In between working on a few new fighters and trying to keep up
with all the great new fighters added by everyone on this
board, I've been thinking about how to progress with Gerhard
Zech's career. I started looking at a few of the records of
some of the top heavyweights at that time in late 1966 and it
suddenly dawned on me what an excellant way there is that opens itself up to do this with the upcoming events in heavyweight boxing heading into the year 1967. With the ongoing events surrounding Muhammad Ali and his eventual taking away of his world heavyweigth title and his "retirement" in 1967, we had in 1967 and early 1968 the staging of a heavyweight elimination tournament set up by the World Boxing Association to fill the vacant heavyweight title.
We have Gerhard Zech following in the footsteps of Karl
Mildenberger at this time. In our replay here Zech has defeated
Mildenberger for the European HW Title, then taken on and
defeated Machen and Prebeg just as Karl did in early/mid 1966
to lead him up to his fight with Ali for the Heavyweight
championship. Our friend Gerhard, didn't last quite as long
against Ali as Karl did, but still he put up a good fight
giving us 10 rounds against Ali.
Mildenberger despite his loss to Ali would remain in the top 10
rankings of heavyweights and then as the events of 1967 began
to unravel, the situation presented itself to where
Mildenberger would again be presented with the opportunity to
fight for the World Heavyweight Title. So transporting our
friend Gerhard further into the shoes or mitts of Karl, these
events of 1967 lead to an interesting continuation of our
career replay of Gerhard Zech!
First lets set the scene of the heavyweight boxing world in the
1960's leading up to 1966 and 1967......(Thought this might be
interesting reading at least to some of us less knowledgable
boxing fans here in the TBCB world).....
In the beginning years of the 1960's you had two prominent
governing bodies in the world of boxing, the National Boxing
Association and the New York State Athletic Commission. The
"Undisputed Title" holder of the World Heavyweight Title at
that time was recognized as champion by both the NBA and the
NYSAC. In 1962, the the old NBA became what we now know as the World Boxing Association or WBA. The Sonny Liston/Floyd
Patterson HW fight in Sept. 1962 was the first heavyweight
title fight sanctioned by the newly named WBA.
In 1963 you had a 3rd governing body come onto the boxing
scene, the World Boxing Council or WBC. The 2nd
Liston/Patterson fight in July 1963 was the first sanctioned HW
title fight for the new WBC. On Feb. 25th, 1964, one Cassius Clay defeated reigning heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Soon after, Clay announced that he had become a member of the Nation of Islam and had changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
On Sept. 14th 1964, the WBA withdrew it's championship
recognition of Ali for the given reason of Ali signing on for a
return fight with Liston. All other boxing commissions
including the wBC continued to recognize Ali as the Champion.
The WBA, though declared the title to be vacant.
In 1965, the WBA set up a title fight between two top ranked
heavyweights for the wBA's version of the World Heavyweight
Title. On March 5th 1965 Ernie Terrell defeated Eddie Machen in
a 15 round UD. Terrell later in 1965 defended the WBA Title
against George Chuvalo, winning another 15 round UD. In June
1966, he successfully defended his title again, in a 3rd 15
round UD, this time against Doug Jones. Meanwhile, Ali defended
successfully his World (WBC and other recognized) Heavyweight
Title against first Sonny Liston and then Floyd Patterson.
By the end of 1965 the Ring Heavyweight Rankings(rankings most looked on as the "official" rankings), looked as follows....
Champ - Muhammad Ali
1. Ernie Terrell-WBA HW Title Holder
2. Floyd Patterson
3. George Chuvalo
4. Karl Mildenberger-Current European HW Title Holder
5. Zora Folley
6. Amos Lincoln
7. Thad Spencer
8. Doug Jones
9. Hubert Hilton
10. Brian London
1966 would prove to be a very successful year in the ring for
Ali, but on the personal front it was a year of growing
problems for him. In February of that year, Ali was classified
A1 by the draft board and thus could be expected to be called
up into the arm forces soon. Ali's now famous "I got no quarrel
with them Vietcong" in his defience to being drafted set off a
backlash of public sentitment turning against Ali. This growing
negative sentiment drove Ali to go out of the country to seeks
matches on foreign soil in 1966 while he waited for a decision
on his appeal for draft deferment as a conscientious objector
and then as a Muslim minister. That list of Title fights he
would undertake in 1966 of course were his victories over
George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London, and Karl
Mildenberger in bouts staged outside the US, before he returned
to the US to defeat Cleveland Williams in Houston, Texas.
