Pro Boxers Who Became Bank Robbers
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
While usually considering the high life of boxing, there is a low side of every sport, and it is not always Parkinson’s disease, or using steroids and performance enhancing drugs. Professional boxers, like any sport, often times bring a controversial nature to the sport which is not always in the Kimbo Slice to Muhammad Ali zone of thought.
Is there such a thing as a professional boxer who is also a professional bank robber? Is it even possible to have both wise guys and Goodfellas within the sport of boxing? Yes it is. Four names are guilty: James Page, Martin Tucker, Vincent Thompson, and Dalbir Singh.
Nicknamed ‘The Buddy Bandits’ with his partner in crime Robert Cal Adams,, Southpaw heavyweight Vincent Gary Thompson, 32, Federal Way, Washington, is currently incarcerated after pleading guilty to two counts of bank robbery in January 2015, serving in the second year of a seven year sentence. Between 2009 and 2013, Thompson won his first 13 consecutive heavyweight bouts. He then lost a six round decision to future International Boxing Federation World Heavyweight Champion Charles Martin, and lost a 10 round decision to heavyweight contender Charles Martin.
Thompson was convicted of recruiting and training juveniles to commit eight bank robberies, including his 15 year old stepson while waiting nearby. Thompson had signed a five year contract with Roy Englebrecht Promotions in 2013 after defeating Joell Godfrey in 2012 on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, and also fought several times at the Emerald Casino in the popular Battle at the Boat series in Tacoma, Washington.
Nicknamed ‘The Mighty Quinn’, former World Boxing Association World Welterweight champion James Page, 45, a native of Pittsburg, California, had a pro record of 25 wins and five losses, with 19 knockouts. After losing his WBA world title to the Andrew ‘Six Heads’ Lewis at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2001. In 2002, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bank robberies. Upon release, he returned to the ring. His comeback attempt ended in failure. A second round knockout loss in Sacramento to Rahman Mustafa Yusubov forced Page to return to a life of crime. Page was convicted of a string of new bank robberies in the Oakland, California area in 2013, and sentenced to another seven years in Federal prison. The sentencing judge considered the effects of brain damage Page incurred in the ring.
Toledo, Ohio super lightweight Martin Tucker, 8-10 with three knockouts, won his most recent bout, a decision over Devarise Crayton in April 2012. Unfortunately, that bout would lead to his arrest and conviction over a previously committed bank robbery. Tucker received as 12 year sentence in Port Huron, Michigan court. In December 2012, Tucker was found guilty in Detroit federal court, along with co-defendant Quentin Sherer, of stealing $5400 at gunpoint from a credit union in Temperance, Michigan in 2009. Tucker was charged a few months after the FBI acquired a discarded Q-tip swab from his boxing match with Crayton in Toledo. The bloody swab was used to match Tucker’s DNA to evidence from the credit union robbery, a discarded ski mask.
Dalbir Singh, alias Boxer, a boxing coach who provides coaching in many prestigious schools and colleges, was convicted in 2008, along with four other accomplices, who together formed a looting gang, whose activities included bank robbery and shooting. The gang was involved in many cases of robbery and dacoity (which means robbery of the type found in India or Myanmar). He said more than seven cases of robbery, snatching and theft were registered against Singh. Police recovered three pistols, one with live cartridges and money from robberies from Singh and his gang. Singh was involved in a bank robbery in which four masked men robbed the bank van of the State Bank of India, Bhagtanwala Branch. Singh shot at the bank security guard, who was seriously injured.
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