Detroit Trainer of Champions, Ali Harrison, Father of Ex WBC Champ Tony Harrison, Dies at 59 From COVID-19
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
*Photo Credit: Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media
Detroit, MI (April 21, 2020)– On April 20, 2020, this reporter’s friend, Ali Harrison Salaam, the father and trainer of former World Boxing Council Junior Middleweight champion Tony Harrison, tragically died at age 59 from COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Ali Harrison Salaam boxed at welterweight and junior middleweight from 1984 to 1989, compiling a record of 11-7, with five knockouts. Salaam fought such contenders and champions as Luis Santana, Larry Barnes, and Bobby Joe Young, though he did not win the big fights.
Ali Harrison Salaam, a native of Detroit, Michigan, came from a boxing family lineage and was the son of the late middleweight and light heavyweight contender Henry Hank, who died at age 69 in Detroit in 2004. His career pro record was 62-30-4 with 40 knockouts, fighting between 1953 to 1972. Hank’s majority 10 round decision loss to Joey Giardello was Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year in 1962. Hank held the Michigan Light Heavyweight title, but lost a 15 rounds decision for the vacant Michigan version of the World Light Heavyweight championship in 1963 to ‘the other’ Eddie Cotton (the boxer) of Seattle, Washington, who died in 1990 at age 64.
The loss of Ali Harrison Salaam is the third in the past three weeks in the professional boxing world, and there’s no ring available to toll the ten count to remain all of these great contributors. The others also deserve to be remembered, Eddie Cotton, noted referee, judge, and the former director of the International Boxing Federation, best known as the referee of the Mike Tyson versus Lennox Lewis bout in 2002, died at age 72 on April 17, 2020, of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Noted boxing cut man Nelson Cuevas, a friend to all, died at age 80 on March 27, 2020, from COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus.
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