New HW Boxers Rated

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/05/67 Thursday

Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Mac Foster – HW (1-0-0) vs. Bert Leroy Birmingham (4-3-1)

Mac Foster - USA HW Rating 5 already in game.

30 wins / 6 losses / 0 draw / 30 KO

Hometown: Fresno, CA
Birthplace: Alexandria, VA
Manager: Pat DiFuria

The following recap of Mac Foster's career is an article by Jim Amato on the website, Saddaboxing.com.

"Long before Mark McGwire was launching tape measure home runs in Oakland and acquiring the nickname “Big Mac”, West Coast sports fans used to cheer the feats of another “Big Mac”. MacArthur Foster a heavyweight boxer from Fresno, California won his first 24 professional bouts all by knockout. Six came in the first round, four in the second round and seven in the third round. By the spring of 1970 he was the number one rated contender for Joe Frazier’s crown.
Mac turned pro in November of 1966 and by the end of 1967 he had racked up nine kayos. Among his victims were veterans Floyd Joyner and Roy “Cookie” Wallace. He piled up seven more kayos in 1968 and in 1969 he made some serious noise in the heavyweight ratings. With Muhammad Ali banned from boxing, Joe Frazier and Jimmy Ellis shared the heavyweight crown. The division needed some new blood and much felt Foster was the answer. Mac added six more knockouts in 1969 stopping Roger Rischer, Thad Spencer, Roger Russell, Cleveland Williams (twice) and Bob Felstein. Although Williams was well past his prime he could still punch and Mac took all he had to offer and come back to win both times.
After stopping Jack O’Halloran in one round on April 9th, 1970 for his 24th straight kayo victory, Mac decided to come east to New York. In his Madison Square Garden debut was to take on veteran contender Jerry Quarry. A victory over Quarry would no doubt ensure a big money fight with Frazier. On June 17th as Jerry Quarry was to do several times during his exciting career, he upset the odds stopping a tentative Foster in six rounds. Quarry outboxed his less experienced foe until lowering the boom in the sixth. Mac showed none of his storied power. Quarry used the Foster victory as a springboard to match with the comeback Muhammad Ali. Three months later Mac returned to stop shopworn ex-contender Zora Folley in one round. Mac rolled off three more victories and then signed to meet Muhammad Ali. Ali had lost to Joe Frazier in the March 8, 1971 “Battle of the Century”. Now Ali was taking on all new comers proclaiming himself to be the “People’s Champion”. Mac met Ali on April 1st, 1972 in Tokyo, Japan. Although Mac went the fifteen round distance, Ali won by a very comfortable margin. Mac looked slow and ponderous and did not the power of a fighter with a record of 28-1, all 28 wins by knockout coming into this contest.
The loss to Ali was probably the highlight of Mac’s career. He would score knockouts over journeymen Sam McGill and Charley Williams. Then he was out-hustled over ten rounds by Bob Stallings. Mac closed out 1973 dropping a ten round duke in England to Joe Bugner. Foster had one fight in 1974 being outscored by slick Henry Clark. Mac took 1975 off and had his last bout in 1976 losing a ten rounder to Stan Ward.
Although overrated at the beginning of his career Mac proved to be a competent fighter. He finished with a 30-6 record, all wins coming by knockout and he was only stopped once, Mac’s biggest claim to fame may have been in a late 1960’s sparring session when he reportedly flattened Charles “Sonny” Liston!" writen by Jim Amato

Bert Leroy Birmingham - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1964-68

4 wins / 6 losses / 1 draw / 4 KO

Hometown: Oakland, CA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Of his 6 losses, Bert was stopped in 5 of those. His first 5 career fights were all against apponents who were fighting thier first fights according to BoxRec. Bert was only 2-3-0 and KO'd twice in those 5. Of those 5 first opponents, only the first, Don Koontz had any kind of a career as he went 11-5-0.
Bert then won 3 of his next 4 fights before climbing into the ring against Mac Foster on Jan. 5th, 1967. For Foster, it was his 2nd career fight. Foster KO'd Birmingham in the 1st round!

