Lloyd Honeyghan and Maurice were both world champion boxers whose careers and accomplishments are being lost in boxing history…..simply because they fought during the golden age of boxing from 1964 to 1995,,,,,an era in boxing that had more legendary boxers by almost 3 to one in every weight division of professional boxing…..than any other era of boxing had…..and for this reason alone, two great boxers are being overlooked in the decade of the 2010’s…..as Honeyghan retired with career record of 43 wins 5 losses with 30 KO’s while having won 5 different WBC, WBA and IBF Titles…..while Blocker retired having won the WBC and Lineal light welterweight titles and a record of 36 wins 4 losses with 20 KO’s….which means you got a great fight to watch here.
Lloyd Honeyghan is a retired British boxer and former undisputed welterweight champion of the world….who won the WBC, WBA & IBF welterweight champion from 1986 to 1987 and WBC welterweight champion from 1988 to 1989. Honeyghan captured the British Title by 12 round decision against the tough Cliff Gilpin on 5 April 1983….after suffering the first knockdown of his career in the second round. In 1984 Honeyghan fought only once, defeating Roberto Mendez. He suffered a serious hand injury and had to have a pin inserted into his left hand to keep the bone in place. On 5 January 1985 he captured the European welterweight title with a highly impressive third round knockout of future two time World junior middleweight champion Gianfranco Rosi in Perugia, Italy. Honeyghan kept extremely busy during 1985, defeating three American contenders in world title challenger Roger Stafford, followed by Danny Paul and Ralph Twinning.
On 20 May 1986 Honeyghan stopped top American contender Horace Shufford in eight rounds in London, earning him a title shot against the unbeaten and undisputed World welterweight champion Donald Curry of the United States. At the time Curry was considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world and Honeyghan was given little chance by the majority of the media….but he caused a major upset by dominating the fight, nearly dropping Curry in the second round….before Curry retired at the end of round six. Before the fight Curry had himself dismissed his unknown foreign opponent, asking “Who is this ragamuffin?”. Honeyghan thereafter adopted the title “ragamuffin” or “Ragamuffin Man” with relish. The fight had taken place one night after another “expert shocker”, when Edwin Rosario knocked out Livingstone Bramble in two rounds to claim the WBA lightweight title….and one week after Honeyghan’s win when Ring Magazine mentioned his victory on their “Weekend of shockers!” issue’s cover. (Rosario’s photo was featured on the cover of that issue).
Honeyghan disagreed with the WBA’s rules that allowed fights to take place in apartheid South Africa…so he publicly and controversially dumped the WBA welterweight belt into a London trash bin soon after winning it….and thus relinquishing the title rather than defending it against South African Harold Volbrecht. This move would prove significant, as soon after, the WBA stopped sanctioning fights held in South Africa.
After winning the world title he changed his boxer-puncher style to that of more of an out-and-out slugger. In his first defence, after dominating and flooring his opponent in the first round, he caused controversy by racing across the ring and hitting his opponent, former World light welterweight champion Johnny Bumphus as soon as the bell sounded to start the second round. Bumphus was given time to recover but the fight had been knocked out of him and he did not last much longer. In his second defense of the title….as Honeyghan defeated the then unbeaten future World Champion Maurice Blocker on points as seen in this video herewith.
He became a crowd pleaser with his all action style of fighting and recorded one of the fastest wins in a world title fight with a 45-second blow-out of former light welterweight champion Gene Hatcher of the United States. He lost his title to Jorge Vaca in 1987….when a clash of heads meant that the fight had to be stopped due to a cut sustained by Vaca. The scorecards at the time of the stoppage favored Vaca….for Honeyghan became only the second British boxer in history to regain a world title when he easily knocked Vaca out in a return fight in the third round. In the post fight press conference Honeyghan expressed his views on Mickey Duff, stating “Mickey and I don’t mix outside of boxing, He looks at me as a pawn, a commodity. I don’t like him.” This elicited a memorable response from Duff who stated “Fortunately, there is nothing in our contract that says we have to like each other.”
Honeyghan next defended against tough South Korean Yung-Kil Chung by halting him in five rounds in July 1988….then in February 1989, Honeyghan lost his title to former Don Curry victim and arch rival Marlon Starling. Honeyghan boxed wildly against the defensively excellent Starling, and was stopped in the ninth round after taking heavy punishment. Honeyghan returned later in the year, laboring to a points decision over Delfino Marin in the USA, however he appeared to be a fading force. He had to apologised to the WBA for his previous actions in order to fight for the WBA title in 1990 against Mark Breland. By this time Honeyghan was past his best and was stopped by Breland in three rounds after being knocked down six times. Honeyghan claimed to be weight-weakened….but was probably both sliding skill-wise and still suffering from the affects of the punishment he had taken in the Starling fight.
In 1991, he resumed his career at light middleweight and during 1991 and 1992 he won six consecutive fights against relatively modest opposition…then in early 1993 he was still good enough to win the Commonwealth title as a light middleweight by defeating the useful Mickey Hughes….however in June of that year he was stopped in 10 rounds by former world champion Vinny Pazienza. Victories over Steve Goodwin and in 1994 Kevin Adamson followed with Honeyghan recapturing the Commonwealth Title in the latter fight. He did not fight for another year and retired after he was stopped in a middleweight bout by fellow Briton Adrian Dodson in three rounds in 1995, on the same boxing show as Nigel Benn v Gerald McClellan.
Maurice “The Thin Man” Blocker is an American retired professional welterweight (147 lb) boxer…..who became a professional boxer in 1982….then he lost his first opportunity to win a title in 1987 to Lloyd Honeyghan (see above). In 1990 he captured the Lineal and WBC welterweight titles from Marlon Starling….but lost them during his next fight to Simon Brown. In 1991 he defeated Glenwood Brown to capture the vacant IBF welterweight title….defending the title successfully once….and in 1993 moved up a weight class to fight Terry Norris for the WBC light middleweight title…only to be TKO’d….while later that year took on Félix Trinidad to defend his IBF welterweight title….but was KO’d in the 2nd. He retired in 1995 with a record of 36-4 with 20 knockouts.
