Ringside Report Looks Back at Former World Champion Paul “The Ultimate” Vaden

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

I can remember thinking on the ring walk that I had dreamed about this since I was eight years old. My father had passed away back in 1982 and he was a big part of my boxing career, so his spirit was there.” Paul Vaden, reflecting on the night he won a world title, As told to “Bad” Brad Berkwitt in Boxing Interviews of a Lifetime.

Motivation has never been an issue for former IBF champion, Paul Vaden, 29-3, 16 KOs. In fact, he has made a post fighting career out of it. Now a well regarded and very busy motivational speaker, his company, Answer the Bell appears to have taken all he learnt from the ring into a new realm with a similar message – fighting for improvement.

“The Ultimate” is still the only San Diegan to hold a world title in pugilism so his unique blend of speaking does have some basis for claiming he is one of a kind. Boxing at both light middleweight, Vaden carved a career that saw him at the pinnacle as the IBF light middleweight champion in 1995. It was a career which, according to his interview with the Ring Magazine started early: “Ever since I was 4 years old, I wanted to be a boxing world champion… As I started to grow, I understood that there were other things I would do to impact this world. I don’t know how to describe what I do today other than I help people win.”

It was not, however, an auspicious start as he came from a tough part of the city but had a father determined to keep them away from the more obvious temptations. It was apparently in 1976, Vaden was taken by his dad to the Jackie Robinson YMCA. It was a beginning that Vaden thrived from and was at the gym early each day to show his commitment.

It was a commitment that, prior to going into the professional ring, gave Vaden an impressive amateur record. Such a pedigree tends nowadays to be held in high esteem if boxers have an Olympics, or two, under their belt but you cannot dismiss an amateur career with what is reported to have been over 330 fights, only losing 10 of them. It included being the US national light middleweight champion in 1990 and getting a bronze medal in the Goodwill games of that year.

Surely an Olympic spot would have been his, but he was thwarted in 1988, when he lost a qualifier to Kenneth Gould and then, for the 1992 Games, turned his back on the code. Instead, he turned his back on the amateur code as he disagreed with decisions made over scoring and the over politicized nature of the code and turned professional. Though he was now out of the amateur game, he did take with him the name which was to follow his career – the Ultimate – from a report of one of his amateur fights. And the Ultimate, ultimately became a champion.

On the 5th of April 1991, he began his professional career with a win against Quirino Garcia in Albuquerque by decision over four rounds. Tougher tests were to follow, not least of which was the death of his father, who had brought him into the sport just before one of his fights. He was later to claim that it spurred him on towards his goal of becoming world champion – something he had told his schoolmates and childhood friends he was destined to become.

By the 15th of March 1994, in Las Vegas he won the IBF intercontinental belt against John Montes on points and then in June, In Atlantic City, managed a successful defense with a wide points win against Jason Papillion.

They led to the title fight at the MGM Las Vegas, where he went in as the underdog and came out with the IBF title. In between, he stopped reigning champion, Vincent Pettway with only 27 seconds left in the 12th round. Had he not stopped him, Vaden may not have won the fight as the judges all had him behind, even though everyone else in the arena saw Vaden in front.

Once you have a belt, fans next want unification battles and WBC light middleweight champion, Terry Norris was set up for the 16th of December in 1995, in Philadelphia, in a grudge match which was unsightly before they got in the ring, but lopsided once the bell went. Unfortunately for Vaden, he was on the end of what looked like a misguided mismatch and was comprehensively beaten on points. Prior to the fight, Vaden and Norris had a nasty battle. It was not just real, it was personal. Norris claimed he had got the better of Vaden in sparring and broken his nose, with Vaden then behaving like a “crybaby” afterwards, according to Norris. Vaden got involved with Norris’ wife, Norris made disparaging comments about Vaden’s late father, Vaden wrote and had published an insulting poem in The Ring and so on. In the end Norris settled it in the ring but many years later, after Norris received bad news regarding his health, Vaden made sure they made up outside of the ring and all was put to its own bed.

But he was not finished there, challenging for world titles. On the 5th of December 1997, he went in against Keith Holmes in Florida. Vaden did not hear the final bell and after being knocked down in the 4th and 11th rounds, the referee stopped the fight. Vaden, now with two losses took a break that was to last over a year. When he returned and fought successfully in Madison Square Garden, he was ready for the next chapter. What he didn’t realize was that the lessons he had learned, the humbling he had endured, was nothing in comparison to what was coming around his corner.

Vaden then picked up the USBA junior middleweight title in New Jersey, on the 20th of November 1999, when he beat Stephen Johnson, by knocking him out in the 10th round. The tragedy was that Johnson never regained consciousness and slipped away 15 days after the fight. What unfolded was that Johnson had, after a previous fight, been hospitalized. Johnson fought Vaden after passing all the medical tests but the terminology – accumulative trauma – was never more apt.

Vaden was, to all intents and purposes, done. Johnson’s death had come in the wake of not one but two suicides within Vaden’s family – a cousin and then his father – that would rock anyone’s world. To have an opponent die too, was more than enough. But he wanted to face the demons and make sure he was done. Vaden’s final fight came a few months after when he lost his USBA title to Jose Flores on points back in Las Vegas. His reflection on that final fight came in that interview in the Ring when he said, “I didn’t come into that fight to win or lose; I trained to find out if I was going to live or die.

The boxer in me had retired after the Stephan Johnson fight. This was not about boxing. When I heard the final bell, I knew my script was just beginning.”

Thereafter Vaden took himself away from the canvas, dusted himself down and found a new occupation – a much sought after mentor within business and a motivational speaker. That was his new beginning and since then he has become one of the most popular and featured motivational speakers on the circuit. Given his history, there is little doubt that whatever story he tells, it is one well worth listening to.

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