This is the first in a series of examinations of legends related to boxing and whether they are true or false.

Let’s begin!

BOXING LEGEND: Oscar De la Hoya’s cornerman told him to “run away” from Felix Trinidad in a fight De la Hoya would go on to lose.

STATUS: I’m Going With False

The September 18, 1999 boxing match between welterweights Oscar De la Hoya and Felix Trinidad was one of the most highly anticipated fights in years, and it set Pay-Per-View records for a non-heavyweight fight.

The bout would also go on to be one of the most controversial decisions in recent history, while also leading to a persistent, but I say false, legend about De la Hoya’s cornerman, Gil Clancy.

The way that De la Hoya and his trainers (which besides Clancy, also included Robert Alcazar) clearly viewed the fight was as a conflict between a “boxer” (De la Hoya) and a “brawler” (Trinidad). Whether that is true or not, that is clearly how De la Hoya and his people viewed the fight, and it began with De la Hoya mostly avoiding Trinidad’s forceful attacks while trying to land combination punches of his own while then backing off.

In the second round, though, De la Hoya gave the crowd the type of fight that they were expecting (the match was extremely hyped at the time), as the two men traded blows all throughout the round.

In the third round, however, De la Hoya went back to the strategy he employed in the first round - avoiding Trinidad while trying to land combinations.

In the fourth round, Trinidad took it to him - De la Hoya tried to avoid him, but they ultimately traded blows once again.

Okay, so these four rounds would later prove to be the key to the fight.

From my description, who does it sound was the “winner” of these four rounds?

I think it sounds like it was De la Hoya, and that’s accurate, but I think it ALSO sounds like whatever lead De la Hoya had, it was not a particularly significant one. However, De la Hoya and his people felt that they were decidedly leading.

This led to the four middle rounds, rounds 5-8.

Besides a slight comeback from Trinidad in the eighth, he lost control of the match for most of rounds 5-8. Trinidad had a few notable punches (including a succession to De la Hoya’s ribs that likely sapped a lot of De la Hoya’s strength), but De la Hoya’s strategy seemed to be working beautifully, as he was avoiding most of Trinidad’s attacks while landing combination blows that were doing some real damage (including heavy swelling to Trinidad’s eye that took three rounds to go down).

The fans were expecting De la Hoya to be more aggressive, but everyone had to concede that De la Hoya’s rounds 5-8 made this match, at this point, a clear victory for De la Hoya. He managed to avoid “brawling” with Trinidad, so a victory seemed secure.

However, in the ninth round, Trinidad delivered a mighty blow to De la Hoya’s head.

Soon after that, De la Hoya delivered a barrage of blows right back to Trinidad, notable because it was the LAST attack De la Hoya would make for the next THREE AND A HALF ROUNDS, allowing Trinidad to chase him around the ring for the rest of the bout.

Okay, so right here, your choices are:

1. Did the blow to his head cause De la Hoya and his people to worry about his ability to mix it up with Trinidad without being knocked out, so they figured they were much better off dancing away from Trinidad and hoping that their high scores earlier in the match would lead to a victory?

or, the more damning (and the one most people seem to lean towards)

2. Did De la Hoya and his people felt that he was up so much that he could basically skip the last four rounds and still win, so why risk Trinidad knocking him out?

If it WAS #2, then they were wrong, as their lead in the first four rounds (and their big lead in the middle four rounds) was not big enough to beat out Trinidad’s extensive lead in the last four rounds (do note that even while getting overall beaten in the middle rounds, Trinidad was still scoring SOME points), and Trinidad won one of the closest victories imaginable, with 2 out of the 3 judges giving it to him by the remarkable score of: 115–113, 115–114 and 114–114.

By that razor-sharp margin, Trinidad was the victor.

Clancy was fired after the fight.

Since then, the story of the fight has been (here, from a sample boxing fan - this sentiment is plentiful among fans):

Clancy foolishly counseling him to run from Tito in the final rounds.

First off, did De la Hoya’s people want him to play it more conservatively?

Yes, of course so - that was their clear and evident strategy. When De la Hoya DID mix up with him a couple of times in the early rounds, his people (including Clancy) yelled at him to “box” not “brawl.”

However, NEVER did Clancy tell him to “run” (remember, these things ARE taped, after all!), so it is a shame if that’s how Gil Clancy’s Hall of Fame career (he came out of retirement to be De la Hoya’s cornerman) ended in many fans’ eyes (to De la Hoya’s credit, he has generally been very complimentary to Clancy in the years since, so it’s not like it is De la Hoya who has been pushing the “they told me to run!” story).

