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The Year 1976 Was The Ultimate Boxing Convergence
On March 24th 1975, Muhammad Ali made the first defense of his undisputed heavyweight title against 6-5, 230 pound journeyman Chuck Wepner. Five months earlier Ali won the title for the second time by knocking out undefeated George Foreman in the eighth round. Wepner (30-9-2) was a tough guy but certainly wasn’t expected to give Ali (45-2) much trouble as the 10-1 odds against him indicated. Well, Wepner’s awkwardness and rabbit punching bothered Ali, and in the ninth round he scored a flash knockdown of Ali. Ali dominated the fight after that, finally finishing Wepner at 2:41 of the 15th round. Wepner’s inspired performance struck a nerve with an unknown struggling actor named Sylvester Stallone who was watching the fight on closed circuit in a Los Angeles theater. When Stallone got home that night he wrote a script for a movie about a down-and-out heavyweight fighter and titled it “Rocky.” More on that later.
By January of 1976, Ali had made four successful defenses of the title he won from George Foreman in October of 1974. Ali’s popularity was soaring at this time and boxing was on network television almost every weekend. On Saturday afternoon, January 24, 1976, Foreman fought on ABC Wide World of sports for the first time since losing his undefeated record and title to Ali. Foreman’s opponent, Ron Lyle, was another big heavyweight who could really punch with both hands. Eight months earlier Lyle had been stopped by Ali in the 11th round in the only title shot of his career. Both Foreman (40-1) and Lyle (31-3-1) viewed their fight as a crossroad bout; in order for either of them to get another shot at Ali and the title, they had to win. Prior to fighting Ali, Foreman intimidated his opponents and usually had their heart before he threw a single punch. However, Ron Lyle didn’t scare easily and looked Foreman directly in the eye at center ring with sheer disdain during the referee’s final instructions. As expected, the fight was a dockside brawl.
During the first round, Lyle, who was boxing in retreat, shook Foreman right at the bell to end the round. Foreman came on strong in the second round and shook Lyle real good despite the round only being two minutes long. In the third round Foreman and Lyle exchanged bombs but neither could put much hurt on the other. However, Foreman looked to be the more tired of the two. Early in the fourth round Lyle dropped Foreman with a left-hook-right hand combination and looked to be gaining the upper hand. But as Howard Cosell said during his call of the fight, Foreman struck back and dropped Lyle with a chopping right hand.
Lyle beat the count and with a minute to go in the round Foreman tried to finish him. George had Lyle against the ropes and was pot-shooting him with jabs, right hands and left hooks with Lyle only punching back sporadically. Then Lyle came back out of nowhere and staggered Foreman with short left hooks and right hands, and then dropped him face first with a right hand. Foreman struggled to beat the count and staggered back to his corner as the bell sounded to end the round. Early in the fifth Lyle staggered Foreman and just when it looked as if Ron was going to finally put him away, Foreman exploded with a barrage of hay-maker hooks and right hands, battering Lyle into a ring corner and unloading on him. Lyle crumbled to the canvas and there was no need for the referee to count because he was out.
Foreman-Lyle 40 years later is still remembered as one of the most exciting bouts ever. Everyone remembers where they were when they watched it and it was instrumental in starting off 1976 as a banner year in boxing.
Three months later Ali defended his title on ABC the night before the Kentucky Derby. His opponent was third ranked Jimmy Young out of Philadelphia. The fight was a stinker and after 15 rounds Ali retained the title via a controversial unanimous decision. However, between the pre-fight, the bout itself and the post-fight, America was entertained by Muhammad Ali for over two hours on network television on the last Friday night in April of 1976.
Two and a half months after Ali defeated Jimmy Young, the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Montreal began. The 1976 summer games saw the birth of superstar competitors the likes of decathlete Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner and gymnast Nadia Comaneci. During the 1970s, boxing was one of the marque events during the summer games. At that time boxing was on TV every weekend, or so it seemed. Muhammad Ali was the most recognized person in the world and it just so happened that the United States Olympic boxing team was pretty stout.
