Ringside Report Looks Back at Former Heavyweight Champion Jimmy Ellis (1940 – 2014)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

His resume includes some of the most recognizable names in world heavyweight boxing, but his own name is barely known outside of hard-core fans. Jimmy Ellis, 40-12-1, 24 KOs, was a 6-foot native of Louisiana, Kentucky who went in against Ali, Paterson and Frazier and gave his all. An orthodox swinger, he was the WBA champion in 1968, having taken the title from Jerry Quarry before losing it to Smokin’ Joe.

His early life was not a bed of roses as he was one of 10 children to a pastor which left him with a lifelong commitment to his religion. His progression to the ring came after watching one of his friends fight Cassius Clay in a 1957 televised amateurs tournament called, “Tomorrow’s Champions”. Thinking I could do that, he joined a gym and eventually was a Golden Gloves champion in the amateurs. He fought Ali twice during that time – winning one, losing the other.

Given that he was born in the very same town as the Louisville Lip, it was hardly surprising he should seek out Joe Martin, the very police officer who brought Clay to boxing to mentor and train him. It was a match that was made and both Clay and Ellis became Martin’s two, star graduates. Ellis was so good in the amateurs that he nearly joined Clay in the 1960 Olympic team but losing to the man who was to go on and win the Olympic Gold, Wilbert McClure in qualifying was not disgrace.

He turned to the professionals in 1961, taking on Arley Seifer and stopping him the third round of a scheduled six in Louisville. In an era where risks were every day, in his first 20 fights, he was beaten five times. Modern fighters might have been tempted to lose heart and think they were never going to scale any heights never mind get the opportunities at elite level, but Ellis marched onwards. The five defeats were against notable opponents one of whom was a man who found his own notoriety – Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. On the way to the points loss he sustained to Carter he was in the UK in 1963 where he knocked Johnny Halafihi out in the first round at the Wembley Stadium on the 18th of June 1963 on the undercard of the Ali/Henry Cooper fight.
Having stumbled once too often and finding he was losing too many contests he decided that a change of coach would lead to better success. His wife apparently wrote to none other than Angelo Dundee – imagine that happening now, it would have to be in no more than 140 characters! Dundee agreed to manage and train the young prospect and whilst Ellis also became a sparring partner for Ali, his own career progressed. He also went from being a middleweight from his earlier career to become a heavyweight in an astonishing development which was overseen by Dr. Freddie Pacheco.

It was a risk that Ellis was swilling to take as he had to give up his employment as a concrete finisher whilst being responsible for six mouths in his household who would always need fed. It was his wife, Mary who said, forget the job. So, forget it he did, and he went to Miami, hooked up with Dundee and hoped that history would treat him kinder than the past had.
It meant that Ellis was around when Ali was stripped of his title and ironically it provided him with opportunities opening up for him. Following the decisions to take his title from him the World Boxing Association held an eight-man event to decide who should be the heavyweight champion of the world. Ellis was invited in, Joe Frazier, though invited, opted out. Ellis was ranked eighth and merited his place.

Frazier’s replacement, Leotis Martin was Ellis’s first opponent and he managed to stop him in the 9th round on the 5th of August 1967 in Houston, he then managed to defeat Oscar Bonavena in the next one in Louisville on the 2nd of December 1967 and met Jerry Quarry in the final in Oakland on the 24th of April the following year. Having fought one of his best fights of his career against Bonavena, Ellis fought one of the dullest against Quarry. It was a unanimous decision after a technical masterpiece which saw Ellis become the champion. Famously, Quarry said of the decision, “If they’d given me the decision, I’d have given it back. I didn’t deserve it.” Much later on it was claimed that Quarry had fought with a broken back!
The fact is that Ellis went into the whole competition as a rank outsider. The sportswriters of the time thought he was an overblown middleweight and every one of his three fights had him heavily as the underdog.

His first defense was against Floyd Paterson, in Stockholm, of all places, and he retained his title in what was one of his most controversial fights. Ellis who had his nose broken in the second round won on points but his victory was drowned out by the chanting crowd who vehemently disagreed with the result.

With Frazier having refused to fight in the WBA tournament he was now the WBC champion and a unification fight was touted. Before that Ellis had a number of fights – including against Britain’s Henry Cooper – mooted, organized and fall through. He was champion for 17 months without having to defend his belt before a unification battle with Joe Frazier happened. On February the 16th, 1970, in Madison Square Gardens the two of them faced each other across the ring, and Ellis suffered his first knockdown loss as Dundee refused to allow him to go back out for the fifth round having been floored twice in the fourth. Frazier was now the unbeaten WBC, WBA and the NYSAC world heavyweight champion.

It could be argued it was the beginning of the end, but Ellis went back in and rebuilt heading towards a shot at the guy who was his stablemate, to whom he had been a sparring partner and with whom he now shared a trainer – Muhammad Ali. It was a fight that saw Dundee having to make a choice – who was he going to support and train? Ali, his spiritual relationship or Ellis, with whom, as both manager and trainer he would get a bigger purse.

Boxing is, after all, a business, so Dundee trained Ellis. Ali thrashed him in the twelfth round, had hurt him badly in the fourth and won by stoppage. Ali just appeared to have had the more to lose, but Ellis lost a massive amount in that fight. He had now been beaten by Ali, Frazier and then came Ernie Shavers

On the 18th of June, 1973 in Madison Square Gardens, Shavers fought him. Shavers was diminishing but he still had power. In an explosive first round between them, Shavers took Ellis’s best before flooring him and stopping the fight. They had been fighting for just over two and a half minutes.

His decline was assured as he started to lose more often against lesser fighters, including to Britain’s Joe Bugner before a rematch with Frazier in Melbourne, Australia on the 2nd of March 1975, where Dundee had the fight stopped in the ninth round. Ellis was to fight one more time – winning against Carl Baker on the 6th of May 1975 – before an eye injury, apparently from sparring ultimately sent him into retirement.

Having been cast as Ali’s sparring partner, Ellis was far more than that. For those who know boxing, know deep in their hearts that Jimmy Ellis was a great fighter. Humble, kind, gracious and a servant to the sport as a fighter, later a trainer and also as someone who worked on sports projects for his hometown, he was a tireless advocate of sports. To him we are always in debt as the big noises make the headlines but the people like Ellis deliver the details. Without them we have nothing with which the braggadocios can brag.

The last ten years of his life, he slipped away in 2014, were spent suffering from dementia pugilistica. It was a terrible price to pay for a career which has been largely overlooked in an era where there have been many celebratory moments, people to laud and applaud and events that were incredible for their times and for eternity. But without the likes of Jimmy Ellis, they would have simply have been events worthy of note but devoid of comment because the infrastructure and the opportunities would have been lost because they would have sat as examples of fights but without the deeply rich commentary that the likes of an Ellis who fought the best provided.

On the occasion of his death, his lifelong friend and rival said, “In the world of heavyweights I always thought him one of the best” Amen to that Muhammad.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]