Puncher from the Past: “Bad” Bennie Briscoe

Name: “Bad” Bennie Briscoe

Born: 8 February 1943

Died: 28 December 2010

Career 1962 to 1982

Record: 96 fights 66 wins (53 by KO/TKO), 24 losses (1 by KO/TKO), 5 draws, 1ND

Division: Welterweight, Middleweight, Super Middleweight

Stance: Orthodox

Titles: Pennsylvania State welterweight and middleweight, NABF middleweight

Major Contests

Scored wins over: Charley Scott, Percy Manning (twice), George Benton, Jimmy Lester, Gene Bryant, Jose Gonzalez (twice), Charley Austin(twice), Vicente Rondon **, Tito Marshall, Joe Shaw, Tom Bethea*, Carlos Marks, Juarez de Lima, Rafael Gutierrez, Luis Vinales, Art Hernandez, Billy Douglas, Ruben Arocha, Willie Warren(twice), Tony Mundine*, Stanley Hayward* , Eddie Mustafa Muhammad **,Eugene Hart, Jean Mateo, Tony Chiaverini,

Lost to: Percy Manning, Tito Marshall, Stanley Hayward*, Luis Rodriguez** (twice), Yoland Leveque, Juarez de Lima, Joe Shaw, Luis Vinales, Carlos Monzon **, Rodrigo Valdes (three times)**, Emile Griffith**, Vito Antuofermo **, Marvin Hagler**, Vinnie Curto*, Clement Tshinza,

Drew with: Carlos Monzon**, Vicente Rondon**, Vinnie Curto*, Eugene Hart, Emile Griffith**,

**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title

* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title

Bennie Briscoe’s Story

When the subject of great fighters who never won a world title is discussed Bennie Briscoe’s name is almost certain to come up. He had three world title shots losing to Carlos Monzon and  twice to Rodrigo Valdez both great middleweights. Over a 20-year 96-bout career in which he faced eight world champions and most of the best middleweights of his day Briscoe was only floored four times and his only inside the distance loss came against Valdes. He was a relentlessly aggressive intimidating fighter a brutal body puncher with an iron chin and courage and strength in equal measure. He was trained  early in his career by Yancey Durham who trained Joe Frazier and Briscoe came from the same mold as Frazier.

Briscoe was born in Augusta. Georgia and was one of fourteen children in a poor family. When at High School in Augusta he was an outstanding football player and track and field competitor. When living in Augusta he once caddied for President Dwight Eisenhower. When he was 16 he moved to Philadelphia to live with relatives and found a job there with the local council where his early duties included being a rat catcher. He progressed to working as a bin man with the sanitation department a job he loved and one he continued to do throughout his boxing career and for almost forty years. He began to train for boxing at the Police Athletic Gym and trained alongside many local boxers including Frazier. He won a number of local AAU tournaments and was a quarter-finalist at welterweight in 1961 and a silver medallist in 1962 at the National AAU Championships.

He had first professional fight in September 1962 and in March 1964 after eleven wins he moved up to main event status at the Philadelphia Arena and stopped experienced Charley Scott in the first round of their twelfth round fight for the Pennsylvania State welterweight title. Scott had scored wins over opponents such as Ralph Dupas, Garnett Hart and Gaspar Ortega.

Briscoe lost his unbeaten tag in his thirteenth fight dropping a split decision against Percy Manning in March 1965. He had beaten Manning in June 64 and eventually won their series 2-1 by knocking Manning out in 1969. Losses to Tito Marshall and Stanley Hayward saw Briscoe end 1965 with a 17-3 record. He had only three  fights in 1966 including a ninth round retirement victor against George Benton. His “fight anyone” attitude saw him lose twice that year to former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez on points and in an undervalued achievement hold Carlos Monzon to a majority draw in Buenos Aires. Monzon had an unbeaten run of 30 fights at the time he faced Briscoe for the first time and would extend that run to 80 fights by the time he retired.

The pattern for Briscoe’s career varied little. He would fight top quality opposition in fight after fight and year after year. In 1968 he would beat Jose Gonzalez and Pedro Miranda and lose to future WBA light heavyweight champion Vicente Rondon. In 1969 he would get revenge wins over Rondon, Percy Manning and Tito Marshall (Hall of Fame promoter Russell Peltz’s first boxing promotion) but lose to Juarez de Lima and former Olympian Joe Shaw. In 1970 and 1971 he would run up nine wins beating Shaw in  six rounds, stopping Tom Beathea in six knocking out Carlos Marks in five and Juarez de Lima in two. He also knocked out tough Mexican Rafel Gutierrez in the second round after he had himself been on the floor twice in the first round so Gutierrez was responsible two of only four times Briscoe was knocked down in his career.

