Jimmy Ellis

This article is about the boxer. For the singer of the same name see Orion (singer)

Jimmy Ellis
Data
Birth Name	James Albert Ellis
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	February 24, 1940
place of birth	Louisville
Date of death	May 6, 2014
Place of death	Louisville
style	Left delivery
size	1.85 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	53
Victories	40
Knockout victories	24
Defeats	12
draw	1

Jimmy Ellis (born February 24, 1940 in Louisville , Kentucky ; † May 6, 2014 there ) was an American heavyweight boxer and WBA world champion.

Career

Ellis began his middleweight career in 1961. In this weight class, however, he had little success and quickly suffered five defeats, including losing to Rubin Carter in 1964 .

Then he decided to switch to the heavyweight division. In 1967 Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world championship title. The WBA then held an elimination tournament to determine the association's world champion. Ellis was invited, and other participants were Leotis Martin , Óscar Bonavena , Karl Mildenberger , Jerry Quarry , Floyd Patterson , Thad Spencer and Ernie Terrell .

Ellis met Martin and surprisingly won the fight prematurely on August 5, 1967. His next opponent was now on December 2, 1967 Óscar Bonavena. Ellis managed a points victory after twelve rounds and thus qualification for the fight for the vacant WBA title on April 27, 1968 against Jerry Quarry. He was also able to prevail against Quarry with a point win. The new WBA world champion was called Jimmy Ellis.

His first title defense took place in Sweden against Floyd Patterson, again he won, albeit controversial, on points. The next step was to reunite the heavyweight titles. The WBC title holder was now Joe Frazier .

In this fight on February 16, 1970, however, Ellis had no chance. In the fourth lap he had to hit the ground twice, finally gave up during the lap break and thus lost his title.

In May 1971 he won against George Chuvalo , but lost to Muhammad Ali two months later. In 1973 he lost to Earnie Shavers by a first-round knockout. As a result, he suffered more defeats against Ron Lyle , Joe Bugner and Frazier again, so that Ellis finally ended his career in 1975.

Web links

• Jimmy Ellis in the BoxRec database
• Richard Goldstein: Jimmy Ellis, a Boxer Long in Ali's Shadow, Dies at 74. Obituary in the New York Times, May 6, 2014 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ex-heavyweight champ Jimmy Ellis, friend of Muhammad Ali, dies at 74