William "Caveman" Lee

William Lee (born September 27, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan) is a former professional middleweight boxer who fought out of the fabled Kronk Gym in Detroit.[1]

Career

One fight for which Lee is noted was with John LoCicero in July, 1981. Televised on ESPN, their battle garnered a good degree of renown that year for its ebb, flow, ferocity and stifling conditions. In an interview, long time boxing commentator Al Bernstein put it thus: "It was in the early Kronk gym days, in the Twenty Grand Showroom in Detroit with no air conditioning. It was August and amazingly hot. In the fifth round, John LoCicero and Caveman Lee put on a round of boxing that was just beyond belief. First, LoCicero went down, got up, and hit Lee with like twenty-five unanswered punches. It was ridiculous. LoCicero ultimately got knocked out in that round and it was about as exciting as anything I’ve ever seen.”[2]

Indeed, in another interview Berstein mentioned this round ahead of Hagler/Hearns and Castillo/Corrales when relating the best rounds he had ever seen.[3]

The other notable item in Lee's boxing background is more ignominious. When Lee's Kronk stablemate Mickey Goodwin was slated to challenge Marvin Hagler for the Middleweight Championship, but suffered a training injury, Lee stepped in to replace him. Unfortunately, Lee didn't have quite the showing against Hagler as he had against LoCicero. Lee was blown out in just over a minute.[4]

Retirement

After boxing, Lee's story also ran into unfortunate results. He did three different stints in prison for armed robbery. However, once parolled for that third time, he found a job at an auto parts yard and was working there into 2008.[5]

Additional Information

Incidentally, Lee's memorable nickname "Caveman" was due to the sideburns he wore in the late 70's.

References

  1. ↑ BoxRec.com – William Lee entry
  2. ↑ Sports Review Magazine
  3. ↑ "SI.com - The view from ringside - Oct 7, 2005". CNN. 7 October 2005.
  4. ↑ GoogleBooks.com
  5. ↑ DetNews.com – Special Reports
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