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Elisha Obed


BoztheMadman
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Obed was the first boxing world champion from Bahamas and so far the only one also. He captured the WBC light middleweight title but after two impressive defenses, he lost it under curious circumstances to Eckhard Dagge. His career would never be the same after that and 19 out of his 21 losses came then. Early on, he only had one early loss in 62 fights, which is a pretty incredible record. He was a great puncher and scored 59 ko's in his 88 victories.

 

Born 21 February 1952 in Nassau, his birth name is Everett Ferguson. As a child, his idols and heroes were fellow Bahamian boxers Yama Bahama and Gomeo Brennan. He'd go down to the local gym to watch them train. He entered amateur ranks at 12 and fought almost weekly. He ran up a record of 46-0 with 16 knockouts. By the age of 13, he was sparring with his idols and when he was 14, he decided to turn professional. His early record seems to be incomplete, but what is sure is that he had a lot of fights before he was noticed by the boxing establishment. For almost six years, he fought on small promotions on Bahamas. Gradually, as he won more fights and became more known, he was spotted by veteran manager and trainer Moe Fleischer, who started trainin him. Angelo Dundee's son Mike became his manager. In his fourth fight, he lost to a fighter called Kid Carew by KO 2 and it was to be his sole loss in the next nine years. In 1972, he won the Bahamian welterweight title by TKO 6 against Sugar Cliff. In October 1973, he went for the first time outside of his native island to fight in Boca Raton, Florida and stopped a lesser fighter called Jose Papo Melendez by a corner retirement after seven rounds. He would fight between Bahamas and USA in the next years. In January 1975 he won the NABF welter title by TKO 11 over Fernand Marcotte. On 13 November that year he faced off against the WBC champion Miguel de Oliveira of Brazil in a title fight in Paris, France. He stopped Oliveira by TKO 11 to make history and become the first Bahamian world champion ever. In his first defense he easily beat American Tony Gardner by KO 2 and then went to Ivory Coast to fight their favorite Sea Robinson. Obed was victorious after 15 rounds with a mostly close but unanimous decision. And then came the downfall.

 

18 June 1976: he was making his third title defense against the German Eckhard Dagge in Berlin and was doing well after knocking the local man down in the fourth round, but then suddenly, in the tenth he just turned around in the middle of the round and returned to his corner. This made him lose the fight by a technical knockout, under the rules. He said that he wasn't feeling right after the second round and that his vision was blurred. After this unexpected debacle, he entered the middleweight division. He won his first fight by first round knockout, showing his power was still the same at 160. He again beat Fernand Marcotte but by decision this time, in early 1977, but after that he first drew against the French-Canadian Jean-Claude LeClair in a fight in Montreal and then lost to the world amateur champion and future WBA lmw champion Ayub Kalule by decision. On 11 March '78 he tried to recapture his old title against the man who had knocked out Dagge, Rocky Mattioli, an Italian-born and Australian-based puncher. He didn't fare much better than his old rival Dagge and was knocked out in 7 rounds. He then lost to Yugoslav Marijan Benes and German Georg Steinherr, both on points, and then to Tony Chiaverini, who later fought Sugar Ray Leonard, by a lopsided decision. He returned to the Bahamas and put together some knockout wins against weaker opposition before going to Spectrum, Philadelphia to fight the local man Curtis Parker and getting stopped by TKO 7. He was also koed in 3 by Fulgencio Obelmejias in 1980 and would never win a relevant fight again. He retired in 1988, with a points win, after a long losing streak. He had now fought for over 20 years and was 37.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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