Going into 1967 Ali continued his defiant stand against being
inducted into the arm services. Meanwhile he continued to pile
up victories in title defences. On Feb. 6, 1967 Ali and Ernie
Terrell fought each other in Houston, Texas to decide who was
the heavyweight champion of the world. Ali won in a 15 round UD
leaving Ali once again the undisputed and now again unified
heavyweight champion. On March 22nd, Ali successfully defended
his title again, this time by a 7th round KO of Zora Folley
again in Houston, Texas. It would turn out to be Ali's last
fight in the ring anyway, for 3 years.
On April 28th, 1967, Ali was ordered to report for induction
into service. He reported but refused to be inducted. On May
9, 1967 a federal grand jury indicted him on the charge of failing
to submit to the draft. Within a few hours, the WBA, WBC, the
NYSAC and everyother boxing commission stripped Ali of his
heavyweight title. This set in motion the formation of the
heavyweight tournament that was held in 1967-68 to fill Ali's
now vacant title.
Following is an account of the events of the forming of this
tournament out of "An Illustrated History of Boxing", by Nat
Fleischer and Sam Andre......
"Nothing had caused so great a muddle around the
heavyweight title as had Ali's draft case. The WBA had taken
the title from him and now it had to find a replacement. Three
months later it sanctioned the organization of an eight-man
elimination tournament headed by Mike Malitz's Sports Action,
Inc. a New York based firm, to determine who would take over
Ali's "vacated" title.
The intent of the tourny was somewhat thwarted when
officials of New York's Madison Square Garden arranged a bout
between GEorge Chuvalo, of Canada and Joe Frazier, of
Philadelphia, for July 19, 1967. Frazier knocked out Chuvalo in
the fourth round, then refused to join the elimination group.
The group consisted of Frazier, Thad Spencer, Ernie Terrell,
Oscar Bonavena, Karl Mildenberger, Jimmy Ellis, Floyd Patterson
and Jerry Quarry.
In retaliation, the WBA dropped Frazier from number one to number nine in its ratings, to enable Leotis Martin to get
into the number eight spot as Frazier's substitute.
The New York Boxing Commission further complicated
matters by declaring that the winner of the WBA tourney would
not be recognized unless that champion defeated Frazier.
The round-robin began on August 5, 1967, with Spencer pitted against Terrell and Ellis against Martin, in Houston,
Texas. Spencer, from Portland, Oregon, won a 12 round decision
over Terrell, of Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the same day and
in the same arena, Ellis, from Louisville, kayoed the
Philadelphian, Martin in the 9th.
In Frankfurt, Germany, Bonavena beat Mildenbergerin 12 rounds on September 16, 1967.
The final match in the first round was fought between
Patterson and Quarry on October 28 in Quarry's home state,
California. Quarry won a split decision in which referee Vern
Bybee voted a draw while judges Lee Grossman and Joey Lomas
gave the fight to Quarry.
Now Mexico and Britain entered the picture. Mexico's
governing body for boxing tried by failed to get Manuel Ramos
in the wBA listings. Ramos had stopped Terrell on
October 14. Likewise, the British couldn't get Eduardo
Corletti, victor over JOhnny Prescott on October 17, into the
tourney.
IN the semifinal round, on December 2, 1967, Ellis and
Bonavena met in Louisville, Kentucky, where Ellis decked
Bonavena twice and went on to win a unanimous decision in 12
rounds.
In Oakland, Califorina, Quarry stopped 6-foot, 4-inch
Spencer in the second semifinal, three seconds before the bell
ended the 12 round fight on February 3, 1968.
The final bout of the tournament took place on April
27, 1968, in Oakland where the 197 pound Ellis won over the 195
Quarry in a 15 round split decision."
"Ellis was the WBA champion, but the New York Boxing
Commission announced that it would recognize the winner of the
JOe Frazier-Buster Mathis bout as the new champion. Five state
commissions as well as those of Mexico and South America,
followed New York's decision."
