“I Was Cocky . . . But Damn, I was Good!”
The Bob Foster Story
By chris cozzone
http://www.newmexicoboxing.com/histo...bobfoster.html
The Bob Foster Story
By chris cozzone
http://www.newmexicoboxing.com/histo...bobfoster.html
Not only is Bob Foster the greatest fighter to ever come out of New Mexico, but this Hall of Famer is considered by many to be the greatest light heavyweight in the history of sport.
In a career that spanned 65 fights and 17 years, Bob Foster punched his way to the light heavyweight championship, then defended his undisputed title a record number of times for his class—14 times—between ’69 and ’73. Whereas most world champions nowadays balk at giving up 4 or 5 pounds, let alone 40, Foster was a risk-taker, taking the leap into the heavyweight division to fight the era’s giants: guys like Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. The only losses on his record are to heavyweights. As a light heavy, Foster was untouchable.
Foster retired undefeated in 1974, then returned to the ring for seven fights before he called it quits for good in ’78. His record was 56-8-1, with 46 knockouts.
Foster took up a career in law enforcement after he was finished with boxing. Now 63 years old, Foster continues to work and live in Albuquerque, his hometown . . . .
"Where’d that skinny little S.O.B. learn to punch . . . ?"
When Bob Foster was in high school, he got into a fight and with a single punch, and fractured the other kid’s skull. It got him kicked out of school.
“I had to go before the judge,” says Foster. “I was scared to death! My mother told me, ‘Quit hittin’ those guys and push them or slap them instead.’ I said, ‘Why? They ain’t slapping me! They’re trying to hurt me, why shouldn’t I hit them?’”
Fighting was a means of defense for Bob Foster, who grew up in the Chicano-dominated South Valley of Albuquerque. He says he fought often—and early on, he was “laying guys out.”
“But I never thought about no punching power. I’d just get in there and throw punches . . .”
It wasn’t until Foster was in the Air Force that his value as a fighter was realized. After enlisting in the military after high school in ’57, Foster made the Air Force’s boxing team. For the next four years, that’s all he would do—box. And in over 100 fights, Foster would win all but three.
“That’s all we did in the military was box. We traveled all over the world. We went to England and cleaned up. Fought in Downtown, DC in the National Golden Gloves; cleaned up there, too. After we passed through, they wouldn’t let us in the Gloves no more. I fought this guy named Jimmy Bush—one bad dude. But I hit him with a right uppercut and bam! It looked like he was doing a dance, his legs moving all over the place before he finally fell over. I always could punch—one time I hit a big Marine and with one shot, broke both his jawbones. I remember those days good . . . We were some baaddd amateurs in the Air Force. A damn good team.”
Foster would win the light heavyweight division in the Pan American Games. It was while fighting in the Pan American Games that Foster first came across Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay.
“We were in the auditorium in Chicago. Ali was sitting behind me but I didn’t know it. I heard this loudmouth talking loud and turned to my friend, ‘Who’s that guy back there?’ I asked. He said, ‘That’s Cassius Clay.’ I said, ‘Who the hell is Cassius Clay?’ ‘Well, he’s supposed to be a pretty good fighter.’ And he was a good fighter. That guy would hit you, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! And then he was gone . . .”
It would be Clay, not Foster, who’d get the light heavy spot for the Olympics.
“They wanted to drop me down to middleweight,” recalls Foster. “I said, ‘How the hell am I gonna make middleweight?’ I was 6’3”—how was I gonna get to 160? I couldn’t make it and they took Ali as a light heavy. What they should’ve done is take Ali as a heavyweight. They screwed the whole thing up. They took a friend of mine, Eddie Crook for middleweight and for heavyweight, they took a guy named Lennie More from the Air Force. Hell, I used to spank his butt every day we sparred. He was a big, dumb heavyweight, big and slow.”
Ali went on to win the gold medal in the Olympics.
Foster stayed on for another year, still in big demand by the military. He continued to train and box in D.C. where he was stationed at Bolling Air Force Base.
“They used to bring all the pros down to the base to box with us. One day, my trainers said, ‘Bob, you’re gonna box with Clarence Hinnant.’ I said, ‘Box with who?’
“Man, I was cocky back then, being the Air Force’s light heavyweight champion, and the Pan American champ and all that.
“While I was putting on my shoes, I asked this guy, ‘Hey Mack, who’s this Clarence Hinnant guy?’ He said Hinnant was the #2 light heavyweight contender.
