Holmes, returning to the ring after an absence of four years, had just won his first fight since 1985, stopping hapless Tim Doc Anderson in one round at the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. In 1997, he violated his parole and was deported. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Trevor Berbick (1 August 1954 - 28 October 2006) was a Jamaican professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 2000. But there was also a dark side to Trevor Berbick. His death, officially from a drugs overdose, in the early 70s remains a contentious subject. Im finished. Berbick had said before the fight that if Ali was hurt, he would let up on him. A decision over undefeated Greg Page seven months later seemed to solidify Berbick as a legitimate contender, but consecutive losses to Renaldo Snipes and cruiserweight ST Gordon reversed his momentum and branded him a journeyman. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Failed to remove flower. His nephew, Harold, and an accomplice were arrested and later convicted of murdering Berbick. Larry Holmes on Trevor Berbick Murdered by Nephew: He Deserved It (Flashback) djvlad 5.38M subscribers 507K views 4 months ago In this VladTV Flashback from 2020, Larry Holmes opens about. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. I know its the end. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Please reset your password. Though Berbick was believed to be 52, according to boxing records, other reports said he was as old as 56 or as young as 49. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. His future, like that of so many of his contemporaries, would include drugs, prison, privation, early death. Berbick, beset by legal problems following his retirement from the ring, lost his heavyweight title to Mike Tyson and was the last boxer to fight Muhammad Ali. We all lose sometimes. Ali tried but was outworked by Berbick for most of the fight. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. He served 15 months in a Florida jail for sexual assault and was later deported from the United States. Most other boxers, even those at their zenith, wouldnt have survived those nine minutes but while Alis physical abilities were long gone his competitive drive, his resourcefulness and his toughness remained in prime form. In the final 90 seconds Berbick climbed all over Ali and attempted to put him away, but Ali, though imprisoned by age, excess weight and physical deterioration, still had enough savvy and toughness to make it to the final bell. Carlos Acevedo is the editor of Hannibal Boxing and was the founder of The Cruelest Sport. The 52-year-old boxer represented Jamaica at the 1976 Montreal Olympics before settling there for a number of years. Berbick continued to fight, with his final bout being a 2000 win over Canadian journeyman Shane Sutcliffe. We all grow old. (10). Oops, something didn't work. With barely a dozen fights as an amateur, Berbick turned pro on September 27, 1976, scoring a TKO in Shediac, New Brunswick, known as The Lobster Capital of the World.. They didnt anticipate the expenses. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Beverly Howell said Berbick's body was discovered around 6:30 a.m. in a church courtyard in Portland parish. Maybe Ali was right about blaming the weight loss and the prescription drugs concealing his true ability in the Holmes fight. When his immigration status in Canada lapsed, Berbick snuck back into the U.S. illegally. In fact, his loss to Tyson seemed to mark a grim turning point. If nothing else, Ali could be proud that he earned the privilege of ending this fight on his feet instead of on his stool. We had Hearns and we had Leonard and we had Duran and Hagler the Four Kings and it was a great time. The Brooklyn was coming out in me. Trevor Berbick. Im not crazy. If fighting three minutes against an opponent that largely ceded the round taxed his energy supply, what would happen once the younger bull revved up his attack? Photo by Focus on Sport/ Getty Images. Here, there was no reason for him to quit and there was no time in which I felt like yelling, stop the fight. . Among his losses were those to Buster Douglas, Renaldo Snipes and Larry Holmes. A brain clot forced him to retire from boxing in 2000 (he finished his career with a 50-11-1 record with 33 knockouts) and he returned to Florida to begin training young boxers. (2) While the exotic locale stacked up well with other Ali fight sites, everything else connected with the venture was anything but paradise. He tried convincing U.S. commissions that Ali was still fit to fight, but none gave their consent. Obituaries Funeral Homes Newspapers Send Flowers News & Advice Memorials. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. All rights reserved. Anyone can read what you share. The following year, he was convicted in Florida of raping a family baby sitter and was sentenced to four years in prison. There are claims he fell foul of the Mafia. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Berbick drove Ali toward the ropes with a series of heavy body shots, then maintained the pressure as Ali desperately tried to fend him off with clinches and the Rope-a-Dope. The crowd tried to spark Ali with Ali, bomaye chants but even the ghosts of Kinshasa couldnt regenerate the Ali of old. His stories A Darkness Made to Order and A Ghost Orbiting Forever both won first place awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America. Essentially banished from America, Ali took his circus act offshore, to the Bahamas, roughly 50 miles from the Florida coast. Canada actually attempted to deport him as well given his legal troubles but Berbick was able to win a judgment in court that allowed him to stay. He had been living in Norwich district, a remote, farming community, in Portland parish, since 2002. Ali wasnt punching and Berbick was taunting him. Things got worse the next year when Berbick, who was living in Florida, was convicted of raping a family babysitter and sentenced to four years in prison. You have the wake and then the funeral, but this fight was like the headstone dedication, he said. Not only was Alis speech slurred and gravelly, his movement and general coordination had decayed and, without the aid of the Thyrolar that helped him shed more than 30 pounds in less than two months before the Holmes fight, his physique had the thickness and softness expected of someone five weeks short of 40. Berbick continued to fight, with his final bout being a 2000 win over Canadian journeyman Shane Sutcliffe. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. However, the post-Ali era was especially blessed because the sport would be fueled not just by one fighter, but several. Try again later. