Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page Passes at 50!

I'm straying a bit from the Beltway scene with this post, but I felt I had to say something about former WBA Heavyweight champion Greg Page, who passed away today in his hometown of Louisville, KY at the age of 50.

Mr. Page was a part of two pivotal moments in my boxing journalism career. The first took place almost exactly 14 years ago -- April 29, 1995 -- the night of the "Beltway Brawl" card featuring the IBF Junior Middleweight championship bout between titleholder Vincent Pettway and challenger and former champion Simon Brown at the old USAir Arena in Largo, MD. I was working with our TV show "Boxing Spotlight" and we were interviewing boxers and celebrities in the locker room area. I was honored to be able to interview Page, who at that time was training Oliver McCall.

Mr. Page was a gracious interview, especially when he talked about his joy after winning the WBA heavyweight title in South Africa on December 1, 1984 during the height of that country's apartheid regime. I also remember asking him about the state of the heavyweight division at the time of our interview. He said that McCall was at the top (he was the WBC Heavyweight champion at the time), but the division was wide open. Little did I realize what would happen a year later.

On June 12, 1996, Boxing Spotlight taped a card in Raleigh, NC. Participating on that card -- as an active boxer -- was Greg Page, who was boxing for the second time in three years. Page scored a first-round knockout on that card. Once again, I interviewed the former world champion and I reminded him about our previous interview in Maryland.

"That's just it," Page said. "I was training boxers to fight guys I could beat myself." The victory that night in Raleigh was the second of 14 straight wins Page registered during that stretch, 12 of those wins came in the first round (including nine straight.) The streak stopped in a draw against the late Jerry Ballard in January of 1998 in Tampa, FL.

Then came the fateful night -- March 9, 2001 -- when Mr. Page faced Dale Crowe in Erlanger, KY. Page lost to Crowe by 10th-round knockout. Page never recovered from the injuries suffered in that bout and died from them today. Greg Page fought those injuries as honorably as he battled in the ring and he will be missed.