Top Rank have moved on, but 45 years of ESPN classics remain trucc

ON Thursday, October 30th, Top Rank offered a show free to US viewers on the promoter’s streaming channel, Top Rank Classics. This has reminded me that it’s now three months since Top Rank’s streaming deal with ESPN came to an end.

ESPN’s Top Rank broadcasts started in 1980. It seemed to many of us that the Top Rank/ESPN partnership would never end. But it did. Now we are left with the memories. Here are some of mine  — 10 fights from the many that have been watched over the years.

 
Roger Stafford WON PTS 10 Pipino Cuevas
Hacienda Hotel, Las Vegas, November 7, 1981

Mexico’s heavy-handed Cuevas, the former WBA welterweight champion, was pencilled in to fight Sugar Ray Leonard. Philadelphia’s Stafford tore up the script, winning an upset unanimous 10-round decision.

Stafford, a smart boxer with a 17-2-1 record, floored Cuevas in the second round. Cuevas got up, survived, and came back to pound Stafford with big left hooks in the fourth. Stafford got through the round and Cuevas seemed to punch himself out.

It was all Stafford in the later rounds. Cuevas was cut over the left eye and Stafford was outboxing him and landing clean shots. He had Cuevas hurt and almost out on his feet in the last round.

 
Donald Curry  WON PTS 15 Hwang Jun-suk
Fort Worth, Texas, February 13, 1983
 
Curry had to get off the canvas to win this battle between undefeated fighters for the vacant WBA welter title. Hwang, crude but strong, dropped Curry to one knee with a right hand in the seventh round.

Curry was up quickly and came back to dominate proceedings, bloodying the South Korean slugger’s nose with his sharp jabs. The hometown crowd roared Curry on, but the shorter, stockier Hwang kept swinging. 

By the later rounds, Hwang’s white trunks took on a crimson hue as blood flowed from his nose, but he was game and defiant to the end. This was Curry’s 16th win in a row and he seemed destined for greatness. But, although he later unified the welter title by knocking out WBC champion Milton McCrory in two rounds, one had the feeling that Curry never quite fulfilled his potential.

 
Tyrone Crawley WON PTS 10 Robin Blake
Levelland, Texas, October 8, 1983

Top Rank was building up Blake as a future star. And the tall, rangy, southpaw with clean-cut good looks seemed well on his way to a lightweight title shot when he faced Philadelphia’s Crawley.

It was a Saturday night hometown fight in Levelland for the undefeated Blake (22-0, 16 KOs) and he was heavily favoured. But the slick, speedy ‘Butterfly’ Crawley outboxed and outsmarted the hometown fighter.

The packed crowd of 5,000 “watched in stunned silence”, as I reported for Boxing News, Blake was considered the puncher in the fight. Crawley had stopped only three opponents in his 13-1 record. But when Crawley staggered Blake with a right hand in the third round, you knew that ‘Rockin’ Robin’ was in for a rocky night.

Crawley switched between the orthodox and southpaw stances and had Blake missing and looking bewildered. Blake, only 21, was in over his head. Crawley won a deserved unanimous decision, although one of the Texas judges had this just a one-point fight.

 
Terrence Alli w 12 John Meekins
Trump Castle, Atlantic City, January 20, 1991

Alli, born in Guyana but Brooklyn-based, was an ESPN regular. One of his finest wins was his unanimous 12-round decision over talented John Meekins on an ESPN Sunday show.

Meekins, who was also an ESPN staple, was defending the NABF 140lbs title. (Ringside analyst Al Bernstein referred to Alli and Meekins as the “poster boys” of ESPN boxing.)

Alli was fast and sharp, pumping the jab, bothering Meekins with his speedy movement and at times almost leaping in with his punches. 

Every so often, Alli landed the right hand, but his jab basically won him the fight. Meekins landed good body punches, but Bernstein commented that Alli was “using his left hand like a surgeon”.

Tommy Morrison KO 2 Art Tucker
Harrah’s Marina casino, Atlantic City, May 14, 1992
 
Heavyweight big-hitter Morrison was fighting his way back after his loss to Ray Mercer seven months earlier. Tucker, a 40-year-old, 6ft 6ins ex-convict from Newark, New Jersey, had a respectable record (20-3-1, 15 KOs), but didn’t take a punch too well.

