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The following is a side story I am going to put in my book (I will edit it more, of course). Buster-GREAT guy.
Championship Flashback, January 10, 1992: One of the coolest boxers I have ever had the pleasure to meet in this game is former IBF 154 pound world champion Buster Drayton from Philadelphia. Bus and I first became friendly back in late 1991 when we both were in camp with none other than Roy Jones Jr. I was excited, too, when I first got to meet and hang out with him after the gym each night because Buster was a guy who I had watched many times over the years on national television. Among other fights, I had seen his totally unexpected knockout of heavily favored Clint Jackson on ESPN in 1983 and also his stoppage over Mark Kaylor in 1984 on NBC one Saturday afternoon.
So as boxers often do in the midst of training camps, we hung out quite a bit during down time and I was very pleased to find in Buster an extremely friendly guy who a stranger might never in a million years guess was a professional boxer. As calm, cool, and collected out of the ring and he was aggressive and hungry in it.
Now one thing in particular that is so cool about Buster is that he is a very classy individual, a stylish type of person outside the ring whose proud, yet laid back, demeanor is something to the extent that I have seen in very few people in my life.
So when we hit New York City in early 1992 for Roy's fight at Madison Square Garden it was no surprise that when fight night came and we were all getting ready to head over to the arena to see what amounted to Roy's coming out party on Pay-Per-View Buster stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby of our hotel wearing a sharply tailored Tuxedo!! I remember looking down at my jean overalls and yellow/gray sweat jacket and thinking how this, apparently, was the difference at that point between myself (an up and comer) and him (a former world champion).
We head across the street and into the arena where we find ourselves standing at the top of the middle level, on the landing that sits between the ringside seats and the upper level seats. After a short conversation I see these two young guys, maybe early twenties, approach him and instinctively I assumed they recognized him and wanted his autograph. I mean, it made sense, you know? We were at a big fight in the biggest venue in the world that was saturated with tons of boxing fans, many of whom were highly anticipating meeting someone just like Buster.
I kind of stepped back a little bit, I knew they weren't there for me, and watched the whole scene unfold. It must be pretty cool, I thought, to have some fans approach you at a fight for your autograph.
One of the guys approaches Bus who is standing there smiling at them, probably anticipating the same thing I am from them, and hands him something. A piece of paper, I assume. The champ caught on before I did, though, and I heard him say, "Uh, no...no....I don't work here." It took me a quick second then to realize what had just happened. Basically the guy had seen Buster Drayton standing there in his tuxedo at the top of the section, right at the beginning of the last aisle of seats, and assumed he was an usher working for Madison Square Garden and he handed him his ticket so he could be directed to his seat.
Well, that did it. I looked at Bus and he looked back at me before I busted out laughing so hard that he almost instantly rushed me (he was laughing, too), causing me to take off with the champ in hot pursuit down the corridor leading back out to the MSG lobby. He caught me, though, before I reached the door and we (playfully) wrestled around for a few seconds before I promised him that I wouldn't tell anybody.
Well, I just checked and that was more than fifteen years ago and the tuxedo/usher statute of limitations ran out several years ago (sorry, champ, it's the law).
Championship Flashback, January 10, 1992: One of the coolest boxers I have ever had the pleasure to meet in this game is former IBF 154 pound world champion Buster Drayton from Philadelphia. Bus and I first became friendly back in late 1991 when we both were in camp with none other than Roy Jones Jr. I was excited, too, when I first got to meet and hang out with him after the gym each night because Buster was a guy who I had watched many times over the years on national television. Among other fights, I had seen his totally unexpected knockout of heavily favored Clint Jackson on ESPN in 1983 and also his stoppage over Mark Kaylor in 1984 on NBC one Saturday afternoon.
So as boxers often do in the midst of training camps, we hung out quite a bit during down time and I was very pleased to find in Buster an extremely friendly guy who a stranger might never in a million years guess was a professional boxer. As calm, cool, and collected out of the ring and he was aggressive and hungry in it.
Now one thing in particular that is so cool about Buster is that he is a very classy individual, a stylish type of person outside the ring whose proud, yet laid back, demeanor is something to the extent that I have seen in very few people in my life.
So when we hit New York City in early 1992 for Roy's fight at Madison Square Garden it was no surprise that when fight night came and we were all getting ready to head over to the arena to see what amounted to Roy's coming out party on Pay-Per-View Buster stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby of our hotel wearing a sharply tailored Tuxedo!! I remember looking down at my jean overalls and yellow/gray sweat jacket and thinking how this, apparently, was the difference at that point between myself (an up and comer) and him (a former world champion).
We head across the street and into the arena where we find ourselves standing at the top of the middle level, on the landing that sits between the ringside seats and the upper level seats. After a short conversation I see these two young guys, maybe early twenties, approach him and instinctively I assumed they recognized him and wanted his autograph. I mean, it made sense, you know? We were at a big fight in the biggest venue in the world that was saturated with tons of boxing fans, many of whom were highly anticipating meeting someone just like Buster.
I kind of stepped back a little bit, I knew they weren't there for me, and watched the whole scene unfold. It must be pretty cool, I thought, to have some fans approach you at a fight for your autograph.
One of the guys approaches Bus who is standing there smiling at them, probably anticipating the same thing I am from them, and hands him something. A piece of paper, I assume. The champ caught on before I did, though, and I heard him say, "Uh, no...no....I don't work here." It took me a quick second then to realize what had just happened. Basically the guy had seen Buster Drayton standing there in his tuxedo at the top of the section, right at the beginning of the last aisle of seats, and assumed he was an usher working for Madison Square Garden and he handed him his ticket so he could be directed to his seat.
Well, that did it. I looked at Bus and he looked back at me before I busted out laughing so hard that he almost instantly rushed me (he was laughing, too), causing me to take off with the champ in hot pursuit down the corridor leading back out to the MSG lobby. He caught me, though, before I reached the door and we (playfully) wrestled around for a few seconds before I promised him that I wouldn't tell anybody.
Well, I just checked and that was more than fifteen years ago and the tuxedo/usher statute of limitations ran out several years ago (sorry, champ, it's the law).
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