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I tried to have a glance at Elisha Obed (WBC jr. middle champ 1975-76) at his best on youtube, but could only find his downwards battles. Yet another warrior whose efforts have fallen into oblivion.
wiki/boxrec: Elisha Obed was one of the best fighters ever to come out of the Ba*****.
As a child growing up on the island of the Ba*****, Obed's heroes were boxers. He'd go down to the local gym and watch local greats training ... the youngster dreamed of following in his idols' footsteps.
Obed entered the amateur ranks at age twelve. Fighting almost weekly, he ran up an undefeated record of 46-0 (16 knockouts). At 14, he decided to turn professional.
For almost six years, he lingered on small promotions on the island ... but soon Obed was fighting main events.
The experts raved about Obed. His punching power sent shock waves through the junior middleweight division. In 1975, Obed (then 59-1-2) proved the experts correct by winning the WBC title via a knockout of Miguel De Oliveira (43-1-1). In his first title defense, he destroyed "KO King" Tony Gardner, who once had a string of 24 straight knockouts in two rounds.
Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the legend that was Elisha Obed was destroyed. He quit in his title fight against Germany's Eckhard Dagge. (Obed claimed he had blurred vision, stating that he had been thumbed in the eye by Dagge. In actuality, he was later found to have a detached retina and is legally blind in that eye.)
Obed decided to enter the middleweight ranks. He started to lose. He began getting knocked out. By 27, he was back to where he started from, fighting on local fight cards in Nassau.
The Nassau Guardian, 2012: Everett "Elisha Obed" Ferguson is now 60. Today, he's not even a glimpse of his boxing peak years. In fact, he struggles to walk, his speech is slow and he needs assistance to get through each day.
wiki/boxrec: Elisha Obed was one of the best fighters ever to come out of the Ba*****.
As a child growing up on the island of the Ba*****, Obed's heroes were boxers. He'd go down to the local gym and watch local greats training ... the youngster dreamed of following in his idols' footsteps.
Obed entered the amateur ranks at age twelve. Fighting almost weekly, he ran up an undefeated record of 46-0 (16 knockouts). At 14, he decided to turn professional.
For almost six years, he lingered on small promotions on the island ... but soon Obed was fighting main events.
The experts raved about Obed. His punching power sent shock waves through the junior middleweight division. In 1975, Obed (then 59-1-2) proved the experts correct by winning the WBC title via a knockout of Miguel De Oliveira (43-1-1). In his first title defense, he destroyed "KO King" Tony Gardner, who once had a string of 24 straight knockouts in two rounds.
Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the legend that was Elisha Obed was destroyed. He quit in his title fight against Germany's Eckhard Dagge. (Obed claimed he had blurred vision, stating that he had been thumbed in the eye by Dagge. In actuality, he was later found to have a detached retina and is legally blind in that eye.)
Obed decided to enter the middleweight ranks. He started to lose. He began getting knocked out. By 27, he was back to where he started from, fighting on local fight cards in Nassau.
The Nassau Guardian, 2012: Everett "Elisha Obed" Ferguson is now 60. Today, he's not even a glimpse of his boxing peak years. In fact, he struggles to walk, his speech is slow and he needs assistance to get through each day.
edgarg
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