There was a time when even Philadelphia had the “death squad” whose “manager’s” would pick them up off the street the day of a fight and drive them to “appear” on a show as an opponent of an up and coming boxer. Not only did I witness it but was even part of it a few times. When I needed a last minute substitute when promoting or matchmaking shows back in the 80’s I knew who to call. Every once in awhile they would come in and drop the local kid for a count as early as the first round. I would yell up to their “manager” and say “what are you doing to me?” His reply would be “by the second round he will be exhausted”. My reply was “I just hope the other guy gets through the first round”! Those still around from back then know whom I am talking about without mentioning names.
Today it’s mostly UK boxers that keep the “100 Club” going of “Record Builders”. Though it was US boxer Reggie Strickland who retired in 2005 having fought since 1987 with a final record of 66-276-17 and may never be surpassed with that amount of losses.
It was Peter Buckley from the UK who boxed from 1989 to 2008 that got some notoriety having fought some “300 times” ending with a 32-256-12 record. There are some 28 boxers who lost a 100 times or more to make the “100 Club” with 8 of them still active while the manager of some of them like Johnny Greaves of the UK is near making the club with a 4-96 record and still active. Matt Seawright at 5-89-5 and Duncan Cottier currently 3-83-3 both of the UK are also active.
Several records stand out like that of the UK’s Burnett Winston at 0-98-3. Still active is Bheki Moyo a South African born boxer now out of the UK who is 0-64-2 though only stopped 4 times. As far as being knocked out or shall we say “stopped” and still active is someone like US heavyweight Marcus Rhode who is 35-49-2 having been stopped 42 times. He wasn’t “pefect” like US boxers James Holly 0-55 stopped 55 times and Eric Crumble of the US who was 0-31 and stopped 31 times.
Another US boxer named Strickland was Jerry who was 13-122 having been stopped some 78 times! Mexico’s Eduardo Gutierrez is still active with a 3-65-1 record being stopped 49 times.
While former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano was 49-0 with 43 knockouts the US also had Robert Woods 1-49 knocked out 43 times.
If it were not for that 1 win by Wood he would have been “just the opposite of the Rock!
Jose Carlos Amaral of Brazil is 1-64 and stopped 37 times and still active in several South American countries. Bill Beynon of the UK “refused” to join the 100 Club retiring with a 60-99-29 record. One of the last US boxers to retire as recently as 2002 was Rocky Bentley with an 11-95-1 record and stopped 31 times.
If anyone wants a list of the 100 Club e-mailed to them you can reach Ken Hissner at kenhissner@gmail.com You may find some names duplicated or not accurate per www.boxrec.com and if you do please notify me for its not always easy keeping up with 1,000’s of boxers!
