Clyde Gray (born March 10, 1947) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

welter/ light middle/ middleweight boxer of the 1960s, '70s and '80s who won the Canada welterweight title, and Commonwealth welterweight title, and was a challenger for the

North American Boxing Federation The North American Boxing Federation (NABF) is a not-for-profit regional sanctioning body that awards regional boxing titles. It is a boxing federation within the World Boxing Council (WBC). History The WBC established the NABF in 1969 as part of i ...

(NABF) welterweight title against

Armando Muñíz Armando Muñíz (born May 3, 1946) is a Mexican-born American former professional boxer and former NABF welterweight Champion. Muñiz was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team. 1968 Olympic record Below are the results of Armando Muñi ...

, and Pete Ranzany,

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federatio ...

(WBC) welterweight title against

José Nápoles José Ángel Nápoles, nicknamed ''Mantequilla'' ("Butter", referring to his smooth boxing style), (April 13, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was a Cuban-born Mexican professional boxer and a World Welterweight Champion. He is frequently ranked as one ...

, and

World Boxing Association The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Box ...

(WBA) World welterweight title against

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, and José "Pipino" Cuevas, his professional fighting weight varied from , i.e.

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

to , i.e. middleweight, he was managed by

Irving Ungerman Irving Ungerman (February 1, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was a Canadian businessman, sports promoter and a prominent member of the Toronto Jewish community. Early life Ungerman was born to Jewish immigrants in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His parent ...

, and trained by Teddy McWhorter and

Lee Black Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

Napoles-Gray welterweight title fight

On September 22, 1973, Clyde Gray challenged undisputed world welterweight champion José Nápoles for the latter's title. The bout took place at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and was televised nationally in both Canada and the United States.

Howard Cosell Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

and

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, ...

provided commentary. Although Gray, the second-ranked WBC contender, was very competitive throughout the 15 rounds, Nápoles' boxing skill was clearly superior to the challenger's. Nápoles won the bout by a comfortable unanimous decision. In a precedent-setting situation, the scores of the three judges were made known to the television audience (and thus to the two fighters' handlers too) after each round. Therefore Gray knew he was trailing in the fight and had to be the aggressor in the final rounds if he hoped to win the title. Gray's manager, Irving Ungerman, hoped this open system of judging would become the norm. Howard Cosell echoed that opinion too, but it never came to pass.

Cuevas-Gray welterweight title fight

On August 6, 1977, Gray fought WBA world welterweight champion José (Pipino) Cuevas at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. By 1977, Gray was on the downward side of his professional career, but he accorded himself well in the first round versus the heavy-punching Cuevas. However, Cuevas began to dominate the fight early in the second round and scored a series of solid blows. Gray was floored with a left hand blow that appeared to be not particularly hard. Gray fell forward and was surprisingly counted out by referee Chuck Hassett at the 1:28 mark of the round. Gray was paid $12,500 for the bout. Cuevas was quoted in a Reuters news story as saying, "It was an easier fight than I expected. I thought it would go on a bit longer."

Genealogical information

Clyde Gray is the younger brother of the boxer, Stewart Gray

(birth unknown — 22 February 1972).

References

External links

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Image - Clyde Gray
1947 births Light-middleweight boxers Middleweight boxers Place of birth missing (living people) Boxers from Toronto Welterweight boxers Living people Canadian male boxers Black Canadian boxers {{Canada-boxing-bio-stub