Requiem for a Heavyweight Gatekeeper: A Contrite Farewell to Leroy Caldwell

Published

2 years ago

February 21, 2023

Requiemfor-a-Heavyweight-Gatekeeper-A-Contrite-Farewell-to-Leroy-Caldwell

Leroy Caldwell passed away during the second week of February at a hospital in Las Vegas. He was 77 years old.

The local papers and TV outlets made no mention of it. Neither did the leading boxing journals. Like many journeymen boxers before him, Caldwell died in obscurity. But as journeyman go, Caldwell had quite a resume. He fought five men who held a world heavyweight title – George Foreman, Gerrie Coetzee, Pinklon Thomas, Trevor Berbick, and John Tate — and six others who were world title challengers: Earnie Shavers, Cleveland Williams, Oscar Bonavena, Ron Lyle, Joe Bugner, and David Bey.

No, Caldwell didn’t win any of these fights – and, truth be told, his efforts against Bonavena and Bugner were desultory — but his setbacks, in the aggregate, were the product of extenuating circumstances.

As the “B side,” Caldwell was constantly fighting in his opponent’s backyard where the deck was stacked against him. He out-boxed European heavyweight champion Jose Manuel Urtain on Urtaini’s turf in Bilbao, Spain but received only a draw. The same thing happened when he fought the tough Canadian Trevor Berbick in Winnipeg; another draw.

It didn’t help that Leroy, although well-muscled, was on the small side for a heavyweight. More often than not, he carried less than 205 pounds on his six-foot-one frame. Cleveland “Big Cat” Williams out-weighed him by 30 pounds, George Foreman by 32 pounds, Big John Tate by 40 pounds.

Also, since Caldwell was constantly taking fights on short notice, he rarely the luxury of training for a specific opponent. He stayed in shape, by and large, by working as a sparring partner.

He sparred with many of the men that he eventually fought and also touched gloves with Tim Witherspoon, Tony Tucker, Michael Dokes, Frank Bruno, and Bonecrusher Smith. Over the course of a career that spanned 22 years, he likely earned more money as a sparring partner than he did in his actual fights. His largest purse, by his recollection, was the $19,000 he received when he opposed Gerrie Coetzee in Johannesburg.

Caldwell spent his boyhood in New Orleans. His parents, he said, had 23 children between them. Needless to say, times were tough. On occasion as many as 15 people resided under the same roof with him.

Caldwell had no amateur bouts. His first pro fights were on the Gulf Coast club circuit. For a time he fought out of Chris Dundee’s fabled 5^th Street Gym in Miami Beach. Bruce Trampler, the future Hall of Fame matchmaker, fresh out of college, was also there, serving as an intern under Chris’s brother Angelo, the famous trainer. In 1972, Trampler accompanied Leroy to Madrid and to London for bouts with Gregory Peralta and Joe Bugner, matches spaced seven-and-a-half weeks apart. (Trivia time: Later that same year, when Caldwell fought Earnie Shavers at Newton Falls, Ohio, Bruce Trampler was the referee!)

In 1974 or 1975, while living in Milwaukee, Caldwell got into an altercation with a policeman who came to arrest him for stealing a package of lunch meat from a grocery store. The gap in his boxing timeline – he missed all of 1975 and 1976 – was a residue of this incident; he was incarcerated.

News of Caldwell’s passing brought back memories to this grizzled reporter.

Late in his career, Caldwell fought Jeff Shelburg at Las Vegas’ long-gone Hacienda Hotel. I was there with several of my friends.

A stocky, short-armed heavyweight from Salt Lake City who had knocked out 19 opponents while building a 22-3 record, Shelburg had been the subject of a recent feature story in a local weekly rag called SportsBook. The story said that someone had invented a contraption for measuring the force of a punch and that of the dozens of boxers that had been tested, Shelburg had the best score.

Armed with this information, I was prepared to chunk it in on Jeff Shelburg if I could find a willing taker. Inside the arena, someone overheard me extolling Shelburg’s credentials and a bet was consummated at even-money. Back in those days, a $40 wager was a big bet for me and, as I recall, I wagered $50. I was showing off. I didn’t want my friends to think I was a piker.

