Gene Fullmer

Template:Short description Template:Infobox boxer

Lawrence Gene Fullmer (July 21, 1931 – April 27, 2015) was an American professional boxer and World Middleweight champion. He was known as The Utah Cyclone,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Mormon Mauler, and as "Cyclone" Gene Fullmer.

Professional careerEdit

Fullmer began his professional career in 1951 and won his first 29 fights, 19 by knockout. His manager during many years of his career was his mentor, Marv Jenson, who encouraged many youth in West Jordan, Utah, to enter boxing as amateurs.

Middleweight championEdit

Fullmer won the world middleweight championship on January 2, 1957, when he upset the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson by soundly winning a unanimous 15-round decision.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On May 1, 1957, they fought a rematch. The fight began as expected, with Fullmer using his strength and awkwardness to bull into Robinson and really force him onto his heels. In the fifth round Robinson, while backing up, lashed out with what has been called the perfect left hook. It caught Fullmer flush on the chin and knocked him out.

In 1959, the National Boxing Association withdrew its recognition of Robinson as middleweight champion. Fullmer and fellow former middleweight champion Carmen Basilio fought for the vacant NBA title on August 28, 1959, and Fullmer won the crown when he TKOed Basilio in the 14th round. Meanwhile, Robinson was to lose his version of the middleweight championship to Paul Pender.

Fullmer and Pender never met to settle their claims to the middleweight title, and Pender eventually retired. Meanwhile, Fullmer fought and turned back the challenges of many top contenders, such as Basilio, Ellsworth "Spider" Webb, Florentino Fernández, and welterweight champion Benny "Kid" Paret. He narrowly escaped being dethroned when he was held to 15-round draws by Robinson and future titleholder Joey Giardello. The draw against Robinson was widely criticised by almost every ringside observer, who had Robinson winning 11–4 or 10–5 in rounds. In their final meeting, a title bout in 1961, Fullmer beat Robinson by unanimous decision.

Losing the titleEdit

Fullmer finally lost the middleweight title to Dick Tiger on October 23, 1962, in a unanimous decision. They fought a rematch on February 23, 1963, which resulted in a draw. Fullmer's attempts to regain the middleweight crown finally ended when he was TKOed in seven rounds by Tiger on August 10, 1963.

Fullmer's final record included 55 wins (24 by KO), 6 losses, and 3 draws.

