Ricky Anderson

Ricky Anderson is a retired Canadian boxer, born in historic Africville, Nova Scotia. Anderson represented Canada at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and soon became a top amateur boxer, and later a champion professional boxer.

Biography

Olympic career

Making Canada's Olympic team was the biggest highlight of the young light-welterweights' up to that point. Later that year, Anderson won a gold medal in the light-welterweight division at the Acropolis Cup tournament in Athens, Greece before the Moscow Olympic boycott was announced. Ricky was unaware that politics ran so deeply in sports and he felt in his heart he would be going to Moscow. It never happened.

Amateur career

Yet, 1981 was another big year for Ricky, he won his fourth amateur Canadian Championship. Then, in Shreveport, La., he added the North American light-welterweight crown to his growing collection of gold medals by knocking out U.S. Champion James Mitchell, a former World Army Champion. Following the win over Mitchell, he was named Canadian athlete of the month for September by the Canadian Sports Federation. The stage was now set for the 1981 World Cup of Boxing in Montreal, he would battle for the world championship against Vasily Shyshev of the Soviet Union. Ricky said, he went into the fight a little overanxious. The first two rounds were close and Ricky would need to win the final round to win the fight. But Vasily Shyshev turned it on in the last round and won the fight. Ricky had knocked on the door of a world championship and just missed by a few punches.

Ricky had come to this point twice in his amateur career, losing in world championship bouts, in 1979 at the World Junior championship in Yokohama, Japan he lost a narrow decision in the gold medal round to a fighter from the Soviet Union.(Ricky was the first Canadian to win a Silver medal at that level.) But in light of those past performances, he was quite pleased with what he had achieved. His overall amateur record stands at 97 fights, with 85 wins and 12 losses.

Professional career

Though he would have liked to enter the pros with a world championship, Ricky felt the time was right to turn pro. People were looking for him to do great things as a pro. His entire amateur career had been scrutinized from every side and expectations were high. On ABC television, Chris Schenkel claimed that Anderson would be the next Sugar Ray Leonard. Perhaps as a result of the pressure, in his first five fights as a pro, Ricky failed to live up to these expectations. But under the direction of nis new trainer Rick MacDonald, in due time he was able to put some impressive wins on his record with victories over sturdy American fighters and veteran Canadian Johnny Herbert.

Growing impatient waiting to fight a named challenger, Ricky decided he would meet veteran Guerro Chavez of Montreal. Chavez had fought for a world title in a losing 15-round affair to then junior welter-weight champion Wilfred Benitez. Chavez was 32 years of age at the time of the fight. Anderson decided that if Chavez was 32 and he was 22, it would be no contest. Mid-way through the first round of the fight, Ricky pinned Chavez in the corner and threw fiercely. Although Chavez was in trouble, he shook it off. Out of instinct Chavez threw back and staggered Ricky to the ropes, dazed by a series of unanswered blows. The referee stopped the fight and, though noticeably disappointed, Ricky never complained and quickly returned to the gym the following week.

Ricky now faced another major test, unbeaten contender Jamie Ollenberger from Vancouver who was in search of a competitive fight. Ollenberger was rated the number two Canadian welterweight in the country. In terms of the Canadian ratings, a win over Ollenberger would erase any damage done by the loss to Chavez. In the fight Ricky pounded out a solid 10-round unanimous decision win over Ollenberger. It was more of a technical fight than a crowd-pleaser. The final round of the fight was probably the most exciting; with Ollenberger sensing he needed a knockout to win, he charged at Ricky at the sound of the bell. Not only did Ricky withstand Ollenberger's attack but he finished the fight with a flurry of punches. Without question the win over Ollenberger quickly put Ricky Anderson's career back on solid ground and let the champion, Davey Hilton, know that Ricky was on his way.

However, a Hilton fight would never come to pass. Before any talk of negotiation, Hilton decided he would not defend. He had made a public announcement stating that he was giving up the title for greener pastures. He was later stripped by the Canadian Professional Boxing Federation for failing to defend his crown as required by the federation. Ricky was going to receive a title fight sooner than he expected. With wins over the veteran Johnny Herbert and number-two ranked Jamie Ollenberger, the door was wide open for Ricky to avenge his only loss to number one ranked Guerro Chavez for the vacant Canadian Welterweight Championship.

