Howard Davis, Jr.
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Howard Davis, Jr. |
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| Men's Boxing | |||
Competitor for the  United States |
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| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 1976 Montreal | Lightweight | |
| World Amateur Championships | |||
| Gold | Havana 1974 | Featherweight | |
Howard Davis Jr. (born February 14, 1956) was a world class American amateur and professional boxer.
Contents |
[edit] Amateur career
As an amateur, Davis Jr. was trained by his father, a former boxer. He had an outstanding amateur career. In 1976, Howard Davis Jr. won the Olympic gold medal in the Lightweight division in Montreal, Canada. Davis Jr. was also named the Outstanding Boxer of the 1976 Olympics and given the Val Barker Trophy, an Olympics that included Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks.
His Olympic victory came just one week after his mother died of a heart attack.
Other Amateur Accomplishments include:
- 1973 National AAU Champion (125 lbs)
- Defeated Leroy Veasley of Detroit in the final
- 1974 World Championships (125 lbs) in Havana, Cuba
- Defeated Roberto Andino (Puerto Rico) on points
- Defeated Rumen Peshev (Bulgaria) on points
- Defeated Eddie Ndukwu (Nigeria) on points
- Defeated Mariano Álvarez (Cuba) on points
- Defeated Boris Kuznetsov (Soviet Union) on points
- 1976 National AAU Champion (132 lbs)
- Defeated Thomas Hearns on points.
- 1976 Olympic Trials
- Defeated Aaron Pryor to qualify at 132 pounds
- 1976 Summer Olympics – Gold Medal (132 lbs) and Val Barker Award winner for Most Outstanding Boxer of the Games
- Defeated Yukio Segawa (Japan) won on points
- Defeated Leonidas Asprilla (Colombia) won by KO 2
- Defeated Tzvetan Tzvetkov (Bulgaria) won by TKO 3
- Defeated Ace Rusevski (Yugoslavia) won on points
- Defeated Simion Cutov (Romania) won on points
[edit] Professional career
Davis turned pro after winning the Olympics, unsuccessfully fighting for the lightweight title twice and the junior welterweight title once. In some of his notable fights; he lost a close split decision to Edwin Rosario in 1984 for the WBC Lightweight Title and lost via 1st round KO to James McGirt for the IBF Light Welterweight Title in 1988. He retired in 1988 but returned to the ring in 1994, winning four of his final five fights before permanently retiring in 1996, with a professional record of 36-6-1 with 14 KO's.
Davis is rather infamously known as the only American gold-medal-winning boxer on the 1976 Olympic team to not win a world championship as a professional.
He admitted in an interview that he wasn't happy with his career after his fifth pro fight.
[edit] Honors
The city of Glen Cove, New York honored him with a parade in August 1976 that was attended by Lt. Governor Mary Anne Krupsak.
[edit] Life After Boxing
Currently, Davis Jr. trains mixed martial artists with American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.
[edit] References
July 3, 2006 Sports Illustrated, "A Flurry of Punch Lines"
