{"id":49092,"date":"2014-12-16T11:04:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T17:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=49092"},"modified":"2014-12-16T14:08:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:08:46","slug":"david-bey-heavyweight-contender-and-former-title-challenger-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=49092","title":{"rendered":"David Bey: Heavyweight Contender and Former Title Challenger Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"david<\/a>By \u201cBig\u201d Bill Bradshaw<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following a week where Tyson Cave was practically mugged in the ring and Tim Bradley finally learned what it felt like to have a ludicrous decision negate a winning performance, much of the talk in boxing circles has been of those shock results throughout history that still make for fiery conversation when fight fans get together. It seemed generally agreed that the James Buster Douglas\u2019 dismantling of Mike Tyson in 1990 stands out as a defining moment in the game and that night would form the basis for thousands of articles in the quarter of a century that has aged us since.<\/p>\n

I remember hearing someone on TV say, after the bout, that Douglas possessed the best jab in the division and it\u2019s always irritated me even that TV pundits seem to get it so right after the fact. Douglas had decent pedigree coming into the fight and his career would have gotten off to a perfect start had it not been for a 2nd round KO loss to David Bey in 1981. Douglas was 5-0 with 4 KO\u2019s coming into that bout and Bey was making his pro debut. In hindsight, what a scalp it would be for the young Philly fighter later dubbed \u201cHand Grenade\u201d. <\/p>\n

Born on March 11th 1957, David Bey first came to prominence as an amateur on the US All Army Boxing Team where he remained undefeated in at least his first 18 outings. He was featured in Bob Taylor\u2019s former publication \u2018The Amateur Boxer\u2019 and he was very much seen as one for the future. His first pro bout was a stunning second round KO victory over the previously unbeaten Buster Douglas. He followed this up with several hugely impressive performances and he finished 1982 with a 4th round TKO over the then highly regarded George Chaplin. Bey was now 9-0 with 8 KO\u2019s and people were starting to sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n

1983 proved to be another successful year for the Philly man and he racked up KO wins over Charlie Johnson, Grady Daniels and Alf Coffin. His team felt it was time to hunt for titles and their sights were set on the USBA Heavyweight belt of the late, great Greg Page. Bey defeated Leroy Caldwell in March 1984 in a forgettable bout but it consolidated his position and a title shot against Page was set for August 31st of the same year. A win would throw \u201cHand Grenade\u201d right into the world title mix and he was both focused and determined when he stepped through the Las Vegas ropes to go toe to toe with the stylish Page. The fight was close from the first bell but Bey kept his composure to lift the USBA Title on scores of 116-112, 115-114 and 115-113. The stage was set for a world title crack against The Easton Assassin, Larry Holmes.<\/p>\n

For reasons best kept to himself and his trainer, Bey was heavy when he finally faced Holmes on March 15th 1985 for the right to wear the IBF World Heavyweight belt. Perhaps he felt he couldn\u2019t match the champion on speed and went for power and durability but his conditioning was mentioned by most commentators. Regardless, he went for Holmes from the first bell and had some success over the first 5 rounds but he was fighting one of the all time greats and it would soon become evident. What happened next was best described in the publication \u2018Boxing: Medical Aspects\u2019 and I quote \u201cThe turning point came in round 5. That\u2019s when Holmes famous left jab, which had been flicking out tentatively at first, started landing all over Bey\u2019s likeable, lonely guy face. In the parlance of the sweet science, the challenger was being measured in the same way an undertaker measured a man for a suit\u201d.<\/p>\n

By the eighth, \u201cThe Easton Assassin\u201d was living up to his name and Bey was felled twice in the round. The end came at 2.58 of the tenth when referee Carlos Padilla jumped in to save Bey further punishment. It would seem that the Philly fighter would never truly recover from the beating. In his next outing he was stopped by Trevor Berbick in a USBA title fight and a split decision win over the mismatched Wesley Smith would only see Bey go through 1986 and 1987 without another win to his record. He was starting to take real beatings having been stopped in 6 by Tyrell Biggs and knocked out in 9 by Johnny Du Ploy. He had gone the distance with Joe Bugner and James \u201cBonecrusher\u201d Smith even though he had to climb off the canvas against Smith. He slipped further away from his heights of his early career with losses to Bruce Seldon, Joe Hipp and Zeljko Mavrovic amongst others and he called time up on the fight game following a rare KO win against David Jaco in Macau, China in 1994.<\/p>\n

The Greatest ever, the only greatest ever, Muhammad Ali once said that the testament of a true champion is not how he handles victory but how he overcomes defeat. David Bey had all the tools to be a champion. He was tall 6\u20193, strong, had fast hands, he was dogged and exciting but he lacked that \u2018testament\u2019 that Ali talked of. Being beaten by Larry Holmes was no disgrace. Lasting ten rounds with a man whose name belongs alongside those of Ali, Norton, Frazier and Foreman, Champions Forever, was a huge achievement when you remember that he went after Holmes for 5 rounds. Not recovering from that beating was Bey\u2019s weakness. He was later beaten by big names, Smith, Berbick, Seldon, Biggs etc but, had he the ability to strengthen his own self belief in the aftermath of Holmes fight, Bey could have left a far greater legacy to the sport he had such a bitter\/sweet affair with for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Purchase your copy of \u201cBig Bill\u2019s\u201d Book: Hello Welcome<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By \u201cBig\u201d Bill Bradshaw Following a week where Tyson Cave was practically mugged in the ring and Tim Bradley finally learned what it felt like to have a ludicrous decision negate a winning performance, much of the talk in boxing circles has been of those shock results throughout history that still make for fiery conversation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11540],"class_list":["post-49092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-david-bey-heavyweight-contender-and-former-title-challenger-remembered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}