Ringside Remembers Middleweight Champion Gene Fullmer (1931-2015)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

His black and white image has all the history etched into his stance. The macho needs of the time, the slick backed hair of a matinee idol of the 50’s, the toned muscles of a pugilist of any age and the look. This is the look of a man mean enough to tear through a division or two. Born in 1931, he was to fight at a time when we were emerging from the hard-fought battles of the Second World War and redefining our society, but Lawrence Gene Fullmer, 55-6-3, 24 KOs, was more than just a man of his time. The “cyclone” was the middleweight champion who won that distinction by beating a man widely credited as the best boxer ever to grace a ring – Sugar Ray Robinson.

Born in Utah, his father, Lawrence and mother, Mary, gave him a boxing name to match his future – Gene, after Gene Tunney. By the tender age of 6 years old, Fullmer was wearing the gloves of his future profession and by 8, showing his skills off in exhibitions. It was the year that Europe erupted into war.

He was not the only fighter in his family, his father had been an amateur and two brothers had fought professionally – Don, a middleweight, and Jay, a lightweight and welterweight – so it was no surprise that on the 9th of June 1951, Gene Fullmer knocked out Glan Peck in his very first professional contest at the George Nelson Field House, in Logan. He then began to beat every person put in front of him, notching 29 wins out of his first 29 fights! As the drab fifties wore on and the next decade promised more than just the hip swinging man on a stage in Tupelo, he was his own sensation.

His 24 knockouts throughout his career included 19 of them in those first 29 fights! It suggested that he had the power to get to the elite level but perhaps not the same power as those around him at that level, as the better the opponent, the more able they were to withstand his power.

When he met Sugar Ray Robinson for the first time, on the 2nd of January 1957, his win was without doubt. From ringside at in Madison Square Gardens, New York, the New York Times had reported on the fight as a “bitter savage fight”. Fullmer dominated the fight and won well over the 15 rounds. With his hand raised he was now the National Boxing Association, world middleweight champion.

The rematch was different, though just as emphatic as a victory, the only difference being there were no judges needed!

On the 1st of May 1957, they met again, this time at the Chicago Stadium. What Fullmer had as an advantage in the ring was a physique to bully his opponents and he used that in the rematch: he sought to dominate. Fullmer was an awkward customer and Robinson was being forced back onto his heels. But. In the fifth round, Robinson hit Fullmer with a left hook. It was inch perfect, caught Fullmer on the chin and down he went, cold. Many described it as the perfect punch; Fullmer agreed! Though later he claimed that “Robinson’s best punch was any punch he could hit you with.” He went on to say as quoted on Boxing.com, “But I felt without doubt that if I could beat him once, I could surely beat him again. I felt that if I put more pressure on him, I could maybe knock him out. In the fifth, I moved in with my left hand maybe six inches lower than it should have been, and he slipped that left hook over the top and caught me right on the chin. All at once the lights went out. I had never been knocked out.”

Many years later in an interview with The Deseret News, that whilst he wouldn’t change a minute of his career, he “might have ducked Robinson’s punch in that second fight.”

His title was gone but just over two years later, the NBA stripped Robinson of the belt and it became available. Fullmer took on a former champion, Carmen Basilio for the honor of getting back his belt. On the 28th of August 1958, Fullmer stopped his opponent in the 14th round. He was a two-time world champion. Defenses came on the 4th of December 1959 when he beat Spider Webb on points in Logan, on the 20th of April 1960 in Bozeman when a split decision draw with Joey Giardello left him as champion and then Basilio was beaten for a second time in Salt Lake City in June 1960, when stopped in the 12th.

In December 1960 he then faced Robinson for a third time in Los Angeles. A hard-fought split decision draw left nobody satisfied so on the 4th of March 1961, they did it again, for a fourth time, again in Las Vegas. Fullmer took the 15 round decision successfully keeping his crown meaning he had two wins, a draw and a loss against the best fighter we have ever seen. His draw with Robinson was an unfortunate footnote in his career as he was roundly beaten according to most who witnessed it. It suggests that those who think that things were all that much better “back in the day” don’t always know what they are talking about!

A further two defenses followed – on the 5th of August 1961, in Ogden, he took a split decisions against Florentino Fernandez and then on the 9th of December that self-same year in Las Vegas knocked out Benny Kid Paret in the tenth.

His title went in 1962 against Dick Tiger, on the 23rd of October, on points in San Francisco, with the WBA title as its headline. He got a rematch on the 23rd of February the following year, but Fullmer was held to a split decision draw. A third fight, on the 10th of August 1963, saw him stopped in the 7th round in the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, for both the WBA and the vacant WBC belt. After his third fight in a row with Dick Tiger, he retired.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame welcomed him in in 1991 and he was always seen as the epitome of the 1950’s boxing scene.

Fullmer lasted until he was 83 years old and passed away in 2015. What has not been lost is the history of a man who lit up a dreary time. Once he had retired as an active fighter, he, and his brothers operated a boxing gym, to give back to the sport he had graced so wonderfully.