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For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2024 Boxing Obituaries PART ONE (Jan.-June)

Here in our annual end-of-year report, we pay homage to the boxing notables who left us in the past year in a two-part story. May they rest in peace.
January
Jan. 22 – CAMERON DUNKIN – Named the BWAA Manager of the Year in 2007, Dunkin was involved with more than 30 world title-holders including Diego Corrales, Kelly Pavlik, and Tim Bradley. It was said of him that no one was better at spotting a diamond-in-the-rough at an amateur boxing tourney. At age 67 in Las Vegas after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Jan. 31 – NORMAN “BUMPY” PARRA – Active from 1962 to 1968, Parra, a U.S. Army veteran, was 17-4-5 in documented fights and was briefly recognized as the California bantamweight champion. In retirement he trained several fighters and established several boxing clubs for disadvantaged youth in the San Diego area. At age 84 in San Diego.
February
Feb. 2 – KAZUKI ANAGUCHI – He lost consciousness in his dressing room after losing a close 10-round decision to Seiyo Tsatsumi in Tokyo on Dec, 23, 2003, and spent more than a month in a deep coma before succumbing to his head injury. The see-saw contest, the semi-final to a Naoya Inoue title fight, was named the Japan Domestic Fight of the Year. An Osaka-born bantamweight, Anaguchi was 23.
Feb. 4 – CARL WEATHERS – He appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows but would be best remembered for portraying the Muhammad Ali-inspired character Apollo Creed opposite Sylvester Stallone in the first four installments of the “Rocky” franchise. At his home in Los Angeles where he passed away in his sleep of an undisclosed illness at age 76.
Feb. 13 – IGNACIO ESPINAL – a 1968 Olympian, he never won a world title but had the misfortune of competing in the era of Miguel Canto, arguably the greatest flyweight ever. He was 0-2-1 vs Canto across 35 closely-contested rounds and finished 35-14-4. In Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, his birthplace, at age 75.
March
March 4 – JIMMY HEAIR – Raised in Mississippi and Colorado, the son of a Pentecostal minister, he came to the fore in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, the glory days of the Olympic Auditorium. Heair won his first 33 fights, rising to #3 in The Ring rankings at lightweight and finished 94-34-1 (65 KOs) during a 19-year career in which he answered the bell for 862 rounds. At age 71 at a nursing home in Okolona, Mississippi, after a long battle with pugilistic dementia.
March 22 – ALESIA GRAF – A Belarus-born German, Graf was active as recently as 2019 when she fought Dina Thorslund for the WBO world super bantamweight title. She finished 29-8 with five of her losses coming in legitimate world title fights. At age 43 in Stuttgart of undisclosed causes.
March 22 – BOB LEE SR. – A former police detective, he was the Acting Commissioner of the New Jersey Athletic Commission when he left to found the International Boxing Federation (IBF) in 1983. As president, he instituted several important safety features but his reputation was sullied when he was convicted of taking bribes for higher ratings for which he served 22 months in a federal prison. At age 90 in Edison, New Jersey.
March 26 – LAVELL FINGER – A National Golden Gloves champion at 138 pounds, Lavell and his twin brother Terrell (who passed away in 2019) turned pro on the same card in their hometown of St. Louis in 1989. Lavell was 25-1 when he retired in 2009, returning six years later for three more fights. At age 55 in Katy, Texas.
March 31 – JAN KIES – The South African southpaw answered the bell for 230 rounds during a nine-year career that began in 1969, finishing 31-11. His best win came early in his career when he knocked out former world title-holder Jean Josselin in 63 seconds, sending the Frenchman off into retirement. At age 76 in Krugersdorp, SA.
April
April 7 – RICKEY PARKEY – Active from 1981 to 1994, Parkey lost his last 12 fights to finish 22-20, but in his prime was one of the world’s top cruiserweights. He briefly held he IBF version of the world 190-pound title, a diadem he lost to Evander Holyfield who stopped him in three rounds. At age 67 at a nursing home in his hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a victim of lung cancer.
April 11 – GARY SHAW – He began his career in boxing as an inspector with the New Jersey Athletic Commission and went on to promote or co-promote some of the highest-grossing fights of the early 20th century before crossing over to MMA. On his 79th birthday at his home in South Florida where he had been bedridden following a January heart attack.
April 15 – WILLIE LIMOND – The Scotsman won a slew of regional titles after turning pro as a lightweight in 1999, finishing with a record of 42-6. In his most recent bout, in September of last year, he was stopped in eight rounds in a heavily-hyped domestic showdown with former three-division title-holder Ricky Burns. At age 45 at a hospital in the Glasgow suburb of Airdie nine days after suffering an apparent seizure while driving.
April 27 – ARDI NDEMBO – A Congolese heavyweight with an undefeated record (8-0, 7 KOs), Ndembo was knocked unconscious on April 5 in Miami while representing the Las Vegas team in the fledgling World Combat League. A 27-year-old father of two, he left the ring on a stretcher, was placed in a medical coma, and died 22 days later without regaining consciousness.
May
May 20 – IRISH PAT MURPHY – A welterweight from West New York, New Jersey, Murphy opened his career with 25 straight wins, earning him a date with Canadian champion Donato Paduano who saddled him with his first defeat. Their match at Madison Square Garden was the main event on a card with George Foreman and Chuck Wepner in supporting bouts. He finished 34-14-2 in a 13-year career that began in 1967. At age 74 at his home in Secaucus, NJ.
May 21 – ART JIMMERSON – A cruiserweight during most of his career, Jimmerson fought the likes of Orlin Norris, Vassiliy Jirov, and Arthur Williams. He lost his last nine fights before transitioning to MMA, finishing his boxing career with a record of 33-18. At age 60 of an apparent aneurism while driving to work at a UFC gym in Los Angeles.
June
June 15 – ENRIQUE PINDER – He became the fifth fighter from Panama to win a world title when he took the WBA/WBC bantamweight belts from Rafael Herrera in 1972, winning a 15-round unanimous decision. His title reign lasted only six months and he left the sport with a 35-7-2 record. In Panama City at age 76 where he had been dealing with heart problems.
June 26 – STEFFEN TANGSTAD – A two-time European heavyweight champion, the Norwegian retired in 1986 with a 24-2-2 record after being stopped in the fourth round by defending IBF world heavyweight champion Mihael Spinks. In retirement he remained in the public eye in Scandinavia as a TV boxing commentator. In Tonsberg, Norway at age 65 after a long battle with a neurological disorder that left him partially paralyzed.
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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.
This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.
Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.
Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.
And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.
Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.
Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.
The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.
In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.
Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)
The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.
Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.
That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.
The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.
The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.
Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.
Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.
Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:
Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)
Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.
Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”
Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.
What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.
What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.
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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.
There were no knockdowns in this rematch.
The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.
It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.
Nothing changed in their second meeting.
Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.
The blows came in bunches.
In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.
Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.
Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.
During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.
But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.
“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.
Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.
“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.
Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.
“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.
Female Flyweight Battle
Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.
Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.
Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.
The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.
Neither fighter could take over the fight.
After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.
Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.
Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.
Puerto Rico vs Mexico
Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.
Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.
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