The Toughman Contest
, founded in 1979 in Bay City, Michigan by boxing promoter Art Dore, is a chance for the novice amateur fighters (those with no more than 5 sanctioned wins in the past 5 years) to test themselves in the ring.
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TOUGHMAN CONTEST TICKETS
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Format
Using standard boxing rules, 16 oz. gloves, headgear, and 3 rounds of 1 minute with a 60-second rest period,
The Original Toughman Contest
plays across the US in between 75 and 100 cities each year and culminates with the World Championship which in 2008 was held at Sam's Town Casino in Tunica, MS.
Tournaments feature the local residents of a particular city (generally, participants must live within 100-150 mile radius of where the event is to be held) who are at least 18 years of age, pass a standard boxing physical, and meet any other requirements of the State's Boxing Commissions' regulations, and also sign a waiver freeing the parent company from liability. The waiver is mentioned because the rare safety issues have attracted unfavorable press reports. Since 1979, according to the Journal of Combative Sports, professional boxing accounts for 68% of boxing deaths, while both the Original Toughman Contest and other contests using the elimination tournament format comprise only 1 % of all boxing deaths (Since its inception in 1979, the Original Toughman Contest has had only seven deaths while derivative contests account for a known 10, according to the Journal.)
[1] Some states, like Florida and Missouri do not sanction Toughman but do license mixed martial arts - or cage fighting- an event many people confuse with the Original Toughman Contest.
The Original Toughman Contest is often mistaken with other elimination tournaments and therefore bears the media brunt for those contests which sometimes illegally use the trademarked name, or derivatives of it. Toughman holds events only in states that have rules or state code permitting the format.
Competitors
Toughman made Art Dore a celebrity and generated a
Twentieth Century Fox movie called
Tough Enough which starred
Dennis Quaid and was about Dore and the boxing phenomenon he conceived after finding the crowds wanted to see ordinary people fight.
Toughman alumni include
Mr. T;
Tommy Morrison;
Eric "Butterbean" Esch; and from the fall of 2006, the winner of the "Contender Television Series," the former Lawton, OK Toughman Contest Champion,
Grady "Bad Boy" Brewer. Among them is also
Maine State Representative
Chris Greeley, who fought in 1996, and who was recently elected to a third term in the
Maine House of Representatives. One special group of celebs are the "fighting Brown family from Tennessee." The only family in Toughman's three decades of shows, to have three sons win championships: Melvin "Lawdawg" Brown, Josh "Downtown" Brown, and little brother, "Bushido" Brown. Father Mel Brown also held a Toughman Contest for soldiers in Iraq.
World Championships
Dore started doing world championships again in 2003
1994 World Champion -Eric Esch aka Butterbean
2003 Champion -Daniel White
2005 World Championship Results
Aubrey Bickerstaff (14-0 5 ko's) is the 2005 World Toughman Light-Heavyweight Champion by defeating Ryan Carroll (13-3 9 ko's)
Glen Sovich (record unknown) is the 2005 World Toughman Heavyweight Champion by defeating Ray Carpenter (8-2)
2006 World Championship Results
Joshua Brown (38-3) is the 2006 World Light-Heavyweight Toughman Champion by defeating Mike Tufariello (record unknown) via Unanimous Decision
Lee McGinnis (15-1) is the 2006 World Heavyweight Toughman Champion by defeating Devo Devuono (30-4) via KO in the 2nd round
2008 State Championship Results
Zar Syed (39-0) is the 2009 State Welterweight Champion with 3 knockouts, one occurring at the state championship in Bay City, Michigan.
Aubrey Bickerstaff (19-0) defeated Jamal Rogers to win the Light-Heavyweight title
Lee McGinnis (20-1) is the 2008 World Heavyweight Toughman Champion by defeating Darrell Ellis (record unknown) via Unanimous Decision.This is Lee McGinnis second straight World Heavyweight Toughman Championship.
References
- "Death under the Spotlight: The Manuel Velazquez Collection", ''Journal of Combative Sport''.[1]