Pitched battles

[Faulks]

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1726

 

Pitched battles

As Kevin Mitchell prepares for his Upton Park clash with Michael Katsidis, Andrew Harrison looks at some other open-air fights

 

 

IT isn’t often we see Manny Pacquiao eclipsed, not by an opponent in any case. The venue which housed his most recent battle however, the shimmering Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, may well have managed it and in doing so, ushered in a new era of stadium bouts in the U.S.

 

Britain too has a tradition of staging big fights within its football stadia. As Dagenham’s Kevin Mitchell prepares to battle Michael Katsidis at the home of West Ham United in the capital, we take a look back at contests which also unfolded atop turf and amidst football stands teeming with fight fans.

Ike Williams v Ronnie James (Ninian Park, Cardiff, September 4 1946)

 

Less than a year before he unified the world lightweight title against Bob Montgomery, the great Ike Williams visited Cardiff to battle Welshman Ronnie James, at a venue known as “the bearpit”. It was a fantastic coup for promoter Jack Solomons, in persuading Williams (then champion as recognised by the NBA) to cross the Atlantic and accommodate the British champion at Ninian Park.

 

Torrential rain fell for almost a fortnight leading up the bout, however, the clouds broke on the day of the fight. James was plenty game but ultimately overmatched, and the champion ripped him apart with a murderous body assault.

 

James, said The Times, “could be heard to gasp every time Williams’s right landed to the body” and he was forced to visit the canvas seven times in all as Ike battered his bread basket mercilessly.

 

Williams terminated proceedings with a right hook to the jaw in round nine, shattering a nation’s hopes in the process.

 

Henry Cooper v Jack Bodell (Molineux, Wolverhampton, June 13 1967)

 

As he readied himself to challenge Henry Cooper for his British and Empire heavyweight titles, there were some who had figured that Jack Bodell’s relative youth and lefty stance would fare him well against the 33-year-old champion. Henry’s manager Jim “The Bishop” Wicks may have belied a wariness to the portsider’s threat, when he quipped, “Bodell and all them other southpaws are a detergent to the fight game”.

 

Swadlington’s Bodell started positively, however, Cooper loosened up in the next session, landing a short left which sucked the wind from the challenger’s sails entirely.

 

Neil Allen, reporting from ringside wrote that the punch, “sent Bodell’s head rocking back, made him bend at the knees and bleed from the nose”.

 

Cooper steamed into his man and unleashed a torrent of his bread and butter left hooks. As Bodell tottered over to the ropes, Cooper landed three left hooks and a right, forcing the referee to intervene after two minutes and 18 seconds of the second round.

 

Jim Watt v Howard Davis Jnr (Ibrox Park, Glasgow, June 7 1980)

 

New Yorker Davis had struck Olympic gold in 1976 and been hailed as the outstanding boxer of the Games, one which had included luminaries such as Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers. In just his 14th paid start, he travelled to Scotland to face Watt for his WBC lightweight title.

 

Oddly, the day before the bout, Howard shifted his entire camp out of Glasgow yelling, “Let me get the hell out of this city. I’m not ready to fight Watt.”

 

Davis, wearing pink shorts, looked skilful if somewhat green. John Rodda from The Guardian observed that, “The American’s speed is remarkable, his delivery of punches abysmally bad at times but his will power and appetite for fighting enormous.”

 

Watt’s southpaw stance, right-handed body punching and stoic determination would prove too much for the visitor and in front of a national television audience in the States, he sealed a sturdy decision victory with scores of 145-144, 149-142 and 147-144.

 

Frank Bruno v Joe Bugner (White Hart Lane, North London, October 24 1987)

 

It was a heavyweight collision that marked the emergence of Barry Hearn and a changing of the guard on the domestic promotional front, one long dominated by the “cartel” of Mickey Duff, Mike Barrett, Terry Lawless and Jarvis Astaire. A crowd close to 35,000 packed into Tottenham Hotspur’s ground on a brisk autumnal evening, to behold what was at that point, the largest single event in British boxing history.

 

In the event, Bruno was cautious yet used his ramrod jab to break down his wily opponent. Hugh McIlvanney called it an, “unspectacular but purposeful pounding” and as they toiled into round eight, Bruno finally brought his big right into play, thumping Bugner behind his left ear and dumping him onto the ropes where he was swiftly finished off.

 

Bruno went on to challenge the fearsome Mike Tyson whilst in a dingy referee’s changing room within the bowels of the stadium, Bugner announced his retirement, one which spanned all of eight years.

[Wheelchair]

Er, he forgot McGuigan - Pedroza. Pretty big occassion that one.

 

Lewis - Bruno was also an open-air fight.

[donlevy]

Also forgot the rematch between Eubank and Watson.

[WelshDevilRob]

Nigel Benn vs Chris Eubank 2 was in a stadium if I remember correctly.

 

I was at Lewis vs Bruno - great memories and a bloody good fight full of spite and grit.

 

The Ike Williams v Ronnie James (Ninian Park, Cardiff, September 4 1946), I think I have the fight program for -keep mislaying it. The program I have has Howard Winstone on the undercard.