In a sport where you hit each other in an attempt to render your opponent unconscious a nickname can mean a lot, with things such as "Destroyer" being perfectly apt and telling you what a fighter is. Sadly when you're named after a food item things can get a little bit ridiculous and that's what we had in the case of Orhan Delibas (25-2, 10).
Delibas was a former amateur stand out who was seen by many as one of the greatest ever Dutch based amateurs of all time. Although born in Turkey, Delibas forged his reputation in the Netherlands, a country he competed for as an amateur.
As an amateur Delibas was genuinely very good. He claimed a Silver medal at the 1992 Olympic games (beating future professional professional world champions Raul "El Diamante" and Robin Reid along the way) and a Silver medal at the European Championships (beating future professional world champion Bert Schenk along the way).
Following the 1995 World Military Championships Delibas turned professional and ran up a solid record winning his first 22 bouts and claimed the BeNeLux Light Middleweight title before suffering his first loss, a TKO8 loss to Mamadou Thiam in a bout for the European Light Middleweight title.
Sadly for Delibas he found his level just below European level and was again beaten in a European title contest 2 fights later, this time by Roman Karmazin in 3 rounds.
After losing to Karmazin, Delibas appeared to retire from the ring with a record of 23-2 (9) though surprisingly returned to the ring in 2008 for 2 more bouts (both wins) over very limited oppositions.
Sadly for Delibas, despite his amateur credentials and his solid, if unspectacular record, we were never going to include him on weird boxing for anything but his ridiculous nickname of "The Turkish Delight". A nickname that simply made it impossible to take Delibas too seriously despite his very credible skill level.
For those unaware of what Turkish delight's are, they are a type of gel based candy that are sold through out Europe, The British Commonwealth and even in Brazil (though is rarely found in the US). Whilst the nickname may have worked were it not for the candy, it's hard to take a fighter named after sweets too serious, just imagine a fighter's nickname like "Reeses Pieces" or "Chocolate Buttons"...
Movie goers amongst us may think that the only link between boxing and Adam Sandler movie "Happy Gilmore" is Carl Weathers. The actor who featured prominently in the "Rocky" series as "Apollo Creed" and also featured in "Happy Gilmore" (as "Chubbs Peterson"). We'd be wrong thanks to Russian Super Featherweight Evgeny Chuprakov (3-0, 2 at the time of writing).
The young Russian first made his name in his home country as an amateur at the turn of the decade when he fought in a number of low level competitions including the 208 Russian Junior National Championships. Sadly Chuprakov never really made a big splash in the amateurs and turned professional in 2011 aged just 21.
On debut Chuprakov in December 2011 stopped Ivan Varlamov inside 2 rounds before bagging his second win within a week as he out pointed Shavkat Madaminov just 4 days later.
Despite starting his career with 2 wins inside a week Chuprakov has only fought once since December 2011, scoring a 2nd round TKO victory over Suhrobjon Usmonov. He is now expected to return to the ring to face a yet to be announced opponent on January 24th.
Between 1980 and 1997 Oklahoma native Jerry Halstead fought an impressive 105 times recording a remarkable record of 84-19-1-1 (62). As well as the numerous fights he had he also claimed the lightly regarded WAA Super Middleweight world title in 1982 by stopping Ronnie Brown.
Whilst all boxing fans know that the Oklahoma boxing scene is somewhat poor Halstead did decide to extend himself outside of the state borders and in 1986 he tasted true world class as he was stopped by Greg Page, a former WBA Heavyweight champion.
Over the course of the following 11 years Halstead would go on to face Tony Tubbs, James Douglas, Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, Alex Stewart, Herbie Hide, Brian Nielsen (See Brian Who?), Jeremy Williams, Ruediger May and current Heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko. In total that was 7 recognised Heavyweight world champions, a European champion and several other top contenders.
Somehow despite his competition and his impressive record (and 17 year long career) Halstead was known by the unflattering name of "Wimpy". What makes it even more amusing is that Halstead looked like a genuine tough guy with an angry face early in his career. Sadly by the time he fought Klitschko in 1997, well into his 30's, the 6'1" Halstead was starting to look a little bloated and a little less mean.
Sadly outside of the ring Halstead has been in trouble with the law with numerous driving offenses including one that sadly killed his wife.
Footage of the Halstead v Klitschko fight, the final bout of Halstead's career, can be seen below thanks to andriyked
After a recent discussion on popular boxing forum "Ringnews24" I've decided to do a group post here under the title "Zimbabwean Heavyweights". As you're almost certainly aware Zimbabwe doesn't have the greatest record for boxers, with arguably the best known fighter from Zimbabwe being Derrick Chisora (15-4, 9). Though that hasn't stopped them from having some of the greatest names in sporting history.
Lets start with maybe the most controversial "Hitler The Killer" (0-2). Hitler made his debut in 1977 losing in 2 rounds to Howard Chisango who would twice challenge for the Zimbabwean national Light Heavyweight title. After taking 5 years out from the sport Hitler returned and was stopped again, this time in 5 rounds by Hisman 'Flash' Chisango. Interestingly in 1984 Hisman 'Flash' Chisango went on to beat George Foreman for the Central African Light Heavyweight Title (yes it wasn't that George Foreman!).
Rather nicely George Foreman links us wonderfully to two another amazingly named Zimbabwean Heavyweights. The best of those two names is Captain Cleopas Marvel (3-10, 1) who I'm sure must be the closest thing to a super hero Zimbabwean boxing has ever seen. Mr Marvel fought 13 times between 1982 and 1990 and actually made his debut against the other wonderful name on George Foreman's record, a man named Proud Kilimanjaro (32-6-0-1, 28) who was certainly the stand out of the fighters.
Kilimanjaro (real name Proud Chinembriri) made his debut in 1981 stopping Black Tiger in his debut and claimed various titles through out the 1980's and challenger for the Commonwealth Heavyweight title before losing to the talented Brit Horace Notice in 1987 (this fight can be seen at the bottom of this post). He eventually hung up his gloves in 1990, but not before facing some other wonderfully named fighters himself.
Included in the other names on Kilimanjaro's record were the Beatles inspired "Walter Ringo Starr" (7-8, 3) who actually had his career ended by Kilimanjaro in 1982 when Star was stopped inside a round in a bout for the Zimbabwean Heavyweight title. Starr had himself been around since since 1974 and had, in a clash of popular music, been stopped by South African Robbie Williams in 1979 (Williams is himself remembered for almost claiming the WBA Cruiserweight title from Ossie Ocassio).
Possibly the best name that Kilimanjaro faced however was Jukebox Timebomb (2-3, 2) who debuted in 1985 by stopping Elisha Kanyeala before losing to Kilimanjaro in his second bout. Funnily before retiring in 1991 Timebomb had himself scored a win over a great named fighter with a stoppage over a man known as Bonyongo Destroyer (0-6). Bonyongo Destroyer (real name John Mutema) was stopped in all 6 of his bouts between 1989 and 1998 including a 1 round blow out to one time British champion James Oyebola.
Whilst Hitler the Killer is arguably the most offensive, he does have stiff competition as I take this post full circle and give you Sando First Son the Devil (0-1) who fought a solitary bout in 1978 losing to Allan Joseph on points.
Credit for the video below goes to ohyeah445