurely stopped because of a cut and Micky never received another chance to fight for a world title. Still Micky competed at the world class level for years and from 1997 until his retirement in 2003, he was definitely one of the world’s ten best 140-pound fighters. In 1997 after falling behind on points he knocked out an undefeated Alfonso Sanchez with a body shot. Then in 1999 he defeated Reggie Green and in 2000 knocked out a 22-0 Shea Neary and then lost a hotly contested decision to Antonio Diaz.
In 2001 he engaged in a war with Emanuel Augustus which won Ring Magazine’s "Fight of the Year" honors. In 2002 after being on the wrong side of a technical decision against James Leija, he beat Arturo Gatti in such an inspiring brawl, it received accolades comparable to the Graziano-Zale battles that occurred over fifty-years earlier. The next year Ward closed out his last year in the game with two memorable losses to Gatti. The first and the third fights with Arturo also earned Ring Magazine Fight of the Year honors. At the end of the day even though Mickey didn’t win an actual world title, he rumbled with a number of contenders and beat a handful of them and took part in a modern day trilogy that brought boxing back into the hearts and minds of the casual sports fan for three magical nights.
9. Clarence Adams - Bones Adams challenged Orlando Canizales for the IBF 118 pound title when he was 17 years old and gave a spirited effort before he was stopped with a broken jaw in the eleventh. After a patch of rough losses, he rebounded in 2000 to win the WBA super bantamweight title from Nestor Garza. He made two defenses before being stripped of the title for fighting Paulie Ayala. Then Bones fought Ayala in two hotly contested battles and most observers felt that he won their first bout. Adams is also significant to this article because around the time of his fights with Ayala, he was photographed wearing a shirt that said something like, “The Baddest White Boy in Boxing.”
10. Darrin Van Horn - He won two alphabet titles, the IBF 154 pound title and the IBF Super Middleweight championship and made one successful defense of the two. Darrin was groomed to become a champion by his father and started boxing at a very young age and had his first professional fight days before his 16th birthday. The one thing I remember about Darren occurred in January of 1992, when he chose to defend his 168 pound IBF title against Iran Barkley who had suffered a detached retina. Barkley viciously took Darren out in two rounds and mocked the reporters that had said he shouldn’t have been allowed to fight by saying, “I could have beaten him with one eye!”
11. Bronco McKart - McKart was a real solid fighter and a genuine 154 pound contender in the mid to late nineties. He beat a near prime Aaron Davis in a real close fight and got a good win over Santos Cardona that earned him the then poorly recognized WBO title on ESPN. McKart may have accomplished more, but he kept running into Winky Wright. First he lost the WBO title to Wright two months after he won it, then after reeling off fourteen straight wins over four years he had to face Winky in an IBF title eliminator. Then again after winning three more fights which included an IBF eliminator, he had to face Wright again for the third time. Over all, Bronco was a well rounded fighter with decent power and probably would have won at least one more alphabet title if it hadn’t been for Winky Wright.
12. Paul Malignaggi - Paul just might beat Hatton in November. Ricky had a tough time in his last fight with Juan Lazcano and Malinaggi is a really slick boxer. Hatton has been making 140 pounds for a long time and if Paul wins that fight he will shoot up this list like a rocket, but right now at this point he hasn’t accomplished enough to merit a higher ranking. He had a major title, but he hasn’t really beaten anybody except for Lovemore D’dou who probably could have gotten the decision in their last fight. In his only step up against an elite world class fighter, Miguel Cotto shut his mouth by actually fracturing his facial structure. Also Malignaggi can’t crack an egg, having only scored five knockouts in 25 wins. There hasn’t been a guy with this lack of fire power since Nicolino Locche was a 140 pound champion in the 1970s, but Paulie is fast, has good footwork and is defensively solid and has the style to frustrate guys, especially someone as crude as Hatton. You know how in the old days manager used to get 1/3 of the fighters purse, I think promoter Lou DiBella deserves an extra 1/3 for getting this guy a world title and multiple opportunities fighting against boxing’s biggest stars.
13. Doug Dewitt - The New Yorker had a decent career and beat a number of contenders such as Robbie Sims, Tony Thorton, and Matthew Hilton and had a chance to rumble with James Toney, Tommy Hearns, Nigel Benn, ad Milton McCory. One of the things that I remember about DeWitt who was a real solid fighter, was that when he and Robbie Sims fought for the vacant WBO Middleweight title in that organization’s inaugural middleweight bout in 1989, Ring Magazine writer Jeff Ryan wrote, “Why don’t they just match the two parking lot attendants for the WBO heavyweight title?” That’s the type of credibility the WBO had in the late eighties and early nineties.
Notes:
Deuk Koo Kim’s mother committed suicide three months after her son passed from the beating he received from Ray Mancini, and the referee, Richard Green, committed suicide nine months after the bout.
I didn’t put Gerry Cooney on the list because of the time frame. Cooney’s career pretty much ended with his loss to Holmes in 1982 and this piece was based on a twenty-five year period from 1983 until 2008.
James “the outlaw” Hughes was a very exciting welterweight in the early nineties and upset a couple of contenders with his grit and determination, but he was one crazy dude and would regularly ripoff local drug dealers. Then one day, one of them got their revenge and his body was found in a swamp.
In terms of boxing match ups, this is going to be a fall to remember.
Nicolino Locche had the coolest nick name, el intocable, the untouchable.
Billy Backus was an American Caucasian fighter and won the welterweight championship of the world from Jose Napoles in the 1970s.
I hope Pavlik dominates and retires Hopkins.
John Ruiz will get another WBA title shot along with another significant payday. I wish I knew what Ruiz has made through out his career. Razor Ruddock was the first fighter in boxing to make eight-figures without having ever fought for a world title. Ruiz just may be the most boring fighter to ever make more than 15 million in a career.
I love heavyweight boxing and attended the first fight between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield in 1992.
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?” Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com