BOXING LEGEND: A boxing championship bout once ended in a double-knockout!

STATUS: True (Just not Technically True)

First off, almost all states have it written into their rules what would happen if there was a legitimate double knockout (both fighters knocked unconscious or both fighters just able to get to their feet before being counted out) - it would be a draw.

However, it really does not come up that often - boxers are known to occasionally both get knocked down at the same time, but one of the fighters almost always gets up before being knocked out.

That did not happen in the bout between Adolph “Ad” Wolgast and “Mexican” Joe Rivers on July 4th, 1912 in California, as the two fought for the lightweight championship (Wolgast was the defending champ).

Wolgast was a bit of a wild man, known to just throw himself all out into his matches (this would be why he spent the last thirty plus years of his life in mental institutions with brain damage), but Rivers seemed to be more than Wolgast could handle, and as the thirteenth round began, Wolgast was ready to throw the towel in, but his trainer insisted he go on.

What happened next is some of the most egregious refereeing you’ll ever see.

Wolgast hits Rivers in the groin, but as he does so, Rivers hit him hard in the face. Both men stumble to the floor, with Wolgast falling on top of Rivers.

The referee, Jack Welch, counts to ten - both men are still on the floor.

Welch proceeds to PICK Wolgast up and goes to declare him the winner, but Rivers gets up, but is told by Welch that, no, Rivers was counted out and Wolgast is the winner by knockout!!

That’s why this is not “technically” true, because that’s how the fight went into the books, as a knockout for Wolgast.

Astonishingly/awesomely, we actually have video of the fight!!!

Check out this link here to see the travesty of boxing justice.

Thanks to John Bunnell’s great Ad Wolgast site for the video!

BOXING LEGEND: Two separate Governors called in the National Guard in an attempt to keep a boxing match out of their respective states.

STATUS: True

One thing you should keep in mind right off the bat is that the idea of boxing that we have today (and, heck, we’ve had for over a century now) is extremely different from how boxing was viewed in, say, the 1880s.

Back then, boxing was done bare-knuckled, and the most famous boxer of the day was John Sullivan, who would fight marathon matches, some lasting as many as 75 rounds (can you even imagine 75 rounds of bare-knuckled boxing?!?!)

In 1892, Sullivan fought “Gentleman” Jim Corbett for the Heavyweight Championship of the United States.

The match was still bare-knuckled, but it was fought under the Marquess of Queensberry rules, a code of conduct for boxing matches that was getting to be adopted more and more in the United States in an effort to legitimize boxing and allay any fears of hooliganism (which helped the boxing clubs that were beginning at this time - the whole situation was also very capitalistic, these boxing matches were starting to make very good money from ticket sales).

Corbett defeated Sullivan.

The fight was held in New Orleans, but Louisiana informed everyone involved that they were not interested in seeing the next fight, a match between Corbett and British boxer Charlie Mitchell for the title of heavyweight champion of the WORLD, held in Louisiana (there were even a few lawsuits over whether they could hold the original fight in Louisiana, so everyone involved felt that it was best to just avoid the issue).

Here’s Corbett and Mitchell, respectively (if only I could find a Mitchell photo facing the other way)…

So Jacksonville, Florida was chosen as the site of the prizefight - a fight that would be the first heavyweight championship fought with boxing gloves used!

However, the governor of Florida, Henry Mitchell, did not want the fight held in his state, so he threatened to call in the state militia to keep them out of the state.

Then rumors popped up that the fight might be moved to Georgia, but the governor of Georgia then ALSO said that he would not allow the fight to be moved, and even went so far as to send 300 new rifles to the state militia at the city where the fight was rumored to be moved to (Waycross, Georgia).

Eventually, Mitchell DID call in the state militia. Corbett and Charlie Mitchell had to be snuck into the state. Governor Mitchell tried to get the trains into Florida shut down - he was rebuffed.

The bout was held on private farm land, and after a quick court decision (that still delayed the match from late 1892 until early 1894), the state was told they could not go on to the private farm land to determine whether the bout was going on.

The militia still roamed through the streets, but by that point, it was more a case of Governor Mitchell saving face than anything.

Corbett easily dispatched with Charlie Mitchell…

Both Corbett AND Charlie Mitchell were arrested on assault charges, but the cases were eventually dropped.

Boxing was here to stay!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com