Dogged by hand injuries but unable to quit, it wasn’t until Paul Pender’s third comeback that he found his form – and beat some legends of the sport.
By Adrian Knott
MENTION THE great Sugar Ray Robinson to any fight fan and they will invariably hail his battles with Jake LaMotta, Randolph Turpin, Carmen Basilio and Gene Fullmer. Not many, however, will remember a part-time fireman named Paul Pender who, along with Fullmer, became one of only two men to twice beat Sugar Ray.
Pender was born on June 20, 1930, in Brookline, Massachusetts. A rugged and talented sportsman in his youth, Pender naturally took to boxing. He enjoyed not only the physical challenge of fighting but also the idea of “outthinking” each opponent. Within a couple of years of first lacing up a pair of gloves, he was then crowned the amateur champion of New England.
Pender turned pro in January 1949, fighting almost exclusively in the Boston area where he built a record of 12-0-1. Unbeknown to Pender, his next fight – a fifth-round stoppage win over Leon Brown – was to lead to problems that would hinder him for the rest of his career.
During this bout, Pender had felt a searing pain in his right hand. He had broken his third metacarpal – not that he knew it at the time. The injury would go undiagnosed while he fought on for another two years.
In constant pain, Pender changed his style. Now unable to throw three and four-punch combinations, he became an expert at “spoiling” – hitting and holding, backpedalling and utilising any other tricks he thought would help him survive.
Pender’s career started to peter out in 1951. He avenged a points loss to the very capable Norman Hayes but lost his next fight, to Joey Rindone, and was then held to a draw by the same man in a rematch.
The worst was yet to come, though. He was stopped for the first time in his career when the top-rated Eugene Hairston knocked him out in the third round. The final straw then came one year later, when Pender was stopped in the fifth by Jimmy Beau.
Disillusioned, Pender quit the ring and joined the Marine Corps, but his brittle right hand put paid to that career too. In desperation, Pender went to see the doctor of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, who diagnosed a broken bone chip in his right hand before Pender eventually went under the knife.
After two and a half years out of the ring, Pender made a comeback in August 1954 with a 10- round decision win over Larry Villeneuve, and then outpointed Teddy Olla in New York in December.
Two months later, Pender fought teak-tough brawler Gene Fullmer at The Parkway Arena in Brooklyn. By the end of the fourth round, Pender had broken both hands but somehow stayed in the fight, and even floored Fullmer in the ninth. After 10 gruelling rounds, Fullmer won by a split decision.
It was then 22 months before Pender was next seen in a ring. His hands had healed sufficiently for him to take a decision win over Jimmy Skinner in Boston, but Pender was not happy. He retired for the second time in five years.
The longer Pender was away, however, the stronger his urge to fight again became. Pender decided it was now or never, and set about entering his third comeback. He consulted a top bone surgeon, who discovered his hand problems were due to a calcium deficiency. The consultant reassured Pender that, with regular injections in his hands and a very strict diet, he should be OK to resume his career.
Mentally recharged, Pender returned to the ring in November 1958 and never looked back, winning nine in a row, with his most high-profile victory coming against highly rated middleweight Ralph ‘Tiger’ Jones.
During this time, world champion Robinson had been looking for a suitable challenger. He had already beaten Fullmer and Basilio, and they weren’t interested in fighting him again. Robinson had been hoping to fight Archie Moore for the light-heavyweight title, but any chance of that fell through when Moore decided to fight Yvonne Durelle instead.
Robinson’s wily old manager, George Gainford, then saw Pender as an easy touch for the 38-year-old champ, and made the match for January 22, 1960, at the Boston Garden. The bookies agreed, making Sugar Ray a 4/1 favourite.
The going was slow during the first eight rounds. Pender was quite content to make Robinson miss and then tie him up. The 10,608 in attendance started to boo, but Pender quickened the pace from the ninth onwards and it was apparent that Robinson was tiring. After 15 rounds, the referee scored it for Robinson, while the two ringside judges voted for the hometown man. Paul Pender was the new middleweight champion of the world.
A rematch was arranged for June 10, again at the Boston Garden. The second fight mirrored their first meeting. Robinson banked the early rounds, then faded down the stretch. Pender then upped the pace and outworked Robinson. Again, it was a split decision. Sentimentalists cried robbery, but Pender had done more.
Pender’s next defence was against brash Londoner Terry Downes, the reigning British champion. With hometown advantage once again, Pender floored the man from Paddington in the first round and, by the fourth, Downes was cut over the right eye and on the bridge of his nose. Pender was ahead on all three cards when the ref stopped it in the seventh.
Many say Pender’s greatest performance was against Carmen Basilio on April 22, 1961, once again at the Boston Garden. Pender, not known as a big puncher, put the granite-chinned Basilio down in the 13th and 15th rounds on the way to retaining his title.
A rematch with Downes was natural. This time, however, Pender would have to travel to London. Downes was inspired on that summer’s night at the Empire Pool. The end came suddenly. Pender went back to his corner at the end of the ninth. With cuts over both eyes, his corner pulled him out.
A rubber match had been stipulated in the contract, should Downes have won. Downes flew to Boston fearing a hometown decision. The decision did go against him, but Pender boxed beautifully and won widely on all three cards.
On November 9, 1962, the New York State Athletic Commission stripped Pender of his title for not fighting Dick Tiger. Never one to be bullied, and often heard to bravely speak out about corruption in the sport, Pender and his team maintained that they were more than willing to fight Tiger, and stood by their convictions.
They sued the NYSAC in December and, on March 6, 1963, a New York court ruled for Pender to be reinstated as champion. Negotiations for another title defence fell through. Tired of the politics, Pender hung up his gloves for good on May 7, 1963. He retired as the middleweight champion.
Pender left the fight game and worked as a security guard. In his later years, he suffered a stroke and was thought to have Alzheimer’s disease. However, upon his death in 2003, at the age of 72, his wife, Rose, agreed for his brain to be examined. It was discovered that Pender had the severest type (Stage 4) of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition caused by blows to the head.
Pender’s brain is now held at the CTE facility at Boston University. The way his life ended was sad, but his legacy lives on, helping the medical profession to recognise, and hopefully minimise, brain damage in contact sports.
