LAST WEEKEND’S Canelo vs Crawford undercard was remarkable in that there were five fights that could all have been main events in their own right, all with close betting lines.
This brought back memories of those marathon Don King shows, where you might see a top contender, a world champion, or even a championship bout taking place off-TV at 2.30 in the afternoon.
These were shows where, as a fan, you wanted to be there from the first bell.
No matter what one may think of Don King, he knew how to stack a supporting bill.
King’s card, which he labelled Revenge: The Rematches, staged at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, in May 1994, was unique in that it featured four world-title sequels. (There was a fifth world title bout on the card, but that one wasn’t a rematch.)
Main event that night was the return fight between Julio Cesar Chavez and Frankie Randall, with Chavez attempting to regain his WBC super-lightweight title.
The fight was marred by its ending, with Chavez basically declining to continue after getting cut in a head clash.
Chavez won by technical decision, thanks to a WBC accidental-butt rule, then in effect, in which the boxer who didn’t suffer a cut would be penalised a point.
But while Chavez vs Randall left us with an empty feeling, the undercard lived up to expectations.
We had Jamaican-born Simon Brown defending his WBC super-welter title against Terry Norris in the chief support.
Brown had knocked out Norris in the fourth round to win the title in December 1993 in a big upset.
Norris boxed a smart fight to outpoint the dangerous Brown in the encore; Brown wanted Norris to stand and trade but the former champion had learned his lesson.
Gerald McClellan was on the bill, in his first defence of the WBC middleweight title against Julian Jackson. He had halted Jackson in the fifth round a year earlier, but for four rounds it had been anyone’s fight.
The rematch between these big hitters never looked like lasting very long and in the event it was all over in 83 seconds. McClellan looked sensational, knocking Jackson down twice and pumping his right glove in the air in celebration.
No one watching could possibly have imagined the horror that was to follow just nine months later, with McClellan suffering a life-altering injury in his fight Nigel Benn.
The fourth rematch on the Revenge bill pitted Azumah Nelson in a WBC super-featherweight title defence against Jesse James Leija — the two had fought to a draw on Leija’s home ground in San Antonio, Texas, eight months earlier.
Leija boxed the fight of his life in the rematch, knocking Nelson down with a right hand in the second round and never really relinquishing control of the contest on his way to a unanimous decision.
As if this wasn’t enough, the show featured unbeaten Ricardo ‘Finito’ Lopez defending his WBC minimumweight title against Colombian southpaw Kermin Guardia, who was also unbeaten going into the fight.#
Supporting fights featured Meldrick Taylor, Calvin Grove (whose bout came on after the main event) and Giovanni Parisi.
And there was still more. Christy Martin was on the bill, battling to a six-round draw with Mexican left-hander Laura Serrano. I thought Serrano was a little unlucky, but all three judges scored 57-57.
Also featured was a Philadelphia heavyweight prospect named James Stanton, who won an uninspiring decision. I’d forgotten about that one, just as boxing has likely forgotten Stanton, whose career never really went anywhere.
And one of these deep Don King undercards saved the day when the promoter’s main event at Madison Square Garden in August 1997 was hit by two pullouts.
Originally, Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad was due to meet WBC champion Terry Norris in a super-welterweight matchup that had Fight of the Year potential. But litigation killed the fight, with the Norris camp in dispute with King.
Laurent Boudouani, of France, the WBA champion, was due to replace Norris but withdrew, citing an Achilles tendon injury.
So, at three weeks’ notice, Australia’s Troy Waters stepped in as a third-choice opponent for Trinidad’s debut at 154lbs.
It was all over in the first round; a mismatch. However, the undercard was good.
Dominican slugger Julio Cesar Green pulled off an upset when he won a unanimous decision over defending champion William Joppy in a WBA middleweight title fight.
That was a good watch, with Joppy down in the second round but rallying to floor Green twice in the third.
Joppy had a point deducted in the 11th when he hit Green from behind after the challenger spun himself around with a wild miss.
I actually had Joppy winning due to his superior skills, although Green was the fighter coming forward.
Joppy, who said afterwards that he hurt his right hand early in the bout, beat Green in two subsequent meetings.
Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Vazquez, chasing a fight with Naseem Hamed, retained his WBA featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Colombian Roque Cassiani.
Vazquez told me afterwards, through an interpreter, that he felt Hamed was ducking him. “He knows I’m the only guy who can beat him,” Vazquez said.
He got his chance and Hamed stopped him in seven rounds.
Mexico’s Finito Lopez was on the show, winning by KO in five rounds against Alex Sanchez, of Puerto Rico, in a clash of 105lbs champions.
Three world title supports eased the letdown of the main event.
And there were other fights to keep us engaged. Edwin Rosario won by KO in a keep-busy type of fight, while Christy Martin won a unanimous but hard-fought decision over ‘Raging Beauty’ Isra Girgrah in the undercard show-stealer.
The seventh round of Martin vs Girgrah was a war within a war and the crowd roared its appreciation. Christy finished with a bruise under the eye and wore dark glasses to the press conference.
I’ll offer one more memorable King undercard, this one featuring four world title fights underneath Julio Cesar Chavez, stopping Meldrick Taylor in eight rounds in their rematch at the MGM Grand in September 1994.
Felix Trinidad was in the main supporting bout, getting off the floor to stop Mexico’s Yory Boy Campas in the fourth round of a welterweight title shootout.
Gabriel Ruelas banged out a unanimous decision over Jesse James Leija to win the WBC super-featherweight title in the fight of the night.
Ruelas was the aggressor throughout, fighting “with furious intent”, as I noted at the time. He dropped Leija in the second round but was down himself in the fifth.
Leija was the better pure boxer, but Ruelas stayed right on him. Ruelas had a point deducted for a low blow in the 10th but knocked Leija down with a right hand in the last round. What a fight.
Frankie Randall defeated Juan Martin Coggi of Argentina in a super-lightweight title fight and Finito Lopez blew out a hapless Thai in one minute, 53 seconds to retain his minimumweight title.
I paused on my way to the media seats that night for a few words with ringsider Mickey Duff, who told me he’d bet the “over” in the 154lbs title rematch between Vincent Pettway and Gianfranco Rosi, which was the first of the title fights on the bill.
Mickey wasn’t feeling confident about his bet — for good reason, as it turned out.
The first Rosi-Pettway fight had ended on a disappointing six-round technical draw six months earlier when Rosi was cut over the eye from a head clash.
This time, Pettway, a 29-year-old hard hitter from Baltimore, won in the fourth round, dropping Rosi heavily. The 37-year-old Italian fighter seemed to age overnight. Perhaps Mickey sensed something like this might happen.
Freddie Pendleton won a split decision over Giovanni Parsi in a 10-round junior welter matchup and, in a bottom-of-the-bill bout, Ireland’s Olympic welterweight gold medallist Michael Carruth won by KO to go 4-0 as a pro.
Unfortunately, Carruth proved to be one of those talented amateurs who wasn’t best suited to the professional side of the sport.
How I loved those loaded Don King undercards when I was a ringside regular in the US.
Why so many title fights on one show? Quite simply, King had a large roster of champions and needed to find spots for them all.
And that was fine by me.
