Bennie Briscoe

Bennie Briscoe
Born	Bennie Briscoe (1943-02-08)February 8, 1943 Augusta, Georgia, United States
Died	December 28, 2010(2010-12-28) (aged 67) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States
Nationality	American
Other names	Bad
Statistics
Weight(s)	Middleweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	96
Wins	66
Wins by KO	53
Losses	24
Draws	5

"Bad" Bennie Briscoe (February 8, 1943 – December 28, 2010) was the quintessential Philadelphia boxer.

"Bad" Bennie fought from 1962 to 1982, and retired with a career record of 66 wins (53 by KO) 24 losses and 5 draws. Briscoe was a top-rated Middleweight contender during the 1970s, unsuccessfully challenging for the World Title on three different occasions. His record reads like a "who's who" list of prominent fighters from his era.

Amateur career

Briscoe had a standout career as an amateur, compiling a record of 70–3 (Source: The Ring, Sept 1963). He won the Middle Atlantic AAU title three times, the last in 1962 at Convention Hall in Philadelphia.

Professional career

Bennie fought Middleweight champions Marvin Hagler, Vito Antuofermo, Rodrigo Valdez, Emile Griffith and Carlos Monzón. He also fought and defeated future light-heavyweight champions Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Vicente Rondon, plus middleweight contenders Joe Shaw, Tom Bethea, Carlos Marks, Rafael Gutierrez, Charley Scott, Billy "Dynamite" Douglas, George Benton, Jose Gonzales (twice), Art Hernandez, Tony Mundine, Stanley "Kitten" Hayward, Juarez DeLima, Eugene "Cyclone" Hart and Tony Chiaverini. Briscoe also dropped two decisions to former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez.

Bennie was known for his toughness, strong punch and body punching. He fought future middleweight champion Monzon to a draw in Buenos Aires on May 6, 1967, but dropped a 15 round decision to the champion in a 1972 title match. Briscoe was outpointed by former welterweight and middleweight king Emile Griffith in their first match, but fought Griffith to a draw in a rematch. He was outpointed by future middleweight champions Marvin Hagler and Vito Antuofermo.

Bennie also fought Rodrigo Valdez three times. He was outpointed twice, but Valdez scored a rare KO over Briscoe in an elimination match to determine the WBC middleweight champion on May 25, 1974 - it was the only time in 96 fights that Briscoe was ever stopped. The WBC had decided to "strip" Monzon of its version of the middleweight crown, although the rest of the world continued to recognize Monzon as champion.

Briscoe was one of the most feared middleweights of his era. In 2003, he was named to the The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. His final record was 66-24-5 with 53 knockouts and one No Contest.

Briscoe fought with the Star of David on his boxing trunks in tribute to his managers, first Jimmy Iselin, whose father Phil owned the New York Jets, and Arnold M. Weiss.

Death

Bennie Briscoe died on December 28, 2010.

External links

• Boxing record for Bennie Briscoe from BoxRec (registration required)