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By Matt Bozeat
AROUND a decade after Mike Tyson had cleaned up the heavyweight division, he was threatening to do so again. On March 16, 1996, he would challenge Frank Bruno in Las Vegas in a rematch for the Londoner’s WBC heavyweight title.
The previous night, HBO offered a glimpse of an alternate future by staging ‘The Night of the Young Heavyweights’ in Atlantic City. The show pitted prospect against prospect -mostly – with the fighters having a combined record of 223 wins, 20 losses, 5 draws.
Lou DiBella, HBO Sports Vice President at the time, predicted: “It’s not out of the question that one or two of these guys will emerge and become champion.” Two went on to win versions of the championship – after being knocked out on ‘The Night of The Young Heavyweights.’
DAVID TUA v JOHN RUIZ
Tua was 22-0 (18)
Ruiz was 25-2 (17)
JOHN RUIZ was Frank Maloney’s ‘other’ heavyweight for a spell.
The chirpy South Londoner promoted Ruiz at the York Hall, Ipswich and the Elephant and Castle Leisure Centre and got him a world ranking that he put on the line against Tua, a New Zealander known for his Mike Tyson-esque dimensions – 5ft 10ins tall and around 224lbs – and punch.
Ruiz, from Chelsea, Massachusetts, brought the speed and punch output of a fighter who started his pro career down at cruiserweight, but he would need to dodge Tua’s left hook, a punch responsible for many of his early wins.
It took the sawn-off Tua, spotted by Lou Duva when winning heavyweight bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, around five seconds to land it.
The force of the shot flung Ruiz into his corner. He blocked the next two left hooks Tua aimed at his chin and then started to punch with Tua.
The next clean shot landed was a Tua right hand. Ruiz was dazed and Tua kept blazing away. He landed a left hook that left Ruiz draped on the ropes, dazed and defenceless and Tua added one more left hook to leave him on his back.
Referee Tommy Perez counted to ‘five’ and waved it off. Ruiz was still dazed three minutes later.
“Because I’m small people underestimate me,” said Tua afterwards, “and I love that.”
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
It was Ruiz rather than Tua who won a version of the world championship. He beat Evander Holyfield in a March, 2001 rematch for the WBA belt that he later lost to Roy Jones Jnr. Ruiz went on to have another spell as champion that was ended by the giant Nikolai Valuev and he retired after being beaten in nine by David Haye in Manchester in 2010.
Tua got a shot at Lennox Lewis in November 2001 and was outboxed, but at a level below, his punch made him a threat and he retired with 43 early wins on his 52-5-2 record.
DAVID IZONRITEI v MAURICE HARRIS
Izonritei was 18-0 (16)
Harris was 5-6-2 (3)
THIS eight-rounder looked the worst match on ‘The Night of the Young Heavyweights.’
The whispers said that Izonritei, a silver medallist for Nigeria at the 1992 Olympics who was better known as David Izon, was the pick of the prospects and Harris was the only fighter on the bill with a losing record.
The 20-year-old from East Orange, New Jersey, had started his career at light-heavyweight and up at heavyweight, his chin had let him down in his previous three fights.
Izonritei also had Harris on the floor – from a jab in the third round – but picked himself up to match Izon punch for punch for the rest of the round and then got back to jabbing and moving.
Izonritei followed him around, struggling to land. Harris looked to be tiring in the seventh, but with a huge win only three minutes away, he found his second wind and won unanimously on the scorecards by scores of 76-75 (twice) and 78-75.
Izonritei stormed out of the ring after the decision was announced.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Izon gained a measure of redemption by lasting into the 12th with Tua in his next fight, but never got a shot at the title and ended his career with three straight losses, while Harris proved to be a solid gatekeeper, good enough to hand 16-0 Siarhei Liakhovich his first loss, and is possibly best remembered for his classic up-and-downer against Derrick Jefferson in 1999.
SHANNON BRIGGS v DARROLL WILSON
Briggs was 25-0 (20)
Wilson was 15-0-2 (10)
OF the 14 heavyweights in action, Briggs was the most recognisable.
If fans hadn’t heard about his quick wins – 15 in the first round – they knew him for his blonde dreadlocks or his story.
He was from the Brownsville district of New York, where Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe had grown up.
He had Teddy Atlas training him as well and he told the press that had Briggs weighed only 135lbs rather than 225lbs, his hands would still be considered fast.
There were questions about Briggs’ chin. He had been blasted out in a round by Cuban Felix Savon in 1991 Pan American Games and there were stories of Briggs being chinned in sparring.
Wilson had his chin checked in the opening moments as Briggs walked up to him and unloading left hooks and rights.
Wilson felt a couple of shots, kept himself together and landed a right-left that made Briggs smile.
Briggs hit back to have Wilson on wobbly legs at the bell.
