Ringside Report Looks Back at Former World Title Challenger Harold Weston

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Welterweight Harold Weston, JR., 26-9-5, 7 KO’s, was once quoted when only a 16 year old kid as saying, “I want to be champion of the world.” Who doesn’t when they don a pair of gloves? But who when they are only 9 years old ends up in the same gym as Emile Griffith? At the New York City Parks Department Gym, there was the welterweight champion of the world and whilst he was watching the rest of the gym fawn over him, Weston, JR. had an epiphany, as he later described, “That’s when I knew that I wanted to be a world champion.”

But this young man, at that time already having had 7 years experience of the sweet science was not only very serious about it – he had the opportunity of making his own dream come true. Trained from that fledgling age of only 9 when he started to box by his father, he ended his career having managed to fight for not one but two world titles and took on a Hitman and come very close to greatness.

The training in a gym alongside a legend saw him spar, at 12 years of age with Griffith; he was a quick learner. In his amateur career he was no slouch and won the New York Golden Gloves in 1970. He might have thought about the nationals or even the Olympics after winning in his hometown of New York, but what beckoned was the professional game and Weston, JR. grabbed it with both hands.

Who could blame the kid? His second fight was on a Floyd Paterson undercard in New York’s Madison Square Garden – what’s not to be awed over? Mind you that was where they held the New York Golden Gloves finals so it could be claimed he had an edge…

It capped a difficult beginning as his first professional fight had been a split decision win over an unbeaten Ralph Castner at the Catholic Youth Center in Scranton. His second fight was a 4 round points win over another unbeaten fighter in Jonny Sears.

Weston,JR.’s career was never plain sailing and as he progressed through his early fights people were sure he was headed in the right direction but he was not having it all his own way. 1971 saw two losses and a draw added onto his record and a further loss in 1972 shows that the path to greatness then was not a gilded one or one with a protected 0 record.

Prominence and a bit of notoriety was just round the corner when in early July 1973, he was opposite another unbeaten guy in Vito Antuofermo at the Felt Forum in New York. Antuofermo was badly cut over the left eye which led to the fight being stopped in the fifth, in Weston, JR.’s favor. at the time Weston, JR. was drafted in the Army so clearly liked him enough to grant him leave of absence to fight. His time in the Army and in the ring were not mutually exclusive.

1974 saw him taking on a guy who was number 5 in the world and losing on a split decision. Again, his place of work was the Felt Forum and he had nearly been stopped by his corner after being badly cut in the second round. He fought his way back into the fight but in the 10th got badly caught and ending up, as he claimed later on, quite surprisingly on his back gazing at the lights. His loss, which he always disputed, to Fausto Rodriguez in October 1974 was to delay his march on a title rather than scupper it completely. It was also mired in controversy after a mini riot from a previous bout where a Puerto Rican boxer got a decision over a Dominican which went down badly. Rodriguez, being a Dominican, it is alleged that the Commission did not want to risk a repeat of the violence they had just quelled so agreed to give it in the ring to Rodriguez and then amend the records later – they never did.

With some form of dispute always in his neutral corner he then, in 1975, travelled to Italy to take on Bruno Arcari. Arcari was a 66 fight veteran at the time and to all intents and purposes, Weston, JR. was winning but the referee was playing games with him – telling him to stop ducking which he wasn’t. There were rumors then that the Italian promoters were after a fight between Arcari and Jose Napoles. Napoles was ready to be beaten but it was to be John H Stracey who got an opportunity nearly offered to Weston, JR. – his time would come though.

Weston, JR. was to finally make a big name as well as a big stage statement at the tail end of 1975 when he drew against Hedgemon Lewis in the Garden and NOW he was noticed and on his way to being ready for the world.

The next notable name he faced was a first fight with Wilfred Benitez. Early in 1977, again at the Garden, Weston, JR. was not beaten by the unbeaten Benitez – it was scored a majority draw.

A few keep busy fights later and it was 1978, March, on the line was the WBA welterweight title and he was in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Facing the dangerous, Pipino Cuevas who had fought 26 times and lost 6, the fight was stopped in the ninth, according to official records, because Weston, JR. had had his jaw broken. In later life and in an interview, he was very keen to set the record straight. “It is a myth. I had a bad cut inside the mouth, which caused my jaw to swell. That’s why it was stopped after nine rounds.”

Then came in 1979, his second fight with Benitez, this time with a title on the line. The WBC welterweight belt was to be decided over fifteen rounds, but Weston, JR. fought for it in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Benitez’s back yard. Would he get the decision this time? It was a rough night and untold riches were waiting the man who won. Clearly in the fight and believing that he was winning it, Benitez’s father began sapping his son between later rounds but the judges were not in agreement with either the father of the champion or the challenger, giving the decision to Benitez. by now clearly, used to swings and arrows of outrageous fortune he was in that same interview as quoted before quite philosophical, “But that’s boxing politics. It is what it is.”

Throughout his career he had been dogged by misfortune and what could be claimed as stinking politics. The Boxing Gods had retained the final blow of bad luck for his final fight.

On the 20th May 1979, at the Dunes Hotel and Country Club, Las Vegas he was to be Tommy Hearns’ nineteenth fight – there was no belt on the line. Between the sixth and the seventh round he was forced to retire as he suffered a detached retina. He was forced not just to retire from the fight but also the sport as it was an injury in 1979 from which he was never going to recover. At the time he was winning on the scorecards.

After leaving the active ring participation he took a year out and then came back to matchmaker and promoter. Given the way he left it could have been understood if he found it hard to return but the sparkle of a 9 year old in the presence of a world champion as clearly just too much to dim.

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