Ringside Report Looks Back at Amateur Fight Tim Dement
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
There was an advert in the UK, I think in the 1970’s, for a well-known chocolate bar. In it there is a music executive listening to a band’s music. They are in his office, nervously awaiting his opinion. He pronounces, “you can’t sing, can’t play but you look great, you’ll go far!”
It was the first time that I realized how you look could determine how people react to you. Let’s be clear there are two fascinating reactions in a ring. The first is the realization that somebody has made a mistake and you are opposite a Natural Born Killer when you should have been heading for an easy win, and the second is the assumption that this Baby Face is no Assassin…
Former Olympian, Tim Dement, was once described as “pale and dreamy.” The lack of strength which his size and shape suggested was, however, deceptive and he was certainly baby faced, but he was also a bit of an assassin.
He tells the story of how he became a boxer when at the age of 12, his older brother Steve got into trouble. It ended with Steve going to court and Tim got tagged along with his brother to the Irish McNeels Sports for Boxing Boys Club. Serendipity brought him to the coach’s attention. That coach was, as many often are, a bit of a local fighting legend. Coach J. S. “Irish” McNeel, in an opposite direction to Tim, never fought as an amateur, but as a professional to put food on the family table. Such altruism continued into his boxing as he was oft quoted apparently as saying that :“if I can help one boy become a good man then I have been paid in full my friend!”
In an interview in the Boxinginsider from 2017, with Ken Hissner, Dement expanded on the coaches influence as follows: “I wanted to make Mr. Mac proud of me and become a good boxer.”
He was so good that by 1971 when just 16 he won the Southern AAU tournament and went to the Nationals in New Orleans. He fought four times there but lost in the final to Gary Griffin of New Orleans. He got revenge in the Pan American Trials when he beat Griffin but was then told that, due to his age he could not go to the Pan American Games! What the hell was he fighting for?
It did lead to international competitions and travel as he went to England, Germany, Switzerland and Poland. In Poland he visited the concentration camps and as a young man felt the profound nature of what he witnessed. 1971 was a stellar year for the young boxer as he was first runner-up at the National AAU, won the Pan Am Trials and won his first three international bouts.
1972 was Olympic year and it began with travelling to the Soviet Union where he lost twice. He then lost to Davey Armstrong in the AAU Nationals in Las Vegas, then lost to Michael Johnson as he moved around in weight to try and qualify. An opportunity arose at flyweight and a call from the USAF boxing coach who was working with his brother – remember Steve – led to him facing the one guy nobody wanted to take on – the much-favored knockout artiste, Bobby Lee Hunter. He had sparred with hunter so knew enough about him to know how to stay away from his fists. Now all of 17, Dement, was the underdog, but beat Hunter in his very first fight, shocking the world but then becoming a favorite of ABC Television’s Howard Cosell, who said that Dement gave Hunter a boxing lesson! You can even catch the commentary on You Tube!
But that was just the beginning if he was going to make it to Munich. Next was a 2-time National Golden Gloves winner – Greg Lewis. He won. Then the navy guy, Ricky Dean, and he beat him too. There was still a box-off at West Point, to be negotiated and Hunter was offered the chance to gain revenge – he refused, so Dement took on Jesse Trujillo. He had fought Trujillo before, and it had been a fight ended prematurely by the referee. Dement had offered an apology in the dressing room as he knew the fight had unfairly been halted but Trujillo was not for listening and was still wanting to fight in the dressing room! The time had come to settle differences. Commentated upon by Cosell and Muhammad Ali, Dement won and was on his way to the Olympics!
What was little known by the outside world was that, whilst Hunter had been a favored candidate, he was not a universally wished for representative. He was serving time for manslaughter… Dement had saved the country form having to resolve a pretty tricky situation!
Dement had his own situation as he had a torn retina. He was allowed to keep boxing because he hadn’t any visual problems, but I do wonder if that would have been allowed today.
At the Olympics, having got a bye in the first round, he beat Tunisian Ali Gharbi in the second round. As he recounted to Ken Hissner in his interview: “He was game but made to order for an easy win. He was real short with real short arms. All I needed to do was relax and let him choose the way I was going to beat him. Relaxed yet focused on distance. Then, allowing your reflexes to respond whenever he was in range to keep him on the end of my jab.” And he did just that, winning to progress.
He then, in the third round faced Colombian, Calixto Perez. Again, he recounted to Hissner, “He reminded me of Bobby Lee Hunter but on steroids. With the first punch he landed in the first round was a hard left hook to the right side of my head and when the stars dissipated there remained a dark cloud in the middle of my vision of my right eye. The cloud bounced around like a bouncing ball between me and my opponent. Until now, I had forgotten about being told I had a torn retina. I did not tell my Olympic coach Bobby Lewis when I returned to my corner seeing this dark cloud in my right eye.” In rounds two and three, Dement took a pasting. He lost and lost significantly. Perez himself, lost in the quarter finals to the eventual gold medalist, Georgi Kostadinov.
In 1973, Dement was to compete in the National Golden Gloves but lost to Mike Hess. It was not the end of his boxing career – that was to come later, but surgery and family life seems to have dominated his next 7 or 8 years as he found himself a career in law enforcement as a Bossier Parish sheriff’s deputy. He has also been a coach and mentor in the Shreveport-Bossier boxing community over the years but in 1980, after boxing on and off, making sure his eye surgery had healed he tried to make a comeback to get into the team for the 1980 Olympiad.
In his comeback he faced someone who had loaded his glove with two finger brass knuckles. The metal came through the glove and sliced his left eye, split his nose and knocked the desire clean out of him.
He put his faith and his efforts into helping others and aside from the law enforcement career he helped in boxing and coaching future pugilists. Now long retired and living on the family farm, his story is a privilege to look into and write. Oh, there is more, but there is also enough to know this Olympian is a story in himself!
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