A Boxing Memory: Tony Tucker

A Boxing Memory: Tony Tucker

There are many heavyweights from the 80s who you could label the biggest waste of talent in that era where virtually every leading heavyweight was fighting demons and the politics of the time. Ambition sucked away from that by being pawns in a promoter’s game who had money at the height of their ambition rather than the care of the fighters at their disposal.

Talented fighters like Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Tim Witherspoon and more all achieved plenty. Winning the world heavyweight title is no mean feat, but all could and should have done more. But could Tony Tucker have been the best heavyweight of his era?

After an impressive amateur career as a light-heavyweight which included winning the 1979 Pan American Games and being named as an alternate for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, although the subsequent American boycott removed any prospect of fighting in Russia, Tucker turned professional in 1980. Tucker won his debut by stopping Chuck Gardner in three rounds. Gardner is perhaps best remembered for that farcical fight with Frank Bruno.

Despite remaining unbeaten progress was slow for Tucker, but a big win over James Broad in 1986 got him some much-needed attention. The win earned Tucker the USBA heavyweight title and an opportunity to fight for the IBF heavyweight title against James ‘Buster’ Douglas in 1987. Michael Spinks had refused to fight Tucker for the title and lost his title as a result. Tucker had a similar story many years later.

The fight failed to excite and Douglas seemed to fade away a little too easily. Douglas was ahead, but Tucker stopped him in the 10th round to be crowned the new IBF heavyweight champion of the world, although the fight in truth did either fighter any real favours.

A 64-day reign as the IBF heavyweight champion of the world followed the uninspiring performance against Douglas but it failed to get him much attention in the wider boxing world. The invisible champion label had much merit. Another rampaging young heavyweight of the time was grabbing most of the headlines.

Tucker was undefeated in 34 fights when he defended his IBF world heavyweight title against a peak Mike Tyson in 1987. But the IBF bauble was only part of the full set that was on offer that night in Las Vegas. It was for true undisputed status in the lucrative heavyweight ranks. Tucker, the 14-1 outsider, hit the unbeaten Tyson hard in the first round, a big perfectly timed left uppercut rocked Tyson, who said at the time that he’d never been hit harder. Tyson rode out the brief storm and recovered to inflict the first loss on Tucker’s resume. Tucker 28, despite entering the fight with a broken right hand and shattering it further in the fight, lost on points but boxed well enough to take at least some shine off the ferocious marauding and seemingly indestructible Tyson to offer hope he would soon be back in the frame.

The defeat to Tyson hit Tucker hard. The now ex-champion suffered from depression, which wasn’t helped by his promised purse dwindling down to much less than he expected and he went missing from the sport. He found alcohol and drugs a vice that many of his contemporaries succumbed to, too hard to resist. Those two years away from the sport drowning in his self-inflicted sea of excess took away his prime. And despite his continued alignment with Don King, who gave him multiple opportunities to get back what Tyson took, Tucker was never quite able to once again claim another alphabet bauble.

Tucker sought help, got clean and launched a comeback but in many ways, his time had passed. After two years out battling his demons, Tucker returned and built up his resume and his confidence with fourteen wins before Lennox Lewis dropped him twice and beat him on points in 1993 in a failed attempt to win back a portion of the world heavyweight title he had lost six years earlier.

But Tucker persevered and with four more wins he found himself the WBA top-ranked challenger and when George Foreman was stripped of the title for refusing to fight his mandatory challenger, an opportunity presented itself to fight for Tucker to fight for the vacant title against the number two ranked Bruce Seldon. At 36, Tucker was running out of chances and time. A fighter with size and ability that should have seen his career more than survive the Tyson setback in 1987. But it never quite happened for him despite numerous chances. The narrative said he lacked heart and desire. There was more than a hint of truth in that. Tucker was stopped on cuts and despite his protests that he was winning the fight, he was behind on the cards. And his calls for a rematch came to nothing. The loss to Seldon was followed by two more to Orlin Norris and Henry Akinwande and it seemed all but over for Tucker. But a couple of low-key victories somehow earned Tucker one final try on the world stage.

In 1997 the American travelled to Norwich, England to fight Herbie Hide for the vacant WBO heavyweight title. Hide was too fast for Tucker who looked like a pale imitation of the fighter he once was. Tucker was 38, but he looked older and was blown away by the British fighter in two rounds. Hide was expected to lose that night, he defied many an expert.

There were four more fights, and a stoppage loss to John Ruiz for the NABF heavyweight title in 1998 removed any lingering hopes of a late-career revival. Tucker at least went out on a win. A first-round victory over one Billy Wright in May 1998. Medical concerns over his vision saw his licence revoked and Tucker wisely called time on his career.

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