CO w £ oZ «-o Z w O —i n 5 w < 2z Ph D CO H H K U Z £ w UJ z O O w H 1—1 < > O X H O Z Z ^ £ Z O H O CO o O < g co c* P-l < CO Z O ca TURNING POINT: Weaver (nearest) rejoices while Tate, face down, is out for the count "super heavyweights," which are now the norm. He and leaned a little closer toward ringside, hoping to get a began racing toward riches and glory in 1979, when he better glance of what was going on in Tate's corner. He felt destroyed white hope Duane Bobick in one round on a hand on his shoulder, pressing him down, and turned to national TV, then journeyed to South Africa to fight a see a menacing South Africa policeman, heavily armed, former policeman, Kallie Knoetze, who had been glaring at him. "I decided I'd stay in my seat for the rest of embroiled in controversy over his shooting of a black the fight," he said. youth in a riot in Pretoria a few years earlier. The bout was The fight started out dull and got duller, but Tate part of an elimination series to determine who would take dominated and won a 15-round decision. Gates worried Ali's vacated title, or at least the WBA version of it. Rival how the crowd - overwhelmingly white, but with some organisation the WBC now recognised Larry Holmes as black spectators, a historic first - would treat the verdict. heavyweight champion. The hope was that once the WBA Would there be riots? Instead, people applauded politely had determined its title-holder, a big-money unification and filed out without incident. Considering the fight could take place down the road. circumstances, "That might have been the most amazing Tate caught plenty of criticism for going to apartheid thing I've ever seen in my life," Gates said. Residents of South Africa to box, mostly from people who had never Soweto, their ambivalence about Tate deserting them, lacked for money to buy winter celebrated late into the night. gloves or who had long since put So Tate was a half-champion: scarcity behind them. It only got Outside Larry unbeaten in 20 bouts, and eyeing big- worse when, after knocking out money fights up and down the line. Knoetze, he was matched for the title Holmes, Tate Boxing critics weren't sold on his with another South African, Gcrric prowess, however. His punches Coetzee - for a title fight in Pretoria. seemed as good as lacked snap, his ability and ring Larry Holmes called Tate "a robot"; agility left something to be desired, Jesse Jackson led protests against the anyone else in the and he'd never really been tested with match. The South African govern a good punch. Yet outside Holmes, ment pledged to integrate the whites- heavyweights who was distinguishing himself as only Loftus Versfeld rugby and soccer the class of the post-Ali division, Tate stadium for the match, then seemed seemed as good as anyone else. Ace to back off, then finally moved forward with the plan. Miller certainly thought so, matching him with the Ali had conditioned us to expect boxers to have erratic but dangerous Mike Weaver for his first title political views, but Tate had little to say about the issue defence, in Knoxville, on March 31,1980. beyond expressing hope that by winning in South Africa, "Ace never put John in the ring with someone he didn't he might change some white attitudes. That idea was met have full confidence he could beat," Gates said. But mostly with contempt. Poor blacks in Soweto weren't perhaps Miller should have been more cautious. Weaver even united in rooting for Tate; they found him distant, had given Holmes a desperate time the previous summer not eager to visit with them, and they felt the tug of before the champion rallied to knock him out. He could national unity and pride in Coetzee. punch. Why not fight someone easy for Tate's first On October 20,1979, the Loftus Versfeld stadium was defence, give him a big win before his hometown crowd, filled with somewhere between 85,000 and 90,000 and keep the paydays coming? The Weaver match seemed spectators. Nick Gates, who went to Pretoria to cover the all the more risky when Ali announced he'd like to come fight for his newspaper, described an environment like an back after all - and fight Tate. Such a match, it was armed camp before a fascist rally: "Guns were reported, might bring Tate as much as $7 million. But everywhere," he said. "They had sharpshooters hanging now Tate had Weaver standing in his way. The Tate-Weaver from trees." At one point during the fight, Gates stood up fight was part of a four-fight, three-city special of -> Is Special Feature -> championship fights, broadcast in primetimc on ABC - his face. From the camera view that the live ABC audience another reflection of boxing's popularity then. Perhaps so saw, Tate had his back to the ropes, and Weaver's punch many big fights on one night stretched the network's stable was difficult to see; as a result, for TV viewers the of boxing voices, because Keith Jackson, the esteemed voice knockout was all the more shocking, as the final blow was of college football, did the call for the Tate fight. His dulcet obscured. Only on a replay, from a different camera, did it tones and economy of words served the fight well. become clear how thunderous Weaver's left hook was. It The bout was not unlike Tate's fight with Coetzee. John seemed capable of knocking out any man in the was the aggressor and remained so throughout the heavyweight division. Tate spent about eight minutes on evening, though his aggression never resulted in much the canvas before a doctor felt confident that he had come drama. He worked his jab and used his size advantage to to and could be moved. He spent the night at a local good effect. The crowd yelled out anytime he landed a few hospital for observation. punches, even, as was often the case, Whatever managerial skill had been when they seemed not to have much shown in guiding Tate to the WBA title on them. Before the 15th and final it was reported in just 20 fights and with such scant round, the Knoxville crowd chanted, boxing seasoning (he'd been a boxer "Big John Tate, Big John Tate". an Ali fight only for a few years total) deserted his The local favourite had three minutes team in the aftermath of the Weaver to survive and lock up his monster could make tate debacle. Less than three months later, payday with Ali. Tate was in Montreal on the undercard Weaver rushed out for the final as much as of the Roberto Duran-Ray Leonard round, finally showing the urgency his superfight against an unknown, corner had been begging for. Tate $7 MILLION Trevor Berbick. It ended in another looked tired and shaky, but disaster. Berbick hurt Tate at the out determined, and he kept his hands set of the ninth and as the big man busy, smartly sticking out his jab to keep Weaver off. practically ran across the ring, followed him and punched Midway through the round he resorted to wearily tying him in the back of the head, sending him down for the Weaver up, and Weaver instead pushed him into a corner. count. From that time on, John Tate was a butt of jokes, his The referee, Ernesto Magana, slapped Tate's right glove career often summarised in boxing publications with one down - it was tying up Weaver's left - and then Weaver word: "Timber!" He boxed on and off for years but never came in again and threw a left hook to the side of Tate's face. seriously contended for the title again. Tate stood up straight for a grotesque instant - he "That kid went a lot further than most people ever seemed paralysed - and then began to fall, Weaver waving thought he would," Gates remembers. How good of a one final right at him as he collapsed to the canvas on his fighter he could have been is difficult to know, since his face. He didn't move and was counted out with 45 career imploded after the losses to Weaver and Berbick. seconds left in the fight as Weaver leapt into the air, He did win 10 fights in a row after the Berbick debacle, attempting a celebratory flip, but landed wrong and cut none against serious opponents, and somehow had CONTROVERSIAL: Tate's decision to box Coetzee in South Africa during apartheid saw him heavily criticised a~ HERO: A bronze medallist in the glorious 1976 US Olympic team, Tate underachieved as a pro manoeuvred himself into a planned title fight against historic district with some night life. "Or he'd stand by a Holmes in 1984. By then, what would have been a multi row of parking spaces," Gates said, "and tell people getting million-dollar showdown a few years earlier was just out of their cars that they had to pay him to park here." another title defence for Holmes, who was trying to earn Tate once asked Gates for some money for "cab fare", at a as many easy paydays as he could on the way to his bar where Gates was hanging out with some approaching retirement.