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Thanks to the extraordinary access he had granted them, they not only knew Ali as a legendary athlete but also as a human being who experienced the full range of emotions and shared most of them with them. Failed to delete memorial. Photo from The Ring/ Getty Images. Norma "Jean" Sooter. KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) A nephew of the former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick was convicted along with another man of killing Berbick. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. These extracurricular pursuits distracted him right up to the day of the fight, when he could be found in the lobby of the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, hawking cassette tapes of a song he had recorded in hopes of landing a major label contract. It saved him in all four bouts and he had every reason to believe it would help him again. Just as he had against Weaver a few months earlier, Tate opened a wide lead before imploding late. But then he got tired and he just couldnt (keep going). Berbick, always a rebel at heart, had other things in mind. For a man who had mastered the 15-round distance, 10 rounds now seemed an eternity. Chop wounds to the head gave police a clear indication that this was a homicide and his 20-year-old nephew, Harold Berbick, and 18-year-old Kenton Gordon were picked up the next day. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. (4), The main event almost didnt happen because Berbick had received only $100,000 of his $350,000 guarantee and said he wouldnt fight until he was paid the full amount. Heavyweight hope Jared Anderson does not want to be famous but realises that is a necessity if hes to realise his dreams for both himself and his brother, Kevin Lerena explains to Thomas Gerbasi how a call from Frank Warren convinced him to pack his bags, Dillian Whyte is coming off the most convincing defeat of his career and tragedy in his personal life. Inactive for nearly a year after winning the WBC title, Thomas decided that he would not only be a manager and a trainer but also an R&B singer. Contact Us. TREVOR BERBICK, who reigned briefly as the WBC heavyweight champion in 1986, left behind one of the strangest legacies in boxing history: for being the last man Muhammad Ali faced in the ring,. Alis immense pride, the asset that fueled his greatest triumphs, couldnt stomach the thought that a TKO loss while sitting on the stool would be the final scene of what had been a theatrical boxing career. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. Only two pairs of gloves were available for the five-fight undercard, forcing each corner to unlace the gloves after each bout so that the next pair of fighters could use them. Now, the whirlwind that was known as The Ali Circus was about to fold up its tents and ride into the sunset, once and forever. Legal Statement. After his release, Berbick returned to the ring in the mid-1990s and only a failed CAT Scan in 2000 kept Berbick from continuing his farcical career into his fifties. Careening around a ring that seemed more like the playfield of a pinball machine designed by Playmatic or Bally Midway Night Rider, say, or Moon Flight seemed to shatter his already frail psyche. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. Jurors deliberated for just two hours before finding the former champion guilty of raping a 26-year-old woman that worked as a babysitter for the Berbick family. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Then Im coming home. Photo by The Ring/ Getty Images. His future as a backwater professional seemed assured until Top Rank Promotions miscast him as a stepping stone for Big John Tate on the undercard of the Roberto Duran-Sugar Ray Leonard I extravaganza in Montreal. Norma "Jean" Sooter passed away on December 20, 2022, at 90 years of age after a short illness. In Halifax, Berbick developed a local following and lumbered his way to an 11-0 record before facing Colombian mauler Bernardo Mercado. But while Hunsaker couldnt touch the whippet-quick teen-age gold medalist, Berbick feasted on the geriatric shell that remained. Lambert had known Trevor Berbick from the day he was born. While Berbick never seriously threatened Holmes, he underscored his ruggedness and raised his profile enough to qualify for another significant payday. Two fights later, he became the last man to ever fight three-time heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, winning a 10-round unanimous decision. Win, lose or draw, I hope he doesnt fight again, Dunphy said between rounds nine and 10. August 1, 1954 - October 28, 2006 KINGSTON | Age 52 Ex-heavyweight champ Trevor Berbick found dead at 52. The press conference was actually on my floor where I was staying. Father Time has caught up with me, Ali said. Those interested in ordering a copy of the book can do so by clicking here and purchasing from Amazon. Rounds five, six and seven delivered a sobering and punishing message to Ali while allowing Berbick to separate himself on the scorecards and the statistics. KINGSTON, Jamaica Former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick was found dead in a church courtyard Saturday with chop wounds to his head in a suspected homicide. The punishment Berbick dished out was extraordinary. Photo by The Ring Magazine/ Getty Images. But another legal mishap occurred and Trevor Berbick was once again deported from the U.S. in 2002 and returned to Jamaica. For Berbick, the loss was humiliating. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. He has been writing for Boxing News since 2015. He eventually moved back to the U.S., but was deported a second time. Today, of course, Guantanamo Bay is notorious for its U.S. detention camp, but in the early 1970s, it was primarily known as a military base. Thats the story everyone knows. According to Berbick, it was his gig as a matre d at a rowdy mess hall that led him to boxing. His midnight-blue suit, gaudy tie, white pocket square kerchief, and sunglasses out of place among the pastel shirts, Zubaz, and tracksuits. Only Berbicks fatigue in the final minute saved Ali from oblivion, but another benefit of being 27 was that all he needed to revive himself was the 60-second rest period. San Jose, CA 95112. When it was over, a police escort lead Berbick back to his home in Miami, and Holmes went on to perform with his R&B band, Marmalade, that night. I ended up beating the All-Marine heavyweight champ and winning the service tournament. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Despite all of his troubles, Trevor Berbick was seen as a legendary hero in Jamaica. Even at 39 Ali owns a far better chin than Tate does and hes still a bit quicker on his feet than the cement-footed Weaver.
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