Next up for Birmingham was in late February of that year against Boone Kirkman, another up and coming young heavyweight of the time. Kirkman was 7-0-0 at the time. Again, first round, Bert is knocked out. He then didn't fight for close to 18 months when in early December 1968, Bert fought for the last time, loosing by 4th round TKO to JOhnny Caruso who would also end up 4 wins and 6 losses in his undistinguished career.

The fight.....

In what may very well have been a preliminary fight to the Leslie/Alongi bout, a young Mac Foster was making his 2nd professional appearance in the ring against Bert Leroy Birmingham (4-3-1). Foster quickly did away with Birmingham with a 1st round KO giving Mac the 2nd of 24 consecutive wins to start out his career. For Birmingham, it was the beginning of the end of his career. In the replay of this fight, the out come was not a whole lot different and probably not a whole lot longer in the making. Only 40 seconds into the 1st round, Mac lands a short, clean cross that caught Bert flush and sends him straight to the canvas. Somehow, Bert managed to get up at an 8 count. Foster lands a couple more shots, one high and one low then land a solid hook to Birmingham’s chin. Mac lands some straight punches and then another hook that has Birmingham retreating to a corner. Then with Mac pressuring and landing punches to the body, the referee, suddenly steps in waiving his hands and stops the fight!! Mac Foster is the winner at the 2:48 mark of the 1st round by TKO over Bert Leroy Birmingham!

Again, the Foster file is just bio info added...

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/05/67 Thursday

Portland, ME, USA
Gene Steward – HW (0-0-0) vs. Willie Ray Richardson – HW (17-5-0)

Gene Steward - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1967

0 wins / 1 loss / 0 draw / 0 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Only recorded fight in BoxRec was on Jan. 5th, 1967 against Willie Ray Richardson in Portland, ME. Richardson knocked Steward out in the 1st and Gene was never seen in the ring again.


Willie Ray Richardson - USA Rating 1
Heavyweight 1957-1968

20 wins / 9 losses / 0 draw / 15 KO

Alias: CA
Hometown: Roxbury, MA/Oakland, CA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Career started out with 7 KO's in 7 fights and won his first 8 before loosing by 7th round KO to LHW Paul Andrews(37-10-0) who was nearing the end of his career by March 1960. That started a string of fights over the next 6 years up against guys, most of whom had decent records, but all of whom were at the end of their careers or down on the tail of it. That streak included wins over Curley Lee Chapman(23-10-0), Bob Albright(23-12-4), Kirk Barrow(27-13-2), and Bill McMurray(23-24-3). There were also losses to McMurray, Wayne Bethea(28-18-4), Roger Rischer(28-13-2) for the California State HW Title and Jefferson DAvis(28-13-1).

Richardson's next set of fights included 4 wins over a Bob Henderson(0-4-0), Tony Burwell(3-22-1), Gene Steward(0-1-0), and Burwell again. He the lost by 4th round KO to Boston Jacobs(7-5-0), I've seen that guy mentioned somewhere? He then TKO'd a Willie Williams(8-18-1), and then finished his career with straight losses to Vic Brown(27-28-0), and twice to James J. Beattie(41-10-1).


The fight.....

While Gene Steward was climbing into the ring for the first time in his professional career (according to BoxRec at least), Willie Ray Richardson was in the mist of a series a throw away type fights to pick up some “easy time” in the ring after a series of several tough fights with some of the “middle class” of the heavyweight division of the mid 60’s. This fight was no contest at all. In the real thing in 67, Richardson knocked out Steward in the 1st round. In this replay, a ½ minute into the 1st round, Richardson sends Steward down with a solid hook for an 8 count. Steward somehow manages through the rest of the round under a fairly steady stream of punches by Willie Ray. In the 2nd round about 1-1/2 minutes in, Richardson lands another hook sending Gene down, by Steward jumps right back up. Then about 20 seconds later Richardson rains in a combination of blows to the head and body and Steward tastes the canvas a 2nd time in round 2, this time getting up in 8. Just as it looks like Steward will get through the round some how, at 2:49 mark, Richardson lands a wild overhand right and puts Steward down on one knew and the fight is called, TKO for Richardson with the 3rd drop in the round of Steward here in the 2nd round.

