Rear View Mirror - David Bey

Rear View Mirror - A look back at the career of the "Hand Grenade" David Bey

GBN's Donald C Stewart takes a long look into his rear view mirror at the boxing career of the "Hand Grenade" David Bey

"He was a good fighter."

As an assessment from Larry Holmes, that would make you puff your chest out and feel proud. Unfortunately for David Bey 18 (14 Kos) – 11 – 1, it was an assessment which he was unable to hear. In 2017, when Holmes pronounced it, “Hand Grenade” had suffered a fatal accident on a building site in Camden, New Jersey.

Holmes was asked his opinion because Bey never became a world campion, and his only attempt was against Holmes. Boxing does not, however, just depend upon champions, world level elite fighters but on hopeful contenders, journeymen, domestic warriors and fighters who get close but just fall short of getting the cash windfall that changes their lives. Without these guys, the big guys don’t get it either.

David Bey, from a fighting city, Philadelphia, a city so steeped in boxing folklore and passion, was a guy who did come close to becoming heavyweight champion. Up against Holmes in 1985 he was was already a USBA title holder.

The defeat to Holmes was one of his eleven losses in a 30-fight run which saw him unable to match his amateur pedigree, although Bey took up the sweet science to lose weight!

To then fight as a heavyweight, sounds like sweet irony. Bey competed for the U. S. All Army Boxing Team as an amateur and before he transferred from the amateur ranks to the pros.

Bey made one of the most explosive entrances into the professional circuit when, as his debut, Bey was brought in as a sacrifice on the altar of the next best thing in heavyweight boxing. He was due to fight a 5-0 fighter tipped for the top, but blew everyone’s minds when he won by a second-round knockout against James “Buster” Douglas on the 6th of November 1981 in Pennsylvania!

He then went on a 14-fight winning streak that saw him topple George Chaplin and Greg Page.

The 14th fight, against Page brought the USBA heavyweight title. If the phrase, those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them was ever to be proven true then the matchmaker who put Bey in with Page in Vegas in 1984 beautifully illustrated it. He brought in Bey as the guy who would lay down for their guy to progress; a 12-round decision later, they wished they hadn’t bothered as Bey stunned everyone again with a win on points and procured a world title shot.

When he was offered the chance against Holmes, he knew he was a long shot as did everyone else. I mean we knew he was fairytale making but even Cinderella must have stopped being lucky all the time. But Bey was a Philly fighter, and they are made of stern stuff.

Bey was never that close to taking the title, there was a point late in round two when he hit Holmes and rocked him. Who knows what might have happened had that shot been more effective and Bey taken the crown, by following up more concussively. Of course, Holmes knew he had been hit but, as he later confirmed, he was never hurt.

Holmes then dropped him twice in the eighth before stopping him in the tenth. Holmes moved to 47-0 afterwards and bey, having lost for the first time in his career, went on to lose his next 3 fights. Bey may well have just been guilty of mistiming things…

Bey may never have fought for a world title again, but he continued to fight champions. His loss in the ring to Holmes did, however, shatter his confidence and he was never the same fighter though it opened doors for him to face Trevor Berbick – stopped in the 11th round – in 1985 when he lost his USBA title, James “Bonecrusher” Smith – unanimous decision loss over 10 rounds – in 1986, the UK’s Joe Bugner – another points loss in Australia – in 1986 and Johnny Du Ploy – in South Africa, knocked out in the 9th round of a scheduled 10 – which is not a bad CV, or run through the best fighters of the era, though he was not to win any of them, he was to provide them with tough contests.

But he went out with a win, in China when he beat David Jaco on points over 12 rounds in 1993.

With only one world title opportunity, it would be easy for some to scoff at his record; but not those who are at the heart of boxing. Anyone who laces a glove deserves respect. Anyone who won an NABF title, deserves even more and any guy who came that close to the world title deserves even more than that. In fact, any guy who takes a loss at that level and gets back up, gets back in the ring and provides for his family deserves all the respect you have left, and Bey managed to do that and some.

His final contest was on a construction site where he died in an industrial accident, being hit by a steel sheet, that left his family grieving a man, who at 60, was still taken away far too young. His boxing career is not garnered with baubles, but his legacy was to contribute to an era – the 80’s – which was a golden time for a sport that is valued more highly because of his presence amongst it. His name shines amongst the greats of the sport and though he never found a way past them he lives comfortably within them.