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Remembering Former Heavyweight Title Challenger David “Hand Grenade” Bey (1957-2017)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

“He was a good fighter.”–Larry Holmes

As an assessment from Larry Holmes, that would make you puff your chest out and feel proud. Unfortunately for David Bey it is an assessment which he was unable to hear. Just the last week or so, “Hand Grenade” suffered a fatal accident on a building site in Camden, New Jersey and lost his life.

One of the things I like most about Ringside Report is the phrase “The Heart of Boxing.” It is easy for people to write and opine about the champions, the world level elite fighters but it is the heart of boxing from which they come – the hopeful contenders, the journeymen, the domestic warriors and the fighters who get close but just fall short of getting the type of recognition that changes their lives. Without these guys, the big guys don’t get it.

David Bey, from the fighting city of Philadelphia, so steeped in boxing folklore and passion, was a guy who almost made his name by becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. That was when he found himself up against the aforementioned Larry Holme in 1985 and was unable to go from being a USBA title holder to a world champion.

It was one of eleven losses in a thirty fight run which saw his professional career not quite match his amateur pedigree. Unusually, his reason for taking up the sweet science was apparently to lose weight! To then become a heavyweight sounds like sweet irony but there was no doubting the man’s fitness. He ended up on the U. S. All Army Boxing Team as an amateur and this showed just how good he became before that transfer from the amateur ranks to the pros.
Now he was destined to make one of the most explosive entrances into the professional circuit as his debut Bey was brought in as a sacrifice on the altar of the next best thing in heavyweight boxing. He was due to fight a 5-0 fighter tipped for the top – he won by a second round knockout against James “Buster” Douglas!

He then went on a 14 fight winning streak that saw him topple George Chaplin and Greg Page.

The 14th fight, against Page brought the NABF heavyweight title. If the phrase, those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them were ever to be proven true then the matchmaker for that fight managed it. He brought in Bey as the guy who would lay down for their guy to progress; a 12 round decision later, they wished they hadn’t bothered as Bey stunned everyone again with a win on points AND a title shot.

When he was offered the chance against Holmes, he knew he was a long shot and the rest of us did too but he was a Philly fighter and they are made of stern stuff.

Although he was never close to taking the title, there was a point late in round two when he hit Holmes and rocked him. Who knows what might have happened had that shot been more effective and Bey had taken the crown, by following up more concussively. Of course, Holmes knew he had been hit but, as he later confirmed, he was never hurt. Holmes moved to 47-0 afterwards and then went on to lose his next 3 fights. Bey may well have just been guilty of mistiming things…

Holmes then dropped him twice in the eighth before stopping him in the tenth. Bey never fought for a world title again but he continued to fight champions. His loss in the ring to Holmes did, however shatter his confidence and he was never the same fighter though it opened doors for him to face Trevor Berbick, James “Bonecrusher” Smith, the UK’s Joe Bugner and Bruce Seldon – not a bad CV though he was not to win any of them, he was to provide them with tough contests.

With the world title opportunity the one time he was well covered and regarded it would be easy for some to scoff at his record; but not those who are at the heart of boxing. Anyone who laces a glove deserves respect. Anyone who won a NABF title, deserves even more and any guy who came that close to the world title deserves even more than that. In fact, any guy who takes a loss at that level and gets back up, gets back in the ring and provides for his family deserves all the respect you have left and Bey managed to do that and some.

His final contest was on a construction site where he died in an industrial accident, being hit by a steel sheet, that leaves his family grieving a man, who at 60, was still taken away far too young. His boxing career is not garnered with baubles but his legacy was to contribute to an era – the 80’s – which were a golden time for a sport that is valued more highly because of his presence amongst it. His name shines amongst the greats of the sport and though he never found a way past them he lives comfortably within them – RIP David Bey.

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