By Steven Cummings
Long before I would eventually move to the Fresno, CA area, way back in 1973, the Warnor’s Theater in downtown Fresno hosted a boxing card that featured a bunch of names that have been mostly lost to history. There’s just one notable name, as far as I can tell, among the eight fighters that squared off in four bouts that night, February 28th, 1973.
A heavyweight with a record of 1-2 going in was stopped in the second round of a scheduled four-rounder. After starting his career 1-3, two of those three losses by stoppage, Mike Weaver went on to become heavyweight champion of the world.
An odd career path led to Weaver challenging Larry Holmes for the WBC version of the heavyweight title just six years later. After a good showing against Holmes in a 12th round TKO loss, “Hercules” as the brilliantly muscled Weaver is known, got a shot at the WBA belt less than a year later. And this time, he cashed it in.
After that 1973 loss in Fresno, Weaver didn’t exactly light up the sky with his performances. He went 5-3 over his next eight bouts, suffering two stoppage losses. After a TKO7 loss to Duane Bobick in 1974, Weaver reeled off eight straight wins to improve his record to 14-6. Not great, but he was headed in the right direction.
Then on January 24th, 1978, Weaver dropped a decision to 8-2-1 Stan Ward, followed by another decision loss in August to Leroy Jones. At 14-8, Mike Weaver was less than a year away from facing Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title.
While all of this was going on in the career of Mike Weaver, the heavyweight title was having it’s own odd journey. Joe Frazier and Jimmy Ellis finally settled the issue of who was recognized as the champion in the wake of Muhammad Ali being stripped of his title with Frazier taking over in 1970. George Foreman then took the title by force in 1973 with a brutal, six-knockdown beating.
Ali rope-a-doped his way to a win over Foremen in Zaire in 1974 and held on to the titles until a surprise loss to Leon Spinks in 1978. That’s when things got strange with the most glamourous title in all of sports.
Spinks gave Ali an immediate rematch and was stripped by the WBC. Ali won the title back from Spinks, but only the WBA version, in the rematch in September of 1978.
But the WBC had already awarded their belt to Ken Norton. They ruled retroactively that Norton’s fight against Jimmy Young in 1978 was a title fight and that made Norton champion. His first defense was a narrow loss to Larry Holmes in one of the great heavyweight fights of all time.
Ali retired and John Tate fought Gerrie Coetzee for the WBA title, winning via 15-round unanimous decision in 1979. So there were now two heavyweight champions, Holmes recognized by the WBC and Tate by the WBA.
And Mike Weaver was about to fight both of them.
CHALLENGING HOLMES
On June 22, 1979, Mike Weaver (19-8) took on Larry Holmes (30-0) at Madison Square Garden in New York. The traditionally slow-starting Weaver came on and made a battle out of it before being stopped 44 seconds into the 12th round of a scheduled 15. Weaver earned great respect for his effort, despite the loss. What was expected to be a fairly easy defense for the champion turned into a pitched battle that ended when Weaver was running out of gas after consistent back-and-forth action.
Weaver got back in the win column three months later with a fourth-round KO of Henry Terrell, then decisioned Scott Ledoux in November of 1979. After his effort against Holmes, and with another avenue to the title available, Mike Weaver was a viable candidate to challenge for the championship again.
SHOCKING TURNAROUND AGAINST TATE
The undefeated Tate was the more skilled boxer of the two when he defended his belt against Weaver on March 31, 1980. Tate was heavier, longer and undefeated. Weaver was strong and gutsy, despite his 21-9 record.
The scheduled 15-rounder saw Tate build a lead and keep Weaver from punishing him by using his superior movement and reach advantage. Weaver charged ahead. As the fight entered the later rounds, Tate was clearly ahead on points. A point deduction from Weaver in the 14th for low blows added to that advantage.
When the bell rang to start round 15, all Tate had to do was not get caught. But Weaver caught him. To the shock of nearly everyone watching, Hercules got there with a powerful left hand that stiffened Tate, who eventually went down face first. Fight over. Mike Weaver was the new WBA heavyweight champion of the world.
After two successful defenses, Mike Weaver lost his title via first-round stoppage against Michael Dokes in 1982. The rest of his career was that of a true journeyman, finishing up in 2000 at 41-18-1, 21 KOs. But this is as true of a “Rocky” story as there has ever been.
The chaos of the heavyweight title and the thinning of talent in the division over the late 70s and early 80s definitely factored in. But Mike Weaver didn’t have to get ready because he stayed ready. He had power and he had determination and when his name was called, he was able to cash in. He didn’t get the title the first time, against Holmes, but he opened people’s eyes.
When he got another shot, however bad it got, he leveraged his only advantage. He pressed the fight and he threw his big shots. One of them put him in the history books.
You can watch entire shows on every streaming service you have available weekend after weekend and not see the guy that’s way down on points erase the scorecards with a fight-ending punch or rally even once over the course of a few years. On this day in 1980, Mike Weaver did just that.
