They spar too early. They turn mitts into cardio. They rush past the unglamorous rounds that actually create skill.
Then they’re frustrated when their timing is late, their feet feel messy, and they keep getting caught.
Boxing isn’t made in the hype moments. It’s made in the reps.
Mitts aren’t just for sweat—they sharpen rhythm, range, accuracy, and control. Technical rounds aren’t “extra”—they’re where stance, defense, and habits get locked in.
Skip the foundation and you build sloppy. Sloppy becomes automatic. Automatic shows up when the pressure hits.
Be patient. Live in the basics. That “boring” work is what separates real boxers later.
The Sandman was always my favorite villain from the Spider-Man franchise. The Amazing Spider-Man #4 comic book, first appearance of The Sandman, 1963. These are not mine by the way, but really cool to see.
"A man is nothing if he does not stand up for what he believes in. lf you've devoted your heart and your soul to someone or something, if you've invested your time and your energy as well as your faith and every ounce of goodwill into a person or a profession, then l believe you have a right to be upset when idiots hurt that which you love most."
The Golden three, Cuba's Felix Savon, Cuba's Teofilo Stevenson, and Hungary's Laszlo Papp, the boxers that won the gold medal in three straight Olympics.
Heavyweight "Irish" Gerry Cooney waits to face Larry Holmes for an attempt at the title in 1982. Epic shot with Cooney staring at Holmes and towering above his trainer Victor Valle, who is glancing back at the camera with a scowl on his face.
I just want to take a minute to say that it's absolutely heartbreaking that our soldiers are now dying in a pointless and useless war. Screw everyone who voted for this crap.
Sean O'Grady, aka "The Bubblegum Bomber" or "The Bubblegum Kid" was a very popular 1980s lightweight champion known for his high-energy style, good punching power, 70 knockouts out of 81 wins, and for being managed by his parents. Turning pro at 15, he won the WBA lightweight title in 1981 but was stripped of it shortly after, retiring at 23 to become a respected television boxing analyst.
BOXING IN THE BLOOD
Credit: Brian D’Ambrosio
Sean O’Grady was a stylistic throwback to some of the old-timers. He is also something of a cultural relic, a man born into the hardnosed display of boxing. “There was never a time where I thought I was going to be anything other than a boxer,” says O’Grady. “When I was in school, as a youngster, I remember my parents driving to fights in California or going to see fights in Las Vegas. At the time I thought, ‘this is so stupid to do this every weekend.’ I was going to boxing shows every two weeks, working the corner, setting up the ring, filling up the water bottles and buckets. “We’d also drive to Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, that’s all we did. It wasn’t unusual. Later on, it’s what I had to do. If I didn’t box, my mother wouldn’t eat. It was my livelihood and lifestyle, and I never thought otherwise.”
From as early as Sean can recall, his parents, Pat and Jean O’Grady, were working the boxing circuit – as either trainers or promoters. Sean was born February 10, 1959 in Austin, Texas, although the family moved when he was a youngster to Oklahoma City. Pat was most likely the last of his breed, a dyed-in-the-wool boxing brain, who promoted the sport in the Southwest for 30 years. Following his retirement as a boxer himself in 1953, he put together a string of independent promotional entities.
Any time Pat told his son to do something, Sean says he did it unthinkingly. Not ten minutes later or the following morning. But five minutes before his dad even asked. Some felt Pat O’Grady, a former Marine who fought on Okinawa and Guadalcanal, was trying to control his son, strip his entire personality by forever dictating to him and making sure he followed his directives.
“I never saw it that way at all,” says O’Grady. “My father was doing everything possible to help me and help me win. Dad never had another job. We moved a lot, we were vagabonds, we had no money, we were struggling, and he wanted to make it go well.”
Indeed, Pat O’Grady handled Sean from the day he turned pro at 15 and then guided him to the World Boxing Association lightweight title in 1981. Jean O’Grady supervised many of the details of her son’s career. “In reality,” says O’Grady. “It was my mother who made me champion, she had such an influence and really built my career and handled the media. They both worked hard for my boxing career.”
The countless hours that Sean spent traveling from one boxing event to another, the thousands of miles logged, the missed schooling and broken friendships, he appreciates them more now than he did when he was living them. “I was behind on my schooling, and at the time I was angry that my parents were doing this to me. My buddies thought it was cool. I actually thought I was being punished. Now I can see how cool it appeared to the other kids in school. As a boxer, a lot of times I felt I was being punished, I had to watch my diet, I had to learn so many things about boxing. “As a kid, in a room full of pictures of Sugar Ray Robinson, George Foreman, and Archie Moore, I sometimes thought I was cursed somehow. Looking back, after I won the championship, I realized how it important it was to go to those boxing matches and know the boxing world.”
Professional Career
O’Grady started boxing professionally in 1975, after just 17 amateur fights. He fought 26 times in 1975 with 22 knockouts. When Sean was 29-0, Pat purposely overmatched his seventeen-year-old son against Danny “Little Red” Lopez, who was on his path to the featherweight championship. Pat said openly that he never thought his son could defeat Lopez, he only wanted to alleviate his son’s burden of a perfect record – and all of the pressure that being undefeated entailed. Pat tossed in the towel after four rounds.
Perhaps there was a bit of wisdom in Pat’s thinking. “I remember even forty fights later thinking about Lopez and profoundly realizing what that loss meant to me,” says O’Grady. “You learn more from your losses. I also learned from ‘Little Red’ the way he carried himself outside of the ring, he was a gentleman. We played golf together in Los Angeles a few years ago. He’s a great guy, unless, of course, he’s hitting you in the nose.” In his 75th victory in 77 fights, Sean O’Grady silenced the critics who ridiculed his record of wins over no-name opponents by winning the WBA lightweight title from Hilmer Kenty.
In 1980, he obtained his first world title try against WBC lightweight champion Jim Watt. O’Grady lost on a twelfth-round technical knockout. It was a controversial ending, as most ringside observers felt that Watt’s butting of O’Grady had been intentional. Watt himself had been badly cut and bleeding prior to the butt which, in truth, turned the fight around. “I’ve still got the scar on my forehead from it, a big Frankenstein scar. There was never any doubt it was a headbutt, it was on national television. But that’s how things happen in boxing. The sport could use an overseer or czar, like Roger Goodell is in football. There are no advocates for the sport of boxing.”
WBA Lightweight Title
There was no controversy about the result of O’Grady’s second title shot. On April 12, 1981, he dished out a firm drubbing to the World Boxing Association’s lightweight titlist Hilmer Kenty. In going the full 15 rounds, he proved he had the champion’s stamina. O’Grady overcame yet another headbutt, which split his left eye near the end of the fifth round. Bouncing off the ropes, Kenty involuntarily caught O’Grady solidly with his head.
