A Brief History
On October 28, 2006, former heavyweight champ, Trevor Berbick, was beaten to death with a metal pipe while in a church in Jamaica. Berbick lost his first defense of his boxing title to Mike Tyson, by TKO, but apparently his murderer hit even harder than Iron Mike!
Digging Deeper
Many boxers have come to a premature end, about 500 due to injuries from boxing, others for various reasons. We list a few of those notably unlucky pugilists:
Champion Sugar Ray Robinson killed Jimmy Doyle in a welterweight title match in 1947,
In 1933, Primo Carnera pummeled Ernie Schaff who died four days later from the pounding he took in the ring.
Undefeated heavyweight Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash in 1969 just shy of 46 years old.
Charles “Sonny” Liston, who lost to Cassius Clay in 1964, died in 1970 at the age of 38, possibly of a heroin overdose, a disputed diagnosis.
In 1982, Ray Mancini beat Korean boxer Kim Duk-Koo so bad that five days later the 135 pound boxer died at the age of 27.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Who is the greatest boxer?
If you liked this article and would like to receive notifications of new articles, please feel welcome to follow History and Headlines on Facebook and X!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Worsell,, Elliot. Dog Rounds: Death and Life in the Boxing Ring. Blink Publishing, 2017
Young, A.S. Doc. Sonny Liston: The Champ Nobody Wanted. Budoworks, 2022.
