Thursday, August 18, 2005

Joppy Returns on September 17!

Former three-time WBA Middleweight champion William Joppy returns to the ring on Saturday, Sept. 17 when he takes on former super middleweight contender Will "Kid Fire" McIntyre at the Pavilion at Coushatta Casino and Resort in Kinder Louisiana.

The 34-year-old Joppy is originally from DC but now makes his home in Winslow Township, NJ. This will be Joppy's second ring appearance in three months. Joppy (35-4-1, 26 KO's) is coming off a third-round technical knockout over Rashaan Blackburn on July 29 in North Charleston, SC.

But Joppy will be traveling to McIntyre's home area. McIntyre, a native of Bogalusa, LA, now lives in Covington, LA. McIntyre (36-4-1, 14 KO's) is coming off a six-round split decision loss to Joseph Aiken on May 14 in Kinder, LA. McIntyre once challenged Joe Calzaghe for the WBO Super Middleweight title but suffered a fourth-round TKO.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

here is a fighter, where i am lost as to what happened to him. i trained with joppy during the early part of his pro career. he was a very dedicated fighter, always in shape and in the gym. i think maybe he stayed in the gym to long. i can remeber him sparring 12 rounds in gym just to be sparring, without a bout coming up. sometimes, i wonder if he just burned out.

after that devestating trinadad loss, he was never the same...

gary, what are your thoughts on joppy???

Gary Digital Williams said...

I've always been a Joppy fan. I thought Joppy was indeed one of the most dedicated fighters I ever had the pleasure to watch.

There was a bout he had early in his career against a guy named Carl Sullivan. This was at the Show Place Arena. Up until that time, he had easy matches. But this time, Joppy really had to work because Sullivan really pressured him. Joppy handled the pressure so well. My partners and I kinda of looked at each other and said, "this guy is going to be a champ." It was one of those moments.

I think the Trinidad loss did a lot to hurt his career, but at least Joppy (and Keith Holmes for that matter) was able to get to the point where he reached the big stage.

Seeing Joppy and Holmes at the press conference for the Middleweight Championship Series was a major highlight of my boxing career.

I think he has burned himself a little bit. I think moving away from the area may have helped him, especially with the tragedy of him losing his little girl. But when you talk about the most accomplished boxers that have come out of this area in the post-Sugar Ray Leonard area, Joppy ranks right at the top.

I do have something about Joppy that I wrote when he originally told the Washington Post he was going to retire. I will try and post that soon.