O’Grady dropped Kenty near the end of the second round with a short chopping blow that caught the champion on the nose. He continued to dominate the fight with his two-fisted attack to the body, periodically working the head. “Kenty was one tough man,” says O’Grady. “He was super tough, and he just kept trying and trying. He puked between the eleventh and twelfth while he was in the corner. What a tough warrior.” Personal choices and prejudices are involved every inch of the way in boxing’s politics. Pat O’Grady wanted his son Michael Gass – Sean’s half-brother – to retain promotional ownership of Sean’s next bout. The WBA stripped Sean of his crown after only five months because he refused to fight for Bob Arum’s Top Rank, Inc. Gass and Arum apparently didn’t see eye to eye on several matters. “It had more to do with all of the rating organization mandates,” says O’Grady. “They had Claude Noel in line, I believe. I don’t blame Arum. I hold Arum in high regard.”
The title stripping prompted the older O’Grady to break away and create an organization of his own, the renegade World Athletic Association (WAA), of which his son eventually became the welterweight champion. O’Grady lost that championship in his first defense to Andy Ganigan of Hawaii (October 31, 1981). “I remember the conversation with my dad about starting the WAA,” says O’Grady. “And I thought it was a fantastic idea, at the first convention in Oklahoma City, there were some pretty influential people. Next month, lo and behold, the IBF (International Boxing Federation) started, so he had a great idea. I think the sport needs something like the WAA, with policing and control, and the best interest of fighters and the public. There needs to be a driving force, like David Stern, for instance.”
On March 20, 1983, O’Grady was in Chicago sitting in his dressing room. He had a throbbing headache after the referee had invoked the three-knockdown rule and awarded Johnny Verderosa a technical knockout in the fourth round. Suddenly, spontaneously, Pat O’Grady wrapped his arms around his son and embraced him. “I love you and don’t want you to fight anymore,” he told him. Those words gently pushed Sean O’Grady into retirement. At age 24, he was thinking similar thoughts, at any rate. Both he and his father were frustrated with the mostly political maneuvering that made for the silliness and confusion of boxing’s ratings.
O’Grady retired with a record of 81 wins and 5 losses as a professional boxer, with 70 wins by coming by knockout. “I didn’t want to end up like so many boxers that stayed around after their careers should have been over,” says O’Grady. “So many hang around past their prime, with an attitude of ‘he can hit me all he wants, but he can’t hurt me.’ That’s not right. You sustain more damage when you fight after your career is essentially over. You get that damage when you are still sparring. There is a point when you don’t have the same reactions, and you get hit with punches you should never have been hit with. Those punches can’t hurt you today, but wait 10 years and you will see the effects. “It’s not just boxers with head issues, just look at Brett Favre, just look at all of these football players. One aspect of it is, and this is something my dad would ask, what else are you doing in addition to being hit in the head? This is something my dad taught me, you need to be studying, rehearsing, learning, solving problems, reading, doing a whole bunch of other things rather than just being hit in the head.”
Boxing: “A Different Life Lesson”
O’Grady, 54, says that boxing is the most extreme metaphor of personal liability – you enter the ring alone and compete the same way. “Boxing is such a different life lesson,” says O’Grady, who owns a real estate practice in Oklahoma City. “It’s not the team that gets beats, it’s not the city, it’s not the state, it’s not the university, and it’s you on the canvas looking around for your mouthpiece. You learn in life a lot from boxing in that regard. Losing in boxing is a bitter pill to swallow, especially when you tell all of your buddies you are going to win. Boxing is responsibility, if you don’t do your homework, you will get knocked out or killed. You, the boxer, needs to get up and run, do the homework, pay attention to the basics, follow the maneuvers, listen to the corner. It’s you, there is no one to blame.”
O’Grady, who returned for a second act as a broadcaster on the USA Network, revisits that same role on CBS in December. When discussing the defects of the sport, he is not not-picking, just pointing out the facts.
“Sometimes I feel like Michael Corleone,” says O’Grady. “I just keep coming back to it. But, honestly, I’m excited for many reasons, one of which is because boxing has been abandoned by free television and the television networks. I was lucky to fight when boxing was on free television and very thankful for fighting in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, it’s too expensive for the masses to enjoy it. “HBO and Showtime are the worst things ever to happen to boxing, taking the biggest shows to the smallest hemisphere of people on pay-per-view. What this does, it brings more money to the event, but it hurts the masses, they are cut out. I think the fight the other night was $65, that’s a lot of cheddar. Boxing is suffocating those who want to watch the sport.”
Appreciative of the lasting respect of fans, he’s still humbled by the suggestion that he is one of the sport’s recent greats.
“I’ll put it this way, I’m thankful for all those people who care about me. I’m thankful that people remember my career 30 years ago.”
Looking back - 'The Bubble Gum Bomber' - Sean O'Grady
After 6 busy years, and 77 fights, “The Bubble Gum Bomber” was a world champion.
By: Bill Tibbs
He had a schoolboy charm, he went under the moniker of the “The Bubble Gum Bomber” and he looked more like the guy you’d see in the library studying for his high school finals than a rough, rugged, lightweight boxing contender.
And, he was all of those things. But, at the end of the day, Sean O’Grady was a fighter who worked his way from a local and regional attraction to winning the lightweight championship of the world; a talented, fan-friendly fighter who had a career that he should look back on with immense pride.
O’Grady, the son of famed Oklahoma promoter Pat O’Grady, turned pro in the first month of 1975 and would fight an incredible 26 times in his first year as a professional. Fighting under the direction of his manger/trainer/promoter/father Pat, O’Grady was working under Sr. O’Grady’s program of fighting often, building your following while you learned the craft the old school way – time on task. Midwest club shows were common back then so if a fighter was game and wanted to work, there were plenty of fights. Sean, turning pro at age 16, didn’t learn his chops in a long amateur career, he honed his craft on the job as a pro.
1976 would be another busy year for O’Grady who would fight 17 times in his 2nd year in the pro game. In his 4th fight of the year, O’Grady would tangle with future world champion, and future Hall of Fame featherweight, Danny “Little Red” Lopez at The Forum in Inglewood, California. (It should be noted that 3 fights later, in that same year, Lopez would win the WBC world featherweight title). While O’Grady would suffer his first loss as a pro, he had made a huge step up in class.
After the Lopez loss, O’Grady would stay busy on his monthly schedule fighting 44 times over the next 3 ½ years. While O’Grady often fought in his native Oklahoma, where he was a popular local attraction, he also climbed through the ropes in Nevada, California, New York and Colorado. During this run, he also captured the USBA title.
A popular TV attraction, and a fighter with a wealth of talent and experience, O’Grady would sign on for the biggest fight of his life when he secured a shot at Scottish legend Jim Watt who was set to make the 4th defense of his WBC world lightweight title. Travelling to Glasgow for the fight, to say that O’Grady was in enemy territory was an understatement of epic proportions. While O’Grady had more fights than Watt, the champion had been a European, BBB of C and world champion for years and had faced some very strong competition at the world class level.
O’Grady was stopped in the 11th round of a fight in which he was giving as good as he was getting. In the 10th round, Watt rammed O’Grady with a clearly intentional headbutt that opened up a huge gash on the challenger’s forehead that started a rush of blood pouring onto his face. When O’Grady looked at the referee in frustration from the foul, Watt clocked him with a huge left hook on the button. By the midway point of the 11th frame, with O’Grady covered in blood and unable to see, the referee stopped the fight. At the time of the stoppage the judges had it a close fight which tells you that the fight was even closer. O’Grady had everything against him going into that fight but showed he could indeed compete on the world class level.