Ignoring the Lopez brothers, Ernie and Danny, who were raised on the Ute Indian Reservation, only two top-shelf boxers ever came out of Utah: Jack Dempsey and Gene Fullmer. Dempsey grew up in Colorado and West Virginia, but he represented Salt Lake City as he was climbing the ladder and met his first wife in a Salt Lake City whorehouse. Fullmer had two left feet but was tough as nails. Sugar Ray Robinson knocked him out cold in their second of four meetings, but Fullmer won the series 2-1-1.

Of course, I didn’t know all this at that time; I was a greenhorn; a foolish greenhorn. Jeff Shelburg may have packed a hard punch, but as I learned to my dismay, he was a typical Utah fighter. “Shelburg could never get untracked against the veteran Caldwell, who jabbed and moved and used his superior boxing ability to rack up a one-sided win,” wrote Review-Journal boxing writer Royce Feour.

I ran into Leroy about 12 years later and, ironically, we were in Utah. This was the first and last time that I ever spoke with him. More precisely, he spoke to me.

I was in Utah to perform the duties of a ring announcer at a kickboxing show at the basketball arena of Dixie State College in St. George, a town about 100 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The promoter was pals with a number of individuals in the Las Vegas boxing community and two carloads of boxers – some active, some retired – made the trip to St. George.

There were a number of “notables” in their ranks – I don’t remember them all, but Roger Mayweather comes quickly to mind – and I had them stand up and take a bow during the course of the festivities.

Leroy Caldwell was there too and he let me know about it at the conclusion of the show. “I was on TV more than all those other guys put together. Why didn’t you acknowledge me too?’, he said to me, his carriage less indignant than disconsolate.

An oversight on my part? Not exactly. I knew that he was there. He had been retired for some time now and I just didn’t consider him noteworthy. And that was my bad; shame on me. I hurt his feelings and in the ensuing years, whenever I saw him, I remembered that one-sided conversation in Utah and rued that I had been so inconsiderate.

Caldwell stayed involved in boxing after he retired. He made himself useful in the gyms around town and picked up odd jobs as a cornerman. He was a trainer, yes, and arguably a very good one, but he was never the primary voice in the comer of a big-name boxer. And the money that dribbled in was barely enough to keep his head above water.

In August of last year, a longtime friend of Caldwell, a former club fighter named Johnny Jackson, started a GoFundMe page for Leroy. Caldwell, he said, had major medical bills and although Leroy’s wife had a job, they were facing eviction. Caldwell staved off homelessness, but the fund fell far short of its $10,000 goal.

When Caldwell was last seen at the Mayweather Boxing Club, he was in a wheelchair. However, it was plain that he still had all of his faculties. “He was one of my favorite people to talk to,” said former WBC super featherweight champion Cornelius Boza-Edwards who helps run the place.

“When I heard that Leroy was in the hospital, I went over to see him, just to chat with him for a little while,” said Boza-Edwards. “But his wife, who I never met, had put a no-visitors rule in place and I wasn’t allowed up to his room. That was the first time that it dawned on me that Leroy might be seriously ill.”

“Leroy was a good guy,” said everyone I talked to about him since I learned of his passing. “He was in my corner helping [trainer-manager] Luis [Tapia] when I won my first title [against Sandra Yard at Colorado’s Sky Ute Casino in 2000], recalled Layla McCarter. “I will never forget how happy he was for me. Looking back that made it even more special.”

In researching this story, I stumbled on this item in the Oct. 4, 1979 edition of the Los Angeles Times:

“Heavyweight Mircea Simon of Torrance, silver medalist at the 1976 Olympics while representing his native Romania, was announced to have fought journeyman Leroy Caldwell of Las Vegas to a draw in Thursday night’s featured bout at the Olympic Auditorium.

However, in reviewing the fight, the California State Athletic Commission discovered an error in the tabulations. Recalculated, the scoring shows Caldwell the winner of a split decision.”

This story ran seven days after the fight. The correction never went into the record books. At boxrec, Leroy Caldwell’s final record is listed at 27-31-6. It should be 28-31-5.

We called it to boxrec’s attention and hopefully they will fix it. True, it wouldn’t bump Leroy’s record above .500, but here was a journeyman who was used and spit out by the boxing establishment (and disrespected by one unnoteworthy ring announcer) and it seems only proper to set the record straight.