Two wins early in 1972 were followed by a split decision loss against Luis Vinales in April and again Briscoe showed that beating Briscoe only made him mad as he floored and stopped Vinales in the seventh round.

Finally in November 1972 he was given a title shot against Carlos Monzon for the WBA and WBC middleweight titles again in Buenos Aires. Monzon was 5’ 11 ½” with a 76” reach Briscoe was 5’8” with a 71” reach. It was a brutal fight. Briscoe just kept coming forward walking through jabs, hooks and uppercuts from Monzon in every round with Monzon permanently on the back foot winning the rounds but unable to keep Briscoe out. There was drama in the ninth. With Monzon in a corner Briscoe landed a ferocious right to the head that spun Monzon around and had him gazing out in the crowd badly shaken but Monzon had a great chin and champion recovery powers and he fought off Briscoe’s attempts to land another bomb and went on to win the fight by a wide unanimous decision.

It was back to business for Briscoe in 1973. He started with a win over modest Argentinian Carlos Salinas who had the distinction of flooring Briscoe in the fourth before being knocked out in the fifth with Briscoe then stopping Art Hernande and Billy Douglas( the father of Buster Douglas who would be the first to beat Mike Tyson as a professional ) but losing on points against Colombian Rodrigo Valdes. He had only three fights in 1974 but again they were big fight as he first knocked out Tony Mundine in Paris and then lost again to Valdes in May. This time they were fighting for the vacant WBA title after the WBC had stripped Monzon in February. Briscoe was cut, floored and stopped in the seventh round the only inside the distance loss in his 96-bout career. He closed 1974 with a loss on a majority decision against Emile Griffith.

He was unbeaten in 1975 with victories over future WBA light heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammed and fellow Philadelphia Stanley Hayward and draws with Vinnie Curto and Eugene Hart. Included in his five fights in 1976 was a first round kayo of Hart and a draw with Emile Griffith.

Briscoe’s had won a couple of fights in France which had seen him become a huge favourite there where he was nicknamed “The Black Robot” a caricature in L’Equipe portrayed Brisco as a robot with hammers for hands.

In March 1977 he scored a tenth round stoppage of Jean Mateo and in July beat Sammy Barr giving him a run of 13 fights without defeat. That saw him get  a return with Colombian Valdes who had added the WBC title to the WBA held when they first clashed. Valdes won on a unanimous decision marking Briscoe’s third and last title shot.

He again faced top level opponents in 1978 losing on points to future WBA/WBC champion Vito Antuofermo, stopping Tony Chiaverini in Kansas City crushing local hope Chiaverini in eight rounds and drawing a record crowd for a boxing match there of more than 10,000. A record was set again when Briscoe faced future middleweight champion Marvin Hagler in Philadelphia. Hagler won a unanimous decision in front of a crowd of almost 15,000 the largest indoor crowd for a non-title fight in Pennsylvania history and he and Briscoe remained friends for life. The Hagler fight was Briscoe’s last major fight and at 36 and after 96 fights against the best welterweights and middleweight in the world he was no longer the force he had been and between 1979 and 1982 he was 6-7 before retiring at the end of 1982.

Briscoe was elected to the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007 and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010. The “Briscoe Award” was created to be awarded to outstanding Philadelphian fighters and in 2003 Ring Magazine ranked Briscoe at No 34 in the list of all-time punchers.

He fought in France, Switzerland, Monaco, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Caledonia and Belgium but Philadelphia was his home and he fought 24 times at the Philadelphia Arena, 22 times at the Philadelphia Spectrum and 9 times at the Blue Horizon so 55 shows and nearly all ten round main events.

If 24 losses seems a lot then you have to remember that year after year Briscoe fought the best. There was no finesse to his style. If you were going to fight Bennie Briscoe you knew he would bring ten rounds of pressure and he would walk through whatever you threw at him and fighters such Percy Manning, Tito Marshall, Stanley Hayward, Juarez de Lima, Joe Shaw, Luis Vinales and Vinnie Curt found out that what might have worked in their first fight with Briscoe did not in the second.

Briscoe had continued to work for the sanitation department throughout his career and continued to do so after he put away his gloves.  Despite his ruthlessness in the ring Briscoe was highly respected man in his community and a much loved father to six children. He passed away after a short illness on 28 December 2010.