Sean would take 4 months off before returning in the spring of 1981 to pick up a win before securing his 2nd title shot. O’Grady would face Detroit, Michigan’s vastly talented champion Hilmer Kenty who was the first world champion for Emanuel Steward out of the famed Kronk gym in Detroit. While O’Grady was respected for the guts and heart that he had shown in the Watt fight, he was still a considerable underdog. However, after 15 gruelling rounds, Sean O’Grady had his hand raised as the new WBA world lightweight champion.
After 6 busy years, and 77 fights, “The Bubble Gum Bomber” was a world champion. All the work in the gym, all those years as a teenager giving up so much to train and box, fighting on all those club shows – it all came together on that night in Atlantic City when O’Grady was crowned world champion.
However, at this point of his career, O’Grady would suffer a huge, heartbreaking setback - losing his title without ever stepping in the ring. O’Grady was being ordered to face the #1 contender, Canada-based Claude Noel. While O’Grady probably wouldn’t have had any trouble with Noel, father Pat didn’t want to be dictated to as to whom they would fight as they wanted to explore the most viable options. To make a long story short, the WBA stripped O’Grady of his title as the young champion got a taste of boxing’s often frustrating politics.
After all those hard years and all the hard work, losing the title really took something out of O’Grady. While O’Grady would fight on for a couple of years, the tide had turned. The loss of the title really seemed to strip O’Grady of the passion he needed to compete.
After the Kenty fight, O’Grady would fight 5 months later back in Oklahoma. Unfocused and unmotivated due to personal issues out of the ring, O’Grady got stopped in his next fight in Little Rock, Arkansas by thunderous punching Andy Ganigan. He followed that up by putting together 4 straight wins in 1982 before losing a very questionable decision to rugged welterweight Pete Ranzany to close out the year. In February of 1983 he would pick up one more win before getting stopped a month later in what would be his last fight before he decided it was time to walk away.
Looking back – 86 fights, 81 wins, 70 knockouts, turning professional at age 16, a 10-round, main event fighter by his 10th bout, fighting Scottish legend Jim Watt in his backyard, fighting featherweight legend Danny Lopez in only his 2nd year in the pro game, pulling off a huge win over Kronk Boxing’s 1st world champion to win the world title – indeed a career to be very proud of. Again, 81 wins and a world champion – one could raise the argument that he deserves to be on the wall in Canastota.
A great career from one of the classiest men to ever represent the sport. Thanks for the memories champ!!
First off, Sean O'Grady was a warrior. His fight with Shig Fukuyama in June of 1978 was the first time I ever laid eyes on him. He was 19 years old at the time and he suffered a horrific cut early in the fight, the cut bled profusely and by the fourth round his face was absolutely covered in blood, his white trunks were stained crimson. He was a bloody mess. Yet he fought through it, stopped Fukuyama in the 5th, and won the fight. I respect anyone who has the guts to step in the ring and risk their life, that goes double for O'grady.
Halloween,1980, another bloody affair. Sean O'Grady got his first crack at the lightweight title when he took on the legendary Scottish WBC champion Jim Watt on Watt's home turf at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. O'Grady and his father reportedly endured death threats leading up to the bout. Almost nobody in the hall were on O'Grady's side, least of all the 2,500 spectators in attendance. Both fighters contended with cuts: Watt was cut in round 9, but O'Grady absorbed an awful headbutt in the 10th that tore his forehead wide open. Watt got some distance and pulled ahead on the cards, and O'Grady's face only got worse as the rounds went by. Most people who've seen the fight believe O'grady would have won had the cut to his forehead not occured. Finally in round 12, O'Grady's cut was so bad that blood obscured his vision and the fight was stopped.
On April 12th, 1981 Sean O'Grady battled Kronk legend Hilmer Kenty for the WBA World Lightweight title at Bally's Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, the 15 round bout ended in a unanimous decision win and the WBA title for O'Grady.
RingSide Report
Sean O’ Grady Vs Hilmer Kenty: A Forgotten Classic
By: “Bad” Brad Berkwitt
The date was April 12, 1981. On a happy note, my father, the sole person who planted the seed of boxing in my mind, turned 53, and on the same day, but not on such a bright note, legendary Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis passed away, at the age of 66.
In other lighter news that year, Pac Man was introduced to the video arcades where many of us, including me, spent long weekends and summer days dropping our quarters into the machine to chomp those bad guys up. MTV went on the air running around the clock music videos, debuting with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, which turned out to be a one hit wonder, and a question for the Trivial Pursuit Game.
In boxing, the “Fight of the Year” was Sugar Ray Leonard Vs Tommy Hearns for the Undisputed Welterweight Championship of the World. Leonard stopped Hearns in the 14th round in a fight that the media clamored to.
But that same year, under less media hoopla, World Boxing Association (WBA) Lightweight Champion Hilmer Kenty, from Detroit, Michigan was defending his title for the fourth time against top rated lightweight, Sean O’ Grady from Oklahoma. Kenty and O’Grady mixed it up for what many thought was 1B for “Fight of the Year” honors.
The fight that afternoon was called by Howard Cosell on ABC Network and in Cosell fashion he pumped it up during the announcing of the fighters. Kenty was the proven champion going in. O’Grady was the tough challenger who had faced Jim Watt just four and half months earlier for Watt’s World Boxing Council (WBC) version of the lightweight belt. In that fight, O’Grady was ahead when Watt intentionally head butted him, causing a gash that would eventually lead to O’Grady being stopped in the 12th round of a scheduled 15 rounder.
Off this gusty performance with Watt, O’Grady was given another shot at WBA Champion Kenty.
The first round started out with Kenty boxing and nailing O’Grady with fast jabs and right hands. O’Grady started his body attack early, and did some effective infighting. Round one: 10-9, Kenty.
In round two, O’Grady started out strong throwing and catching the champion Kenty with hard left hands. Kenty was still the faster of the two, but with eleven seconds left in the round, O’Grady knocked the mouthpiece out of Kenty’s mouth.
Just a few seconds later, O’Grady dropped Kenty with a hard right hand. Kenty beat the count, and referee Larry Hazzard, working at that time in only his second world title fight, wiped off his gloves, and sent him to his corner. Round two: 10-8, O’Grady.
Round three had O’Grady again coming out as the aggressor and landing hard lefts to Kenty following up with very good bodywork. In the middle of the round, Kenty was rocked by O’Grady and went across the ring into the ropes. At this point, it was all Kenty could do to keep the determined O’Grady off of him. Round three: 10-9, O’Grady.
Round four started out better for the champion Kenty, who took his corner’s advice and got back behind his jab that worked well for him in round one. O’Grady still was working the body effectively, but this round was pretty much even. Round four: 10-10, Even.
Round five started out with O’Grady very strong behind his left hand for the first two minutes of the round and backing Kenty up to the ropes once again. Kenty hung in there, and as he came off the ropes, their heads clash causing an unintentional cut over O’Grady’s left eye which was bleeding profusely. O’Grady, always known to cut, was now rubbing the blood out of his eye. Round 5: 10-9, O’Grady.