Arne K. Lang’s third boxing book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” has rolled off the press. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More

Published

19 hours ago

November 1, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-303-Spotlights-on-Lightweights-and-More

Those lightweights.

Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.

Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.

Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.

Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.

“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.

Even in Las Vegas.

Verona, New York

Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.

Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.

“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.

Foster disagrees.

“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.

Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).

Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.

“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.

Muratalla likes challenges too.

“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.

Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship

WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.

Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.

But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.

“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.

In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.

Bad choice for Mucino.

Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.

Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.

Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.

Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.

“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.

It should be exciting.

Fights to Watch

Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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Bakhram Murtalaziev was the Fighter of the Month in October

Published

2 days ago

October 31, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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As we close the book on October, let’s look back at the month’s stellar performances. Kenshiro Teraji added another exclamation point to his brilliant career with an 11^th-round stoppage of Cristofer Rosales. England’s Jack Catterall, considered no more than a decent domestic-level talent for most of his career, showed that he had been underrated with a comprehensive 12-round decision over declining Regis Prograis. But the top performance, by a landslide, was delivered by Bakhram Murtalaziev who annihilated Tim Tszyu on Oct. 19 in Orlando, Florida.

Murtalaziev was undefeated (22-0, 16 KOs) and the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, but he was the underdog and the “B” side. As champions go, and there are roughly five dozen across the 17 weight divisions, the California-based Russian ranked among the least well-known. He had won his title in Berlin with an 11^th-round stoppage of an unexceptional 38-year-old German-Ecuadorian campaigner, Jack Culcay, and he would be making his first defense.

Managed by Egis Klimas who also handles Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, Bakhram Murtalaziev came from a good barn in the vernacular of a horseplayer, but on paper that alone was insufficient to get him over the hump against Tim Tszyu who a few short months earlier was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer in the world.

That was before he met up with Sebastian Fundora who blemished his record, but that setback could have been written off as a fluke.

As we recall, Tszyu was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman in the initial PBC offering on Amazon Prime Video, but Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and Fundora was bumped up from the undercard to fill the breach. With only 12 days’ notice, Tim Tszyu went from fighting a five-foot-seven fighter who fights out of an orthodox stance to fighting a southpaw who stood almost a full foot taller. The “Towering Inferno” has his limitations, but poses a special problem to anyone, let alone an opponent with little time to formulate a good game plan.

Tszyu was hampered in the Fundora fight by a gash on his hairline that hampered his vision. The injury happened in the second round when he ducked under Fundora and walked into an elbow. The gash bled copiously throughout the fight and yet the best that Fundora could do was win a split (albeit fair) decision.

To say that Tszyu failed to rebound from the Fundora misadventure would be putting it mildly. Murtalaziev steamrolled him, knocking him to the canvas four times in all before Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel at the 1:55 mark of the third stanza. It was painful to watch. Referee Chris Young was faulted for allowing the match to continue as long as it did. Compounding Tszyu’s misery, his celebrated father, a first ballot Hall of Famer, was ringside. Kostya Tszyu hadn’t seen his oldest son fight in the flesh since Tim’s pro debut in 2016.

Although the dichotomy is imperfect, Tim Tszyu, who turns 30 on Saturday, is more of a puncher than a boxer. That may work against him so far as clawing his way back to a position of prominence. The noted boxing coach Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, a keen student of the history of boxing in the modern era, expressed this sentiment in a Q and A story for Boxing Scene. “Destructive fighters usually don’t come back to full capacity after bad KO losses,” he said, citing John Mugabi, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Naseem Hamed to illustrate his point. Moreover, added Edwards, “No one will ever be afraid of him again.”

But there were two stories that emerged from the Murtalaziev-Tszyu fight. Tim Tszyu crashed, but Bakhram Murtalaziev emerged from obscurity, announcing his presence (pardon the cliché) as a force to be reckoned with. As for his next assignment, the best guess is that it will come against Sebastian Fundora or Errol Spence Jr. who are expected to meet early next year. And based on Murtalaziev’s stunning performance in Orlando, it will be impossible to bet against him.