So when Frazier stopped Mathis in the 11th round of their
fight, we had two recognized heavyweight champions, the WBA's
Jimmy Ellis and the NYSAC's Joe Frazier. The split title would
stay that way until February 16, 1970 when the two met in New
York and Frazier stopped Ellis in the 5th. The original title
stripped from Ali back in early 1967 was finnaly filled by one
recognized fighter over 3 years later, Joe Frazier.
This sets the stage for my continuation of Gerhard Zech's
career replay and my "what if" replay of the WBA Tourney, with
hopefully Zech involved!
Doing a replay of the WBA tournament was something I'd been
wanting to do but in a different "what if" fashion. What if
there hadn't been that controversial going ons between the WBA
and the NYSAC and Joe Frazier had actually participated in the
tournament and not ended up having the split title between
Frazier and Jimmy Ellis? Also, what if we did expand the
tournament a bit lets say to a 16 man field that would then
allow in those "fringe" heavyweight contenders who were in that
sort of 2nd echelon of heavyweight contenders back in 1967. We
could thus allowing the Ramos and Corletti in possibly along
guys like Chuvalo and Cooper. I think it would be
interesting adding a little more international flavor to the
tournament.
I mentioned above the topped ranked Heavyweights at the end of 1965 by Ring Magazine(Got this off heavyweight's website). From here I'm doing a little look at the careers of these topped
ranked heavyweights along with a some others not ranked in the
top 10 and see what they did in 1966 and into 1967. As I go
through this little study it will help us to see just what
we'll be looking at with the continuation of our replay of
Gerhard Zech's career through the WBA Elimation
tournament(hopefully
) and to see who all we might involve.
So what did each of the top 10 ranked above do in 1966?
(The records shown in () is the record at that time of each opponent.
1. Ernie Terrell(1-0-0)
6/28/66 Doug Jones(29-6-1) W UD 15
For the WBA Heavyweight Title held by Terrell
Though fighting only 1 time, Terrell would maintain his #1
Ranked contender at the end of 1966.
2. Floyd Patterson(1-0-0)
9/29/66 Henry Cooper(33-12-1) W KO 4
Fighting only 1 time apparently hurt Patterson as he dropped to
#4 Ranking at the end of 1966.
3. George Chuvalo(7-3-0)
1/25/66 Eduardo Corletti(11-2-5) L PTS 10
3/29/66 Muhammad Ali(22-0-0) L UD 15
For the World Heavyweight Title
5/14/66 Levi Forte(15-11-2) W KO 2
6/12/66 Oscar Bonavena(20-2-0) L PTS 10
8/16/66 Mel Turnbow(6-6-0) W KO 7
9/15/66 Bob Avery(13-6-2) W KO 2
10/12/66 Dick Wipperman(32-6-1) W KO 5
11/20/66 Boston Jacobs(5-2-0) W KO 3
11/28/66 Dave Russell(8-14-3) W KO 2
12/16/66 Willie McCormick(0-0-0) W KO 3
Even though a nice 7-3 record there was apparently maybe it was considered just too many of those fights against weak
competition. That coupled with the losses to Corletti, Ali and
Bonavena dropped Chuvalo down to #8 ranking at the end of 1966.
4. Karl Mildenberger(2-1-0) (Current European HW Champion)
2/3/66 Eddie Machen(47-6-3) W PTS 10
6/5/66 Yvan Prebeg(13-9-3) W PTS 15
For European Heavyweight Title
9/10/66 Muhammad Ali(25-0-0) L TKO 12
For World Heavyweight Title
Mildenberger dropped to #5 by the end of 1966. His good showing against Ali apparently worked in his favor to not drop even farther.
5.Zora Folley(3-0-0)
6/28/66 Jefferson Davis(27-9-1) W KO 8
10/25/66 Henry Clark(8-2-2) W PTS 10
12/13/66 Jefferson Davis(27-11-1) W PTS 10
A nice 3-0 record against decent competition moves Folley up to
#2 Ranked contender at the end of 1966!
