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All of the below information was gathered from the Internet SEP & OCT 1997:
>>I recenlty picked-up some Ring Magazines at a garage sale, one of
them had
>>a heavyweight named Boone Kirman on the cover (1968). Does
anyone know the
>>history of his career?
>
>To Whomever:
>Boone Kirkman was before my time by a few years, so I never learned
a heck of
>a lot about him. I will tell you what I've been able to pick
up, though.
>Kirkman turned pro sometime in the mid 1960s, and he was from Seattle.
>Almost all of his early fights took place on the west coast. He was
supposed
>to be a fairly strong, hard-hitting guy in the style of Bonavena and
Quarry.
>He won something like 23 of his first 24 fights, and most of the wins
came by
>knockout. The one fight he lost, if I am correct, was to Doug Jones
(I may be
>wrong), and Boone avenged that loss by scoring a kayo in the rematch.
At this
>point in his career, Boone was getting the big "white hope" build-up,
which
>is why he was on the cover of so many magazines. I heard that
he wanted to
>fight Quarry in an all west-coast showdown, but that Quarry wouldn't
fight
>him because he regarded a Kirkman fight as being a step backwards
in his
>career. About ten years later when they were both making comebacks,
Quarry
>wanted to fight Kirkman, and this time it was Kirkman who refused
to accept
>the match because he was resentful that Jerry never gave him a chance
when
>they were both young up and coming fighters. Anyway, late in
the 1970
>Kirkman was brought to Madison Square Garden in order to face George
Foreman
>in a match-up of young, hard-hitting heavyweight prospects.
The bout
>received a lot of attention from the New York sporting press, and
it turned
>out to be a disaster for Kirkman. Foreman destroyed Boone in only
two rounds,
>and Boone was so discouraged he stayed out of boxing for the next
two years.
>In 1973, Boone began his comeback. In 1973 and 1974 Kirkman
won about eight
>or nine straight fights, including a 10 round decision over Jimmy
Ellis. This
>string of wins moved Kirkman into the lower levels of the top-ten,
and it
>finally appeared that he might get his opportunity to prove himself
in the
>big leagues. Sometime in 1974, though, disaster struck. Boone
was matched
>against a mediocre but hard-hitting clubfighter named Memphis Al Jones
(it
>may have been George "Scrap Iron" Johnson...it's been so long I can't
>remember which one it was), in what was supposed to be an easy win
for him.
>For two rounds, Boone dominated, and he even had Jones (Johnson?)
on the
>canvas. In the third, however, Jones (Johnson?) knocked out
Kirkman with a
>single right hand to the head. It was a humiliating loss and it caused
>Kirkman to fall clean out of the top ten. At this point, Kirkman
and his
>manager felt that they had nothing left to lose, so they began taking
fights
>against top rated boxers in a desperate effort to revive Boone's flagging
>prospects. First they tried Ron Lyle, but Lyle was way too much for
Kirkman
>and Boone was knocked out in eight rounds. Next they accepted a match
against
>Ken Norton, and Norton easily outclassed Kirkman and stopped him in
the
>eighth round as well. These three straight knockout defeats revealed
that
>Kirkman could never be anything more than a good, gutty clubfighter.
In
1975,
>Kirkman retired after losing a decision to New Jersey's Randy Neuman
(making
>it four consecutive defeats for Boone). In 1977, though, Kirkman made
a
>comeback in Seattle. The hope of promoters up there was to match
Kirkman
>with local star Ibar Arrington, who, like Kirkman, was an exciting
and
>popular hard-hitting clubfighter. The bout never came off, though.
Boone did,
>however, win about nine straight fights before retiring for good in
1979. His
>final record was somewhere along the lines of 43-6. TENNO