Galindez v Rossman saga - Grudge at it's best !!

"The boy that beat the man"......Ferdie Pacheco..

On the undercard of Ali-Spinks 1978 ...There took place one of the big upsets in light heavy history when young Playboy Mike Rossman dethroned the respected Argentinian Victor galindez  for his World Heavyweight title in the 13th round in the superdome in New orleans...........Blinded by cuts and taking a pummelling on the ropes Galindez turned his back and was stopped..........Galindez wasn't too happy about Rossman laughing in his face after the stoppage... and Rossman's camp later saying Galindez quit !! "It was the referee that stopped it..I wanted to carry on"!!..........Galindez moaned too about Rossman being dirty..............

The rematch was due to be held in Caesars Palace in early 1979 but whilst Rossman was in the ring awaiting Galindez on fight night.......He heard that Galindez wasn't coming out because he thought the officials were dodgy............Poor old Dan Duva lost s**t loads of money on the event and the fans and Rossman went home none too pleased !!.........

Anyway in April 1979 the return fight took place back in New Orleans.....................Galindez dislocated his shoulder early and fought most of the fight with one arm...Rossman broke his hand.... and Rossman's brother after being upset Galindez threw punches after the bell in the 4th got two left hooks off the Argentinian also for complaining !!.............."I hit him because he was a Rossman and I didn't like his brother hitting me low!!"......

Anyway Rossman's hand became so unbearable he quit after 9 rounds and Galindez won his title back...

Asked If he'd fight Rossman for a third time..................."I don't fight chickens!!"...............

Good times...

Good old Victor. Always a favourite of mine.

Said it in an article on that Light-Heavy era a while back, but what I like so much about Galindez is that he just wasn't a nice guy in the ring at all. When Andy (Mike's brother) Rossman jumped in to confront him most other fighters would have realised that such an interruption was only eating away in to their recovery time between rounds and wouldn't have felt compelled to do anything which could get them in to hot water with the authrories. Instead, Galindez just tried to take Andy's head off. I know, I know, not particularly commendable but those kind of characters tend to make for good viewing.

What was remarkable about the Galindez-Rossman rematch was how fast and sudden a turnaround it was. Rossman boxed Galindez's ears off for three rounds and most of the fourth before, out of nowhere, Galindez landed that perfect left hook off the ropes followed by a right uppercut (it was following that, as Galindez continued to punch after the bell in a bid to finish Rossman once he had him hurt, that Rossman's brother leaped in). A lot of Galindez's victories, like against Eddie Mustafa Muhammad or the second Yaqui Lopez fight, came in more gradual turnarounds after some early woes, but here he went from looking destined to lose again to indomitable in the space of a minute. Rossman never really recovered from getting hurt towards the end of the fourth, and after that point Galindez more or less just administered a beat down on him. Great action throughout, though, and some seriously brutal exchanges to make anyone wince.

Galindez just had that amazing knack of landing a fight-turning punch when he had his back to the ropes. I can't think of any other fighter who did it as regularly as him. A real vagary to his game.

Not that Rossman was a shrinking violet himself, mind you. I heard he spent the first decade or so after his retirement as a leg-breaking debt collector for the Mob.

Yep Rossman was well known for being the last man to ask for an autograph.....

His old man was a helluva character though..........He once lied to his boy that his purse had been stolen after a fight in New York because he knew his boy would just go and spend the lot......

Galindez was a fave of mine too.............Amazing how someone with such a poor start to his pro career could blossom into such a craftsman..

I saw that fight too.we were off loaded from our flight back to New Zealand on our way home from the UK and were stuck in Hawaii in a motel.The Ali Spinks return fight was the main event and I seem to remember at least one more championship bout on the bill.I think it was a Don King production,maybe someone can verify that.

Yep, it was a King show, rapid. He rose to stardom on the back of The Rumble and by the late seventies was getting a real stranglehold on the Heavyweights. By 1982 he basically controlled every major Heavyweight contender aside from Cooney. Gerry said a few times how difficult it was to stay active once he'd got near the top of the division and in to title contention, as King was running the Heavyweights at the time but Cooney and his people just didn't want to deal with Don unless it was absolutely necessary, and certainly didn't want to sign with him.

Going back to the 175 pounders such as Galindez and Rossman, there was some real needle and bad blood between quite a few of the best Light-Heavies a few years either side of them. One example was Bob Foster and Pierre Fourie.

At the weigh in for their first fight, Fourie came up to Foster and said something along the lines of, "Good luck, Bobby." There were a lot of people at the weigh in, and the noise combined with Fourie's South African accent meant that Foster thought Fourie had said, "Good luck, boy" to him instead. Needless to say, Foster wasn't too happy at being called "boy" by a white Saffer. Hence why he wanted to have another go at him immediately after outpointing him for the first time. Foster wanted another chance to knock Fourie out in the worst possible way, but Fourie was a really cagey guy with a very tight defence, and Foster had to settle for two unanimous points verdicts.

In the aftermath of the fights Foster had a sit down with Fourie and his manager where they gave their version of events and explained that it had just been a misunderstanding. Apparently Foster was satisfied with that and him and Fourie ended up getting on pretty well after that point, until Fourie's premature death.

Obviously won't mean anything if you haven't read it, but the opening of Dark Trade describes a couple of fights between Foster and a Cagey South African. I'd guess it was Fourie unless Foster had a whole host of unfortunate South African challengers