6. Amos Lincoln(3-1-0)
2/3/66 Henry Clark(8-2-1) NC 8
3/3/66 Billy Daniels(20-11-1) W PTS 10
6/21/66 Elmer Rush(14-1-2) W TD 6
8/31/66 Elmer Rush(14-2-2) W TKO 9
10/21/66 Johnny Persol(16-3-1) L PTS 10
That Persol loss must have really hurt as Lincoln drops out of
the top 10 rankings. How far did he go? Still in the top 15
maybe?
7. Thad Spencer(5-0-0)
1/19/66 Chuck Leslie(10-8-1) W PTS 12
For California State HW Title
2/21/66 Billy Daniels(20-10-1) W PTS 6
4/18/66 Jack Bodell(35-6-0) W TKO 6
5/2/66 Brian London(34-12-0) W PTS 10
9/13/66 Bill McMurray(19-15-1) L KO 7
For California State HW Title
10/14/66 Doug Jones(29-7-1) W PTS 10
Great looking record for the year of 1966. Spencer moves up to
#3 in the rankings by year end 1966. Not sure why he's still
behind Folley though??
8. Doug Jones(1-2-0)
3/8/66 Lou Bailey(13-23-5) W TKO 6
6/28/66 Ernie Terrell(38-4-0) L UD 15
For WBA Heavyweight Title
10/14/66 Thad Spencer(29-5-0) L PTS 10
Here's a real good heavyweight of the late 50's and 60's who's
on his way down. This poor showing drops him out of the top 10.
He'll continue down into 1967.
9. Hubert Hilton(2-2-0)
1/25/66 Henry Cooper(31-11-1) L TKO 2
3/29/66 Jimmy Ellis(17-5-0) L PTS 8
6/15/66 Mel Turnbow(6-5-0) W TKO 4
9/8/66 Billy Joiner(9-1-0) W KO 9
Hilton like Jones drops out of the top 10 never to be seen
again. Those losses to Cooper and Ellis along with one to
Roberto Davila before the Cooper fight toward the end of 1965
really hurt his career. It never seemed the same after 1966.
10. Brian London(1-2-0)
5/2/66 Thad Spencer(28-4-0) L PTS 10
6/21/66 Amos Lincoln(22-3-2) W DQ 7
8/6/66 Muhammad Ali(24-0-0) L KO 3
World Heavyweight Title
Down and out. Two big losses coupled with the DQ win against
Lincoln drop him out. 1967 would really not be much any better
for Brian.
So we had 4 fighters drop out of the top 10 by the end of 1966,
Lincoln, Jones, Hilton and London. So who moved up in 1966?!
Well, lets take a look at what some of the other prominent
heavyweights did in 1966.
Jimmy Ellis(4-0-0)
3/29/66 Hubert Hilton(13-3-2) W PTS 8
5/21/66 Leweni Waga(18-4-1) W KO 1
9/10/66 Billy Daniels(20-14-1) W PTS 6
This fight was at the Waldstadion in Frankfurt,
Germany! This must have been a preliminary bout to the
Ali/Mildenberger Title fight!
11/14/66 Tommy Sims(33-28-4) W KO 1
After a sluggish start in his career it started to take off in
1965 and 1966.
Henry Cooper(2-2-0) Current British Heavyweight and
Commonwealth(British Empire) Heavyweight Title Holder.
1/25/66 Hubert HIlton(13-2-2) W TKO 2
2/16/66 Jefferson Davis(19-3-2) W KO 1
5/21/66 Muhammad Ali(23-0-0) L TKO 6
World Heavyweight Title
9/29/66 Floyd Patterson(43-5-0) L KO 4
A decent start to 1966 apparently gave Ali the notion he was
worth fighting in a title fight in Ali's world wind
international title fight tour. Ali and Patterson sent Cooper
back to earth. Someone mentioned, I think it was LeeSkye, that
maybe Cooper should be the next opponent of Gerhard giving
Cooper a shot at the European Title. Well, after his loss to
Ali, Mildenberger did defend his European title a couple times
in 1967, but not against Cooper. Since we're following Gerhard
in Karl's shoes, I'm going to continue that path through 1967.
