Great Buddy McGirt For Hall of Fame
By Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media Correspondent
YouTube Video Tribute to Buddy McGirt
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=456&cat=boxer
Perhaps the best all around fighter and trainer the ring has ever produced is James ‘Buddy’ McGirt. While you do not hear his name mentioned as much as Freddie Roach, Buddy has remained a consistent presence in New York boxing. McGirt is the most deserved fighter and trainer alive not in the Pro Boxing Halls of Fame.
Hailing from Brentwood, New York, McGirt went pro in the welterweight division on March 2, 1982, with an uneventful four round draw against 1-0 Lamont Haithcoach of New Jersey. The bout was the only draw in McGirt’s 80 bout career.
Buddy McGirt then won 39 of his next 40 bouts! McGirt lost only a close decision to Frankie Warren in 1985, which he revenged with a twelfth round stoppage in 1988 when McGirt won the vacant International Boxing Federation light welterweight title. McGirt then exposed and knocked out 132 pound 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist Howard Davis Jr. in the first round to defend his IBF title.
In September 1988, unbeaten Meldrick Taylor stopped McGirt in the twelfth round to take his IBF title. McGirt then won his next 21 consecutive bouts and the World Boxing Council Welterweight title! McGirt beat 34-1 Simon Brown, 57-1 Patrizio Oliva, and 43-2-2 Genaro Leon, before losing the WBC belt by a controversial 12 round decision to 31-1 Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whitaker. Two judges had the bout questionably 115-114 for Whitaker in the 1993 Madison Square Garden title bout.
Buddy McGirt then won five bouts in a row, losing a title rematch by 12 round decision to Whitaker against in 1994. After winning three bouts, including a ten round decision over 164-6-2 Buck Smith, A heavier McGirt, fighting middleweight now, was stopped in the ninth round by Andrew Council at Bally’s in Atlantic City.
After winning six fights in a row, McGirt, now back at welterweight, McGirt lost a strange ten round decision to New Jersey’s Darren ‘Checkmate’ Maciunski on January 21, 1997, at Grand Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi to end his career. According to Boxrec, longtime McGirt manager and trainer Al Certo served as a cornerman for Maciunski, which does not make any sense, but then again, a lot of things in sports and boxing do not make any sense. Maciunski had demonstrated promise by winning ant e round split decision over split decision Meldrick Taylor two months earlier at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. Maciunski subsequently got knocked out by Fernando Vargas, Kevin Kelly, and Evans Ashira, and he was done.
Buddy McGirt should make it into the International and World Boxing Halls of Fame soon, and it remains a crime he’s not in both. The Boxing Writer’s Association of America acknowledged McGirt with their ‘Trainer of the Year Award’ in 2002.
When the time comes for Buddy’s accolades, remember I said so first. I hope Buddy McGirt and Hector Macho Camacho get into the Halls of Fame next year. Both McGirt and Camacho are deserving New York fighters whose statistics add up.
The ring record of Buddy McGirt can be found online on Boxrec at
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=456&cat=boxer
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