This week in boxing history, PBC traces back to the 19th century, remembers a rematch that delivered a Fight of the Year, celebrates two heavyweight heroes and receives an uninvited guest.
November 3, 1899 – James J. Jeffries defeated Tom Sharkey by points in a 25-round bout at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, to make the first defense of his world heavyweight championship.
Jeffries, who KO’d Bob Fitzsimmons in the 11th round in June to win the title, slugged it out with Sharkey for more than two hours before 1,900 spectators in one of the fiercest battles in pro boxing’s early years.
November 3, 1984 – Jose Luis Ramirez beat Edwin Rosario by fourth-round TKO in their rematch in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to win the WBC lightweight championship in The Ring magazine’s Fight of the Year.
Ramirez overcame two early knockdowns before stopping Rosario, who had won a slim unanimous decision (115-113 on all three scorecards) in May 1983 in their first meeting to earn the vacant world title.
November 5, 1994 – At the age of 45, George Foreman became boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round in Las Vegas.
Moorer, a 3-to-1 favorite, dominated most of the fight before Foreman dropped him with a right hand in the 10th. The Ring named it Knockout of the Year.
November 6, 1981 – Larry Holmes made the 11th defense of his WBC heavyweight title with an 11th-round TKO of Renaldo Snipes in Pittsburgh.
Holmes, an overwhelming favorite in the fight, was knocked down in the seventh round with a crushing right before storming back against the unbeaten challenger.
November 6, 1993 – In a bout that featured one of boxing’s most bizarre moments, Evander Holyfield edged Riddick Bowe by majority decision at Caesars Palace’s outdoor arena in Las Vegas to regain the lineal world heavyweight championship.
The second fight in their storied trilogy was interrupted for 21 minutes in the seventh round when paramotorist James Miller, aka “Fan Man,” crashed into the ring ropes with his parachute tangled in the overhead lights and was subsequently knocked unconscious at ringside before being taken to the hospital.
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