Jerry Quarry(7-1-2)
2/3/66 Eddie Land(0-3-0) W PTS 8
2/17/66 Prentice Snipes(18-9-0) W KO 5
3/4/66 Tony Alongi(38-2-1) D PTS 10
4/7/66 George(Scrap Iron) JOhnson(6-10-4) W KO 2
5/2/66 Memphis Al Jones(2-4-2) W PTS 10
5/28/66 Tony Alongi(38-2-2) D PTS 10
7/14/66 Eddie Machen(48-8-3) L PTS 10
10/20/66 Bill Nielson(23-10-2) W PTS 10
11/29/66 Leslie Borden(12-8-2) W KO 5
12/15/66 Joey Orbillo(10-1-1) W PTS 10
Well, Jerry kept himself busy slowly inching his way up the
heavyweight rankings with some modest success in 1966.
Joe Frazier(9-0-0)
1/17/66 Mel Turnbow(6-3-0) W KO 1
3/4/66 Dick Wipperman(30-5-1) W TKO 5
4/4/66 Charley Polite(3-4-1) W TKO 2
4/28/66 Don(Toro) Smith(8-4-1) W KO 3
5/19/66 Chuck Leslie(11-9-1) W KO 3
5/26/66 Memphis Al Jones(2-5-2) W KO 1
7/25/66 Billy Daniels(20-13-1) W TKO 6
9/21/66 Oscar Bonavena(21-2-0) W SD 10
11/21/66 Eddie Machen(50-8-3) W TKO 10
Frazier is charging up the hill in the heavyweight rankings
reaching #6 by year end 1966.
Oscar Bonavena(7-2-0) (Current Argentinian and South American
Title holder I believe by the info I get from BoxRec.)
1/12/66 Bruno Segura(0-3-0) W KO 2
3/12/66 Jose Giorgetti(30-4-2) L DQ 8
4/16/66 Jose Giorgetti(31-4-2) W PTS 10
6/24/66 George Chuvalo(35-12-2) W PTS 10
9/21/66 Joe Frazier(11-0-0) L SD 10
10/7/66 Alberto Benassi(1-4-0) W KO 5
10/21/66 Amos Johnson(22-5-2) W PTS 10
11/18/66 Alberto Benassi(1-5-0) W TKO 5
12/1/66 Roberto Veliz(0-7-0) W KO 4
Good showing record wise in 1966 for Ringo. He'll be moving up
the rankings and #7 by the end of 1966.
Piero Tomasoni(2-0-1)
4/29/66 Giorgio Maseghin(17-6-0) W DQ 10
For the Italian HW Title
6/28/66 Jack Bodell(35-7-0) W TKO 3
11/3/66 Billy Daniels(20-15-1) D PTS 8
The new Italian Heavyweight Title holder in 1966 is not to be
seen near the top 10 rankings but he'll show up again in 1967
in an important fight in our project here with Gerhard Zech!
Buster Mathis(11-0-0)
1/7/66 Chuck Wepner(4-1-2) W TKO 3
1/19/66 Mike Bruce(4-2-1) W KO 5
2/16/66 Charley Polite(3-3-1) W PTS 6
6/16/66 Tom Swift(0-1-0) W KO 1
6/24/66 Everett Copeland(4-7-3) W KO 2
7/28/66 Charley Chase(12-7-1) W PTS 6
8/29/66 Mert Brownfield(6-3-0) W KO 1
9/15/66 Bob Stallings(11-5-0) W PTS 10
9/28/66 Marty Franklin(0-0-0) W KO 3
11/2/66 Johnny Barrazza(6-8-0) W KO 1
11/17/66 Sonny Andrews(1-9-0) W KO 2
Building the kind of recorded needed against the lower echelon
of the heavyweight stable to get you the shot at the upper
crust. Mathis is moving himself up but we'll have to wait and
see a bit yet to see where he goes.
Johnny Persol(4-0-0)
1/7/66 Harold JOhnson(71-8-0) W UD 10
4/6/66 Herschel Jacobs(18-11-2) W SD 10
8/25/66 James J. Woody(10-0-0) W PTS 10
10/21/66 Amos Lincoln(36-4-3) W PTS 10
Persol fought mainly in the Light Heavyweight Division in his
career. In 66 after fights against LHW's Johnson and Jacobs he
moves up to the heavyweight division and takes on and defeats
Woody and LIncoln. The rankings of got off heavyweight's site
show Persol ranked #9 at year end 1966. I'm having a hard time
understanding him getting this ranking when he was fighting
mainly LHW up till the fights with Woody and LIncoln??
