I vividly remember finishing work, picking up a couple of pals and driving straight to the Hammersmith Odeon where the fight was being shown live via satellite.. We were seated just infront of two of the biggest black fella's you'll ever see. They were obviously good friend's who'd placed opposite bets and were taking it in turns to scream out the name of their fighter. Such was the excitement, that by the end of the night both had lost their voices. I'd say right up until the 10th it could have gone either way, with The Beast putting up one hell of a fight.
Not only is this one of the most exciting fights i've ever seen, but the undercard was massive aswell with 2 fighters losing their O's in devastating fashion. Both of these fights were sadly tinged with tragedy too. Highly rated WBA bantam champ Richie Sandoval was poleaxed in the 7th by Gabby Canizales, a ko that damn near killed him and finished his career.
Next up was Thomas Hearns's clinical 1 round ko of the classy James 'black gold' Schuler who spent some of his purse on a big bike and got himself killed on it..
I find it quite ironic how you can see 2 up and coming fighters for the very last time on one bill. Sad aswell, because it was such a fantastic show of boxing they put on at the Palace that night.
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