Round six had a determined Kenty working his jab and right hand on the cut sustained by O’Grady in the previous round. O’Grady, clearly bothered by the cut, was pawing at it to get the blood out of his eye, and Kenty had a much better round. Round six: 10-9, Kenty.
Round seven showed the ebb and tides of this exciting fight, when O’Grady, who in the previous round was losing momentum, came back with a big left that backed Kenty once again into the ropes to take a pummeling. Kenty sustained a cut over his right eye, and could only land feeble jabs that did not keep O’Grady off of him. It almost appeared as if Kenty would go down again in this round from the huge punishment he was taking, but to his credit, he stayed on his feet. Round 7: 10-8, for O’Grady.
Round 8 saw Kenty start out strong once again with very fast combos landing on O’Grady, but a huge left hook met Kenty’s face flush and he went down to the canvas once again. Once he arises, O’Grady is all over him again. Round 8: 10-8, for O’Grady.
Rounds 9 – 15 pretty much mirrored each other, with a gutsy champion trying to do everything he could to hold on to his belt, at times being effective with a sharp jab and solid right hands. But it just wasn’t enough to keep the challenger off of him. In the end, the body attack paid huge dividends along with a hard left hand which scored throughout for O’Grady.
My final scorecard had Sean O’Grady winning by 148-135. The two judges had it 146-138, 147-137, and referee Larry Hazzard had it 146-139. Even though these scorecards are very wide, this was an action packed fight with Kenty always in the fight, and coming back to catch O’Grady throughout the entire 15 rounds.
Kenty after losing his title to O’Grady…
Kenty would go on to fight for three more years, without ever again challenging for a world title. He would beat former rated John Montes via decision, and in the same year, 1982, he was stopped in three rounds by Roberto Elizondo.
On August 16, 1984, Kenty faced Davey Odom in front of a hometown crowd in Detroit, Michigan, winning a ten round decision. This would be Kenty’s swan song at age 29. He retired fairly young, and, unlike so many others before and after him, he stayed retired.
Today, Kenty is an executive of Metro Detroit construction firm and has done very well financially with his business from all accounts.
O’Grady and the mystery after the title belt win from Kenty…
With O’Grady’s win, he was now the WBA Lightweight Champion of the world, or was he? In an interview with O’Grady that is featured in my boxing book, Boxing Interviews of a Lifetime, I asked him the following question:
Copyrighted: 2002, By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt, Boxing Interviews of a Lifetime.
(In your fight with Hilmer Kenty you struck gold by winning the WBA Lightweight Title. What happened to you being the champion and defending the belt?)
“The title was stripped from me by a judge. To be honest, I don’t really know all the circumstances around it, and really have hesitated to find out, because I really don’t want to know. From what I understand, Kenty had some kind of contract made between the number one contender to challenge for his title. Subsequently, five months later, I was stripped of the Lightweight Title“.
O’Grady, now with his title taken away, would go on to fight for two more years, with lesser wins over non descript opponents, but when he stepped up against the likes of Andrew Ganigan, KO2, Pete Ranzany, L10, and Johnny Verdersosa, TKO4, he lost.
After his fight with Verderosa, O’Grady retired for good, and as Kenty did the following year, stayed retired at the even younger age of 24.
O’Grady may have outdone his fame in the boxing ring, when he teamed up with Al Albert, doing the boxing commentary for USA Tuesday Night Fights on the USA Cable Network. He did this for 13 years starting in 1985 going through to their final year in 1998. More recently, O’Grady has been seen doing part of color commentary for the Tough Man Contests shown on the FX Channel. Even more recently, he was back with his first love, boxing on the Fox Sunday Night Fights with Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta doing commentary.
This is an article by The New York Times about the O'Grady-Kenty fight.
O'Grady Wins Title From Kenty
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By: Michael Katz, Special To the New York Times
April 13, 1981
Sean O'Grady won the World Boxing Association lightweight championship today after battering Hilmer Kenty for most of 15 rounds in a fast-paced fight at Bally's Park Place Hotel.
O'Grady, a 22-year-old Oklahoman, knocked down the previously undefeated Kenty twice - in the second and eighth rounds.
He cut the champion over the right eye and had his left cheek swollen the size of a grapefruit.
But it was O'Grady's pounding body shots that gained him a world title in his second attempt. Last October, he was stopped by James Watt, the World Boxing Council lightweight champion, after Watt landed a butt to O'Grady's forehead.
Kenty opened a bad cut around O'Grady's left eye with an accidental butt in the fifth round. This time, at the sight of his blood, O'Grady got angry and fought harder.
''I recalled the fight I was robbed in,'' said O'Grady. ''I went all out then. I didn't want the same thing to happen again.'' Decisive Victory
All three officials had O'Grady well ahead on the 10-point scoring system: Referee Larry Hazzard by 146-139, Judge Vincent Rainone by 146-138 and Judge Richard Murry by 147-137.
It was O'Grady's 75th victory against two losses. Kenty, a 25-year-old member of Detroit's famed Kronk Gym, had won his first 20 pro fights.
Kenty, who won the title from Ernesto Espana of Venezuela 13 months ago and was making his fourth defense, may not be remembered as a great champion. But he went out as a champion. His trainer, Emanuel Steward, told him after the 14th round, ''You've had enough,'' but Kenty refused to quit on his stool, and, as he had for most of the later rounds, looked to land the big right hand that could somehow save his title.
1984 Fight Beat magazine collector cards Sean O'Grady. These cards are really neat, I own a few of them, they were issued on sheets inside issues of Fight Beat magazine in the 1980s, and as is obvious by the dotted lines around the cards, they were meant to be cut out, or you can simply keep the sheets as they are. It's cool that the O'Grady card has the green border, keeping with the Irish theme.
Comments
Most boxers don’t hit a plateau — they build one.
They spar too early. They turn mitts into cardio. They rush past the unglamorous rounds that actually create skill.
Then they’re frustrated when their timing is late, their feet feel messy, and they keep getting caught.
Boxing isn’t made in the hype moments. It’s made in the reps.
Mitts aren’t just for sweat—they sharpen rhythm, range, accuracy, and control. Technical rounds aren’t “extra”—they’re where stance, defense, and habits get locked in.
Skip the foundation and you build sloppy. Sloppy becomes automatic. Automatic shows up when the pressure hits.
Be patient. Live in the basics. That “boring” work is what separates real boxers later.
Music break, a classic from the 80s.
I had one of these when I was a kid, a Balisong, also called a Butterfly Knife, you could do all kinds of tricks with it.
Spider-Man vs The Kingpin, Sega Genesis, 1991.
The Sandman was always my favorite villain from the Spider-Man franchise. The Amazing Spider-Man #4 comic book, first appearance of The Sandman, 1963. These are not mine by the way, but really cool to see.
The Amazing Spider-Man #6, 1963, Origin and first appearance of the Lizard. Awesome cover art.
The Amazing Spider-Man #3, 1963, the first appearance of Dr. Octopus.
The Amazing Spider-Man #238, 1983, the first appearance of Hobgoblin.
The first ever issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Big money comic right here.
The first ever appearance of Spider-Man in a comic book, Amazing Fantasy #15, 1962. Very big money comic right here.
