A Boxing Memory: Ricky Womack

A Boxing Memory: Ricky Womack

A decorated amateur, the riches of the professional ranks lying in wait, and then within a few weeks in 1986 Ricky Womack when he was just 22, committed two armed robberies in separate video stores, the latter resulted in Womack shooting a customer, and he spent the next fifteen years thinking about what he had just lost. It could have been worse, the customer survived, but the promising boxing career couldn’t be saved.

On his release, Womack tried to regain what he had lost but approaching 40, serving time had robbed him of his time. Before it all went wrong, Womack had nine wins, only a draw on his professional debut spoiled his resume, it could have been so different.

In 2001, Womack returned to boxing, with the body having the look of the Womack of old, the chiselled physique still very much apparent. But looks can be deceiving. Curt Paige was the first opponent on the comeback trail, and when Womack was wobbled in the opening seconds, it looked as though the comeback would end in immediate disaster. But Womack recovered to stop a fading Paige in the 3rd round. But the fight still signalled his time had gone. Two more wins kept the show on the road but in his fourth fight back against the journeyman Willie Chapman even he knew his career was going nowhere. Boos greeted another uninspiring win, and just two months later Womack shot himself in the head in front of his wife. Shortly after his final ring appearance Womack had indicated his suicidal thoughts to a friend. In many ways, the tragic end had been coming. All the talent and potential he once had held no currency in the new millennium and Womack was lost in his own thoughts.

There were obvious difficulties in accepting his career had been lost and adjusting to a life out of prison, the mood swings were still a constant and with his marriage on the brink from his controlling behaviour, his life was spiralling irretrievably to its inevitable tragic conclusion. Womack is another case of boxing being unable to save a lost soul. But in truth, boxing was all he had at times, and when that had all but gone, in his own mind, he had nothing.

A two-time US National champion, at light-heavyweight and heavyweight in 1992 and 1993, and came very close to making the 1984 Olympic team. Womack split eight fights with Evander Holyfield, although there is some dispute over the accuracy of that statistic. Holyfield claims he held the advantage in their personal rivalry, claiming he won four out of their six meetings. Womack was rated the world’s number-one light-heavyweight and with previous wins over Holyfield, one more victory would have secured his place for those Los Angelos games in his native country. But Holyfield beat Womack twice, and the defeated fighter reverted to his patented moodiness and went away and sulked. There is little doubt those two defeats to Holyfield on successive days in the Olympic box-offs hit Womack hard. The Detroit fighter was convinced he was robbed and refused to go to Los Angeles as an alternate.

There were comparisons to Mike Tyson in his amateur days, with his fighting style and his powerful weightlifter-type physique and before Holyfield upset the narrative Womack looked a dead cert to be on the American team for the 1984 Olympics. But despite the Olympic setback, Womack turned pro under the tutelage of Emanuel Steward with a guaranteed $150,000 over two years. The road ahead was still seemingly paved with riches for Womack. Living in a rent-free apartment provided for him by Steward and with a future appearing to be laced with world titles and the millions that would follow. But Womack threw it all away for a paltry few hundred dollars and a selection of videotapes from the two stores he held up with a 9-millimetre pistol defies any reasonable belief. But the early years almost certainly form some of the reasons why it all went so wrong for Womack.

Womack grew up amongst a tsunami of domestic violent abuse, his father Alfred, the abuser of Womack’s mother, was then shot dead in an armed robbery. Womack spent much of his early years in boys’ homes. As a teenager, Womack lost three years of his freedom for an armed robbery he committed in 1978. On release, Womack found boxing and got the attention of Steward.

The professional career had the look of promise and more, but Womack spent lavishly and with the money getting thinner as a result, Womack struggled to cope and adjust. Training and his moods got more erratic, Womack started watching violent films and enjoying them to a highly uncomfortable degree, and he became more and more depressed until the events that would change his life forever.

Womack had talent and plenty of it and is another one of those stories of what could and should have been.