I was looking for information on a heavyweight named Anthony Blessyn.
According to Boxrec, Blessyn was born in the UK but resided in Las Vegas before he made his pro debut on the Holmes-Witherspoon undercard.
Blessyn stands out because the loaded card included the WBC heavyweight title fight between Holmes and Spoon, the WBA heavyweight title fight between Dokes and Weaver, Page fought Snipes in a USBA heavyweight title bout and WBC eliminator, Ocasio defended his WBA Cruiserweight belt against Randy Stephens ... and, other than those four title fights, there were only two undercard fights, one of which was Blessyn's heavyweight debut.
I searched for ABA amateur cards and Commonwealth amateur cards, but didn't find anything on Blessyn. Searched Golden Gloves records and didn't find anything. The top amateurs in the UK then were Horace Notice and Harold Hylton, so I searched to see if either of them had faced anyone named Blessyn, but I couldn't find anything. I don't know where in the UK he's from, if he was even born there or if he was caucasian or black. He was a UK citizen, but were his parents from Uganda (like Boza-Edwards) or South Africa or some country like that? Did he box in other countries as a youth?
The Holmes-Witherspoon card wasn't co-promoted by anyone from the UK, like Mickey Duff. Don King rarely promoted heavyweights from their pro debuts. He usually waited until they proved they had something first.
In his debut, Blessyn was matched with Vince Parker, was stopped in the second round and never fought again. Parker's only win in his pro career came against Blessyn.
Joey Curtis was the referee, and he'd been banished to working undercard bouts because of his quick stoppage of Weaver-Dokes 1. Was the Blessyn fight a quick stoppage, too? The loss may not necessarily mean Blessyn was terrible, as others have lost their pro debuts, including guys like Michael Bentt.
There's no mention of the fight in the NY Times coverage of the card, but the other bouts are mentioned.
Just wondered if anyone knew anything about Blessyn - do you know what his amateur background was, did he spar with top heavyweights in Vegas in the early 80s, did Don King sign him, how did he get on that card?
Thanks.
According to Boxrec, Blessyn was born in the UK but resided in Las Vegas before he made his pro debut on the Holmes-Witherspoon undercard.
Blessyn stands out because the loaded card included the WBC heavyweight title fight between Holmes and Spoon, the WBA heavyweight title fight between Dokes and Weaver, Page fought Snipes in a USBA heavyweight title bout and WBC eliminator, Ocasio defended his WBA Cruiserweight belt against Randy Stephens ... and, other than those four title fights, there were only two undercard fights, one of which was Blessyn's heavyweight debut.
I searched for ABA amateur cards and Commonwealth amateur cards, but didn't find anything on Blessyn. Searched Golden Gloves records and didn't find anything. The top amateurs in the UK then were Horace Notice and Harold Hylton, so I searched to see if either of them had faced anyone named Blessyn, but I couldn't find anything. I don't know where in the UK he's from, if he was even born there or if he was caucasian or black. He was a UK citizen, but were his parents from Uganda (like Boza-Edwards) or South Africa or some country like that? Did he box in other countries as a youth?
The Holmes-Witherspoon card wasn't co-promoted by anyone from the UK, like Mickey Duff. Don King rarely promoted heavyweights from their pro debuts. He usually waited until they proved they had something first.
In his debut, Blessyn was matched with Vince Parker, was stopped in the second round and never fought again. Parker's only win in his pro career came against Blessyn.
Joey Curtis was the referee, and he'd been banished to working undercard bouts because of his quick stoppage of Weaver-Dokes 1. Was the Blessyn fight a quick stoppage, too? The loss may not necessarily mean Blessyn was terrible, as others have lost their pro debuts, including guys like Michael Bentt.
There's no mention of the fight in the NY Times coverage of the card, but the other bouts are mentioned.
Just wondered if anyone knew anything about Blessyn - do you know what his amateur background was, did he spar with top heavyweights in Vegas in the early 80s, did Don King sign him, how did he get on that card?
Thanks.