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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Boxing fans of a certain age still remember the 1976 U.S. Olympic team.
Those Americans took Montreal by storm over two weeks in late July, winning seven medals in 11 weight classes -- besting Cubans and Russians along the way -- including golds that ultimately helped launch the championship-level pro careers of Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks and Ray Leonard.
But what many don’t recall is the U.S. fighter who was named the tournament’s best.
That was Howard Davis Jr., a Long Island native who earned both his gold and the Val Barker Trophy just days after the death of his mother, and went on to enjoy a pro career that spanned 19 years and yielded 36 wins in 43 fights before ending in 1996.
He’s remained in close contact with the sports world for the two decades since his retirement, initially as a boxing trainer for mixed martial arts fighters and later as owner of Fight Time Promotions -- a Florida-based organization whose MMA events have been televised nationally by CBS Sports Network.
The headlines Davis has earned lately, however, are ones he’d just as soon do without.
Now 59 and a life-long non-smoker, he was diagnosed just days before his birthday with Stage IV lung cancer, which, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, means the disease has spread to more than one area in the other lung, the fluid surrounding the lung or the heart or distant parts of the body through the bloodstream. Once released in the blood, it can spread anywhere in the body, but is most likely to spread to the brain, bones, liver and adrenal glands.
Since receiving the news, Davis and his wife, Karla, have been a picture of perpetual motion. They launched the Howard Davis Jr. Foundation in the summer with an aim toward helping others with similar diagnoses ease the financial burdens created by non-traditional therapies not covered by insurance. [Click Here To Read More]
Those Americans took Montreal by storm over two weeks in late July, winning seven medals in 11 weight classes -- besting Cubans and Russians along the way -- including golds that ultimately helped launch the championship-level pro careers of Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks and Ray Leonard.
But what many don’t recall is the U.S. fighter who was named the tournament’s best.
That was Howard Davis Jr., a Long Island native who earned both his gold and the Val Barker Trophy just days after the death of his mother, and went on to enjoy a pro career that spanned 19 years and yielded 36 wins in 43 fights before ending in 1996.
He’s remained in close contact with the sports world for the two decades since his retirement, initially as a boxing trainer for mixed martial arts fighters and later as owner of Fight Time Promotions -- a Florida-based organization whose MMA events have been televised nationally by CBS Sports Network.
The headlines Davis has earned lately, however, are ones he’d just as soon do without.
Now 59 and a life-long non-smoker, he was diagnosed just days before his birthday with Stage IV lung cancer, which, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, means the disease has spread to more than one area in the other lung, the fluid surrounding the lung or the heart or distant parts of the body through the bloodstream. Once released in the blood, it can spread anywhere in the body, but is most likely to spread to the brain, bones, liver and adrenal glands.
Since receiving the news, Davis and his wife, Karla, have been a picture of perpetual motion. They launched the Howard Davis Jr. Foundation in the summer with an aim toward helping others with similar diagnoses ease the financial burdens created by non-traditional therapies not covered by insurance. [Click Here To Read More]
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