The Heavyweights, the long-time glamour division of all combat sports, where all it takes is just one strike at any moment for the bout to be over. And March 18th 1997 would be no exception.
Broadcast on USA Tuesday Night Fights from the IMA Sports Arena in Flint, Michigan would be a heavyweight clash between 20-1 (18 KO’s) Crawford ‘The Terminator’ Grimsley of Sunrise, Florida and former Australian Heavyweight Title holder 31-7 (25 KO’s) James Thunder from Auckland, New Zealand.
James Thunder was coming off a split decision loss in January of that year to John Ruiz for the NABF Heavyweight title while Crawford’s last bout in November 96 was a unanimous decision loss to the hands of Big George Foreman for the WBU and IBA Heavyweight titles. This also marked the first and only defeat of Crawford’s pro career.
It goes without saying neither fighter wanted to leave their fate in the hands of the judges on this night.
The bell rings and just 1.5 seconds into Round 1 ‘The Terminator’ is dropped by a thunderous overhand right from the Samoan juggernaut and counted out by referee Monte Oswald making the official time 0:13 seconds – and making it the fastest KO in Heavyweight boxing history, that once again reminds us that that all it takes is just one punch.
Despite this impressive performance by ‘The Man from Down Under’ James Thunder would go on to only win 3 of his next 10 bouts retiring in 2002 with a record 34-14. Over his 13 year career he held the IBO, OPBF, WBC International WBC Continental, IBF and Australian Heavyweight Title championship belts.
‘The Terminator’ Crawford Grimsley would sporadically compete over the next 5 years going 2-2-1 and retiring with a professional record of 22-4-1 having held the WBC Federation Heavyweight strap.
