Тони Такер: Көрінбей қалған чемпионның тарихы

American boxer
the American football player

Tony Craig Tucker (born December 27, 1958) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1998. He won the IBF heavyweight title in 1987, and was the shortest reigning world heavyweight champion at just 64 days. In an interview with Barry Tompkins, he referred to himself as the "invisible champion," due to the press and general public largely neglecting him. Robert Surkein, the national boxing chairman for the Amateur Athletic Union, said of Tucker: “Believe me, he's better than Leon Spinks. Spinks couldn't hold this kid's gloves at a comparable stage.” Rollie Schwartz, past national chairman of the AAU Boxing Commission, said of Tucker prior to the Olympics, "Tucker is a combination boxer and puncher, much akin to Joe Louis. He comes right at you. I'd take him tomorrow over the two so called light Heavyweight champs."

Since 1979 Tony Tucker anticipated participating in the Moscow Olympics. Tucker was an alternate for the United States Olympic Team for the 1980 Summer Olympics (Lee Roy Murphy qualified as the prime.) President Jimmy Carter ordered to boycott the Olympics, which led the U. S. Team to cancel its participation in the Olympics, instead it embarked on a series of exhibitions in Europe. On March 14, 1980, en route to Poland, their plane Polish Airlines IL 62 crashed near Warsaw, with the U. S. boxing team aboard, consisting of 22 boxers, there were no survivors. Several people, including Tony Tucker, missed the flight and stayed in the United States due to various reasons, in Tucker's case an injury sustained just prior to the accident. At that point Tucker became religious, believing that God spared his life for a purpose, in order for him to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Shortly thereafter Tucker turned pro. Tucker finished his amateur career having 121 fights under his belt, with a record of 115–6.

After turning pro in 1980, Tucker's early fights were often shown on NBC, as part of a collection known as "Tomorrow's Champions". Tucker's progress in the professional ranks was slow. He was injury prone, missing more than a year with a knee injury suffered in a bout against Danny Sutton. Tucker also changed managers and trainers several times; his father, Bob Tucker, eventually performed both roles. After enjoying a high profile upon his professional debut, Tucker boxed in non televised bouts for the majority of the 1980s. In June 1984, he scored a win by knocking out Eddie "The Animal" Lopez in nine rounds on the undercard of the Tommy Hearns–Roberto Durán fight. It was the first time Lopez had ever been knocked down. Tucker followed it up in September by outpointing Jimmy Young
In September 1986, Tucker finally landed a big fight, against 242 lb James "Broad Axe" Broad, for the USBA belt and a world title eliminator. Tucker won by unanimous decision.

Home Box Office and Don King Productions orchestrated a heavyweight unification series for 1987, planning among its bouts a match between Tucker and reigning IBF champion Michael Spinks. Spinks refused to face Tucker, opting instead for a more lucrative bout with Gerry Cooney. The IBF stripped Spinks of the championship on February 19, mandating that Tucker (as its #1 ranked contender) face its number two contender, Buster Douglas, the very man who would eventually dethrone Tyson. As the co feature of reining unified champion Mike Tyson and ex champ Pinklon Thomas, Tucker won the bout and the vacant IBF crown via tenth round technical knockout.

Tucker, as the winner of the IBF title, was obliged to immediately defend his title in a unification bout with WBA and WBC champion Mike Tyson 64 days after winning the title, in what would be the tournament final, where Tucker was a 10 to 1 underdog. Before the fight versus Tyson, Tucker had been on an eight year long winning streak, his last defeat was in 1979, while competing in amateurs. Despite having a broken right hand, Tucker faced Tyson on August 1, 1987. Tyson defeated Tucker by unanimous decision to unify the three championship titles, leaving Tucker with the shortest world championship reign in the history of the heavyweight division (64 days). According to the HBO Punch Statistics, Tucker landed 174 of 452 punches thrown, while Tyson landed 216 of 412, and in fact outjabbed Tucker, who had more than a 10 inch reach advantage (811/2" to 71"). Coincidentally, this exact scenario would unfold again eight years later to give Tucker another title shot.

Tucker returned to boxing in 1989 and was back in Don King's stable by 1992. He won the NABF belt with a 12 round split decision over highly ranked Orlin Norris and successfully defended it against future world champion Oliver McCall, winning another 12 round split decision. He finished 1992 with a sixth round TKO of Frankie Swindell and set himself up for another world title shot. Tucker had run his record up to 48–1 and challenged Lennox Lewis for the WBC world heavyweight title in May 1993. Lewis won a 12 round unanimous decision, knocking the challenger down twice in the process. The 34 year old Tucker had never been off his feet in his pro career until this bout. After beating Michael Moorer in November 1994 to become the oldest world heavyweight champion in history, George Foreman began negotiations in early 1995 to make the first defense of his WBA and IBF titles against German mid level prospect Axel Schulz. As Schulz was not ranked by either organization, Foreman could not defend their championships against Schulz without their permission. The IBF granted Foreman permission to face Schulz, which Foreman ultimately did. However, the WBA refused, insisting that Foreman instead face Tucker, their organization's #1 ranked contender. The situation in which Tucker had found himself in 1987 now played out again: the WBA vacated the title due to Foreman's non compliance, setting up an April 1995 title bout between Tucker and number two contender Bruce Seldon. Seldon won by TKO after seven rounds when doctors stopped the fight due to Tucker's eye closing shut. Tucker lost his chance at a rematch later that year when he lost a ten round decision to a newly signed Don King heavyweight, British Nigerian boxer Henry Akinwande. In 1996 he was outpointed by old rival Orlin Norris. He scored two low key wins in California, and in 1997 traveled to the U. K. to challenge Herbie Hide for the vacant WBO title. Tucker was dropped three times en route to a second round knockout. In 1998 Tucker challenged John Ruiz for his NABF belt. Despite a big sixth round in which he had Ruiz in trouble, Tucker was eventually stopped in the 11th round. He came back in May to knock out journeyman Billy Wright in one round, but later had his license revoked due to medical concerns about Tucker's vision.

