Rubin "Hurricane Carter recently passed away in Toronto at the age of 76 after suffering from prostate cancer.Carter was made famous for several things ranging from his boxing career, his time in prison for being accused of murder in 1966, which was overturned years later, being the subject of a Bob Dylan song, his autobiography, and of course, the film made about his life.
I'm going to put all that stuff aside to concentrate on Carter the boxer and the myth that Carter was an uncrowned champion robbed of his prime by bad judging and corruption out of the ring.
Carter did fight for the middleweight title against Joey Giardello in 1964 and it was a close fight that Giardello took a unanimous win in.
I scored Giardello a one-point winner, so if someone saw Carter as a close winner, I could see that, but it certainly was not the robbery that the myth created as an "Uncrowned Champion".
Look further on the record and other than the huge one-round blowout of then former welterweight champion and future middleweight titlist Emile Griffith and decisions over contenders Holly Mims and George Benton (later to be better known as a trainer), you don't see a lot of name wins.
Carter also lost seven times in the less than two years following the Giardello loss, some to name fighters (Dick Tiger) and some to less than stars (the unknown Stan Harrington) to finish his career with a good, not great record of 27-12-1.
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter had a very entertaining fighting style, was a powerful puncher and an extremely interesting back story, but a great fighter and a fighter screwed by the system?
That myth is solved by looking beyond the misconception and looking at the one thing that cannot be misconstrued by legend- the record.
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