Name: Joseph Bernard (Big Duke) Docusen
Born: 19 June 1927 New Orleans, USA
Died: 11 September 2009 aged 81
Career: 1943 to 1953
Record: 92 fights, 76 wins (22 by KO/TKO), 10 losses (4 by KO/TKO), 6 draws.
Division: Welterweight
Stance: Orthodox
Titles: None
Major Contests
Scored wins over: Eddie Lee, Lulu Constantino*, Jimmy Hatcher, Phil Terranova*, Gene Burton, Johnny Bratton **, Miklo Savage (twice), Tippy Larkin**, Rafael Gutierrez,
Lost against: Eddie Lee, Gene Burton, Sugar Ray Robinson** Freddie Dawson*, Gil Turner*, Joey Giambra*
Drew with: Gene Burton
**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title
* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title
Bernard Docusen’s Story
“Big Duke” Docusen was born in New Orleans and was of mixed Filipino and caucasian parentage. His father Elegado, a Filipino, served with the Phillipines Scouts which was part of the US Army. Elegado emigrated to the USA and settled in New Orleans working as a fisherman and marrying a French Creole Vola DelMollea. They had six children, all boys, and with Elegado having boxed as an amateur three of his sons Reggie, Bernard and Maxie all followed in his footsteps starting to box before they were in their teens. Bernard and brother Maxie showed promise from the start and Bernard won the US National bantamweight title in April 1942 at the age of 14. He did not complete his high school education leaving with his brothers to help their father in his shrimp fishing business. Bernard had his first professional fight in February 1943 at the age of 15 and won nine bouts before losing in July 1944 against more experienced Eddie Lee. Bernard was busy fighting often and inevitably against more experienced opposition. He fought four draws in his early action but was building an unbeaten run. In June 1945 just after his eighteenth birthday, he outpointed former featherweight champion Phil Terranova with Terranova going 19-0-1 in his next 20 fights. By the end of 1946 Docusen’s record stood at 33-1-4 with an unbeaten run of 28 fights including two wins in prelim bouts in Madison Square Garden. In 1947 he took his skills to the West Coast winning fights in Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and Stockton. He extend his unbeaten run to 41 fights before losing on points in December to Gene Burton the No 1 welterweight the Ring Magazine ratings(in his next fight Burton drew with a 20-year-old Kid Gavilan). Docusen reversed that loss outpointing Burton in February 1948 to rise to No 1. Docusen scored five wins in a two month period and in June 1948 in Chicago challenged Ray Robinson for the welterweight title. Some consider Robinson to be the best middleweight of all time but others disagree and name him as the best welterweight of all time and when he met Docusen Robinson’s record was 86-1-1 giving strong support to that. Docusen’s record was 51-2-4 so combined records of 137-3-5. Docusen did his best but that was never going to be enough against Robinson. Some ringsiders had Docusen in front after nine rounds but he was knocked down in the 11th and Robinson dominated the last three rounds and Docusen lost by a wide margin. The Ring reported it the most exciting battle seen in a Chicago second only to the Rocky Graziano-Tony Zale battle in the Stadium a year before. After the match, Sugar Ray Robinson was quoted as saying “This is the first time I ever had anyone on the floor and couldn’t finish him off. This is the best boxer I ever fought. Never seen anyone punch as fast as this kid. He’s your next champion.”
Less than two months later Docusen fought a draw with Burton and in October outpointed future world welterweight champion Johnny Bratton and fitted in four more wins by the end of 1948. Docusen was still only 21 and had lost just three of his 66 bouts. He stayed busy and although starting 1949 with a stoppage loss to of very underrated Freddie Dawson he won his next nine fights in 1949 beating good level opposition such as Milo Savage and former Junior Welterweight champion Tippy Larkin (vacated the title in 1946 and it would be 1959 before the title was resurrected). Docusen was still rated No 3 welterweight by Ring Magazine but in 1950 the first signs of the wear and tear of a 75 fight 8-year career began to show. He went 3-3 in his six fights against modest opposition in 1950 and in 1951 scored four wins before losing on a cut against world rated Gil Turner in November. In 1952 after two wins and a draw, he was outpointed by modest pro Rocky Brisebois and in February 1953 a badly cut lip led to him retiring after six rounds against No 6 rated Joey Giambra and his career was over.
He had not looked after his money admitting he had blown it on horses, dice, cards and cars saying “ I was busted when I stopped boxing”. After visiting a brother in Detroit Docusen and his wife moved there. He had married at 17 and he and his wife raised six children. Docusen worked as a welder at a car plant for twenty years and later as a maintenance man in the school system. He died of a heart attack on 11 January 2009.
He was elected to the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1976, the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008, and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Addendum:
Docusen boxed at a time when interracial boxing, or any interracial sports event, was illegal in segregated Louisiana. Filipinos and other Asian Americans were considered white under Louisiana law, though Filipinos still faced frequent questions about their race. After his fight with Sugar Ray Robinson Docusen’s eligibility to continue boxing was challenged in Louisiana. On March 29, 1949, a New Orleans judge ruled that Docusen and his older brother, Regino, were “half white” instead of “colored” (African-American). Bernard and Regino were the elder brothers of bantamweight and featherweight contender Maxie Docusen *so the judgement also applied to Maxie . The Docusens had been prevented from fighting in some states because they had been registered as “colored”.
*Maxie Docusen:
Younger brother Maxie never landed a title fight but he had an equally outstanding record of 86 fights, 77 wins , 6 losses and 3 draws. Between September 1945 when he lost a newspaper decision**(against Beau Davis) and January 1950 Maxie had an unbeaten run of 56 fights (54-0-2).
**Newspaper Decisions
In order to curb gambling on fight results by laws in some States if both fighters were still standing at the end of a fight then no decision was declared. However the sportswriters covering the fight, after reaching a consensus, would declare a winner – and print the newspaper decision in their publications. Officially, however, a “no decision” bout resulted in neither boxer winning or losing, and should not therefore count as part of their official fight record however some records from that time e.g. in BoxRec do show W-NWS , L-NWS etc indicating the result. The Beau Davis fight was held in Kansas which did not allow decisions. Davis lived in Kansas City and the Kansas City Times consensus had Davis as the winner. A lot of home town decisions in those days!