"A man is nothing if he does not stand up for what he believes in. lf you've devoted your heart and your soul to someone or something, if you've invested your time and your energy as well as your faith and every ounce of goodwill into a person or a profession, then l believe you have a right to be upset when idiots hurt that which you love most."
The Golden three, Cuba's Felix Savon, Cuba's Teofilo Stevenson, and Hungary's Laszlo Papp, the boxers that won the gold medal in three straight Olympics.
Heavyweight "Irish" Gerry Cooney waits to face Larry Holmes for an attempt at the title in 1982. Epic shot with Cooney staring at Holmes and towering above his trainer Victor Valle, who is glancing back at the camera with a scowl on his face.
Murderous punching Ceferino Garcia, former middleweight champion, works behind the counter as a soda jerk after retiring from the ring.
"The Cinderella Man" James Braddock shows off to wife May the left that confounded Max Baer and won him the heavyweight championship in 1935.
I just want to take a minute to say that it's absolutely heartbreaking that our soldiers are now dying in a pointless and useless war. Screw everyone who voted for this crap.
"The Manassa Mauler" Jack Dempsey relaxes with a companion in the Roaring Twenties.
Sugar Ray Robinson hops behind the bar in his own club, "Sugar Ray's," on 7th Ave. and 124th St. in Harlem, New York, 1953.
Sean O'Grady, aka "The Bubblegum Bomber" or "The Bubblegum Kid" was a very popular 1980s lightweight champion known for his high-energy style, good punching power, 70 knockouts out of 81 wins, and for being managed by his parents. Turning pro at 15, he won the WBA lightweight title in 1981 but was stripped of it shortly after, retiring at 23 to become a respected television boxing analyst.
BOXING IN THE BLOOD
Credit: Brian D’Ambrosio
Sean O’Grady was a stylistic throwback to some of the old-timers. He is also something of a cultural relic, a man born into the hardnosed display of boxing. “There was never a time where I thought I was going to be anything other than a boxer,” says O’Grady. “When I was in school, as a youngster, I remember my parents driving to fights in California or going to see fights in Las Vegas. At the time I thought, ‘this is so stupid to do this every weekend.’ I was going to boxing shows every two weeks, working the corner, setting up the ring, filling up the water bottles and buckets. “We’d also drive to Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, that’s all we did. It wasn’t unusual. Later on, it’s what I had to do. If I didn’t box, my mother wouldn’t eat. It was my livelihood and lifestyle, and I never thought otherwise.”
From as early as Sean can recall, his parents, Pat and Jean O’Grady, were working the boxing circuit – as either trainers or promoters. Sean was born February 10, 1959 in Austin, Texas, although the family moved when he was a youngster to Oklahoma City. Pat was most likely the last of his breed, a dyed-in-the-wool boxing brain, who promoted the sport in the Southwest for 30 years. Following his retirement as a boxer himself in 1953, he put together a string of independent promotional entities.
Any time Pat told his son to do something, Sean says he did it unthinkingly. Not ten minutes later or the following morning. But five minutes before his dad even asked. Some felt Pat O’Grady, a former Marine who fought on Okinawa and Guadalcanal, was trying to control his son, strip his entire personality by forever dictating to him and making sure he followed his directives.
“I never saw it that way at all,” says O’Grady. “My father was doing everything possible to help me and help me win. Dad never had another job. We moved a lot, we were vagabonds, we had no money, we were struggling, and he wanted to make it go well.”
Indeed, Pat O’Grady handled Sean from the day he turned pro at 15 and then guided him to the World Boxing Association lightweight title in 1981. Jean O’Grady supervised many of the details of her son’s career. “In reality,” says O’Grady. “It was my mother who made me champion, she had such an influence and really built my career and handled the media. They both worked hard for my boxing career.”
The countless hours that Sean spent traveling from one boxing event to another, the thousands of miles logged, the missed schooling and broken friendships, he appreciates them more now than he did when he was living them. “I was behind on my schooling, and at the time I was angry that my parents were doing this to me. My buddies thought it was cool. I actually thought I was being punished. Now I can see how cool it appeared to the other kids in school. As a boxer, a lot of times I felt I was being punished, I had to watch my diet, I had to learn so many things about boxing. “As a kid, in a room full of pictures of Sugar Ray Robinson, George Foreman, and Archie Moore, I sometimes thought I was cursed somehow. Looking back, after I won the championship, I realized how it important it was to go to those boxing matches and know the boxing world.”
Professional Career
O’Grady started boxing professionally in 1975, after just 17 amateur fights. He fought 26 times in 1975 with 22 knockouts. When Sean was 29-0, Pat purposely overmatched his seventeen-year-old son against Danny “Little Red” Lopez, who was on his path to the featherweight championship. Pat said openly that he never thought his son could defeat Lopez, he only wanted to alleviate his son’s burden of a perfect record – and all of the pressure that being undefeated entailed. Pat tossed in the towel after four rounds.
Perhaps there was a bit of wisdom in Pat’s thinking. “I remember even forty fights later thinking about Lopez and profoundly realizing what that loss meant to me,” says O’Grady. “You learn more from your losses. I also learned from ‘Little Red’ the way he carried himself outside of the ring, he was a gentleman. We played golf together in Los Angeles a few years ago. He’s a great guy, unless, of course, he’s hitting you in the nose.” In his 75th victory in 77 fights, Sean O’Grady silenced the critics who ridiculed his record of wins over no-name opponents by winning the WBA lightweight title from Hilmer Kenty.
In 1980, he obtained his first world title try against WBC lightweight champion Jim Watt. O’Grady lost on a twelfth-round technical knockout. It was a controversial ending, as most ringside observers felt that Watt’s butting of O’Grady had been intentional. Watt himself had been badly cut and bleeding prior to the butt which, in truth, turned the fight around. “I’ve still got the scar on my forehead from it, a big Frankenstein scar. There was never any doubt it was a headbutt, it was on national television. But that’s how things happen in boxing. The sport could use an overseer or czar, like Roger Goodell is in football. There are no advocates for the sport of boxing.”
WBA Lightweight Title
There was no controversy about the result of O’Grady’s second title shot. On April 12, 1981, he dished out a firm drubbing to the World Boxing Association’s lightweight titlist Hilmer Kenty. In going the full 15 rounds, he proved he had the champion’s stamina. O’Grady overcame yet another headbutt, which split his left eye near the end of the fifth round. Bouncing off the ropes, Kenty involuntarily caught O’Grady solidly with his head.
O’Grady dropped Kenty near the end of the second round with a short chopping blow that caught the champion on the nose. He continued to dominate the fight with his two-fisted attack to the body, periodically working the head. “Kenty was one tough man,” says O’Grady. “He was super tough, and he just kept trying and trying. He puked between the eleventh and twelfth while he was in the corner. What a tough warrior.” Personal choices and prejudices are involved every inch of the way in boxing’s politics. Pat O’Grady wanted his son Michael Gass – Sean’s half-brother – to retain promotional ownership of Sean’s next bout. The WBA stripped Sean of his crown after only five months because he refused to fight for Bob Arum’s Top Rank, Inc. Gass and Arum apparently didn’t see eye to eye on several matters. “It had more to do with all of the rating organization mandates,” says O’Grady. “They had Claude Noel in line, I believe. I don’t blame Arum. I hold Arum in high regard.”
