To this day, as far as all-out, stupendous, leave your defense at home heavyweight slugfests go, the 1976 epic between George Foreman and Ron Lyle still sits at the top of most fans’ X-rated great ones list. The four-knockdown, five round back and forther still has the power to send chills down the spine, even after multi-repeated viewings.
But there was a knockdown-filled, I’ll-hit-you, you-hit-me heavyweight battle that took place 25 years ago today that comes close to equalling the sheer fun contained in the Foreman-Lyle affair. Back on November 6th of 1999, Derrick Jefferson ran into Maurice Harris, the fight taking place at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, televised by HBO – and what a thriller this fight really was.
Jefferson, aged 31 at the time and sporting a 21-01 record, met a 23 year old Harris, who had a deceiving record at 16-9-2. Together, these two gave us something so special Larry Merchant was moved to declare his love for the winner of the fight!
Both men hit the deck in an incredible round two, Harris twice, Jefferson once. The fight could easily have been over already, so stunned were both men. But the war raged on, momentum constantly switching. Jefferson, the bigger guy at 246 pounds to Harris’ 211, was having trouble with some of the cute moves Harris was utilizing. Then, after some furious trading had been witnessed, “Freight Train” Jefferson decked Harris again, this in round six, body shots doing the damage. Once again, Harris, known as “Mo Bettah,” got back up.
But then, in highlight reel fashion that same round, Jefferson smashed Harris to the mat with a thunderous left hook to the head that spun Harris’ head around, the bomb sending his mouthpiece into orbit, with Harris laid out flat on his back. What an amazing fight it had been, and what a sizzling KO Jefferson had scored to end matters. Ring Magazine handed its 1999 KO of the Year award to the fight-ender.
Years later, both warriors were kind enough to recall the fight for ESB.
“He showed heart in that fight,” Jefferson said of Harris. “When he went down twice, I thought he was gonna stay down. But that [Harris getting back up] shows you the kind of condition he was in. I watched the fight, maybe two days later, and that’s when I was like, ‘Wow! We were really going at it.’ That’s when you see it, the action, the crowd response, how they’re really into it. That’s when you know……. I think the fans appreciate our courage, our desire, our heart.”
Harris, too, earned the respect of the fans.
“That was a knockdown, drag-out fight,” Harris said of his shoot-out with Jefferson. “We both put our souls on the line. I’m so happy I got out of that fight alive because he could have killed me – I could have killed him.”
Amen.
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