ESPN Tournament
 

To try something different I decided to to try and stage an ESPN tournament, which they used to have back in the 1980's when ESPN were still interested in covering boxing.

I started off with the Welterweights. The rules were:-
8 boxers only in the tournament
boxers had to be active in the 1980's (preferably in the early 80s).
boxers maximum overall rating no higher than 10.
all rounds of the tourney to be over 10 rounds except for the final which is 12 rounds.

The results were as follows -
First Round
Lloyd Honeyghan W10 Mark Breland

British banger Honeyghan, who is 7-0 (7 KOs) coming in to the tournament, squeaks past Breland. Honeyghan seems to win more clearly than the three scores of 96-95 seem to suggest.

Don Curry KO 2 Pete Ranzany

An easy night's work for pre-tournament favourite Curry as he starches Ranzany early. A mismatch really.

Milton McCrory TKO 6 Maurice Blocker

McCrory jabs and moves until Blocker's swollen left eye sees the fight stopped.

Marlon Starling W10 Roger Stafford

Unanimous decision for "The Magic Man" by scores of 96-93, 97-92 and 96-93.

Semi-Finals

Milton McCrory TKO 7 Lloyd Honeyghan

The fight is close when a swollen eye (again!) sees McCrory an inside the distance winner.

Don Curry W10 Marlon Starling

Rather suprisingly Curry dominates the fight from start to finish. Scores of 100-88 of all 3 judges tell their own story. Curry also
scores 2 knockdowns in the final round.

The Final

Don Curry TKO 2 Milton McCrory

Curry makes a difficult fight look easy. He scores 2 knockdowns in the 2nd to force the stoppage. What was the result when these two met in real life again? Oh yeah...................

Next I will do the Middleweights and will experiment with 16 boxers instead of 8.

I remember those tournaments and several good fighters got the exposure they wouldn't ordinarily have gotten.

That's a cool idea. I might have to do that:)

Yeah if I remember rightly Frank Fletcher won the Middlewights. Its a pity there is no chance of them coming back

Feel free my friend

Middleweights
First Round
Thomas Hearns KO 1 Alex Ramos
Dwight Davison W10 Mustafa Hamsho
Herol Graham W10 Rudy Robles
John Lo Cicero TKO 6 William Lee
Frank Fletcher W10 Brett Lally
Eugene Hart KO 2 Wilford Scypion
Tony Sibson W10 Juan Roldan
Alan Minter TKO 1 Curtis Parker

Quarter-Finals
Thomas Hearns W10 Dwight Davison
Herol Graham W10 John Lo Cicero
Frank Fletcher W10 Eugene Hart
Tony Sibson TKO 7 Alan Minter

Semi-Finals
Thomas Hearns TKO 4 Herol Graham
Frank Fletcher W10 Tony Sibson

Final
Thomas Hearns KO 10 Frank Fletcher

Next up the Light Heavies