Greg “The Flea” Richardson: A Story of Perseverance Capped With Being a World Champion

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Sometimes boxing will give us a story that personifies hard work and persistence. A fighter who may come up short at first in his career at championship level, can with great will and determination, along with a never quit attitude, see his championship dreams come true. This is the story of Greg “Flea” Richardson.

Richardson was born in Youngstown, Ohio on February 7th 1958. He had a lengthy amateur career spanning from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. He wasn’t an Olympian, but he did manage to win both the National AAU and the National Golden Gloves championship as a Flyweight. He was an energetic fighter who relied on speed, movement, lightning reflexes, and his jab. He was not much of a puncher, despite scoring a first round stoppage win in his professional debut in February of 1982, at the age of 24. In just his second bout he was stopped in the first round himself, by an 0-3 fighter. This was just the first setback of his career, but he would persevere on.

Richardson would suffer his second defeat to undefeated prospect Francis Childs, in his 7th fight, losing by 6 round decision. At 5-2, 2 KO’s Richardson was not off to a great start in his professional career, but still would not be deterred. He would immediately rematch Childs in his next fight, and gain vengeance, winning an 8 round decision. While not having a stellar record, Richardson was already becoming a seasoned prospect, and from here his career started to ascend. After defeating Childs, Richardson would also defeat good fighters such as Baby Kid Chocolate, Diego Rosario, and Romy Naverette.

By September of 1984 Richardson had built up a battle tested 14-2, 4 KO’s record as he got ready to challenge for the NABF Bantamweight title against Harold Petty. Richardson performed well winning a unanimous 12 round decision. He faced faded former world champion Alfonso Lopez next and won another decision. He would defend against tough James Manning, and escaped with a split decision win. After that Richardson would go after the USBA title at Super Bantamweight despite the fact he often weighed well under the 122 pound limit. He won this title over Oscar Muniz by way of close, but unanimous decision. He would defend this title 3 times against James Tolliver, Robert Shannon, and Darryl Thigpen before earning his first world championship title shot.

One problem with his first world championship title shot, was that it was against a legendary future International Hall of Fame, multiple weight world champion Jeff Fenech, who was in his prime. Another significant problem is that perhaps Richardson was over trained, to small, or both, heading in to this fight. Richardson weighed in at 115 and ¾ pounds when the weight limit was 122 pounds. That is nearly two weight classes under. Fenech weighed in at a solid 122 pounds, and systematically walked down the smaller and weaker Richardson. Richardson tried to move and jab and use angles, but gradually Fenech wore him down with pressure and a vicious body attack. Richardson went down in round 5, and knew that he was defeated, shaking his head in submission. The referee counted out a standing up Richardson who had his back turned to the referee. This was perhaps the lowest point of his career. He was 29, which was getting old in lower weight classes, especially back in that era, and didn’t know if he would ever realize his dream of becoming a world champion.

The problems compounded when he lost his next bout to undefeated up and comer Jesse Benavides by a close split decision. It was here that Richardson decided that 122 pounds might be too much and he moved back down in weight to the 118 limit of Bantamweight. At the age of 30 Richardson was determined to launch one last championship run to try to realize his dream of becoming a world champion. In July of 1989 Richardson scored a nice victory over the dangerous puncher and former and future world champion Gaby Canizalez. This was followed by wins over Eli Pical, and Eddie Rangel, where Richardson rose from a knockdown to win a dominating decision victory, along with the Bantamweight USBA title. These nice comeback victories would earn Greg Richardson his second world championship title shot against accomplished world champion Raul Perez.

Peres was making his 8th defense against Richardson and had been world champion for over 4 years. He also sported a record of 48-1-2, 31 KO’s against Richardson’s 27-4, 4 KO’s. Perez was a towering Bantamweight at 5 foot 11 inches. To say Richardson was an underdog is an understatement. At 33 years of age, Richardson surprised everyone in what would was likely the upset of the year (even though RING didn’t award it that year for some reason) by pulling off a close but unanimous decision victory. Richardson had finally realized his dream of becoming a world champion, because he never gave up on his dream. He would defend his world championship title only once against Victor Rabanales winning by split decision.

Richardson would lose his world championship title to Japanese phenom Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, who was just 6-0-1, 5 KO’s coming into the fight. It would be a brutal fight for Richardson, who took a lot of punishment throughout the long fight. Finally after absorbing a particularly hard and vicious combination near the end of round 10, Richardson and his corner decided a enough was enough before round 11 could begin, and Tatsuyoshi had become the new world champion. Richardson would then drop down to 115 pounds of Junior Bantamweight (Likely his natural weight his whole career) to challenge world champion Sung Kil Moon in South Korea. Richardson would lose a majority decision, with one judge scoring the bout even, and the two others rather wide for Moon. This would be the last fight at the world class level for Richardson, who at 34 had seen better days. He would fight sporadically over the next few years against lesser opposition, winning some and losing some. He would finally retire in July of 1996 at 38 years of age.

Greg “Flea” Richardson would retire with a final record of 31-8-1, 4 KO’s. He was 5-4 against world champions, and 2-3 in world championship title fights. He will likely never see an induction into the International Hall of Fame, but no one can ever take away the fact that he was a world champion, no matter how long it took him, or how brief his reign was. In a sport where so many fighters never realize the dream of becoming a world champion, Richardson did. He was the Bantamweight world champion, as well as a long time world class contender in 3 weight divisions, challenging for world titles at 115 pounds, 118 pounds, and 122 pounds. Richardson truly was, a fighter who never gave up on his dream.

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