[Dave1877]

Hi Rocco, do you know where I could get Vassily (spelling?) Jirov to download for my universe. He's ranked about 14th on boxrec.com and I'm currently making a realistic database to use as my boxing world and he is not in the database which was surprising. Thanks for your time.

[mh2365]

Did you check in the Cruiserweights. I believe he has only had one maybe two fights at HW.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Jirov is in the game as a Cruiserweight. Pretty sure he was in the game original data base. Switch your data base listing to Either "ALL" or "CW".

BoxRec I think from what I've seen lists fighters by the last weight division they've fought in. So since Jirov last fought Joe Mesi, they're now listing Jirov as a heavyweight, even though he's fought mainly as a Cruiserweight.

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/06/67 Friday

Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire
Yao Kouame – LHW (20-8-4) vs. Henry Ferjules – HW ( 1-9-1)

Yao Kouame - Ivory Coast Rating 1
Light Heavyweight 1955-67

21 wins / 8 losses / 5 draws / 13 KO

Birthplace: Borake, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Kouame fought his entire career almost exclusively in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire. He fought only once out of his homeland. In June 1963 he fought Pekka Kokkonen in Leksand, Sweden. Pekka KO'd Yao in the 5th round. On Jan 6th 1967, in his next to last career fight, he fought Lateff Ferjules in Abidjan, France as listed by BoxRec. Think that's a mistake in it was Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire. That fight ended in an 8 round draw.

Fights against others rated into the game were a 10 round decision wins over Erwin Hack and Wim Snoek, an 8th round KO of Gilbert Chapron, a 5th round TKO of Jacques Bro, 10 round decision losses to Germinal Ballrina and Paul Roux, an 8 round draw with Yvan Prebeg and a 10 round decision loss to Robert Duquesne. A couple other fights against a couple decent looking opponents were a 10th round KO of Marcel Tirel(31-15-5) and an 11th round KO loss to Charles Colin(17-9-3) for the French Light Heavyweight Title in December 1958.

Henry Ferjules - Martinique Rating 1
Heavyweight 1962-71

4 wins / 20 losses / 5 draws / 2 KO

Birthplace: Fort de France

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Ferjules' only wins were against a Andre Cartalas who was 4-0-0 at the time. Cartalas' loss to Ferjules was his last fight. Henry beat a Freddy Hubert(2-9-0 career) twice, and Jose Peyre for his other three wins. Peyre, I've rated for the game.

His other fights against guys in the game or rated by myself or others include losses to Rene Goubelle, Giuseppe Ros, Peter Weiland, Paul Roux, Lion Ven, Danny McAlinden, Rudi Lubbers and Albert Westphal.

Other noteable(I guess) fights include an 8 round draw with Yao Kouame on Jan. 6th, 1967., a couple of consecutive 8 round decision losses to Jan Lubbers(28-13-2 life time), a draw and a loss to Christian Poncelet(33-22-2). The loss to Poncelet was for the French Heavyweight Title in Dec. 1970. Ferjules fought an 8 round draw also with a Massimo Conolati who sported a career 39-23-2 record. He lost fights also to a Charly Graf(18-4-4) and a Karl-Heinz Klein(33-12-3).

Some decent looking opponents for Ferjules in his career, just couldn't beat any of them!

The Fight......