During the last two weeks of July 1976, the American boxing team medaled in seven of 11 weight classes. Five of those medals were gold, won by flyweight Leo Randolph, lightweight Howard Davis, light welterweight Sugar Ray Leonard, middleweight Michael Spinks and light heavyweight Leon Spinks. To go along with them, bantamweight Charles Mooney captured a Silver and heavyweight John Tate won a Bronze.
Six of those Olympians (Mooney never turned pro) became household names and began fighting on network television on the weekends starting in early 1977. Sugar Ray Leonard and Michael Spinks went on to become all-time greats at welterweight and light heavyweight. Leo Randolph and John Tate won world titles at super Bantamweight and heavyweight, and less than two years after the games, Leon Spinks upset Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight title and then lost it back to him six months later. Howard Davis, who was voted the outstanding boxer at the games, failed in three attempts to win the lightweight title as a pro.
On November 21, 1976 the movie “Rocky” premiered in New York City. Sylvester Stallone played the character of Rocky Balboa. In the role inspired by Chuck Wepner, Balboa gets a shot at heavyweight champ and Muhammad Ali clone, Apollo Creed. Like Ali in early 1975, Creed was looking for an easy payday with some sort of a Disney theme for the bout. Prior to the Creed-Balboa fight, former champ Joe Frazier makes a cameo and interacts with Creed in the manner he used to with Ali. And like Wepner, Balboa makes it to the 15th round but instead of being stopped, Rocky loses a split decision. Rocky received ten Oscar nominations in nine categories at the 49th Academy Awards and won best picture.
There has never been a better year in boxing than 1976 where the right things all converged for the final generation in which boxing remained a first-tier sport. Think about all of that. The most popular and most recognized fighter in history, Muhammad Ali, hovering over great fights and great fighters on TV almost every weekend, during an Olympic year with the U.S. team that produced two all-time greats winning five gold medals, followed by the November release of perhaps the most iconic boxing movie ever.
These events brought scores of new fans to boxing and we’ll likely never see anything like the year 1976 again! What a year it was, and the resurgence it ignited in the sport was something boxing rode through the late 1990s.
Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com
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Skylar Lacy Blocked for Lamar Jackson before Making his Mark in Boxing
Skylar Lacy, a six-foot-seven heavyweight, returns to the ring on Sunday, Feb. 2, opposing Brandon Moore on a card in Flint, Michigan, airing worldwide on DAZN.
As this is being written, the bookmakers hadn’t yet posted a line on the bout, but one couldn’t be accused of false coloring by calling the 10-round contest a 50/50 fight. And if his frustrating history is any guide, Lacy will have another draw appended to his record or come out on the wrong side of a split decision.
This should not be construed as a tip to wager on Moore. “Close fights just don’t seem to go my way,” says the boxer who played alongside future multi-year NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at the University of Louisville.
A 2021 National Golden Gloves champion, Skylar Lacy came up short in his final amateur bout, losing a split decision to future U.S. Olympian Joshua Edwards. His last Team Combat League assignment resulted in another loss by split decision and he was held to a draw in both instances when stepping up in class as a pro. “In my mind, I’m still undefeated,” says Lacy (8-0-2, 6 KOs). “No one has ever kicked my ass.”
Lacy was the B-side in both of those draws, the first coming in a 6-rounder against Top Rank fighter Antonio Mireles on a Top Rank show in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and the second in an 8-rounder against George Arias, a Lou DiBella fighter on a DiBella-promoted card in Philadelphia.
Lacy had the Mireles fight in hand when he faded in the homestretch. The altitude was a factor. Lake Tahoe, Nevada (officially Stateline) sits 6,225 feet above sea level. The fight with Arias took an opposite tack. Lacy came on strong after a slow start to stave off defeat.
