Born: 8 February 1943
Died: 28 December 2010
Career: 1962 to 1982
Record: 96 fights 66 wins (53 by KO/TKO), 24 losses (1 by KO/TKO), 5 draws, 1ND
Division: Welterweight, Middleweight, Super Middleweight
Status: Orthodox
Titles: Pennsylvania State welterweight and middleweight, NABF middleweight
Great Competitions
The goal wins: Charley Scott, Percy Manning (twice), George Benton, Jimmy Lester, Gene Bryant, Jose Gonzalez (twice), Charley Austin (twice), Vicente Rondon **, Tito Marshall, Joe Shaw, Tom Bethea*, Carlos Marks, Juarez de Lima, Rafael Gutierrez, Luis Vinales, Art Hernandez, Billy Douglas, Ruben Arocha, Willie Warren(twice), Tony Mundine*, Stanley Hayward*, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad **, Eugene Hart, Jean Mateo, Tony Chiaverini,
Lost in: Percy Manning, Tito Marshall, Stanley Hayward*, Luis Rodriguez** (twice), Yoland Leveque, Juarez de Lima, Joe Shaw, Luis Vinales, Carlos Monzon **, Rodrigo Valdes (three times)**, Emile Griffith** , Vito Antuofermo **, Marvin Hagler**, Vinnie Curto*, Clement Tshinza,
Draw with: Carlos Monzon**, Vicente Rondon**, Vinnie Curto*, Eugene Hart, Emile Griffith**,
**Previous/future owner of world title version
* Unsuccessful contender for the world title version
The Bennie Briscoe story
When talking about the greatest fighters who never won a world title, Bennie Briscoe’s name will probably come up. He had three world titles, losing to Carlos Monzon twice to Rodrigo Valdes, both great middleweights. In a 20-year, 96-bout career in which he faced eight world champions and many of the best middleweights of his day, Briscoe was knocked down just four times, and his only inside-the-range loss came against Valdes.
He was a fierce, intimidating warrior, a brutal body shooter with an iron chin, and he was equally brave and strong. Early in his career, Yancey Durham, who trained Joe Frazier, trained Briscoe, who came from the same mold as Frazier.
Briscoe was born in Augusta, Georgia and was one of fourteen children in a poor family. At Augusta High School, he was a standout football player and competed in track and field. When he lived in Augusta, he once asked President Dwight Eisenhower. At the age of 16, he moved to Philadelphia to live with relatives and got a job there at the local council where his first jobs included being a rat catcher.
He progressed to working as a bin in the sewage department, a job he loved and continued to do throughout his boxing career and for nearly forty years. He began boxing training at the Police Athletic Gym and trained alongside many local boxers, including Frazier (below). He won several AAU home championships and was a quarter-finalist at welterweight in 1961 and a silver medalist in 1962 at the National AAU Championships.
He had his first professional fight in September 1962, and in March 1964, after winning eleven, he stepped up to the main event stage at the Philadelphia Arena and stopped the experienced Charley Scott in the first round of their twelfth round Pennsylvania State welterweight fight. the subject. Scott had scored against opponents such as Ralph Dupas, Garnett Hart, and Gaspar Ortega.
Briscoe lost his unbeaten streak in his thirteenth fight, dropping a split decision against Percy Manning in March 1965. He had beaten Manning in June 1964 and eventually won their series 2-1 by knocking out Manning in 1969. Losses to Tito Marshall and Stanley Hayward. saw Briscoe finish 1965 with a 17-3 record. He had just three fights in 1966, including a ninth-round retirement against George Benton.
His “fight anyone” attitude saw him lose twice that year to former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez on points, and, in a minor win, he pinned Carlos Monzon on multiple points in Buenos Aires. Monzon had a 30-fight unbeaten streak when he first faced Briscoe and would extend that streak to 80 fights when he retired.
Briscoe’s work pattern varied slightly. He would fight against a top class team in battle after battle and year after year. In 1968, he beat Jose Gonzalez and Pedro Miranda and lost to former WBA light heavyweight champion Vicente Rondon. In 1969, he would get revenge wins over Rondon, Percy Manning and Tito Marshall (the first boxing promotion for Hall of Fame promoter Russell Peltz) but lost to Juarez de Lima and former Olympian Joe Shaw.
In 1970 and 1971, he would win nine, defeating Shaw in six rounds, stopping Tom Bethea in six, knocking out Carlos Marks in five and Juarez de Lima in two. He also knocked out tough Mexican Rafel Gutierrez in the second round after he was knocked down twice in the first round so Gutierrez only faced two of the four times Briscoe was knocked down in his career.