Two French colonials meet up in this fight in Abidjan, (BoxRec, show’s it as in France, but I’m thinking it’s Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Kouame’s homeland), is there an Abidjan in France itself?
Kouame is coming out of a semi retirement, having compiled his 20-8-4 record, with his last fight being in March 1964, the third of three consecutive losses. He’d not fought since then before coming out to fight Ferjules. For Ferjules, it was the middle of the road of a not very illustrious career. Ferjules comes out to win a pretty easy first round. The 2nd round for the first 2-1/2 minutes is a lot of no action. What little there is is mostly Ferjules again controlling. Then all of a sudden at the 2:29 mark, Kouame lands a short, clean jab that catches Ferjules and sends Henry down. Ferjules manages to get up in 7. The round ends with Kouame not being able to build on the sudden advantage. The 3rd round again lulls the crowd to sleep. Then, Kouame starts to take control of the fight and pressing the action to Ferjules. The 4th thru 7th rounds are Kouame’s for the most part with Ferjules gaining some advantage back in the 8th and final round. In the end, there were no more knockdowns in the fight. Except for that sudden, lightening jab landed by Kouame in the 2nd, a rather dull fight. The final cards show Kouame winning by a slight advantage UD, 77-76, 77-76, 78-75. The real thing in 1967 might have been more of the same, a close, probably monotonous fight ending in a draw.

[Dave1877]

Hi, sorry to interrupt this topic but would anyone happen to know of anywhere I can find Matt Skelton to download? He is the British and Commonwealth champion and it is hoped he will fight Audley Harrison next here in Britain. He is ranked 38th in the world by boxrec.com. If no one has done him yet, would anyone mind doing that for me? I'd really appreciate it since I don't have a clue how to create boxers and make them realistic.

Also, a less important request than Skelton, but another heavyweight I'm after is Samuel Peter from Nigeria. Thanks.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Dave,

IceTea loaded a file for Samuel Peters on page 25 of this thread and I loaded one for Matt Skelton on page 26.

Rocco

[IceTea]

Look through this thread. For Skelton, He is peter.

[IceTea]

Here is Peter

[IceTea]

I tried to load him again, but the message board wouldn't allow it because his file was previously uploaded to this board.

MJ

[Rocco Del Sesto]

I'll upload Skelton again when I get home this evening.
Rocco

[Dave1877]

Thanks for Skelton Rocco. I appreciate it, you've done a good job but he's a little overrated mate. There's no way Skelton is a 10 rating overall, he is more like a 6 or a 7 overall rating. You've got his hitting power spot on, the boy packs a damn hard punch. I don't know what to do to get the rating down from a 10 to a 6 or 7, do you know? You probably saw against Mirovic his eye was pretty swollen early on in the fight, maybe increase the likelihood of him swelling? He hasn't fought any top class fighters yet so we haven't seen how well he takes proper hard punches and combinations.

I can see why you would rate him a 10 from his excellent record, but as I said, great effort but he's a 6 or 7. Problem is, I'm useless at rating fighters!

Also thanks to shane and vistaman for Bob Mirovic. Oh and thanks for Samuel Peter.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

I'll take another look at Skelton for you Dave. When I did him, I did not do a whole lot of play testing with him. Plus now, I've got a better data base of bottom of the barrel type rated fighters like he's faced so far in his career, so maybe I can do a little better job of testing him against some more realistic type of opponents he's faced. I'll mess with it a little tonight and see what I come up with. Be a nice little challenge. Thanks for your feedback Dave!

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Might also add Dave your correct in Skelton's record can be missleading into thinking he'd be a high rating. YOur probably correct in he's more like a 6 or 7 maybe not even that yet. I'm finding with me having a better data base of "scrub" fighters, more like Zero rated guys, I feel I'm getting a better rating of some of these lower rated guys or fighters who don't have so many bouts in their career.

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Did some tinkering with Matt Skelton. Got him at an 8 overall now. Seems better. Down grading any further was making it difficult replicating record. Dropping his control ratings and/or punch numbers any more bringing overall down to even 7 would seem to bring his KO numbers down to much, averaging around 9 KO's and 12 wins in the replays I did. Any other comments or suggestions by anyone would be great if 8 still seems too high.