“‘You mean he’s a pro? Oh Lordy . . .’
“I got in there and Hinnant spanked my butt. I was scared to death. Actually, I was a little nervous, not really scared, working with a professional. I didn’t know what to do. Every time I did something, this guy had something to deal with it. I’d throw a punch and he’d sit there and whap!whap!whap!, do something back.
“Well, my trainer jumped all over me. He said, ‘Tomorrow, you’re gonna box with him again. He ain’t no different than you. He puts on his pants the same way you do. He’s got two hands just like you got two hands. Hell, you a professional too, you just ain’t signed no papers.’
“Next day we go out there, we started to box. I noticed something when he jabbed, his hands dropped low, so I stepped in there and boom! One shot, put him down.
“Hinnant had been getting ready to fight Yvonne Durelle and if he’d beaten Durelle, he’d get a shot at Archie Moore for the title. But I hit him with that right hand and his left leg went up in the air, his eyes went up in his head and he went down. His trainers jumped in the ring, ‘Hey Clarence, you alright? Clarence, you alright?
‘Yeah, huh? Yeah . . . I’m alright . . . uh-huh . . .’ Hell, he didn’t know where he was! His trainer looked at me, looked at my trainer, Freddy, and said, ‘Who the hell is that skinny kid?’
‘That’s Bob Foster,’ my trainer told him.
‘Well, where’d he learn to punch like that?’
“I’d hit him with that one **** wearing 18 ounce gloves, too. Great big gloves like pillows and I’d knocked him cold.”
Foster was nearing the end of his four years of service around that time.
“When I got close to getting discharged, every branch of the military wanted me; the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy, the Army . . . the Army, though, gave me a better deal. They guaranteed I’d be a master sergeant within 90 days of discharge and they’d move my family and I down to Fort Cameron, KY. I said, ‘That sounds pretty good.’ So, I got discharged from the Air Force and drove down to Kentucky where I stayed on their base on their boxing team. But I only stayed two months. I figured if I’m this damn good where every damn branch of the service wants me, I think I’ll just get out and turn professional. So, that’s what I did.”
It was a good thing that Foster got out when he did:
“Right after I got out, that damn Vietnam war broke out and they sent the whole boxing team from Fort Cameron, KY. They sent all those guys over there and every one of them got killed. Every damn one of ‘em. Man, that hurt . . . .”
In a career that spanned 65 fights and 17 years, Bob Foster punched his way to the light heavyweight championship, then defended his undisputed title a record number of times for his class—14 times—between ’69 and ’73. Whereas most world champions nowadays balk at giving up 4 or 5 pounds, let alone 40, Foster was a risk-taker, taking the leap into the heavyweight division to fight the era’s giants: guys like Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. The only losses on his record are to heavyweights. As a light heavy, Foster was untouchable.
Foster retired undefeated in 1974, then returned to the ring for seven fights before he called it quits for good in ’78. His record was 56-8-1, with 46 knockouts.
Foster took up a career in law enforcement after he was finished with boxing. Now 63 years old, Foster continues to work and live in Albuquerque, his hometown . . . .
"Where’d that skinny little S.O.B. learn to punch . . . ?"
When Bob Foster was in high school, he got into a fight and with a single punch, and fractured the other kid’s skull. It got him kicked out of school.
“I had to go before the judge,” says Foster. “I was scared to death! My mother told me, ‘Quit hittin’ those guys and push them or slap them instead.’ I said, ‘Why? They ain’t slapping me! They’re trying to hurt me, why shouldn’t I hit them?’”
Fighting was a means of defense for Bob Foster, who grew up in the Chicano-dominated South Valley of Albuquerque. He says he fought often—and early on, he was “laying guys out.”
“But I never thought about no punching power. I’d just get in there and throw punches . . .”
It wasn’t until Foster was in the Air Force that his value as a fighter was realized. After enlisting in the military after high school in ’57, Foster made the Air Force’s boxing team. For the next four years, that’s all he would do—box. And in over 100 fights, Foster would win all but three.
“That’s all we did in the military was box. We traveled all over the world. We went to England and cleaned up. Fought in Downtown, DC in the National Golden Gloves; cleaned up there, too. After we passed through, they wouldn’t let us in the Gloves no more. I fought this guy named Jimmy Bush—one bad dude. But I hit him with a right uppercut and bam! It looked like he was doing a dance, his legs moving all over the place before he finally fell over. I always could punch—one time I hit a big Marine and with one shot, broke both his jawbones. I remember those days good . . . We were some baaddd amateurs in the Air Force. A damn good team.”