Two victories in early 1972 were followed by a split decision loss to Luis Vinales in April and Briscoe showed that beating Briscoe drove him crazy as he knocked down and stopped Vinales in the seventh round.
Finally, in November 1972, he was shot again against Carlos Monzon for the WBA and WBC middleweight belt in Buenos Aires. Monzon was 5′ 11 ½” with a reach of 76”. Briscoe was 5’8” with a 71” reach. It was a brutal war. Briscoe kept coming forward, moving between jabs, hooks, and uppercuts from Monzon throughout the round.
Monzon was always on the back foot, winning rounds, but couldn’t stop Briscoe. There was drama in the ninth. With Monzon in the corner, Briscoe landed a dangerous right to the head that circled Monzon and had him looking at the crowd badly shaken but Monzon had too much power to heal and fought off Briscoe’s attempts to land another powerbomb and left. winning the battle by a wide unanimous decision.
It was back to business for Briscoe in 1973. He started by defeating the humble Argentine Carlos Salinas, who had the distinction of putting down Briscoe in the fourth place before being eliminated in the fifth by Briscoe, then stopped Art Hernande and Billy Douglas (father of Buster Douglas, who would be the first to beat Mike Tyson as a professional) but lost on points against Colombian Rodrigo Valdes.
He only had three fights in 1974 but it was also a big fight as he knocked out Tony Mundine in Paris and then lost to Valdes in May. This time they were fighting for the WBA title that was vacant after the WBC stripped Monzon in February. Briscoe was cut, knocked down and stopped in the seventh round, the only loss of the distance in his 96-bout career. He closed out 1974 with a majority decision loss against Emile Griffith (below).
He went undefeated in 1975 with victories over future WBA light heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammed and fellow Philadelphian Stanley Hayward and draws with Vinnie Curto and Eugene Hart. Included in his five fights in 1976 were a first-round knockout of Hart and a draw with Emile Griffith.
Briscoe had won several fights in France which made him so popular that he was nicknamed “The Black Robot” a caricature in L’Equipe depicted Briscoe as a robot with hand hammers.
In March 1977, he knocked out Jean Mateo in the tenth round, and in July, he knocked out Sammy Barr, giving him a 13-fight unbeaten run. That made him return with Valdes from Colombia who had put the WBC title in the WBA that was held when they fought for the first time. Valdes won by unanimous decision, marking Briscoe’s third and final title shot.
He faced high-profile opponents again in 1978, losing on points to future WBA/WBC champion Vito Antuofermo, stopping Tony Chiaverini in Kansas City, crushing local prospect Chiaverini in eight rounds and drawing a record crowd of over 10,000 for a boxing match there. . The record was set again when Briscoe faced middleweight champion Marvin Hagler in Philadelphia.
Richard Mackson/USA Today Sports
Hagler won a unanimous decision in front of a crowd of nearly 15,000, the largest home crowd for a non-title fight in Pennsylvania history and he and Briscoe remained lifelong friends. The Hagler fight was Briscoe’s last major fight and at the age of 36 and after 96 fights against the best welterweights and middleweights in the world he was no longer the force he once was and between 1979 and 1982 he was 6-7 years old before taking retired at the end of 1982. .
Briscoe was elected to the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007 and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010. The “Briscoe Award” was created to honor Philadelphia’s greatest fighters, and in 2003, Ring Magazine ranked Briscoe 34th among the greatest boxers of all time.
He fought in France, Switzerland, Monaco, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Caledonia and Belgium, but Philadelphia was his home. He fought 24 times at the Philadelphia Arena, 22 times at the Philadelphia Spectrum, and 9 times at the Blue Horizon, so he had 55 shows and all ten round events.
If 24 losses seem like a lot, then you have to remember that every year, Briscoe fought the best. His style wasn’t there. If you were going to fight Bennie Briscoe, you knew he was going to bring ten rounds of pressure and he was going to go through anything you threw at him and fighters like Percy Manning, Tito Marshall, Stanley Hayward, Juarez de Lima, Joe Shaw, Luis Vinales. and Vinnie Curt found that what may have worked in their first fight with Briscoe did not in the second.
Briscoe had worked for the sanitation department throughout his career and continued to do so after hanging up his gloves. Despite being brutal in the ring, Briscoe was a well-respected man in his community and a beloved father to six children. He passed away after a brief illness on December 28, 2010.
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