Rocky Lockridge 1959-2019

A  loudmouthed drunk was harassing a short man. They were in a parking lot outside a New Jersey convenience store, with a small audience enjoying the show. Of course, someone was recording the whole thing for YouTube, because that's our world now.

The short fellow, dressed in bright red pants and a pink shirt, took the abuse for a moment. Then, amid cries of "Don't do it champ!" he threw a blinding quick left-right to the drunk's face, knocking him to the sidewalk hard.  With onlookers shouting, "Out cold!" the drunk lay still. One of his buddies pretended to count him out. It all seemed like good fun for a bunch of guys drinking Ripple out of paper sacks, but another inch or two and the knockout victim would've cracked his head against a brick wall. The next day's news headline would've been 'Former boxing champion Rocky Lockridge kills man in sidewalk altercation.' 

Lockridge got a break, though. The drunk's head didn't hit the wall.

It was a rare bit of luck for Lockridge, who died recently at age 60. When it came to lucky breaks, he didn't get many of those in his life.

Even in the ring, where he was damned good, he often seemed like a hard-luck character in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had a penchant for coming out on the short end of  split decisions, usually in the other guy's hometown. The worst was in 1985 when Rocky went to San Juan, Puerto Rico to defend his junior lightweight title against Wilfredo Gomez. Lockridge was beautiful that day; he won at least 10 out of 15 rounds. But Gomez was a star in Puerto Rico, and the judges gave the whole plate to him. 

How might Lockridge's career have turned out if the judges had seen it his way?

Maybe he would've stayed out of trouble. Maybe he would've avoided the drugs that brought him down. 

Then again, maybe he was just doomed to walk that walk.

It was common knowledge that Lockridge spent most of the 2000s living rough on the streets of Camden. Like so many fighters of the 1980s, he was a drug addict. It didn't make sense. He wasn't a wild man like the others we occasionally heard about. He was little Rocky Lockridge, always polite, quick with a smile. 

But we really didn't know that much about him. Not really.

He was  a wiry guy with shoulders that seemed extra wide, and his fighting style was a mix of standard upright boxing sprinkled with the occasional barroom haymaker. This lapse into brawling endeared him to the fans in the cheap seats, and made him a favorite on television. He fought during the sunset of boxing's network era, so when we think of his name, we think of it being barked out by Marv Albert on NBC's Sportsworld. We think of him being interviewed by the fight doctor, Ferdie Pacheco. We think of his colorful trainers, Lou Duva and George Benton.When Rocky won, he'd jump into Duva's arms, looking like a child leaping onto the hood of a moving truck.

Because he had so many tough losses, we forget the wins. And he certainly had his share. Roger Mayweather was the undefeated WBA super featherweight champion when he met Lockridge in Beaumont, Texas on February 26, 1984. Using the same right hand that kept him undefeated in parking lots, Lockridge left Mayweather on the canvas like a pile of rubble. It took 98 seconds. By the time Lockridge quit boxing in 1992, he'd won 44 of 53 fights, 36 of them by KO. 

Within a few years he was busted twice for burglary. He got out of prison in 1999 and spent some years drifting.

By 2009 he was in such dire straights that his family ambushed him on one of those grotesque reality shows where loved ones try to convince drug addicts to get help. He wailed and cried, and it was all quite a big deal, because the type of deep pain that churned inside Rocky turned out to be good show business. His crying jag caromed across the internet, putting him into a viral hall of fame with the talking dogs and piano playing cats. But as odd as it was to see Lockridge reduced to an  internet meme, this began a road to recovery. He had a few good years, and we hope they were happy ones, before his health started giving out. There were strokes and other problems; he ended up in hospice care, wired up with feeding tubes. 

Two weeks ago his family took him off life support.

It was the first real break he'd had in a long time.

- Don Stradley