Professional boxing recordEdit

Template:BoxingRecordSummary

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
64	Template:No2Loss	55–6–3	Dick Tiger	RTD	7 (15), Template:Small	Aug 10, 1963	Template:Small	Template:Small
63	Template:DrawDraw	55–5–3	Dick Tiger	SD	15	Feb 23, 1963	Template:Small	Template:Small
62	Template:No2Loss	55–5–2	Dick Tiger	UD	15	Oct 23, 1962	Template:Small	Template:Small
61	Template:Yes2Win	55–4–2	Benny Paret	KO	10 (15), Template:Small	Dec 9, 1961	Template:Small	Template:Small
60	Template:Yes2Win	54–4–2	Florentino Fernández	SD	15	Aug 5, 1961	Template:Small	Template:Small
59	Template:Yes2Win	53–4–2	Sugar Ray Robinson	UD	15	Mar 4, 1961	Template:Small	Template:Small
58	Template:DrawDraw	52–4–2	Sugar Ray Robinson	SD	15	Dec 3, 1960	Template:Small	Template:Small
57	Template:Yes2Win	52–4–1	Carmen Basilio	TKO	12 (15)	Jun 29, 1960	Template:Small	Template:Small
56	Template:DrawDraw	51–4–1	Joey Giardello	Template:Abbr	15	Apr 20, 1960	Template:Small	Template:Small
55	Template:Yes2Win	51–4	Ellsworth Webb	UD	15	Dec 4, 1959	Template:Small	Template:Small
54	Template:Yes2Win	50–4	Carmen Basilio	TKO	14 (15), Template:Small	Aug 28, 1959	Template:Small	Template:Small
53	Template:Yes2Win	49–4	Wilf Greaves	MD	10	Feb 20, 1959	Template:Small
52	Template:Yes2Win	48–4	Milo Savage	UD	10	Jan 9, 1959	Template:Small
51	Template:Yes2Win	47–4	Joe Miceli	KO	2 (10), Template:Small	Nov 10, 1958	Template:Small
50	Template:Yes2Win	46–4	Ellsworth Webb	UD	10	Sep 11, 1958	Template:Small
49	Template:Yes2Win	45–4	Jim Hegerle	UD	10	Jul 7, 1958	Template:Small
48	Template:Yes2Win	44–4	Milo Savage	UD	10	Mar 3, 1958	Template:Small
47	Template:Yes2Win	43–4	Neal Rivers	MD	10	Nov 15, 1957	Template:Small
46	Template:Yes2Win	42–4	Chico Vejar	UD	10	Sep 4, 1957	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	41–4	Ralph 'Tiger' Jones	UD	10	Jun 7, 1957	Template:Small
44	Template:No2Loss	40–4	Sugar Ray Robinson	KO	5 (15), Template:Small	May 1, 1957	Template:Small	Template:Small
43	Template:Yes2Win	40–3	Wilf Greaves	UD	10	Feb 18, 1957	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	39–3	Wilf Greaves	UD	10	Jan 28, 1957	Template:Small
41	Template:Yes2Win	38–3	Sugar Ray Robinson	UD	15	Jan 2, 1957	Template:Small	Template:Small
40	Template:Yes2Win	37–3	Moses Ward	KO	3 (10)	Sep 22, 1956	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	36–3	Charles Humez	UD	10	May 25, 1956	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	35–3	Ralph 'Tiger' Jones	UD	10	Apr 20, 1956	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	34–3	Gil Turner	SD	10	Feb 17, 1956	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	33–3	Rocky Castellani	Template:Abbr	10	Jan 4, 1956	Template:Small
35	Template:No2Loss	32–3	Eduardo Lausse	UD	10	Nov 25, 1955	Template:Small
34	Template:No2Loss	32–2	Bobby Boyd	UD	10	Sep 28, 1955	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	32–1	Al Andrews	UD	10	Sep 12, 1955	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	31–1	Del Flanagan	UD	10	Jul 26, 1955	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	30–1	Gil Turner	PTS	10	Jun 20, 1955	Template:Small
30	Template:No2Loss	29–1	Gil Turner	UD	10	Apr 4, 1955	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	29–0	Govan Small	UD	10	Mar 21, 1955	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	28–0	Paul Pender	UD	10	Feb 14, 1955	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	27–0	Marcel Assire	UD	10	Jan 31, 1955	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	26–0	Peter Müller	UD	10	Nov 15, 1954	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	25–0	Jackie LaBua	UD	10	Nov 8, 1954	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	24–0	Dick Wolfe	KO	4 (10), Template:Small	Aug 16, 1954	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	23–0	Reno Abellira	UD	10	Jul 29, 1954	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	22–0	Govan Small	PTS	10	Jul 12, 1954	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	21–0	Rio Rico	TKO	1 (10)	Jun 5, 1954	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	20–0	Andy Anderson	Template:Abbr	7 (10), Template:Small	May 17, 1954	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	19–0	Charley Cato	KO	1 (10), Template:Small	Apr 26, 1954	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	18–0	Kid Leon	KO	1 (10)	Feb 6, 1954	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	17–0	Armando Cotero	Template:Abbr	6	Sep 20, 1952	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	16–0	Mickey Rhodes	KO	6 (?)	Aug 8, 1952	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	15–0	Baby Ray	KO	1 (?)	Oct 17, 1951	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	14–0	Rudy Zadell	Template:Abbr	6	Oct 10, 1951	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	13–0	Gary Hanley	KO	1 (?)	Oct 3, 1951	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	12–0	Garth Panther	Template:Abbr	10	Sep 25, 1951	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	11–0	Sam Healy	TKO	4 (6)	Sep 14, 1951	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Charley Cato	KO	4 (10)	Sep 7, 1951	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Buddy Sloan	KO	2 (?)	Aug 25, 1951	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Sam Healy	KO	1 (?)	Aug 24, 1951	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Carlos Martinez	Template:Abbr	1 (4)	Aug 1, 1951	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	Lamar Peterson	KO	1 (?)	Jul 16, 1951	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Eddie Duffy	KO	2 (4)	Jul 9, 1951	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Eddie Duffy	KO	1 (?)	Jul 2, 1951	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Gary Carr	KO	3 (?)	Jun 23, 1951	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Andy Jackson	KO	1 (?)	Jun 16, 1951	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Glen Peck	Template:Abbr	1 (4), Template:Small	Jun 9, 1951	Template:Small

Titles in boxingEdit

Fighting styleEdit

Fullmer was known as an aggressive brawler and relentless pressure fighter. He used wide hooks and overhands, but he is most known for his heavy use of the crab style reverse cross-arm guard.<ref name="reverse cross">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="aggresive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This caused Fullmer to have an awkward, but effective jab which he used to set up power punches.<ref name="middleweight">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Fullmer graduated from Jordan High School and worked at Kennecott Copper Mine for several years, he also served in the Korean War. He married Dolores Holt on October 13, 1955, in the Salt Lake Temple. They raised 2 daughters and 2 sons.<ref name="SLTrib-Obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

Fullmer had two younger brothers who boxed: Don Fullmer (February 21, 1939 - January 28, 2012), who twice challenged for the World Middleweight Title, and Jay Fullmer (March 9, 1937 - April 22, 2015), who boxed as a lightweight.

Fullmer was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and his living the tenets of his religion, especially the Word of Wisdom, was heavily covered in the press. It was also frequently mentioned that he was a father and that he paid tithing on his boxing winnings.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fullmer appeared in a cameo role in the 1968 film The Devil's Brigade as a Montana bartender.

Fullmer is featured on the cover of the album Greatest Hits by Alice in Chains.

On January 21, 1962, Fullmer appeared on What's My Line? but not as a mystery guest. His line was that he was a mink rancher.

His fight with Dick Tiger appears prominently in the music video for the Iggy Pop song 'American Valhalla'.

On April 27, 2015, five days after younger brother Jay's death, Gene died at the age of 83 in his home surrounded by friends and family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="SLTrib-Obit" />