BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Tyrell Biggs born December 22, 1960 is an American former boxer who fought in the heavyweight division. He won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in the super heavyweight division, after winning bronze the previous year at the 1983 Pan American Games. His professional career spanned a period of fourteen years, from 1984 to 1998.
Early life
Biggs was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, making his sporting debut playing basketball at West Philadelphia High. He was a starting forward for the Speedboys' Public League and City champions in 1978, a team that extended a state-record winning streak to 68 before a regular season loss to Overbrook. In '77, one of Biggs' teammates was Gene Banks, who went on to excel at Duke and play in the NBA.
Amateur career
Biggs' first major success as an amateur boxer was winning the gold medal at the 1981 United States National Boxing Championships in the super-heavyweight division. He repeated this feat the next year, and also in 1982 he won the World Championships in Munich, West Germany, where in the final he defeated Francesco Damiani from Italy on points, who beat the legendary Teofilo Stevenson earlier in the competition. In 1983 Biggs won a bronze medal on the Pan American Games, losing to future professional challenger Jorge Luis Gonzalez in the semi-final.In addition, Biggs won a 3-2 split decision over Cuban Angel Milian, who had beaten Greg Page five years earlier.
In 1984 Biggs won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, defeating future professional world champion Lennox Lewis in the quarter-finals. In the Olympics final Biggs beat Damiani on points again. The Cubans, including Stevenson, who defeated Biggs two times before the Olympics, did not participate on the games due to the Soviet boycott.
Biggs finished his amateur career with an outstanding record of 108-6-4.
Professional career
He turned professional soon after his Olympic victory, scoring a 6 round unanimous decision over Mike Evans on November 15, 1984 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in his first bout. Besides Mike Tyson, Lewis and Damiani he went on to face such other boxing luminaries as James "Quick" Tillis, Ossie Ocasio, Riddick Bowe, Tony Tubbs, Buster Mathis, Jr., and Larry Donald before ending his career with a second round knockout of Carlton Davis in 1998. He never won a title, but stalked the rankings of contendership for much of the mid to late 1980s.
Biggs' biggest pro fight was against Tyson, for the latter's undisputed heavyweight title. Biggs and Tyson disliked each other, and Biggs bad mouthed Tyson before the fight. Biggs attempted to outbox Tyson, using his jab and movement. But Tyson kept coming in and landing big punches, wearing him down until the fight was stopped in the 7th. Tyson admitted after the fight to carrying Biggs so he could inflict more damage, to avenge Biggs' pre-match comments.
Unfortunately the talented Biggs' life has been a constant fight against drug and alcohol addiction. He had to enter rehab only a few months after turning professional, and some declare that his career at the time of the Tyson fight was already effectively over. Biggs robe was sometimes emblazoned with, "Realise your potential", a drug rehabilitation mantra. An article published when he was 40 years old characterized him as "still fighting between stints in rehabilitation".
His professional ring record concluded with 30 wins (20 knockouts) and 10 losses in 40 contests.
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