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Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later

Published

3 days ago

October 30, 2024

The Sweet Science

Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later

By TSS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT JAMIE REBNER — In sports, middle-aged athletes are not supposed to beat opponents who are half their age and in their athletic primes. Only the greatest ones can use guile, technique, and experience to compensate for the dulling of speed, reflexes, and athleticism that have unavoidably eroded with time.

That is why George Foreman’s feat of reclaiming the heavyweight title at 45 is so impressive. It was thirty years ago this coming Tuesday, Nov 5, 1994, that Foreman scored a monumental upset in knocking out Michael Moorer to win back the title he had lost twenty years prior against Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle. In doing so, Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion, breaking the record previously held by Jersey Joe Walcott, who had won the title at 38.

When Foreman beat Moorer, he was in the twilight of his second career, a comeback that began in 1987. George had retired in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young and experiencing a spiritual awakening in his locker room. That led him to become a minister and devote himself to his family and congregation. During his retirement, he opened a youth center in Houston, which required much financial support, prompting him to return to the ring.

After winning 24 straight fights from 1987-1990, Foreman lost his first title shot by decision to Evander Holyfield in 1991. He rebounded from that loss with three more wins before getting a crack at the WBO title against Tommy Morrison in 1993. But his performance against Morrison was disappointing and he lost another decision. After that, Foreman was out of the ring for 17 months before he was gifted another title shot against Moorer.

Foreman got that gift because Moorer, due to his sullen demeanor and curtness with the media, was not a draw with the fans. He was also an unproven champion, having beaten Holyfield for two belts only seven months prior. So. Moorer needed a name opponent who could bring in the crowds for his first title defense. And the other top heavyweights like Oliver McCall (WBC champ), Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe didn’t have close to Foreman’s drawing power. So. deserving or not, Foreman was chosen as the challenger to make a fight that would be worth the public’s attention and pockets.

Even Foreman was surprised by getting selected to fight Moorer. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d get a title shot again,” he told Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg. Still, George was determined to make his third time a charm.

But as motivated as George was, there was an irrefutable gap in speed between himself and the much younger champion. From the opening bell, Moorer used his superior quickness and reflexes to make Foreman look stiff and slow. And although George landed punches early on, he fired them one at a time while Moorer countered with multiple shots. But despite Moorer’s advantage in connects, his trainer Teddy Atlas advised him from the get-go not to stand in front of Foreman and make himself a stationary target for a right-hand bomb.

But Moorer failed to heed that advice as he continued to outwork Foreman in the middle rounds. Although he was winning, Moorer’s overconfidence kept him at close quarters, and he continued to circle unwisely to his left and into Foreman’s dangerous right hand. And despite absorbing many quality shots, Foreman never appeared hurt or discouraged thanks to his granite chin and unyielding resolve. He was determined to win and he was willing to walk through as many flush shots as he needed to do so.

With Moorer content to stay in range, Foreman gladly returned his firepower and he landed some telling right crosses, uppercuts, and plenty of thudding body blows during the battle. And while Moorer continued to pile up points and rounds, as long as George was marching forward and throwing shots, he had a puncher’s chance.

And with a minute to go in round ten, that punch came. After missing a three-punch combination, Foreman scored with a one-two, with the right hand landing on the forehead. He immediately repeated that combination but this time aimed the right hand lower on Moorer’s jaw. That slight adjustment caused his bulldozer right to collide perfectly with Moorer’s chin, sending the champion crashing to the canvas and sprawled onto his back. The champion couldn’t beat the count, and just like that, the fight was over, Moorer’s short-lived title run ending before it ever truly began.

With a single, shattering blow, Foreman etched his name into boxing history. Wearing the same trunks from Zaire 20 years before, he was now heavyweight champion of the world once again. It was a shocking result that defied conventional wisdom since seldom do 45-year-old boxers score knockouts over champions in their athletic primes. But Foreman reminded us that he was anything but your typical quadragenarian. He was special, and he had two distinct heavyweight championship reigns to prove it.

—

About the author:

Jamie Rebner lives in Toronto, Canada. He has been a freelance boxing writer since 2016 and his writing has appeared in The Fight City, Boxing News Online, The Ring, and Ringside Seat magazine. His Substack blog is Fight Fundamental, and he is currently writing a book about George Foreman’s comeback. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @J_NReb.

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