Melvin Paul Remembered: Top Contender Faced Hector Camacho, Charlie “Choo Choo” Brown & Terrence Alli To Name a Few

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By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

Boxing fans always like to see young fighters who are not afraid to face the top competition and are not looking for the easy path to success. Furthermore, fans enjoy watching fights that separate the contenders from the pretenders. Unfortunately, there are some fighters who have tried to distinguish themselves by challenging the best, but are unable to live up to the hype.

Melvin “Tank” Paul, 22-8, 13 KO’s was a lightweight contender whose career started with so much promise, but ended as a big disappointment. Paul looked like a future champion after reeling off sixteen straight victories to begin his career. Unfortunately, things were never the same after his first professional loss in his seventeenth fight, as the wheels began to come off of the express train to the title.

Melvin Paul established himself as a solid amateur, who was a four-time Southern AAU gold medalist and three-time Louisiana State Golden Gloves champion. Paul was also a 1978 and 1980 National AAU lightweight boxing champion. Paul won the 1980 National Golden Gloves lightweight champion and represented the United States as a lightweight at the 1978 World amateur championships held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Melvin Paul’s professional career began on September 23, 1980 when he won a unanimous decision over Bobby Pappion. He would follow up with a string of easy wins over questionable opposition to pad his resume. As a strong fighter that relied on his big right hand and good counterpunching skills, the “Tank” was able to rack up eleven knockouts.

Undefeated after sixteen fights, the 23-year old Paul and his camp decided it was time to face another top young prospect in a young fighter named Hector “Macho” Camacho. On October 30, 1982, in a battle of unbeaten lightweights, the 20-year old southpaw Camacho won a unanimous ten-round decision over Paul by using great footwork and blazing speed.

Melvin Paul was able to rebound from his first loss by winning a unanimous ten-round decision over a young and inexperienced Tyrone Crawley (undefeated after only eleven fights), followed by a victory over Bobby Johnson (undefeated after eighteen fights). However, Paul’s career would start to unravel in his next fight.

On September 17, 1983, Paul tried to gain a little revenge against Robin Blake, whom Paul lost to in the 1980 Olympic Trial quarterfinals. However, Blake, another southpaw, would score a huge six-round knockout victory over Paul that would propel him towards a world title shot as a number one contender.

However, despite the loss, Melvin Paul was awarded a title shot against Charlie “Choo-Choo” Brown for the newly-created vacant IBF Lightweight championship. On January 30, 1984, Charlie Brown earned a fifteen-round split decision over Melvin Paul at the Sands Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. Paul suffered knockdowns in the first and fourth rounds, but was able to rally late and score a last-round knockdown himself. Brown would lose his belt in his very first title defense.

Attempting to stay relevant, Paul would lose to another up-and-coming fighter, Terrence Alli, in his very next fight, before winning three consecutive bouts, two by knockout. One of his victories was against young prospect Primo Ramos by ten-round split decision.

On April 14, 1985, Paul challenged former WBC Super Featherweight champion Cornelius Boza-Edwards, but was stunningly upset by a second-round knockout loss. Once again, Paul was tripped up by a southpaw, and was caught by a left hand by the former world champion.

Two more young prospects, Darryl Tyson and Vinny Pazienza, would benefit from wins over a badly-faded Melvin Paul. Tyson, who only had one career loss in twenty-one fights, easily outpointed Paul on July 6, 1985 for the vacant WBC Continental Americas lightweight title. However, it was the crushing second-round knockout loss to Pazienza that ended Paul’s days as a fringe contender. The younger and stronger fighter from Rhode Island landed a crushing right hand to the head of a wobbly Paul and produced one of the best knockouts of the year. The fight ended with the “Tank” landing on his face-first on the canvas.

Melvin Paul finally hung up his gloves after another knockout loss to Walter Sims on July 21, 1986. Paul’s journey did not produce the results that some boxing experts would come to expect. To his credit, Melvin faced the best young prospects of the deep, talented lightweight division; however, when facing his toughest opponents, Paul may have been more pretender than contender.

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