Rocco

[Dave1877]

Thanks a lot Rocco, I appreciate it. I know how hard it is to do this, I was looking through all the stats, trying to find any little thing to change to make his rating lower but they all seemed pretty realistic so it was hard to do!

My problem is that I only have about 3 heavyweights imported to the game except for the original heavyweight database, so the 10 rated Skelton stuck out like a sore thumb and shot straight to the top of the ratings, above Vitali, Chris Byrd, etc.

I'll download the newer version of Skelton and use that one, thanks again. Bytheway, do you know anywhere I can find a load of active heavyweights to download so that my heavyweight division can be bigger? Even if they are bums with 30 losses I don't mind! Thanks

[vistaman44]

Originally Posted by Dave1877

Thanks a lot Rocco, I appreciate it. Bytheway, do you know anywhere I can find a load of active heavyweights to download so that my heavyweight division can be bigger? Even if they are bums with 30 losses I don't mind! Thanks

Dave;
My 1980s heavyweight download includes some who are still active. Also, paging back in this string will locate a few for you and there are some in variety packs by LeeSkye, IceTea and others, also at CornerWork.com

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/07/67 Saturday

Mar Del Plata, Argentina
Carlos Paez – HW (0-1-0) vs. Santiago Alberto Lovell (9-0-0)


Carlos Paez - Argentina Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-68

Another guy to test fighters with.
0 wins / 4 losses / 0 draw / 0 KO

Country: Argentina

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

In Paez's first 3 career fights listed in BoxRec it can at least be said he didn't fight any stiffs. He fought some of the best in Argentina and South America at the time. First in May 1966 he goes up against Jose Giorgetti. Jose KO's him in the 2nd round. Paez then fights Santiago Lovell in Jan. 1967. Lovell wins that fight by TKO in the 5th. More then a year passes before Paez then goes into the ring against Gregorio Peralta. Peralta Ko's Paez in the 3rd round.

Paez gives it a swing in the ring one last time in October 1968 against a Humberto Ghiotti. When he gets stopped in the 5th round by a guy who is only 1-4, Paez then apparently decides it's time to quit this business.

Santiago Alberto Lovell - Argentina Rating 2

31 wins / 15 losses / 2 draws / 22 KO

Hometown/Birthplace: Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lovell was 8-0-0 with 7KO's when he got his first "big" fight in November 1966 against Jose Giorgetti(36-8-2,33KO) who was at the end of his career. Gioretti is rated into the game. Lovell won by 8th round TD.

Later fights included a 4th round KO loss to Hubert Hilton and then a 10 round decision win over Chuck Leslie when he then fought Eduardo Corletti in December 1968 for the then vacant Argentine Heavyweight Title that had been vacated by Oscar Bonavena. Corletti won a 12 round decision. That turned out to be Lovell's only title fight chance of any kind though he went on to fight a handfull of other opponents rated into the game.

Those fights included consecutive wins over Roberto Davilla, a TKO win over Luis Pires, then was stopped in consecutive fights with Bonavena in late 1969 and early 1970. After that Pires KO'd Lovell in 10. Later in 1971 he KO'd Corletti in 5 rounds, then got KO'd himself by Jose Luis Garcia and Miguel Angel Paez. He then beat Charley Polite and lost by KO to Lorenzo Zanon who was 5-0 at the time and to Bernd August who was 13-0.

In August 1974 he fought Jose Manuel Urtain and KO'd Urtain in the 3rd round then later that December was TKO'd in the 2nd round by Joe Bugner. Alfredo Evangelista who was fighting his 2nd career bout KO'd Lovell in the 2nd round in 1975 while Sugar Silex Ko'd him in the 7th in a 1976 fight. Lovell then finished his career in early 1978 being stopped in 3 and 2 rounds respectively by Jean-Pierre Coopman and Felipe Rodriguez.


The fight......