Eduardo Corletti(7-0-0)
1/25/66 George Chuvalo(34-10-2) W PTS 10
6/3/66 Telmo Gonzalez(0-4-0) W KO 2
7/16/66 Silvestre Serena(0-0-0) W KO 6
8/16/66 Alberto Benassi(1-3-0) W PTS 10
9/1/66 Pedro Coria(0-2-0) W PTS 10
10/1/66 Jose Giorgetti(35-5-2) W PTS 10
11/4/66 Roberto Veliz(0-6-0) W PTS 10
Corletti, from Argentina is starting to become more known in
the international scene. Prior to the Chuvalo fight, Corletti
had beaten and drawn with Billy Walker in consecutive fights
and fought a 10 round draw with Albert Westphal.Corletti's name
will come up in our unfolding Gerhard Saga!
Manual Ramos(9-0-0)
3/31/66 Jerry Simmering(10-5-0) W KO 6
4/23/66 John Henry Jackson(8-11-2) W KO 2
5/5/66 Archie Ray(20-4-2) W PTS 8
6/3/66 Eddie Machen(47-7-3) W SD 10
8/7/66 Wayne Heath(9-4-0) W KO 2
9/11/66 Dave Centi(11-8-0) W KO 3
10/22/66 Don Koontz(9-2-0) W KO 3
12/19/66 Max Martinez(4-2-0) W KO 2
A heavyweight from Mexico whom BoxRec shows winning the Mexican HW Title in 1963 but then no refights after that, so, not sure about the Mexican Title if he still held that. But, he's moving
up the ladder internationally. That 9-0 streak in 1966 which
included the wins over Archie Ray and Eddie Machen help propel
Ramos to the #10 slot in the 1966 year end ratings by Ring!
Leotis Martin(2-0-0)
12/5/66 Amos Johnson(22-6-2) W KO 3
12/22/66 Roberto Davila(9-7-0) W PTS 10
Martin was 17-1-0 and making a climb up the heavyweight
rankings. He'd not fought though since December of 1965 when he finally got back into the ring with JOhnson and then defeated
DAvila a couple weeks later. We'll hear though from Martin
later in 1967.
By the end of 1966 the Ring Top 10 Heavyweights looks like
this......
Champ - Muhammad Ali
1. Ernie Terrell
2. Zora Folley
3. Thad Spencer
4. Floyd Patterson
5. Karl Mildenberger
6. Joe Frazier
7. Oscar Bonavena
8. George Chuvalo
9. Johnny Persol
10. Manuel Ramos
Now lets back track a little bit to within our Zech Replay.
Gerhard had defeated Mildenberger for the European Crown. Zech then went on to defeat the 2 opponents Karl fought in 1966, Machen and Prebeg. Then went on to fight Ali as Karl did in
1966. So lets imagine Zech's at that #5 ranking at the end of
1966. Where does that put us with Mildenberger? What happens to him. Natural course may be him following the actual career play
of Zech. When Zech actually lost to Mildenberger in late 1965,
Zech then went on to defend his German Heavyweight Title
against Albert Westphal in April 1966 and then traveled to
Sweden to take on Sonny Liston who was touring Sweden to keep his heavyweight career alive when nobody seemed to care about it in the states after his controversial defeats to Ali in 64
and 65. Zech beat Westphal, then lost to Liston. He fought one
more time in 1966 defending his German title again, this time
against Jurgen Blin. That fight ended in a 12 round draw.
So, in our replay, with Zech defeating Mildenberger for the European HW Title, would Mildenberger have followed more or less in Zech's tracks and first looked to regain the German HW Title say vacated by Zech to go after the European crown? Let's say he does. First thing I think we'll do is stage a little fight between Mildenberger and Westphal for the German HW Title. From there we'll look further into what Mildenberger does going into 1967 and what happens with the rest our group of heavyweights being studied.
This is turning out more interesting then what I ever imagined it would be doing this Zech thing!