Let me tell ya about Joe Brown, or as everyone loved to call him, “Old Bones.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I love a good nickname—though sometimes they just make no sense, right? Anyway, this name kind of fit him, not just because he was, well, a bit old in the boxing scene, but because his story was like something out of a novel. Imagine fighting for almost fifteen years—yeah, fifteen, can you believe that?—before getting a chance at the big time. It’s like being stuck in the world’s longest line for a hotdog, only to finally get to the front and realizing you forgot your wallet.
So when Brown finally got his chance, taking on Wallace “Bud” Smith, he didn’t let it pass. He even busted his right hand in the second round—ouch!—and somehow still managed to win. People started showering him with praise; Nat Fleischer from The Ring said something like it was nothing short of miraculous. I’m not entirely sure what he said verbatim, but you get the idea. And yeah, there were whispers about the decision since it was in Louisiana, Brown’s home turf, after all, but he shut everyone up by knocking Smith out in a rematch.
And let’s be real, Brown was all about making up for lost time. He wasn’t just sitting around basking in glory. Nope, the guy was busy defending his title again and again—eleven times to be exact. Imagine waking up every day and knowing you gotta be ready to punch someone as good as Johnny Busso or Ralph Dupas in the face. It’s wild. His reach was like, what, 68 inches? Not something you’d print on a T-shirt, but definitely handy in a fight.
Then there was Carlos Ortiz. Younger, hungry, and probably didn’t sleep much the night before their first fight, right? He’d already snagged a title before, and losing it just made him hungrier. Ortiz was set to claim his spot in history, and when he finally squared off against Brown in Las Vegas, it was clear he meant business. The guy was relentless. It was like watching your old uncle, who’s had one too many, trying to outrun a teenager in a sprint. Brown did land some solid punches but let’s face it, Ortiz was the guy whose time had come.
Ortiz celebrated like there was no tomorrow, and why not? It’s not every day you punch your way to being the lightweight champ. He danced his way into history, beating a laundry list of top fighters—from Flash Elorde to Sugar Ramos. Honestly, as far as puppeteering the boxing scene, Ortiz was like that old friend who could make a mean cocktail out of whatever you had in the kitchen.
As for Brown, his twilight years in the ring weren’t golden. He hung around the square trying to reclaim his glory, but it wasn’t the same. Like a moth chasing a bulb, never quite landing. He eventually hung up his gloves at 42. That’s six years past the prime of most humans, mind you. And while records have a way of being broken (hello, Roberto Duran!), it took ages for Brown to get acknowledged into the Hall of Fame, finally in 1996. Sadly, he lived only a bit after that. But hey, they call him a legend for a reason.