Skylar will be the B-side once again in Michigan. The card’s promoter, former world title challenger Dmitriy Salita, inked Brandon Moore (16-1, 10 KOs) in January. “A capable American heavyweight with charisma, athleticism and skills is rare in today’s day and age. Brandon has got all these ingredients…”, said Salita in the press release announcing the signing. (Salita has an option on Skylar Lacy’s next pro fight in the event that Skylar should win, but the promoter has a larger investment in Moore who was previously signed to Top Rank, a multi-fight deal that evaporated after only one fight.)
Both Lacy and Moore excelled in other sports. The six-foot-six Moore was an outstanding basketball player in high school in Fort Lauderdale and at the NAIA level in college. Lacy was an all-state football lineman in Indiana before going on to the University of Louisville where he started as an offensive guard as a redshirt sophomore, blocking for freshman phenom Lamar Jackson. “Lamar was hard-working and humble,” says Lacy about the player who is now one of the world’s highest-paid professional athletes.
When Lacy committed to Louisville, the head coach was Charlie Strong who went on to become the head coach at the University of Texas. Lacy was never comfortable with Strong’s successor Bobby Petrino and transferred to San Jose State. Having earned his degree in only three years (a BA in communications) he was eligible immediately but never played a down because of injuries.
Returning to Indianapolis where he was raised by his truck dispatcher father, a single parent, Lacy gravitated to Pat McPherson’s IBG (Indy Boxing and Grappling) Gym on the city’s east side where he was the rare college graduate pounding the bags alongside at-risk kids from the city’s poorer neighborhoods.
Lacy built a 12-6 record across his two seasons in Team Combat League while representing the Las Vegas Hustle (2023) and the Boston Butchers (2024).
For the uninitiated, a Team Combat League (TCL) event typically consists of 24 fights, each consisting of one three-minute round. The concept finds no favor with traditionalists, but Lacy is a fan. It’s an incentive for professional boxers to keep in shape between bouts without disturbing their professional record and, notes Lacy, it’s useful in exposing a competitor to different styles.
“It paid the bills and kept me from just sitting around the house,” says Lacy whose 12-6 record was forged against 13 different opponents.
As a sparring partner, Lacy has shared the ring with some of the top heavyweights of his generation, e.g., Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. He was one of Fury’s regular sparring partners during the Gypsy King’s trilogy with Deontay Wilder. He worked with Joshua at Derrick James’ gym in Dallas and at Ben Davison’s gym in England, helping Joshua prepare for his date in Saudi Arabia with Francis Ngannou and had previously sparred with Ngannou at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas. Skylar names traveling to new places as one of his hobbies and he got to scratch that itch when he joined Whyte’s camp in Portugal.
As to the hardest puncher he ever faced, he has no hesitation: “Ngannou,” he says. “I negotiated a nice price to spend a week in his camp and the first time he hit me I knew I should have asked for more.”
Lacy is confident that having shared the ring with some of the sport’s elite heavyweights will get him over the hump in what will be his first 10-rounder (Brandon Moore has never had to fight beyond eight rounds, having won his three 10-rounders inside the distance). Lacy vs. Moore is the co-feature to Claressa Shields’ homecoming fight with Danielle Perkins. Shields, basking in the favorable reviews accorded the big-screen biopic based on her first Olympic journey (“The Fire Inside”) will attempt to capture a title in yet another weight class at the expense of the 42-year-old Perkins, a former professional basketball player.
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Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce
Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.
Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.
The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.
In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.
It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.
For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.
Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.
It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.
“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”
Trinidad Wins Too
Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.
Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.
“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”
After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.
Other Bouts
Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.
Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.
Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.
More Winners
Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.
Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.
Hopefully the worst is over.
Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.
“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.
UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.
Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.
“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.
He knows talent.
Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.
Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.
Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.
Can Trinidad reach world title status?
Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.
It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.
Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.
Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.
Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Boxing and the Media
The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.
Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.
Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.
Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.
MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.
Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.
Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.
It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.
Photos credit: Lina Baker
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