For Santiago Lovell, a new up and coming South American heavyweight out of Argentina, this was a tune up fight for Lovell’s first big test against American competition that was to come a month later when he was scheduled to climb into the ring against Hubert Hilton who was climbing the Ring rankings of top world heavyweights. Lovell had just defeated a couple months earlier his first real career competition, Jose Giorgetti and Lovell appeared in this fight looking for something easy to just keep the edge up a bit for Hilton. Paez, not much to say, he’d fought and was KO’d by Giorgetti 7 months earlier to show for his career. In 1967 this fight was what was probably expected, a tune up for Lovell as Santiago won by 5th round TKO. In our replay here, it didn’t even last long enough to be tune up. The first half minute Lovell comes in fast and lands some jabs then the two fighters dance around and hang on each other for the next minute before Lovell then strikes again with a strong jab and then lands a hard punch to Paez’ ribcage and Paez goes down for a 7 count. Paez gets up but you can tell he’s hurt. Lovell then lands another hard blow to Paez and opens up a gash over Carlos’ left eye. At that, 2:27 of the 1st round the referee stops the fight! Winner by TKO in the 1st, Santiago Lovell!

Santiago file to add bio info if you wish....

[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/07/67 Saturday

Nantes, France
Moussa Sangaree – LHW (4-24-3) vs. Victor Chapelle – HW (5-5-0)

Moussa Sangaree - France Rating 1
Light Heayweight 1960-67

5 wins / 28 losses / 3 draws / 2 KO

Birthplace: Thies

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Not much of a punch and not much of anything in Sangaree's career. He lost fights to Paul Roux, Piero Tomasoni, Mariano Echevarria, Pekka Kokkonen, Victor Chapelle, and Leen Jansen. After fighting to a dismal 2-24-3 record, he managed 3 straight wins against Yvan Prebeg, Daniel Leullier and Victor Chapelle.

Some other opponents with at least noteable records were MW-Jean Ruellet(53-67-19), Rudolf Nehring(28-21-11), Michel Vinot(37-8-3), Dieter Wemhoner(36-4-3), Helmut Ball(24-16-5), Hans-Werner Wohlers(47-6-5), Horst Benedens(27-11-3) and HOrst Wieczorek(26-9-6).

Victor Chapelle - Belgium Rating 1
Heavyweight 1964-69

5 wins / 17 losses / 0 draw / 1 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Chapelle, even with the poor loosing record, fought twice for the Belgian Light Heavyweight Title, both times against Lion Ven whose been rated into the game. Chapelle lost by TKO both times, once in May 1966 and then again in October 1967.

Other noteable opponents, some of whom we've seen in the game were losses to John (Young) McCormack(33-8-1,27), Leen Jansen(60-10-1,27), Giovanni Biancardi(29-2-0,14), Paul Roux, Yvan Prebeg and Jose Manuel Urtain. After starting out his career 5-3-0, the first loss to Ven in 66 started a downward plung in his career loosing his last 14 fights.

The fight.....

Victor Chapelle from Belgium after winning 5 of his first 8 career fights was trying to comeback from 2 straight defeats. First he was TKO’d in the 4th round of a fight with Lion Ven for the Belgian Light Heavyweight Title. Then in November he was stopped again early, this time in the 3rd round against John (Young) McCormack. So, Chapelle has to be going into this fighting looking for some easy match to help get him back on track. That easy opponent would look to be that in Moussa Sangaree, a Light Heavyweight of little notoriety from France. So we meet here on this Saturday evening in Nantes, France for a heavy division bout of little notice to anyone outside of this western European region.
In the real thing in 1967, we had what may have been a surprising outcome as Sangaree won an 8 round decision over Chapelle. In our replay though, things got reversed as Chapelle won a unanimous decision 78-74, 79-73, 79-73. Chapelle controlled just about the whole fight except the 3rd round which amounts to a handful of jabs landed by Sangaree in an otherwise uneventful round. A boring fight without much action in it. A lot of posturing by both fighters winning Chapelle an easy win. Again if you were from Belgium or France, maybe you took notice!