The Last Days Of Disco 2.0

[Tommysixfingers]

The last days of disco 2.0

The year is 1978 and the WBA is just about to announce the 8 boxer that will be participating in the tournament that is held over the year to crown the first ever WBA world champion. Many are speaking about Larry Holmes as the big favourite but lurking behind him is fellow countryman Mike Weaver. Alfio Righetti is carrying the hopes of Europe and Marc Ecimovic has been tearing up the HW division in East Asia and Oceania so far.

This is my second attempt in creating a semi-historical universe with the beginning in the late 70’s. My interest for boxing began when I was a kid in the mid 80’s with Tyson emerging. One could say that Tyson and “The lost generation” are responsible for my boxing interest. Many of the greatest bouts and boxers (Hagler being my all time favourite) in the lighter divisions were also found during this era but I’ve chosen to go along with a HW only universe for the time being.

The fighters that currently populates this universe are HW’s with a real life career start in 1973-1978. The class of 78 has yet to fight but the rest of them has been fed a tomato-can diet so far with a few exceptions. A random number of fights was assigned to all of them and the fighters that debuted earlier has fought more than the later ones. The history before 1978 will be referred to as 73-77 (due to my lazyness when I created the history up until now).

The fighters has fought mostly locally so far (Ecimovic in his neck of the woods while Tex Cobb has fought mostly in Texas). I will bring in new fighters according to their real life career starts. New fighters will fight TC’s until I decide that they should take a step up in competition. Auto aging is engaged and the fighters will retire when I or the computer says so.

I haven’t decided how I will group fighters and schedule fights yet but I’ll get back on that one.

Due to my limited English and former inability to stick with a universe I won’t make any promises of how often I will update. Better pace myself and stick with it for a while this time. I’ll also try to keep the reports short instead of going for “story based” updates. There are many in here that does a great job with their write-ups and I can’t do it as well due to my lack of writing abilities (especially in English). I have thought about asking you guys to compile small writeups (ex. Comments from a specific fighter before a big fight) from time to time. That would help me to build some hype before big fights and such. Anyway, I might ask sometime, but if you don’t care for it just tell me (Won’t be offended, I promise).
That’s about it. I might have forgotten something. In that case, feel free to ask.

Next update will be a summary of what has been going on so far.

[Tommysixfingers]

World Boxing Association Top 20 rankings in January 1978:

#1 Marc Ecimovic AUS 19-0-1 (10)
#2 Alfio Righetti ITA 17-0 (8)
#3 Mike Weaver USA 14-0 (13)
#4 Larry Holmes USA 14-0 (11)
#5 John L. Gardner ENG 12-0 (11)
#6 Kevin Isaac USA 14-2-2 (3)
#7 Fred Houpe USA 10-1-2 (7)
#8 Ibar Arrington USA 12-1 (10)
#9 Duane Bobick USA 14-2-1 (12)
#10 Tom Fischer USA 10-2 (7)

#11 Leroy Diggs USA 10-1-1 (4)
#12 Mike Koranicki USA 9-2-1 (4)
#13 Ngozika Ekwelum NIG 15-4-1 (11)
#14 Bernd August GER 12-4-1 (10)
#15 Rochelle Norris USA 14-5-1 (8)
#16 Tommy Prater USA 11-5 (3)
#17 Oliver Wright JAM 8-3-3 (2)
#18 Johnny Bodreaux USA 12-5-1 (0)
#19 Stan Ward USA 9-3-3 (0)
#20 Dwain Bonds USA 8-4-1 (3)

Unranked fighters of interest:

Trevor Berbick 9-0 (5)
Tex Cobb 4-1 (4)
Gerrie Coetzee 9-0 (5)
Gerry Cooney 4-0 (5)
Michael Dokes 7-0 (6)
Bernardo Mercado 11-0 (11)
Jeff Shelburg 3-1 (3)
John Tate 5-0 (5)
Leon Spinks 5-0 (1)
Lorenzo Zanon 7-0-3 (0)
Jody Ballard 2-8 (0) Yes, that is right. All fights against TC’s

Notable rookies in 1978:

Pinklon Thomas
James Tillis
Renaldo Snipes

[mikehoudini]

Great idea, Tommy. I think Jody Ballard either was, will or should be a Bink, based on his record!

[CONN CHRIS]

The batch of HWs that I grew up with! Glad to see this resurrected Tommy.

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

The batch of HWs that I grew up with! Glad to see this resurrected Tommy.

Thank's Chris. I hope to see some good fights along the years. At this point I can't see who's going to give Holmes trouble for quite a while though.

Great idea, Tommy. I think Jody Ballard either was, will or should be a Bink, based on his record!

Thank's Mike. Appreciate it.

Ballard is the worst performig fighter yet in the uni. I doubt that any of the Binks has ever fought such lousy opponents as Ballard has lost to.

[Tommysixfingers]

Michael Spinks, the former middleweight goldmedalist in the Montreal olympics and younger brother of heavyweight prospect Leon Spinks, is scheduled to fight Tom Bethea in his first fight in '78. The Las Vegas Hilton will host the fight on the 15th of february.

Tom Bethea is a vastly experienced fighter and a former middleweight title challenger. Bethea won the first of two encounters against Nino Benvenuti in 1970 but lost the second fight for the middleweight title. Bethea, who in all fairness is in the twilight years of his career, has a record of 22-18-3 and could very well cause the much younger and less experienced favourite some problems.

Spinks who went 6-0 (6) the last year has been looking as promising in his first year as a professional Light Heavyweight as everyone had hoped after his exceptional amateur career.

