Joe Lipsey vs Derrick James

A scrappy match between 2 undefeated middleweight boxers in Joe Lipsey and Derrick James from 1994. The fight was messy and hard to score with multiple knock downs. More info below... Derrick James was 10-0 coming in to this fight. He was big for a middleweight at 6’2“ and possessed a 6 inch reach advantage over the smaller Joe Lipsey. Derrick had not fought anybody of name at this point in his career and had also never been past 8 rounds. He had 5 KO wins on his record but was not known as a big puncher. To the boxing public it seemed like a big risk to take on a vastly more experienced opponent like Lipsey this early on in his career. Joe Lipsey had a 23-0 record with 18 wins by way of KO earning him the nickname “The Sledgehammer“. He was ranked as one of the Top 10 middleweights in the world, the IBF even had him as high as 4th. He was in the prime of his career and had fought many tough and experienced opponents. He was a lot smaller than Derrick James however at 5’9“ tall. There was some important external factors heading in to the fight which no doubt affected things. Derrick James struggled to make the 163lb limit and had to shed weight, most likely draining his stamina. Joe Lipsey on the other hand came in well under at 156lbs, the lightest of his career. Joe Lipsey was also informed of some horrible news the day before the fight, that his brother had been murdered... During the fight there was a number of knockdowns scored but only one was considered “clean“. Derrick James started well, scoring the only clean knock down of the fight in round 1, but he did not simply have the legs to go 10 rounds and was completely gassed by round 8. Lipsey started to look better as the fight wore on and the ref stopped it with James pinned on the ropes in round 9, unable to defend himself. Joe Lipsey would go on to face Bernard Hopkins in 1996 for the IBF World Middleweight title, surprisingly the only belt he would ever contend for in his whole career. Unfortunately for Lipsey, Hopkins would take care of him by KO in 4 rounds. It would turn out to be Lipsey’s last fight, ending his career with an impressive 25-1 record. Derrick James would go on to get shots at NABF and WBC regional belts but he failed to win any. He retired in 2008 with a 21-7 record.