After a quieter second, Briggs appeared to be blowing and microphones in his corner picked up Atlas telling him: “Pull yourself together.”
He couldn’t.
Briggs backed up in the third until he reached the ropes. Wilson slashed open a cut on his right eye with a left hook, glanced a right off his chin and then found the target with a left hook.
Briggs collapsed to the canvas and the fight was over.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Briggs won his next five, including a points win over 48-year-old George Foreman to get a shot at Lennox Lewis and was well beaten in five. He took the WBO belt off Siarhei Liakhovich with a dramatic last second KO, but was dethroned by Sultan Ibragimov and thrashed by Vitali Klistchko. His last fight was at the O2 Arena in May 2016 when he took out Emilio Ezequiel Zarate on the same bill as David Haye. The mooted Briggs-Haye match never happened.
Wilson was bombed out in one by David Tua, then shocked 20-1 Courage Tshabalala by getting off the floor twice to KO him. That was as good as it got for Wilson, who finished with a 27-10-2 record.
DANNELL NICHOLSON v ANDREW GOLOTA
Golota 27-0 (24)
Nicholson 24-1 (18)
THIS looked the best match up, between Nicholson, a slickster trained by Emanuel Steward and Golota, the plodding Polish brute with Lou Duva in his corner.
Both were Olympians, but in the pros, Nicholson had lost to Jeremey Williams in a clash of prospects.
Golota, bronze medallist in Seoul in 1988, had come through a test against Samson Po’uha with the help of a bite – and he was up to no good in the fifth round against Nicholson.
Though apparently winning fight, Golota felt the need to aim a hard head butt at Nicholson’s left eye.
Nicholson reeled back and then dramatically flung himself to the floor.
George Foreman, commentating for HBO, said if he had been on the receiving end of such a blatant foul, he would have refused to carry on, but Nicholson continued after Golota was docked a point.
Nicholson didn’t go back to a sympathetic corner at the bell.
Steward demanded: “Fight, you motherfucker” and sent out a fired-up Nicholson for the sixth. He got through with some heavy-looking shots, but Golota barely blinked and started to land hard combinations in the next. Nicholson, with a welt where Golota had butted him, looked tired by the final minute of the seventh and took too many for Steward’s liking in the eighth and was pulled out.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Golota twice self-destructed against Riddick Bowe, getting himself disqualified when ahead on points, and fell apart in a round against Lennox Lewis in a title challenge. Golota got three more shots at the championship, drawing with Chris Byrd and losing to John Ruiz and Lamon Brewster, the latter fight lasting only 53 seconds. He also shared a ring with Mike Tyson in a fight declared a no contest after Tyson failed a drugs test.
Nicholson kept losing the big fights and retired after a four-round loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2003 which saw his final record drop to 42-5.
MICHAEL GRANT v COREY SANDERS
Grant was 16-0 (13)
Sanders was 10-2 (7)
BILL CAYTON, previously manager of Mike Tyson, was all smiles after the 6ft 7ns Grant pulled off another quick demolition.
Trained by Don Turner, Grant looked a bit jumpy and novicey, but when he connected, Sanders felt it to his boots.
After shaking up Sanders midway through the opener, he sickened him with an uppercut early in the second and unloaded a dozen unanswered shots to force the stoppage.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Grant went on to challenge Lennox Lewis and was mugged in two rounds after appearing to mentally unravel. Subsequent stoppage losses to Jameel McCline and Dominick Guinn ended his hopes of another shot. Sanders’ career peaked with an upset win over Oleg Maskaev in 2002.
COURAGE TSHABALALA v PAUL LOCKETT
Tshabalala was 14-0 (12)
Lockett was 7-7-1 (6)
NO surprise that this ended early. Tshabalala (South Africa) had a reported 70-1 amateur record, with all wins coming inside a round, and had nine one-round wins in his pro career.
Lockett had five wins inside two rounds on his 50-50 pro record, but was outclassed, dropped twice and beaten in the first.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Tshabalala had his bubble burst by KO losses to Brian Scott and Darroll Wilson and ended with a 26-4 (22) record, while Lockett won his next five (four early) and started losing again when he was matched tougher. He retired with a 13-12-2 record.
JAMEEL MCCLINE v ALBERT WILLIAMS
McCline was 2-1 (2)
Williams was 13-1 (10)
THE first three fights of McCline’s career had all ended inside a round – two wins, one loss – and he rolled the dice against Williams, a former US Marine considered a decent prospect.
McCline was heavier by more than 25lbs and was a winner on one of the judges’ scorecards, with the others having them level at two rounds apiece.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
McCline was beaten in three world-title challenges, by Wladimir Klitschko, Chris Byrd and Nikolai Valuev.
Wiliams, who sparred Lennox Lewis regularly, had to settle for a draw against Ed Mahone after he was cut, but won his next fight and died a few weeks later, in June 1999, of heart failure. He was 30 years old.
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