Early Boxing Career
Boxing as a lightweight and welterweight, Stitch won 45 of 57 amateur bouts. He won Kentucky state titles in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. Stitch reached the semifinals of the Chicago Golden Gloves and the finals of the National AAU Tournament in 1956.
With Bud Bruner as his manager and trainer, Stitch started his professional boxing career as a welterweight in 1956. He won his first three professional fights, then lost a four-round split decision to Art Glass. He followed his first pro loss with two knockout victories, then lost a six-round decision in a rematch with Glass. After two more wins, Stitch lost an eight-round split decision to middleweight Pedro Bradley.
To make ends meet, Stitch worked a full-time job at a meat packing plant while pursuing his boxing career. He had a wife, a daughter, and five sons to support.
Read more about this topic: Rudell Stitch
Famous quotes containing the words early, boxing and/or career:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“... to paint with oil paints for the first time ... is like trying to make something exquisitely accurate and microscopically clear out of mud pies with boxing gloves on.”
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)