The title stripping prompted the older O’Grady to break away and create an organization of his own, the renegade World Athletic Association (WAA), of which his son eventually became the welterweight champion. O’Grady lost that championship in his first defense to Andy Ganigan of Hawaii (October 31, 1981). “I remember the conversation with my dad about starting the WAA,” says O’Grady. “And I thought it was a fantastic idea, at the first convention in Oklahoma City, there were some pretty influential people. Next month, lo and behold, the IBF (International Boxing Federation) started, so he had a great idea. I think the sport needs something like the WAA, with policing and control, and the best interest of fighters and the public. There needs to be a driving force, like David Stern, for instance.”
On March 20, 1983, O’Grady was in Chicago sitting in his dressing room. He had a throbbing headache after the referee had invoked the three-knockdown rule and awarded Johnny Verderosa a technical knockout in the fourth round. Suddenly, spontaneously, Pat O’Grady wrapped his arms around his son and embraced him. “I love you and don’t want you to fight anymore,” he told him. Those words gently pushed Sean O’Grady into retirement. At age 24, he was thinking similar thoughts, at any rate. Both he and his father were frustrated with the mostly political maneuvering that made for the silliness and confusion of boxing’s ratings.
O’Grady retired with a record of 81 wins and 5 losses as a professional boxer, with 70 wins by coming by knockout. “I didn’t want to end up like so many boxers that stayed around after their careers should have been over,” says O’Grady. “So many hang around past their prime, with an attitude of ‘he can hit me all he wants, but he can’t hurt me.’ That’s not right. You sustain more damage when you fight after your career is essentially over. You get that damage when you are still sparring. There is a point when you don’t have the same reactions, and you get hit with punches you should never have been hit with. Those punches can’t hurt you today, but wait 10 years and you will see the effects. “It’s not just boxers with head issues, just look at Brett Favre, just look at all of these football players. One aspect of it is, and this is something my dad would ask, what else are you doing in addition to being hit in the head? This is something my dad taught me, you need to be studying, rehearsing, learning, solving problems, reading, doing a whole bunch of other things rather than just being hit in the head.”
Boxing: “A Different Life Lesson”
O’Grady, 54, says that boxing is the most extreme metaphor of personal liability – you enter the ring alone and compete the same way. “Boxing is such a different life lesson,” says O’Grady, who owns a real estate practice in Oklahoma City. “It’s not the team that gets beats, it’s not the city, it’s not the state, it’s not the university, and it’s you on the canvas looking around for your mouthpiece. You learn in life a lot from boxing in that regard. Losing in boxing is a bitter pill to swallow, especially when you tell all of your buddies you are going to win. Boxing is responsibility, if you don’t do your homework, you will get knocked out or killed. You, the boxer, needs to get up and run, do the homework, pay attention to the basics, follow the maneuvers, listen to the corner. It’s you, there is no one to blame.”
O’Grady, who returned for a second act as a broadcaster on the USA Network, revisits that same role on CBS in December. When discussing the defects of the sport, he is not not-picking, just pointing out the facts.
“Sometimes I feel like Michael Corleone,” says O’Grady. “I just keep coming back to it. But, honestly, I’m excited for many reasons, one of which is because boxing has been abandoned by free television and the television networks. I was lucky to fight when boxing was on free television and very thankful for fighting in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, it’s too expensive for the masses to enjoy it. “HBO and Showtime are the worst things ever to happen to boxing, taking the biggest shows to the smallest hemisphere of people on pay-per-view. What this does, it brings more money to the event, but it hurts the masses, they are cut out. I think the fight the other night was $65, that’s a lot of cheddar. Boxing is suffocating those who want to watch the sport.”
Appreciative of the lasting respect of fans, he’s still humbled by the suggestion that he is one of the sport’s recent greats.
“I’ll put it this way, I’m thankful for all those people who care about me. I’m thankful that people remember my career 30 years ago.”
Another great write-up on Sean O'Grady.
Looking back - 'The Bubble Gum Bomber' - Sean O'Grady
After 6 busy years, and 77 fights, “The Bubble Gum Bomber” was a world champion.
By: Bill Tibbs
He had a schoolboy charm, he went under the moniker of the “The Bubble Gum Bomber” and he looked more like the guy you’d see in the library studying for his high school finals than a rough, rugged, lightweight boxing contender.
And, he was all of those things. But, at the end of the day, Sean O’Grady was a fighter who worked his way from a local and regional attraction to winning the lightweight championship of the world; a talented, fan-friendly fighter who had a career that he should look back on with immense pride.
O’Grady, the son of famed Oklahoma promoter Pat O’Grady, turned pro in the first month of 1975 and would fight an incredible 26 times in his first year as a professional. Fighting under the direction of his manger/trainer/promoter/father Pat, O’Grady was working under Sr. O’Grady’s program of fighting often, building your following while you learned the craft the old school way – time on task. Midwest club shows were common back then so if a fighter was game and wanted to work, there were plenty of fights. Sean, turning pro at age 16, didn’t learn his chops in a long amateur career, he honed his craft on the job as a pro.
1976 would be another busy year for O’Grady who would fight 17 times in his 2nd year in the pro game. In his 4th fight of the year, O’Grady would tangle with future world champion, and future Hall of Fame featherweight, Danny “Little Red” Lopez at The Forum in Inglewood, California. (It should be noted that 3 fights later, in that same year, Lopez would win the WBC world featherweight title). While O’Grady would suffer his first loss as a pro, he had made a huge step up in class.
After the Lopez loss, O’Grady would stay busy on his monthly schedule fighting 44 times over the next 3 ½ years. While O’Grady often fought in his native Oklahoma, where he was a popular local attraction, he also climbed through the ropes in Nevada, California, New York and Colorado. During this run, he also captured the USBA title.
A popular TV attraction, and a fighter with a wealth of talent and experience, O’Grady would sign on for the biggest fight of his life when he secured a shot at Scottish legend Jim Watt who was set to make the 4th defense of his WBC world lightweight title. Travelling to Glasgow for the fight, to say that O’Grady was in enemy territory was an understatement of epic proportions. While O’Grady had more fights than Watt, the champion had been a European, BBB of C and world champion for years and had faced some very strong competition at the world class level.
O’Grady was stopped in the 11th round of a fight in which he was giving as good as he was getting. In the 10th round, Watt rammed O’Grady with a clearly intentional headbutt that opened up a huge gash on the challenger’s forehead that started a rush of blood pouring onto his face. When O’Grady looked at the referee in frustration from the foul, Watt clocked him with a huge left hook on the button. By the midway point of the 11th frame, with O’Grady covered in blood and unable to see, the referee stopped the fight. At the time of the stoppage the judges had it a close fight which tells you that the fight was even closer. O’Grady had everything against him going into that fight but showed he could indeed compete on the world class level.
Sean would take 4 months off before returning in the spring of 1981 to pick up a win before securing his 2nd title shot. O’Grady would face Detroit, Michigan’s vastly talented champion Hilmer Kenty who was the first world champion for Emanuel Steward out of the famed Kronk gym in Detroit. While O’Grady was respected for the guts and heart that he had shown in the Watt fight, he was still a considerable underdog. However, after 15 gruelling rounds, Sean O’Grady had his hand raised as the new WBA world lightweight champion.
