I was going through some of my old paperwork to rebox it up for storage & in the middle of it, I found a handout flier for my first amateur fight held on Thursday, October 13, 1977, at the Buffalo Knights of Columbus Hall, where I squared off with a guy from Jamestown, NY named Piore Shannon. I was nervous as hell & I expected him to be black for some reason, but he was a 23-year-old Native American guy who looked huge to me, but he was only a pound heavier than me at 133 lbs. Anyhow, he was strong but wild as hell & he was gassed after the first round, so I just whacked him around through the second & the ref waved it off after two 8-counts in the third. And I was ecstatic. I was immediately addicted to the feeling of triumph & it never got old or routine throughout my amateur or pro career.
Speaking of the pros, my first pro opponent was a guy named Brian Allison, whom I KO’d in the first round in Niagara Falls, Ontario. What made it all the more memorable was that George Chuvalo worked as a second in my corner.
It took place back on my mom’s birthday, July 3rd, 1982.
I don’t do any of that BUT I do remember the name of the first kid I ever fought at school. 3rd grade, recess. I beat Drew’s ass for hogging the 4 Square ball and for just being an overall dick head
We later became friends of course cause that’s how guys are we’re not petty like girls
But speaking of old opponents, tyis one sticks out ti me: there was another oger I was scheduled to fight many years ago. He was a last minute replacement for my original opponents who had backed out and then ended up backing out himself (which i dont blame him for; I was at least 1, maybe 2 weight classes heavier than him, and i dont think he was in shape). He made a thread that night on the og about the scheduling and backing out. Dont think i told him about our connection in that thread, but we ended up linking up through the og Snapchat thread at a later time
Oh, man. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that Flint had beaten my buddy, Matt Hilton.
I knew Matt was on the skids career wise & that he was basically fighting for beer money. But still, Darrel Flint? I don’t think he was much over .500 at the time. But, God Bless him, he showed up to fight & he got the job done for a career-best win.
I remember his name. I met him years later and the guy was huge, he was tall and lanky when I fought him but he was jacked when I saw him later. Good guy
