"Dangerous" Don Wilford
"Dangerous" Don Wilford
“Dangerous” Don Wilford is the nicest gentleman you will ever meet. Wilford began boxing at age 26 and fought as an amateur for two years, turning professional at 28. His professional record was 21-3. He had blazing hand speed and good punching power. If he had started boxing as a teenager, he would have become a world champion. But he began his career so late in life that he didn’t have enough time to develop his skills. The gifted Wilford fought as a welterweight at 147 pounds.
James “J.R.” Spears, another boxer who trained with Don, also is a great guy. Spears won a national light-heavyweight amateur championship before he became a professional boxer. Spears has a heart of gold, but he loves talking trash. He fought as a light-heavyweight at 178 pounds. He would find someone in the gym to pick on, and every day when that person arrived at the gym Spears would light into them and start verbally abusing them.
Spears absolutely was harmless, but there’s no way of knowing how many new boxers he ran off with his demeanor and his mouth. When a new boxer would walk into the gym, Spears would holler, “Fresh meat. That’s my meat.”
It scared some new boxers and angered others. For about a month, Spears harassed Wilford every day when he arrived at the gym. He got in Don’s face and started belittling him and asking him, “How come you’re late? Are you scared of me? You don’t want none of me do you? I own you! I’m your daddy,” and any other thing he could think of to intimidate Don.
On one particular day, Spears and Wilford were sparring when the bell rang to end the first round. Don walked to his corner and I held out a water bottle for him to take a drink. Spears started berating Don again. Something was troubling Don that day. He had had enough of J.R.’s mouth. Don walked from his corner across the ring to the corner where Spears was standing and threw a furious right hand that landed flush on Spears jaw.
Spears, who had a granite chin, was one of the toughest guys I have ever seen. He just blinked his eyes and rolled his head after being clobbered by Wilford. I rushed into the ring thinking I was going to have to separate these two.
Spears looked at me and said, “That’s all right I’ll get mine when the bell rings.”
When the bell rang, Spears went after Wilford like a man possessed, but Wilford was just too quick for the 40-plus-year-old Spears, and easily moved around the ring out of his way.
After that incident, Spears lightened up on Don and they became great friends.