After 6 busy years, and 77 fights, “The Bubble Gum Bomber” was a world champion. All the work in the gym, all those years as a teenager giving up so much to train and box, fighting on all those club shows – it all came together on that night in Atlantic City when O’Grady was crowned world champion.
However, at this point of his career, O’Grady would suffer a huge, heartbreaking setback - losing his title without ever stepping in the ring. O’Grady was being ordered to face the #1 contender, Canada-based Claude Noel. While O’Grady probably wouldn’t have had any trouble with Noel, father Pat didn’t want to be dictated to as to whom they would fight as they wanted to explore the most viable options. To make a long story short, the WBA stripped O’Grady of his title as the young champion got a taste of boxing’s often frustrating politics.
After all those hard years and all the hard work, losing the title really took something out of O’Grady. While O’Grady would fight on for a couple of years, the tide had turned. The loss of the title really seemed to strip O’Grady of the passion he needed to compete.
After the Kenty fight, O’Grady would fight 5 months later back in Oklahoma. Unfocused and unmotivated due to personal issues out of the ring, O’Grady got stopped in his next fight in Little Rock, Arkansas by thunderous punching Andy Ganigan. He followed that up by putting together 4 straight wins in 1982 before losing a very questionable decision to rugged welterweight Pete Ranzany to close out the year. In February of 1983 he would pick up one more win before getting stopped a month later in what would be his last fight before he decided it was time to walk away.
Looking back – 86 fights, 81 wins, 70 knockouts, turning professional at age 16, a 10-round, main event fighter by his 10th bout, fighting Scottish legend Jim Watt in his backyard, fighting featherweight legend Danny Lopez in only his 2nd year in the pro game, pulling off a huge win over Kronk Boxing’s 1st world champion to win the world title – indeed a career to be very proud of. Again, 81 wins and a world champion – one could raise the argument that he deserves to be on the wall in Canastota.
A great career from one of the classiest men to ever represent the sport. Thanks for the memories champ!!
First off, Sean O'Grady was a warrior. His fight with Shig Fukuyama in June of 1978 was the first time I ever laid eyes on him. He was 19 years old at the time and he suffered a horrific cut early in the fight, the cut bled profusely and by the fourth round his face was absolutely covered in blood, his white trunks were stained crimson. He was a bloody mess. Yet he fought through it, stopped Fukuyama in the 5th, and won the fight. I respect anyone who has the guts to step in the ring and risk their life, that goes double for O'grady.
Sean O'Grady was called "The Bubblegum Kid" because he used chew bubblegum on his way to the ring before every fight, cool nickname.
Halloween,1980, another bloody affair. Sean O'Grady got his first crack at the lightweight title when he took on the legendary Scottish WBC champion Jim Watt on Watt's home turf at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. O'Grady and his father reportedly endured death threats leading up to the bout. Almost nobody in the hall were on O'Grady's side, least of all the 2,500 spectators in attendance. Both fighters contended with cuts: Watt was cut in round 9, but O'Grady absorbed an awful headbutt in the 10th that tore his forehead wide open. Watt got some distance and pulled ahead on the cards, and O'Grady's face only got worse as the rounds went by. Most people who've seen the fight believe O'grady would have won had the cut to his forehead not occured. Finally in round 12, O'Grady's cut was so bad that blood obscured his vision and the fight was stopped.
Blood and bubblegum indeed, Sean freakin' O'grady. Look at this cut on O'grady's forehead from the Watt fight, you could land a Boeing 747 up in that.
These are photos of Sean O'Grady and Jim Watt after the fight, look at the cuts on O'grady's forehead, you can see them from space.
Nice fight pose photo of Sean O'Grady.
On April 12th, 1981 Sean O'Grady battled Kronk legend Hilmer Kenty for the WBA World Lightweight title at Bally's Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, the 15 round bout ended in a unanimous decision win and the WBA title for O'Grady.
RingSide Report
Sean O’ Grady Vs Hilmer Kenty: A Forgotten Classic
By: “Bad” Brad Berkwitt
The date was April 12, 1981. On a happy note, my father, the sole person who planted the seed of boxing in my mind, turned 53, and on the same day, but not on such a bright note, legendary Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis passed away, at the age of 66.
In other lighter news that year, Pac Man was introduced to the video arcades where many of us, including me, spent long weekends and summer days dropping our quarters into the machine to chomp those bad guys up. MTV went on the air running around the clock music videos, debuting with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, which turned out to be a one hit wonder, and a question for the Trivial Pursuit Game.
In boxing, the “Fight of the Year” was Sugar Ray Leonard Vs Tommy Hearns for the Undisputed Welterweight Championship of the World. Leonard stopped Hearns in the 14th round in a fight that the media clamored to.
But that same year, under less media hoopla, World Boxing Association (WBA) Lightweight Champion Hilmer Kenty, from Detroit, Michigan was defending his title for the fourth time against top rated lightweight, Sean O’ Grady from Oklahoma. Kenty and O’Grady mixed it up for what many thought was 1B for “Fight of the Year” honors.
The fight that afternoon was called by Howard Cosell on ABC Network and in Cosell fashion he pumped it up during the announcing of the fighters. Kenty was the proven champion going in. O’Grady was the tough challenger who had faced Jim Watt just four and half months earlier for Watt’s World Boxing Council (WBC) version of the lightweight belt. In that fight, O’Grady was ahead when Watt intentionally head butted him, causing a gash that would eventually lead to O’Grady being stopped in the 12th round of a scheduled 15 rounder.
Off this gusty performance with Watt, O’Grady was given another shot at WBA Champion Kenty.
The first round started out with Kenty boxing and nailing O’Grady with fast jabs and right hands. O’Grady started his body attack early, and did some effective infighting. Round one: 10-9, Kenty.
In round two, O’Grady started out strong throwing and catching the champion Kenty with hard left hands. Kenty was still the faster of the two, but with eleven seconds left in the round, O’Grady knocked the mouthpiece out of Kenty’s mouth.
Just a few seconds later, O’Grady dropped Kenty with a hard right hand. Kenty beat the count, and referee Larry Hazzard, working at that time in only his second world title fight, wiped off his gloves, and sent him to his corner. Round two: 10-8, O’Grady.
Round three had O’Grady again coming out as the aggressor and landing hard lefts to Kenty following up with very good bodywork. In the middle of the round, Kenty was rocked by O’Grady and went across the ring into the ropes. At this point, it was all Kenty could do to keep the determined O’Grady off of him. Round three: 10-9, O’Grady.
Round four started out better for the champion Kenty, who took his corner’s advice and got back behind his jab that worked well for him in round one. O’Grady still was working the body effectively, but this round was pretty much even. Round four: 10-10, Even.
Round five started out with O’Grady very strong behind his left hand for the first two minutes of the round and backing Kenty up to the ropes once again. Kenty hung in there, and as he came off the ropes, their heads clash causing an unintentional cut over O’Grady’s left eye which was bleeding profusely. O’Grady, always known to cut, was now rubbing the blood out of his eye. Round 5: 10-9, O’Grady.