Foster would win the light heavyweight division in the Pan American Games. It was while fighting in the Pan American Games that Foster first came across Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay.
“We were in the auditorium in Chicago. Ali was sitting behind me but I didn’t know it. I heard this loudmouth talking loud and turned to my friend, ‘Who’s that guy back there?’ I asked. He said, ‘That’s Cassius Clay.’ I said, ‘Who the hell is Cassius Clay?’ ‘Well, he’s supposed to be a pretty good fighter.’ And he was a good fighter. That guy would hit you, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! And then he was gone . . .”
It would be Clay, not Foster, who’d get the light heavy spot for the Olympics.
“They wanted to drop me down to middleweight,” recalls Foster. “I said, ‘How the hell am I gonna make middleweight?’ I was 6’3”—how was I gonna get to 160? I couldn’t make it and they took Ali as a light heavy. What they should’ve done is take Ali as a heavyweight. They screwed the whole thing up. They took a friend of mine, Eddie Crook for middleweight and for heavyweight, they took a guy named Lennie More from the Air Force. Hell, I used to spank his butt every day we sparred. He was a big, dumb heavyweight, big and slow.”
Ali went on to win the gold medal in the Olympics.
Foster stayed on for another year, still in big demand by the military. He continued to train and box in D.C. where he was stationed at Bolling Air Force Base.
“They used to bring all the pros down to the base to box with us. One day, my trainers said, ‘Bob, you’re gonna box with Clarence Hinnant.’ I said, ‘Box with who?’
“Man, I was cocky back then, being the Air Force’s light heavyweight champion, and the Pan American champ and all that.
“While I was putting on my shoes, I asked this guy, ‘Hey Mack, who’s this Clarence Hinnant guy?’ He said Hinnant was the #2 light heavyweight contender.
“‘You mean he’s a pro? Oh Lordy . . .’
“I got in there and Hinnant spanked my butt. I was scared to death. Actually, I was a little nervous, not really scared, working with a professional. I didn’t know what to do. Every time I did something, this guy had something to deal with it. I’d throw a punch and he’d sit there and whap!whap!whap!, do something back.
“Well, my trainer jumped all over me. He said, ‘Tomorrow, you’re gonna box with him again. He ain’t no different than you. He puts on his pants the same way you do. He’s got two hands just like you got two hands. Hell, you a professional too, you just ain’t signed no papers.’
“Next day we go out there, we started to box. I noticed something when he jabbed, his hands dropped low, so I stepped in there and boom! One shot, put him down.
“Hinnant had been getting ready to fight Yvonne Durelle and if he’d beaten Durelle, he’d get a shot at Archie Moore for the title. But I hit him with that right hand and his left leg went up in the air, his eyes went up in his head and he went down. His trainers jumped in the ring, ‘Hey Clarence, you alright? Clarence, you alright?
‘Yeah, huh? Yeah . . . I’m alright . . . uh-huh . . .’ Hell, he didn’t know where he was! His trainer looked at me, looked at my trainer, Freddy, and said, ‘Who the hell is that skinny kid?’
‘That’s Bob Foster,’ my trainer told him.
‘Well, where’d he learn to punch like that?’
“I’d hit him with that one **** wearing 18 ounce gloves, too. Great big gloves like pillows and I’d knocked him cold.”
Foster was nearing the end of his four years of service around that time.
“When I got close to getting discharged, every branch of the military wanted me; the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy, the Army . . . the Army, though, gave me a better deal. They guaranteed I’d be a master sergeant within 90 days of discharge and they’d move my family and I down to Fort Cameron, KY. I said, ‘That sounds pretty good.’ So, I got discharged from the Air Force and drove down to Kentucky where I stayed on their base on their boxing team. But I only stayed two months. I figured if I’m this damn good where every damn branch of the service wants me, I think I’ll just get out and turn professional. So, that’s what I did.”
It was a good thing that Foster got out when he did:
“Right after I got out, that damn Vietnam war broke out and they sent the whole boxing team from Fort Cameron, KY. They sent all those guys over there and every one of them got killed. Every damn one of ‘em. Man, that hurt . . . .”
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