Jump to content

Forgotten Champions: Manning Galloway


BoztheMadman
 Share

Recommended Posts

Manning Galloway is somewhat of an anomaly in boxing history: he reigned as a world champion for 3 years and made 7 defenses, but was practically unknown to the wider boxing audience. He became a world champion at almost 30 and probably due to holding the WBO title, was largely ignored by the media. He did beat some good fighters, like Gert Bo Jacobsen and Said Skouma, but never really fought on a big fight card or against a true star. He also bloomed late, after losing several fights early on. He was known as "The Spoiler", as he had a tricky style. He was not a puncher but could stop you if he landed enough. At 5'9, he was a tall welter and had a long career, fighting from 1978 to 2006, altogether.

 

Galloway was born in Columbus, Ohio, 27 April 1960-same place, month and year as Buster Douglas. He was a southpaw and therefore tricky and difficult to fight, but it took him some time to develop and hone his skills. He turned pro at 18, in December 1978 and won his first fight on points. He lost the third one to Mike Blunt and then the fifth one to Forest Winchester, both by 6-round decisions. He experienced 3 straight losses in less than two months space in 1980, one of them by KO2 to Curtis Taylor. January 1981, he fought for the Ohio State light welter title and the USBA one as well, and lost by a close UD12 to Willie Rodriguez. He was again stopped in 1982 against the knockout artist Charlie Weir, by TKO7. It would be Weir's last fight. His first success was, amazingly enough, against future light middleweight and middleweight contender Darnell Knox, whom he beat by SD10 in April 1983. He also fought Nino La Rocca, then 52-0, and dropped a decision to him in Italy. On 17 December 1985, he won the vacant Mid-American and the Forum welter title by UD12 against Diomedes Colome. He then lost to Luis Santana on a technical decision in 8 rounds, after being down twice, when Santana was cut by a headbutt. In July 1988, Galloway won the USBA welter title on points against Rollin Williams, by MD12. He also beat the former Mike McCallum and Buster Drayton challenger Said Skouma of Morocco by MD10. On 15 December 1989, Galloway was matched against Veabro Boykin for the vacant inaugural WBO welter title, in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. He won by UD12, 115-112 on all cards, and became the first WBO welter champion.

 

Few would've expected his reign to last very long. First he beat the solid Nika Khumalo of South Africa on points to make his first defense, before going to Randers, Denmark, to fight their hopeful, Gert Bo Jacobsen. It was 15 February 1991 and a good, action-packed fight before Jacobsen had to retire following the 9th round. Galloway also won his third defense by corner retirement, this time in 7 rounds and against Racheed Lawal, who was from Sierra Leone but based in Denmark. That fight was held in Copenhagen and would be the second of four Galloway would fight in Denmark. He then beat the experienced Jeff Malcolm of Australia convincingly on points in his fourth defense, before fighting Khumalo again in the fifth and winning by an SD in Cape Town, SA. His sixth defense was in England, Manchester, against Pat Barrett, and once again Galloway won by a clear UD. He then went back to Randers to fight Jacobsen again, 27 November 1992, but the fight was stopped in the first round and declared a no-contest. Their rubber match happened 12 February next year, again in Randers, and this time Jacobsen the home favorite finally got the better of Galloway and won by a close unanimous decision. Galloway rebounded by beating the rather skilled Anthony Jones by TKO6 to win the interim WBO title on 13 August 1994 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He then challenged the new WBO champion, Eamonn Loughran of Northern Ireland and fought him at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester 10 December that year, but the fight was stopped after 4 rounds due to an accidental headbutt which left both with serious facial cuts. It then went to the scorecards and Loughran was the winner on all three.

 

Galloway retired after two more fights, in 1995, but came back in 2000. He was largely unsuccessful and after getting stopped three times, last one by Saul Roman at 154, 25 February 2006, he retired for good. His record is 63 wins with 14 ko's, 19 losses and 1 draw.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...