Round six had a determined Kenty working his jab and right hand on the cut sustained by O’Grady in the previous round. O’Grady, clearly bothered by the cut, was pawing at it to get the blood out of his eye, and Kenty had a much better round. Round six: 10-9, Kenty.
Round seven showed the ebb and tides of this exciting fight, when O’Grady, who in the previous round was losing momentum, came back with a big left that backed Kenty once again into the ropes to take a pummeling. Kenty sustained a cut over his right eye, and could only land feeble jabs that did not keep O’Grady off of him. It almost appeared as if Kenty would go down again in this round from the huge punishment he was taking, but to his credit, he stayed on his feet. Round 7: 10-8, for O’Grady.
Round 8 saw Kenty start out strong once again with very fast combos landing on O’Grady, but a huge left hook met Kenty’s face flush and he went down to the canvas once again. Once he arises, O’Grady is all over him again. Round 8: 10-8, for O’Grady.
Rounds 9 – 15 pretty much mirrored each other, with a gutsy champion trying to do everything he could to hold on to his belt, at times being effective with a sharp jab and solid right hands. But it just wasn’t enough to keep the challenger off of him. In the end, the body attack paid huge dividends along with a hard left hand which scored throughout for O’Grady.
My final scorecard had Sean O’Grady winning by 148-135. The two judges had it 146-138, 147-137, and referee Larry Hazzard had it 146-139. Even though these scorecards are very wide, this was an action packed fight with Kenty always in the fight, and coming back to catch O’Grady throughout the entire 15 rounds.
Kenty after losing his title to O’Grady…
Kenty would go on to fight for three more years, without ever again challenging for a world title. He would beat former rated John Montes via decision, and in the same year, 1982, he was stopped in three rounds by Roberto Elizondo.
On August 16, 1984, Kenty faced Davey Odom in front of a hometown crowd in Detroit, Michigan, winning a ten round decision. This would be Kenty’s swan song at age 29. He retired fairly young, and, unlike so many others before and after him, he stayed retired.
Today, Kenty is an executive of Metro Detroit construction firm and has done very well financially with his business from all accounts.
O’Grady and the mystery after the title belt win from Kenty…
With O’Grady’s win, he was now the WBA Lightweight Champion of the world, or was he? In an interview with O’Grady that is featured in my boxing book, Boxing Interviews of a Lifetime, I asked him the following question:
Copyrighted: 2002, By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt, Boxing Interviews of a Lifetime.
(In your fight with Hilmer Kenty you struck gold by winning the WBA Lightweight Title. What happened to you being the champion and defending the belt?)
“The title was stripped from me by a judge. To be honest, I don’t really know all the circumstances around it, and really have hesitated to find out, because I really don’t want to know. From what I understand, Kenty had some kind of contract made between the number one contender to challenge for his title. Subsequently, five months later, I was stripped of the Lightweight Title“.
O’Grady, now with his title taken away, would go on to fight for two more years, with lesser wins over non descript opponents, but when he stepped up against the likes of Andrew Ganigan, KO2, Pete Ranzany, L10, and Johnny Verdersosa, TKO4, he lost.
After his fight with Verderosa, O’Grady retired for good, and as Kenty did the following year, stayed retired at the even younger age of 24.
O’Grady may have outdone his fame in the boxing ring, when he teamed up with Al Albert, doing the boxing commentary for USA Tuesday Night Fights on the USA Cable Network. He did this for 13 years starting in 1985 going through to their final year in 1998. More recently, O’Grady has been seen doing part of color commentary for the Tough Man Contests shown on the FX Channel. Even more recently, he was back with his first love, boxing on the Fox Sunday Night Fights with Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta doing commentary.
This is an article by The New York Times about the O'Grady-Kenty fight.
O'Grady Wins Title From Kenty
Share full article
By: Michael Katz, Special To the New York Times
April 13, 1981
Sean O'Grady won the World Boxing Association lightweight championship today after battering Hilmer Kenty for most of 15 rounds in a fast-paced fight at Bally's Park Place Hotel.
O'Grady, a 22-year-old Oklahoman, knocked down the previously undefeated Kenty twice - in the second and eighth rounds.
He cut the champion over the right eye and had his left cheek swollen the size of a grapefruit.
But it was O'Grady's pounding body shots that gained him a world title in his second attempt. Last October, he was stopped by James Watt, the World Boxing Council lightweight champion, after Watt landed a butt to O'Grady's forehead.
Kenty opened a bad cut around O'Grady's left eye with an accidental butt in the fifth round. This time, at the sight of his blood, O'Grady got angry and fought harder.
''I recalled the fight I was robbed in,'' said O'Grady. ''I went all out then. I didn't want the same thing to happen again.'' Decisive Victory
All three officials had O'Grady well ahead on the 10-point scoring system: Referee Larry Hazzard by 146-139, Judge Vincent Rainone by 146-138 and Judge Richard Murry by 147-137.
It was O'Grady's 75th victory against two losses. Kenty, a 25-year-old member of Detroit's famed Kronk Gym, had won his first 20 pro fights.
Kenty, who won the title from Ernesto Espana of Venezuela 13 months ago and was making his fourth defense, may not be remembered as a great champion. But he went out as a champion. His trainer, Emanuel Steward, told him after the 14th round, ''You've had enough,'' but Kenty refused to quit on his stool, and, as he had for most of the later rounds, looked to land the big right hand that could somehow save his title.
Sean O'Grady on the cover of Boxing Illustrated after winning the WBA World Lightweight title.
1991 Kayo Sean O'Grady, autographed.
1988 Brown's Boxing Sean O'Grady, sick card the green border, O'grady is Irish and the green border really goes well with him.
1981 Sports Illustrated poster of Sean O'Grady.
A KO magazine fold-out poster of Sean O'Grady.
A Sean O'Grady business card with the Green Machine logo on it, awesome collectible.
1984 Fight Beat magazine collector cards Sean O'Grady. These cards are really neat, I own a few of them, they were issued on sheets inside issues of Fight Beat magazine in the 1980s, and as is obvious by the dotted lines around the cards, they were meant to be cut out, or you can simply keep the sheets as they are. It's cool that the O'Grady card has the green border, keeping with the Irish theme.
I need a music break, beautiful song, beautiful video.
Sean O'Grady as WBA Lightweight champion on the cover of International Boxing magazine in August of 1981.
Great shot of Sean O'Grady with his father Pat O'Grady.
Nice sequence of photos showing Pat O'Grady and Sean.
This is a photo of Sean O'Grady with famous fashion designer Teresa Barrick and famous artist LeRoy Neiman.
Sean O'Grady vs "Little Red" Danny Lopez in 1976, Lopez was a bridge too far for O'Grady.
Sean O'Grady rocking the cowboy hat in a newspaper article.
These next few images are some fight posters and programs from some of Sean O'Grady's fights.
A fight program with Sean O'Grady and "The Bluffs Butcher" Ron Stander on the cover, nice.
A program from the Sean O'Grady vs Johnny "The Heat" Verderosa fight, what a hellacious battle that was.
A program from the Sean O'Grady-Jim Watt fight.