On This Day In Boxing History!

August 9th, 1911: Eddie Futch Was Born!

Eddie Futch

Born: August 11, 1911 in Hillsboro, Mississippi

Futch compiled an amateur record of 37-3 and captured the Detroit Athletic Association Lightweight Championship in 1932 and the Detroit Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1933. When he was about to turn professional in 1936, a doctor discovered that he had a heart murmur. That ended his career.

Inducted International Boxing Hall of Fame - Class of 1994

Died: October 10, 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada

Boxing Career

Eddie Futch was born in Mississippi and grew up in Detroit, where he was a star semipro basketball player before he gravitated to boxing. He remembered "growing up in the Brewster Center there, when Joe Louis was an amateur and when Sugar Ray Robinson, who was Walker Smith then, was just a little kid hanging around."

Futch was a stablemate and sparring partner of future Hall of Famer Holman Williams and future World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis. Because of his speed and skill, Futch became Louis's favorite sparring partner. Futch, who boxed as a lightweight, said the role of Louis' sparring partner demanded cunning. "I had to devise ways and means of not getting killed," Futch said.

When Louis was training for the 1934 National AAU Tournament, Futch suggested that he spar with middleweights. Futch said, "I used to ask him, 'Why do you want to box with me? I know what you want—you want speed. But the middleweights are fast enough for you. You're a light heavyweight. Get a middleweight, they're bigger and they're fast enough.' He said, 'No, no, no. I can hit those guys with everything. When I hit you with anything, I know I'm sharp.' So I sparred with him for that tournament."

Freddie Guinyard, a boyhood friend of Louis, said, "Eddie Futch was a damned good boxer and also a leader of most of the fighters." He added that Futch "was an inspiration to Joe Louis."

Futch compiled an amateur record of 37-3 and captured the Detroit Athletic Association Lightweight Championship in 1932 and the Detroit Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1933. When he was about to turn professional in 1936, a doctor discovered that he had a heart murmur. That ended his career.

Trainer of Champions

With his own boxing career over, Futch became a trainer. The first top ten contender he trained was Jimmy Edgar, who fought a draw with Jake LaMotta in 1946. Futch's second top ten contender was Lester Felton, who defeated Kid Gavilan in 1949 and Carmen Basilio in 1951.

Futch's first world champion was Don Jordan, who defeated Virgil Akins by a fifteen-round unanimous decision on December 5, 1958 to win the World Welterweight Championship.

Futch started working with Joe Frazier in 1966 as an assistant trainer to Yancey Durham, Frazier's manager and trainer. Futch was in Frazier's corner for his classic fight against Muhammad Ali in 1971 and helped develop the techniques that sent Ali to his first defeat. To make the shorter Frazier an even smaller target, Futch had him bobbing and weaving to get inside. "Ali had to throw his uppercut," Futch said, "but I knew he would throw it wrong. I told Joe, 'Every time you see Ali's hand come down, that means he's going to throw an uppercut. But the minute he drops his right hand, throw your left hook, because he's got nothing up there to parry it.'" In the fifteenth round, when Ali dropped his right to throw an uppercut, Frazier followed Futch's instructions and dropped Ali with a left hook.

When Yancey Durham died from a stroke in 1973, Futch took over as Frazier's manager and trainer.

Another fighter trained by Futch, Ken Norton, became the second man to defeat Ali in 1973. Futch provided Norton with the winning strategy. He explained it to Phil Berger of the New York Times in 1989:

"The orthodox way a fighter carries his right hand is to position it in front of his jaw. Now Ali ... carried the right hand out to the side. I told Norton, 'The only way to hit Ali is to jab with him, jab for jab. The difference is that your hand's in position to catch the jab. His isn't.' Nobody ever tried to jab with Ali and, when Norton did it, it upset Ali's rhythm. Ali was being hit with a jab. I told Norton, 'The minute you hit him with the jab, step in and jab him again. Two, three moves like that in an 18- to 20-foot ring should force Ali back against the ropes. When you get him to the ropes ... work both hands to the body and make him bring his elbows in to his side to protect his body. When he does, his head will drop, his chin will be there for you. Then hit him with the right.' And that's how Norton broke Ali's jaw. Ali kept leaning into the right hand."

Futch trained 21 world champions before retiring in 1998.

Stable Trained: Paul Andrews, Alexis Arguello, Trevor Berbick, Maurice Blocker, Duane Bobick, Riddick Bowe, Marvin Camel, Bruce Curry, Lester Felton, Patrick Ford, Bob Foster, Joe Frazier, Antonio Gomez, Montell Griffin, Shane Sutcliffe, Leroy Haley, Virgil Hill, Larry Holmes, Eddie Jones, Don Jordan, James Kinchen, Hedgemon Lewis, Tony Licata, Mike McCallum, Wayne McCullough, Willie Monroe, Walter Moore, Ken Norton, Cubanito Perez, Mando Ramos, Freddie Roach, James Shuler, Ernie Singletary, Michael Spinks, Marlon Starling, Alex Stewart, Johnny Tapia, Roscoe Toles

August 9th

1911: Eddie Futch was born.

1928: Harold Johnson was born in Manayunk, Pennsylvania

1933: Lou Brouillard KO7 Ben Jeby

1943: Ken Norton was born in Jacksonville, Illinois

Eddie Booker TKO5 Harry Matthews

1950: Sugar Ray Robinson W15 Charley Fusari

1958: Luis Rodriguez W10 Benny Paret

1971: Rodrigo Valdez KO7 Bobby Cassidy

Chu Chu Malve WSD9 Harold Weston, Jr.

1975: Wayne Braithwaite was born in Georgetown, Guyana

1978: Rick Lockridge age 20 debuts TKO2 Tony

Masashi Kudo W15 Eddie Gazo

1980: Alexis Arguello KO8 Cornelius Boza Edwards

Sergio Palma KO5 Leo Randolph

1985: Miguel Lora W12 Daniel Zaragoza

1987: Rocky Lockridge KO8 Barry Michael

Jum Hwan Choi KO4 Toshihiko Matsuda

1991: Bobby Czyz W12 Bash Ali

1997: Vince Phillips KO3 Mickey Ward

2002: Miguel Barrera W12 Roberto Leyva

2003: Acelino Freitas KO12 Jorge Barrios

2010: Television boxing and entertainment executive Jay Larkin passed from brain cancer.

2013: Monica Silvina Acosta TKO7 Belinda Laracuente

2014: Daniel Jacobs TKO5 Jarrod Fletcher       

Lamont Peterson TKO10 Edgar Santana

Danny Garcia KO2 Rod Salka

Carolina Rodriguez WSD10 Dayana Cordero

Francisco Rodriguez Jr W12 Katsunari Takayama

Victoria Argueta WSD10 Alondra Garcia

Dmitrii Chudinov TKO3 Mehdi Bouadla  

Thabo Sonjica W12 Roli Gasca

2015: Alexander Brand W12 Bernard Donfack