No. (Number)ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes65Win57–7 Billy WrightKO1 (10), May 7, 199864Loss56–7 John RuizTKO11 (12), Jan 31, 199863Win56–6 Jerry HaynesTKO3 (10)Dec 16, 199762Win55–6 Abdul MuhayminUD10Nov 18, 199761Loss54–6 Herbie HideTKO2 (12), Jun 28, 199760Win54–5 Tyrone CampbellKO3 (10), Dec 16, 199659Win53–5 David DixonKO1 (12), Jun 29, 199658Loss52–5 Orlin NorrisMD (Majority decision)10Feb 24, 199657Loss52–4 Henry AkinwandeUD10Dec 16, 199556Loss52–3 Bruce SeldonRTD7 (12), Apr 8, 199555Win52–2 Dan MurphyTKO3Dec 10, 199454Win51–2 Cecil CoffeeTKO2 (10)Jul 2, 199453Win50–2 George StephensTKO1 (10)Feb 19, 199452Win49–2 David GravesTKO2Dec 18, 199351Loss48–2 Lennox LewisUD12May 8, 199350Win48–1 Frankie SwindellRTD (Corner retirement)6 (10), Dec 13, 199249Win47–1 Paul PoirierTKO4 (10)Nov 7, 199248Win46–1 Everett MartinPTS10Sep 12, 199247Win45–1 Oliver McCallSD10Jun 26, 199246Win44–1 Jesus ContrerasTKO6 (10), Apr 22, 199245Win43–1 Mike FaulknerKO2Apr 10, 199244Win42–1 Kimmuel OdumTKO2 (10), Feb 15, 199243Win41–1 Orlin NorrisSD (Split decision)12Jun 3, 199142Win40–1 James Ray ThomasKO1 (10), Apr 29, 199141Win39–1 Lionel WashingtonKO1 (12), Jan 28, 199140Win38–1 Mike RouseTKO5 (10), Jul 19, 199039Win37–1 Mike EvansUD10Mar 8, 199038Win36–1 Calvin JonesKO5 (10), Jan 8, 199037Win35–1 Dino HomseyKO3 (10), Dec 12, 198936Loss34–1 Mike TysonUD12Aug 1, 198735Win34–0 Buster DouglasTKO10 (15), May 30, 198734Win33–0 James BroadUD12Sep 26, 198633Win32–0 Otis BatesKO2Aug 7, 198632Win31–0 Eddie RichardsonKO4 (10)Jul 10, 198631Win30–0 Eddie RichardsonUD10Feb 27, 198630Win29–0 David JacoTKO3Oct 19, 198529Win28–0 Bobby CrabtreeTKO4 (10)Jun 28, 198528Win27–0 Danny SuttonUD10Nov 2, 198427Win26–0 O. T. DavisKO1 (10), Nov 2, 198426Win25–0 Jimmy YoungUD (Unanimous decision)10Sep 22, 198425Win24–0 Eddie LopezKO9 (10), Jun 15, 198424Win23–0 Dave JohnsonTKO2 (10), May 9, 198423Win22–0 Walter SantemoreTKO1, Apr 19, 198422Win21–0 Sam JeterKO1 (10), Mar 15, 198421Win20–0 Larry GivensKO4 (10), Feb 24, 198420Win19–0 James DixonTKO6 (10), Dec 20, 198319Win18–0 Lynwood JonesKO5 (10), Dec 1, 198318Win17–0 James HollyTKO1 (4)Nov 7, 198317NC (No contest)16–0 Danny SuttonTKO3 (10)Aug 12, 198216Win16–0Richard CadeTKO7Jul 8, 198215Win15–0Lupe GuerraTKO2, Jun 30, 198214Win14–0James DixonPTS (Points decision)8Jun 15, 198213Win13–0Charles AtlasTKO1 (10), Jun 5, 198212Win12–0Grady DanielsTKO5May 18, 198211Win11–0Frank FarmerKO1Oct 17, 198110Win10–0Harvey SteichenTKO3 (8), Sep 16, 19819Win9–0Jerry HunterKO1Aug 22, 19818Win8–0Chip TylerTKO7 (8)Apr 30, 19817Win7–0Al JonesTKO1 (10)Apr 9, 19816Win6–0Robert EvansTKO6 (6)Feb 23, 19815Win5–0Willie KentsKO1 (6)Jan 29, 19814Win4–0Victor RodriguezTKO (Technical knockout)2 (6), Jan 16, 19813Win3–0Max SmithKO5 (6)Dec 11, 19802Win2–0Jesse ClarkKO1 (6), Dec 2, 19801Win1–0Chuck GardnerKO (Knockout)3 (6), Nov 1, 1980