Trevor Berbick

Trevor Berbick
Data
Birth Name	Trevor Berbick
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Jamaican
birthday	August 1, 1954
place of birth	Norwich
Date of death	October 28, 2006
Place of death	Norwich
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	62
Victories	50
Knockout victories	33
Defeats	11
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Trevor Berbick (born August 1, 1954 in Norwich near Port Antonio , Jamaica , † October 28, 2006 there ) was a Jamaican heavyweight boxer and WBC world champion. Although he had a completely unspectacular fighting style, he played many important fights, such as Ali's last fight , Tyson's title win and the first defeats of Greg Page and Pinklon Thomas .

amateur

At the age of 21, he took for his home country in 1976 Jamaica at the Olympics in part. He lost in the round of 16 against the later silver medalist Mircea Simon , but stood out as a gifted boxer. Previously he had finished third at the Pan American Games in 1975, where he failed in the semifinals to Michael Dokes . He played only eleven amateur fights, of which he won eight.

Professional career

After the Olympics, he moved to Canada to box professionally. He won his first eleven fights (ten by knockout ), but lost on April 3, 1979 against the up-and-coming Bernardo Mercado from Colombia by knockout, one of only two knockout defeats in his career. A knockout win against former WBA title holder "Big" John Tate in 1980, the only important knockout win in his career, brought him back to the front.

On April 11, 1981 he lost against Larry Holmes , who dominated the heavyweight division in the first half of the 80s, a WBC title fight over 15 rounds after a unanimous decision of the judges.

On December 11, 1981, he boxed against Muhammad Ali, who was already clearly marked by his Parkinson's disease, in the Bahamas ("The Drama in Bahama") and won the fight clearly on points. This was also Ali's last boxing match.

In 1982 he was able to outplay the undefeated, very talented Greg Page , who came from Louisville like Ali. Shortly thereafter, however, he lost to Renaldo Snipes in 1982 and was twice on the ground. In 1983 he lost to the completely unknown ST Gordon. With a knockout over David Bey, he rehabilitated himself in 1985.

He played his next world championship fight on March 22, 1986 against the undefeated, highly rated Pinklon Thomas , whom he sensationally beat and thus became the new WBC world champion. The legendary coach Eddie Futch trained him for this fight . According to " Ring Magazine ", he only got US $ 50,000 for the win.

He didn't keep the belt long, however. On November 22nd, he lost to the only 20-year-old Mike Tyson by knockout in the second round. The fight is considered one of the most famous knockouts in boxing history because Berbick hit the ground in the second round and tried to get up, but fell down twice as if he were on black ice. This fight ushered in the end of the dominance of older boxers in the 1980s, and that of a younger generation born in the 1960s that Tyson stood for began. This development was sealed by Tyson's victories against Holmes and Michael Spinks in 1988; the boxers who came out on top dominated the scene well into the first years of the 21st century.

In 1988 Berbick lost to Carl Williams , 1989 to Buster Douglas , and later to Hasim Rahman but only on points. Until the end of 2000 he boxed several, only moderately successful fights, until his boxing license was revoked on the basis of a medical report that diagnosed a blood clot in his brain.

Private life

After retiring, he settled in Florida, but was arrested several times and sentenced to five years in prison in 1992 for, among other things, sexual assault on one of his children's nannies. He was released after 15 months but failed to parole in 1997 and was eventually expelled from the United States in 2002.

On October 28, 2006, he was found murdered on the premises of a church in Norwich Village, Jamaica. The cause of death was a blow with an ax or machete, which inflicted fatal injuries on him. The police arrested two men, including Berbick's 20-year-old nephew Harold Berbick, who was found guilty of the murder in December 2007, following evidence from the population.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tyson VS Berbick - "Iron Mike" At His Scariest! (No longer available online.) In: EastSideBoxing. April 17, 2006, archived from the original on July 12, 2012 ; accessed on February 15, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Berbick killed in Jamaica! In: FightNews. October 28, 2006, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on February 15, 2014 . 
3. ^ Two held for Berbick's murder. In: Superboxing.com. November 3, 2006, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on February 15, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Berbick's nephew one of two convicted murder in boxer's. In: ESPN . December 21, 2007, accessed February 15, 2014 . 

Web links

• Trevor Berbick in the BoxRec database
• Trevor Berbick in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia
• Trevor Berbick in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

predecessor	Office	successor
Pinklon Thomas	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) March 22, 1986 - November 22, 1986	Mike Tyson