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Curtis Cokes
Other than Joe Louis, Curtis Cokes was possibly my grandfather's favorite fighter. He spent a lot of time in Texas in the 1960s and got to see Cokes fight several times, so Curtis Cokes was a boxer I heard a lot about when I was a kid. He was a tall welterweight with some good boxing skills and some thunder in his punches. My grandfather always claimed Emile Griffin went up in weight, and relinquished the title, to avoid fighting Cokes.
He won the vacated WBA title in August of 1966 and took the WBC title from Jean Josselin in late November of the same year. He defended the titles over the preceding two and a half years before losing them, and the rematch, to Jose "Mantequilla" Napoles. It's my opinion that Curtis Cokes was a very good fighters but a slight step below greatness. Regardless of that, for over a two year stretch Curtis Cokes was arguably the best welterweight in the world.
He later became a trainer with his most noteworthy fighter probably being Ike Ibeabuchi.
One can only imagine the heights Curtis Cokes might have scaled had he had a proper pugilistic pedigree.
What if he had been allowed to apprentice at the Golden Gloves like the white boys? What if he had the benefit of a renowned trainer in his corner instead of having them plot against him from across the ring? Had a powerful promoter to help massage his record? Didn’t have to supplement his income throughout much of his early professional career as a bank messenger?
What if he had fought in a hometown that gave a damn?
But Curtis Cokes is from Dallas.
What if he had been allowed to apprentice at the Golden Gloves like the white boys? What if he had the benefit of a renowned trainer in his corner instead of having them plot against him from across the ring? Had a powerful promoter to help massage his record? Didn’t have to supplement his income throughout much of his early professional career as a bank messenger?
What if he had fought in a hometown that gave a damn?
But Curtis Cokes is from Dallas.
Curtis Cokes: I learned from two of the best—Joe Brown and Sugar Ray Robinson. I watched those guys when they were fighting. I tried to copy their style. I tried to copy Ray’s style but I worked with Joe Brown. I trained with him when I was a kid and he was lightweight champion of the world. I went to Houston and sparred with him and he told me that I was going to be a champion. Brown would show me how he would throw punches and miss them on purpose to make a guy move his head in the range of his right hand. And I started doing it—I would purposely miss a jab on the outside so my opponent would move his head to the inside where he was in my right hand range. I was a good right hand puncher. I don’t see anybody doing that today. I saw “Kitten” Hayward do it. So did Luis Rodriguez. Emile Griffith did some of that. Those fighters, they were smarter than these guys today who just go out there and hit.
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