There was a “matter of time” feel about this match-up. But the scheduled 10-rounder was lively while it lasted.

Tucker landed a couple of right hands and also a right uppercut in the opening round, but Morrison blasted him into the ropes with a left hook.

It was all over in the second. A left hook had Tucker squatting on the ropes and referee Rudy Battle gave him an eight count — and almost immediately after the “box on” signal, a left hook closed the show after 72 seconds of the round.

Roger Mayweather DQ 5 Livingstone Bramble
The Aladdin, Las Vegas, March 14, 1993

Mayweather winning by DQ against Bramble in a clash of ex-champs was an unsatisfactory finish — this really should have been a TKO win for the ‘Black Mamba’.

Bramble was competitive for two rounds in the scheduled 10-round super-lightweight contest, but then Mayweather got his timing locked in and dominated with an unerring jab and sharp shots.

Mayweather dropped Bramble with a right hand in the fourth. Now Bramble was cut and swollen over the right eye and had blood inside his mouth.

It was more target practice for Mayweather in the fifth and Bramble’s trainer, Janks Morton, got up on the ring apron to tell referee Joe Cortez he wanted the fight to be stopped.

Cortez, however, felt that Morton had contravened the rules by entering the ring-apron area, and the result went into the records as a disqualification instead of a TKO.

 
James Toney TKO 7 Anthony Hembrick

Fernwood Resort, Bushkill, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1994
 
Toney was one of the many outstanding fighters showcased on ESPN. The IBF champion at 168lbs, Toney was stepping up to light-heavy for the bout with Hembrick.

This was seen as a good test for Toney, as Hembrick had twice challenged for the light-heavy title. Toney, however, took apart his fellow Michigander and made it look easy.

Toney countered beautifully when backed up on the ropes, bloodied Hembrick’s nose and seemed able to hit and hurt his man whenever he pleased. He dropped Hembrick in the third round and again in the sixth; Hembrick’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh.

 
Kevin Kelley TKO 9 Ricardo Rivera
Mountaineer Race Track, Chester, West Virginia, March 31, 1995

This was one of those fights where the overwhelming favourite found himself in a life-and-death struggle.

Kelley was having his first bout after losing the WBC featherweight title to Alejandro Gonzalez in a war. Rivera, a lanky, shaven-skulled Puerto Rican boxer, didn’t have anything like Kelley’s experience, but he almost won.

Rivera knocked Kelley down with a right hand in the second round. By the fourth, Kelley’s nose was bloody and his left eye was swollen and closing. The sixth round saw Kelley on the brink of being stopped.

Rivera hammered him on the ropes and the referee issued a standing eight-count. But Kelley started to fight his way back in the seventh, rocking Rivera with a left hand from his southpaw stance. 

“If he knocks out Ricardo Rivera, this will be the most dramatic comeback within a fight I’ve ever seen,” Al Bernstein remarked. And Kelley did it! He dropped his tormentor with a big left hand in the ninth round and the fight was stopped, with Rivera on his feet but out of it.

 Erik Morales TKO 11 Rudy Bradley
Arizona Charlie’s, Las Vegas, February 25, 1996

Morales was a 19-year-old star on the rise (20-0, 16 KOs) when he was matched with Phoenix southpaw Bradley in a scheduled 12-rounder for the NABF super-bantamweight title, which the Mexican fighter was defending.

Morales looked much bigger than Bradley, who produced some crafty moves but was remorselessly worn down. At long range, Morales’ right hand jolted back Bradley’s head. Bradley, 28, tried to crowd Morales to the ropes but even then he was getting the worst of it.

Bradley was cut over the left eye and wilting when referee Richard Steele called a halt.

 
Floyd Mayweather Jr WON PTS 10 Tony Pep
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, June 14, 1998
 
Mayweather boxed beautifully against the long and lanky Canadian boxer, winning every round on two judges’ cards, while the third judge found a round to give to Pep (real name Pipke).

It was Mayweather’s 17th win in a row and Pretty Boy (as he was then known) treated the bout like a gym session: “I hit you, you miss me.”

Pep stuck with it but had a bewildered look, telling his corner after the seventh round: “I can’t hit this guy.”