Marvelous Marvin Hagler had to wait until his 50th professional fight before he could get a shot at the world middleweight championship…..cuz all the other middleweights were afraid to fight him…..so, he was avoided like the plague….that is until he entered the ring in November of 1979 against champ Vito Antuofermo….which was some 6 1/2 years and 46 wins 2 losses 2 draws with 39 KO’s after his first pro fight. Marvelous Marvin Hagler was a “legendary boxer” in the golden age of boxing (1964 – 1995)…..who held the undisputed world middleweight title for the better part of 7 years….for he dominated like no other middleweight since Sugar Ray Robinson….fighting every person who came through the middleweight division while dodging no one. Marvelous is one of Bone Daddy’s and my favorite boxers of all time…..and having many of Hagler’s fights in our boxing video library….so, I will be writing plenty about the Marvelous one.
Hagler’s opponent in this fight was William “Caveman” Lee….a former professional middleweight boxer who fought out of the fabled Kronk Gym in Detroit with legendary trainer Emanuel Steward. One fight for which Lee is noted was with John LoCicero in July, 1981….which was televised on ESPN….as their battle garnered a good degree of renown that year for its ebb, flow, ferocity and stifling conditions. In an interview, long time boxing commentator Al Bernstein put it thus: “It was in the early Kronk gym days in the Twenty Grand Showroom in Detroit with no air conditioning….for it was August and amazingly hot. In the fifth round, John LoCicero and Caveman Lee put on a round of boxing that was just beyond belief. First, LoCicero went down, got up, and hit Lee with like twenty-five unanswered punches….as It was almost ridiculous. LoCicero ultimately got knocked out in that round and it was about as exciting as anything I’ve ever seen.” Indeed, in another interview Berstein mentioned this round ahead of Hagler/Hearns and Castillo/Corrales when relating the best rounds he had ever seen.
The other notable item in Lee’s boxing background is more ignominious….when Lee’s Kronk stablemate Mickey Goodwin was slated to challenge undisputed world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler for his crown…..but suffered a training injury….so, Lee stepped in to replace him. Unfortunately, Lee didn’t have quite the showing against Hagler as he had against LoCicero…..by being blown out in just over a minute of the first round of the fight.
In the 2nd fight on this video seen herewith…..the viewer gets to see the WBC light heavyweight champion Dwight Braxton (soon to become Dwight Muhammad Qawi) defeat Jerry Martin with a 6th round TKO. Braxton / Muhammad Qawi was another “really good boxer” during the golden age of boxing from 1964 – 1995,…who might have been considered as a “great boxer” had he not fought during this awesome era of boxing….who deserves these shrines that I am building to boxers like Braxton / Qawi…..otherwise, they might just get lost and forgotten in the annals of boxing history.
In this title defense of Dwight Braxton……he takes on and defeats Jerry Martin by a 6th round TKO…..and provides evidence of his talents and skills in the ring.