In 1985, Ricky finally got what he was looking for—a crack at the Canadian Welterweight Boxing Championship. He was delighted by the fact that he was going to meet Guerrero Chavez in a rematch. Ricky said that the Chavez loss might have been the best thing to happen to him. It had opened his eyes and made him realize that he couldn't go in and take out a man like Guerro Chavez in one round. He had to go in, work hard and take his time. Before the fight, Chavez was a picture of confidence, blowing kisses to the ladies at ring-side, mugging for the cameras, and hamming it up for the crowd. This time, however, the ending would be different. This time Ricky would make no mistakes. Ricky fought a text-book fight, using a stinging right hand to up set up Chavez in the same corner where he had dominated Chavez in their previous fight. The end came quickly in the eighth round when Ricky delivered a straight left hand that put Chavez down. Chavez was obviously in no shape to continue. Ricky Anderson was the new Canadian welterweight champion, a dream come true for the Halifax native. The win was a double pleasure for Ricky, winning the title and avenging his only professional loss.

But the accolades and relaxation of winning the crown would not last long. Immediately after the Chavez fight, Ricky signed a Canadian Boxing Federation contract, agreeing to face a top contender within 90 days. It was time to get back to the drawing board. The leading candidates were Donnie Poole of Toronto and Laurie Mann of Vancouver. Poole and the number one ranked Mann were originally supposed to fight but Mann injured his hand and lost his ranking. Poole was now the number-one-ranked welter-weight in the country and got the contract. Poole's professional record was 24-2 with 17 KOs. He was managed by New Yorker David Wolf, a millionaire who had earned a reputation as one of the most powerful figures in boxing after guiding Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini to the world championship. Ricky would face the toughest opponent of his professional career.

Wolf came to town playing the heavy, firing off accusations in every direction to make him the central figure while Poole was in the United States with the best of sparring and training conditions. Somehow Ricky got directly involved in the promotions at home, a tiring exercise during which he spent much time fending off Wolf's outlandish charges. Poole entered the ring looking totally relaxed and prepared. Ricky felt supremely confident as his presence triggered a thunderous ovation from the thousands in attendance. The much awaited battle was underway. Ricky took control of the fight from the opening bell scoring well from inside and from a distance. He dominated the first seven rounds. In the fourth round, Ricky thought everybody would be going home early when he stunned Poole against the ropes and fired away with sharp lefts and rights. Although Poole was blocking most of the shots, some were getting through. He endured the punishment and emerged from the ropes to give Ricky a smile. Again in the fifth it appeared the fight might be stopped; the referee consulted Poole's corner in regards to the large gash over his left eye, at which time David Wolf frantically jumped onto the ring apron signalling to the referee not to interfere.

With the combination of Poole's constant punching and Ricky's own fast pace, he started to slow in the eight and ninth rounds. In the 10th round Poole caught Ricky with a left and followed with another left to drive him back to the ropes. He then opened up with shots from all angles, and with Ricky's legs bending, the referee stopped the fight. The official verdict was a technical knockout victory at 2:26 of round 10. But as was the case in Ricky's only other pro loss in 17 fights, he did not drop to the canvass when he was in trouble. Instead he tried to stay on his feet and weather the storm. After discussing the loss with trainer Rick MacDonald, Ricky decided he would stick his nose to the grindstone and move forward.

While Poole was admitted to the hospital for his injuries, Ricky flew directly to New Jersey with the intention of finding out how good he really was. He wanted to try his luck in American rings. After a few days of testing the New Jersey gyms, he decided to head to New York and the world famous Gleason's gymnasium.

Ricky made quite an impression at Gleason's, sparring with some of the world's most formidable fighters. However as fate would have it five months after winning the crown, Poole announced his retirement as a result of injuries he suffered during his fight with Ricky. The Canadian welterweight title was up for grabs again and this time Ricky would face veteran Johnny Herbert of Vancouver in the championship bout.

With a 7th-round TKO win already over Herbert, Ricky was confident he would regain the title. Herbert however vowed that he would be in the best shape of his career and he would devour Anderson like a lion. Not wanting to take the earlier win over Herbert for granted. Ricky flew back to New Jersey for training and when he left New Jersey, he was ready. When he entered the ring that night he pounded out an impressive twelve-round unanimous decision win over Herbert to regain the crown for a second time; he was overjoyed. After defending his title in a tough fight against knockout artist Denis Sigouin of Quebec and later beating Californian's Danny Cotez, Ricky retired from the ring as champion resulting from a stubborn knee injury.

Education

Following his boxing career, Ricky completed his education at Saint Mary's University and currently works as a Drug Prevention Specialist at Addiction Services in Dartmouth. NS. Today, the President of Go Ricky Motivational Services, the former CTV Atlantic Sportscaster and author of "Win in the Arena of Life" enjoys' spending time with his family and motivating others to succeed.

Hall of Fame Induction

In 1990, the 2 time Canadian Welterweight Champ was inducted to the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame, in 2003 to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and in 2007 to the Black Ice Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame.