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| USA Tuesday Night Fights | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Anthony Giordano Lenny Stucker |
| Starring | Al Albert Angelo Dundee (1982-1984) Randy Gordon (1984-1987) Sean O'Grady (1987-1998) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Production company | USA Network |
| Original release | |
| Release | October 1, 1982 (1982-10-01) – August 25, 1998 (1998-08-25) |
USA Tuesday Night Fights (also known asFriday Night Boxing,Wednesday Night Fights, andThursday Night Fights) is a televisionboxing show. It aired from October 1, 1982 to August 25, 1998 on theUSA Network; at one time it was the longest-running boxing show on television. The show debuted on October 1, 1982, and was originally calledFriday Night Boxing, which aired from 1982 to 1984, and then in 1984, the boxing program moved to Wednesday nights and was calledWednesday Night Fights, which aired from 1984 to 1986, and in 1986, the boxing program moved to Thursday nights, and was calledThursday Night Fights, which aired from 1986 to 1990. In 1987, the boxing program finally moved to Tuesday nights, and the show was calledTuesday Night Fights.
USA Tuesday Night Fights was hosted byAl Albert, who co-hosted with boxing commentaries, first byMuhammad Ali trainerAngelo Dundee, who co-hosted with Albert from 1982 to 1984, and then, byRandy Gordon, who co-hosted with Albert from 1984 to 1987, and finally, by former championSean O'Grady, who co-hosted with Albert from 1987 until the show's ending in 1998.Bill Macatee was often a substitute commentator for Albert. The show did not employ a regular ring announcer, but several high-profile announcers such as HBO'sMichael Buffer, Showtime'sJimmy Lennon, Jr., Philadelphia boxing staple Ed Derian, and futureBattleBots announcer Mark Beiro were featured with Derian and Beiro featured more frequently as the years went on.
The program was sponsored byBudweiser, and often referred to on air asBudweiser Presents USA Tuesday Night Fights.Pabst Blue Ribbon was also a sponsor of the program, continuing a tradition of the Pabst company sponsoring televised boxing matches. Like some of its similar fellow boxing programs,Tuesday Night Fights did not always emanate from large arenas. Instead, cards usually took place in smaller venues, such asThe Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, theFelt Forum/Paramount Theater atMadison Square Garden in New York, or the ballroom ofCasino Magic inBay St. Louis, Mississippi.Tuesday Night Fights would also not limit itself to American venues, as they traveled toEngland,Mexico, and other places to televise shows. One show even took place aboard an aircraft carrier.
Few world title fights were presented in this show, one of the notable ones being whenVinny Pazienza, a former world Lightweight champion, moved up in weight and captured theWBA world Jr. Middleweight championship with an eleventh-round knockout ofGilbert Dele. Pazienza would ultimately relinquish the title following a car accident the following year. Written off from boxing by doctors after the accident, Pazienza would return to the ring with a win over Luis Santana, a fight which also aired onTuesday Night Fights.
Another title fight aired by USA was the 1988IBFfeatherweight title bout between defending championCalvin Grove and contenderJorge Paez that took place inMexicali,Mexico. The fight was significant in that it was the last ever title match scheduled for 15 rounds. The fight went the distance, with Paez earning a majority decision.
On March 19, 1996, USA featured a bout betweenJeremy Williams and Arthur Weathers as the headline of their show broadcast from the Spruce Goose Dome in Williams' home of Long Beach, California. Williams, at the time a rising heavyweight contender, dropped Weathers with an uppercut almost immediately after the bell rang to start the contest and refereeMarty Denkin called a halt to the contest after ten seconds, which was erroneously referred to as a world record for quickest knockout (although it remains one of the fastest ever).
On March 18, 1997, USA saw what is officially the world's quickest knockout. The bout between heavyweightsJimmy Thunder andCrawford Grimsley lasted only 1.5 seconds after Thunder caught Grimsley with a right hook to the head that sent him to the canvas.
BothGeorge Foreman andLarry Holmes were frequently featured onTuesday Night Fights as they began to return after their initial retirements. Both fighters' comeback fights were aired on USA, and Holmes fought on a semi-regular basis on the program until he declared, on air, in 1996 that he would not likely fight again unless he could secure a title match.
A future opponent of Holmes,Butterbean, received some of his earliest exposure as a professional fighter by fighting several four rounders onTuesday Night Fights.
Roberto Durán was another fixture onTuesday Night Fights later in his career, and his 100th professional bout was carried by USA.
Tuesday Night Fights also showcased the bizarre from time to time. Among these was a fight from former pro football starMark Gastineau's controversial boxing career which saw him lose to a journeyman fighter,Andrew Golota's infamous fight againstSamson Po'uha in 1995 which saw the Polish fighter, who appeared frequently onTuesday Night Fights, bite the neck of his opponent, a fight betweenRiddick Bowe and Elijah Tillery where Tillery was disqualified for kicking the future world champion and Bowe responded by knocking him out of the ring, and a bizarre fight betweenSharmba Mitchell andBazooka Limon where the former champion Limon pulled Mitchell's trunks down during the action.
Many other world champions fought on this show, whether as prospects or later in their careers. This included names such asOscar de La Hoya,Floyd Mayweather Jr.,Roy Jones Jr.,Arturo Gatti,Fernando Vargas,Hector Camacho,Tony Tubbs andAntonio Tarver.Pay Per View bouts were also rebroadcast on the show such asJulio César Chávez's eighth-round knockout win overJoey Gamache, which was televised by the show, but as a Pay Per View feature only.
On April 9, 1998, USA Network founderKay Koplovitz, who served as head of the USA Network since 1977 and who was instrumental in the USA Network's programming structure, left the network, with new overall USA Network ownerBarry Diller taking her positions as chairman and CEO.[1][2] After taking Koplovitiz's CEO position, Diller made plans to cut at least $40 million from the USA Network's massive budget, which had been criticized for overspending on content which was not deemed feasible.[1] In August 1998, USA Tuesday Night Fights was cancelled after programming changes were made and budget cuts reduced the ability to broadcast fights.[3]
In June 2006,CSI Sports, through itsFIGHT SPORTS division, began airing a compilation of some of the best knockouts from theTuesday Night Fights series titledUSA Tuesday Night Fights: Knockouts! on pay-per-view. Narrated byWashington Redskins play-by-play man Larry Michael, the sixty-minute series featured various fights from throughout the years. One of the segments featured on the show was called "In Case You Missed It...", this segment featured some memorable moments from "Tuesday Night Fights", another segment called "KO Time", featuring very quick knockouts that were a big hit with the fans, and "Who Won This One?", the segment features the last fight of the program. It is promoted several times during the broadcast, and viewers are encouraged to pick which of the two men won the bout.. Reruns of this series air across the country on various sports channels, includingMSG Plus.
TheTuesday Night Fights: Knockouts! series was also released on DVD in a two-volume box set.
CSI later came out with a series calledWide World of Fights, which has a much broader scope and includesmixed martial arts,kickboxing, and othercombat sports footage in addition to some of the fights that were originally part of theTuesday Night Fights compilation series. This series also airs on many of the same stations that carryTuesday Night Fights: Knockouts!. CSI also airs old episodes ofTuesday Night Fights as part of itsFight Sports World Championship Boxing series, which rebroadcasts fights from the past.