[Ian Lord]

Looking forward to following along here Tommy. The 80's was when I got into boxing. I too loved Tyson.

Good to see Tex Cobb in there.

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by Ian Lord

Looking forward to following along here Tommy. The 80's was when I got into boxing. I too loved Tyson.

Good to see Tex Cobb in there.

Thank's Ian.

Your GBA was one of my favourites. Is it dead or just resting?

[gocubsgo]

Great idea Tommy. I am a big fan of this era and will be keeping an eye out. I had toyed around with starting and 80's uni since the 70's and the 80's are my favorite eras.

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

Great idea Tommy. I am a big fan of this era and will be keeping an eye out. I had toyed around with starting and 80's uni since the 70's and the 80's are my favorite eras.

Thank's. Late 70's and 80's are probably the most fascinating era's for me too.

[mh2365]

Good stuff Tommy ... will be reading

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by mh2365

Good stuff Tommy ... will be reading

Thank's Mike.

[Tommysixfingers]

The WBA has announced the participants in the upcoming tournament to crown the WBA heavyweight champion for the first time.

January 26th, Atlantic City - Quarter Finals

#1 Marc Ecimovic AUS 19-0-0 (10) vs. #8 Ibar Arrington USA 12-1(10)
#2 Alfio Righetti ITA 17-0 (8) vs. #7 Fred Houpe USA 10-1-2 (7)
#3 Mike Weaver USA 14-0 (13) vs. #6 Kevin Isaac USA 14-2-2 (3)
#4 Larry Holmes USA 14-0 (11) vs. John L. Gardner ENG 12-0 (11)

April 24th, Las Vegas - Semi Finals

W QF1 vs. W QF4
W QF2 vs. W QF3

July 5th, New York - Finals

W SF1 vs. W SF2

All fights will be held over 12 rounds. The new WBA champion has to defend his title in November against the #1 ranked contender in July.

[Ian Lord]

Originally Posted by Tommysixfingers

Thank's Ian.

Your GBA was one of my favourites. Is it dead or just resting?

Cheers Tommy. It's resting at the moment, and probably get it going again further down the line.

I predict a Larry Holmes v Mike Weaver final, with Holmes winning on points.

[bear]

Tommy
Your new universe will feel like an old friend to anyone who grew up with the original board game.

Bear

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by bear

Tommy
Your new universe will feel like an old friend to anyone who grew up with the original board game.

Bear

Thank you Bear. I hope I'll make it justice then. There are a couple of heavy players in here that grew up with the board game. I allready feel the pressure

[Tommysixfingers]

The European Boxing Union title will be on the table when Granville Lloyd takes on frenchman Lucien Rodriguez in Cardiff in February. Allthough Lloyd has the hometown advantage most experts feel that Rodriguez has a slight edge.

Lloyd is 7-5-1 (4) and Rodriguez is 10-1 (4).


More titles will be at stake as a fight for the vacant NABF title will be held in Los Angeles in March.

Johnny Bodreaux 12-5-1 (0) will face Stan Ward 9-3-3 (0). Bodreaux is considered to have a slight advantage at this point. Both men has yet to score a knockout in a professional bout.

[Tommysixfingers]

1978-01-26 Bally's Atlantic City. WBA Champions Tournament, Quarterfinals:

#1 Marc Ecimovic 20-0-1 (10) UD12 #8 Ibar Arrington 12-2 (10)
Judging by the first two rounds it looked to be Arringtons night. Ecimovic went down from a right cross in the 2nd round but he got up at 8. After that Ecimovic took control over the fight and didn’t really let Arrington to come closer than he felt comfortable with. Scores were 116-111 and 115-112x2.

#2 Alfio Righetti 17-1 (8) L KO7 #7 Fred Houpe 11-1-2 (8)
Houpe put Righetti on the floor in the 1st round, in the 4th and twice in the 7th. Righetti couldn’t get up after the second visit to the canvas and the Italian crowd in Bally’s saw their hope disappear through the same window as Righetti’s legs.

Judge Tony Paolillo will probably at some point have to explain what fight he saw as he scored the fight 56-56 while the two other judges had it 60-52 Houpe at the time of the stoppage.

#3 Mike Weaver 15-0 (14) KO10 #6 Kevin Isaac 14-3-2 (3)
Weaver was in complete command from the start and he didn’t give Isaac any chance at all to find his rhythm. An exhausted Isaac went down in the 7th and 8th round. Weaver slowed the pace down a little in the 9th only to launch a furious assault in the 10th to put Isaac out for good.
Weaver was well ahead on all cards at the time of the stoppage.

#4 Larry Holmes 15-0 (11) UD12 #5 John L. Gardner 12-1 (11)
Holmes was in complete control in the main event of the evening. He looked like he hurt his left hand early in the first but the pain must have been temporary as he used his jab with great success the rest of the fight. Gardner went down from a short hook to the chin in the 8th round but got up fairly easy. Holmes gave Gardner a boxing lesson and the only thing missing was a knockout victory.

All three judges had Holmes as the winner with the score 120-107.

Various other results in January:

#9 Duane Bobick 15-2-1 (13) KO2 #21 Tommy Prater 11-6 (3)

Jody Ballard and Lorenzo Zanon lost to TC’s. This means that Ballard is now 2-9 against very poor opposition.

John Tate, James Tillis, Scott LeDoux and Steve Zouski won against TC’s. As did Bernardo Mercado who fought outside of Colombia for the first time. He knocked argentinian TC Pablo Marin in the 6th round in Buenos Aires.

[Claybor]

A good start. Looking forward to more.

[Ric915]

Will definately be following along. Great start so far