Ringside Report Looks Back at Boxer Andrew Maynard

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By Daniel Sisneros

Maryland’s Andrew Maynard was a U.S. Amateur great. Winning U.S. National Championships, and the Gold Medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. In the amateurs Maynard was known for his aggressive style and was very effective in some wild battles both at home and internationally.

Andrew turned professional Feb. 24, 1989 with a first round tko of Zack Worthy. He sailed through his first 8 bouts against non-threatening opposition, and then stepped it up with wins against a pair of ranked contenders, first against Mike Devito (11-3-2, 8 ko) on the undercard of Leonard/Duran #3 and then Kemper Morton (16-4-2, 10 ko).

Maynard got his first shot at a title on April 1, 1990 for the vacant NABF Light Heavyweight championship against fellow contender Mike Sedillo (22-7, 12 ko). It was a tough one, but Maynard got the majority decision victory on scores of 113-113 on one judge’s card, and the other two had Maynard winning pretty handily 115-111 and 116-110. Andrew Maynard was now 11-0, 9 ko and holder of the NABF Title belt. As is usually the case, from here on Maynard’s level of competition went way up.

After a 3rd round tko victory over Art Jimmerson (14-4, 7 ko) to defend the NABF Title, Maynard’s managers felt it was time to really test him, and on June 24, 1990 he faced former IBF World Champion Bobby Czyz (35-5, 24 ko). It was Czyz stopping Maynard in the 7th round of the non-title bout. Maynard tasted his first defeat but still had a title belt to defend and that’s exactly what he did.

He bounced back with wins over “Sir-Jab-A-Lot” Keith McMurray and Robert Curry before making his 2nd successful title defense against Lenzie Morgan (10-3-1, 4 ko) via 8th round tko. Andrew made 2 more high level NABF Title defenses against Govoner Chavers (9-0-1, 6 ko) and Ed “Mack-Attack” Mack (13-1-1, 8 ko) and scored a big win over faded but legendary former World Champion Matthew Saad Muhammad via tko at 20 seconds of round 3.

That set up a showdown of Olympic Gold Medalists when former IBF World Middleweight champion Frank Tate (28-2, 15 ko) challenged Maynard for his NABF Light Heavyweight Championship. It was a fascinating bout but in the 11th round Maynard was dropped, he got up, but was dropped again and Referee Frank Santarpia made the decision to stop the bout giving Tate the 11th round tko win and the NABF Title.

The loss didn’t hurt Maynard and 2 fights later he was fighting for a World Title, but he had to move up to Cruiserweight and travel to France for the shot. He faced defending Champion Anaclet Wamba (38-2, 18 ko). Maynard was dropped in the first round, but climbed off of the deck to try to fight his way back into the fight. He ended up losing a unanimous decision in his only World Title attempt. He would go on to try to regain his NABF Light Heavyweight title, and take a shot at the USBA Cruiserweight championship, but failed to pick up either of those titles.

Maynard would face more top level boxers including: Thomas Hearns, Kenny Keene, Torsten May, and even undefeated IBO Heavyweight Champion Brian Nielsen in Denmark!

Andrew fought for the final time on Oct. 10, 2000, over a decade after beginning his journey, being stopped in round 10 by Cruiserweight title contender Gary Wilcox (14-1-1).

Andrew’s heart was as big as his smile and he always remains a favorite with boxing fans. He finished his professional campaign with a final tally of: 26 wins, 13 defeats, 1 draw winning 21 by knockout.

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