His pedestrian 26-8-4 record included losses to George Foreman, Mike Weaver, Ron Lyle, and Duane Bobick, but draws against Leon Spinks and Ken Norton (along with the Boudreaux robbery) suggested that LeDoux was more than just another homespun local hero.Įven for his longshot chance at history, LeDoux remained grassroots. Before that, LeDoux had a reputation as a limited but scrappy bruiser who would fight anyone. LeDoux was referring to the win that finally got him a shot at the most important title in sports (even the tarnished post-Ali version): a ten-round decision over undefeated Marty Monroe that aired on NBC. I shut them up once, I’ll shut them up again.” “A lot of people used to say LeDoux can’t win. “In my heart, I know I can beat Larry Holmes,” he told AP. This, after all, was a fighter who had sobbed in his dressing room after more than one loss and who had ambushed Boudreaux long after the final bell had rung. Only Scott LeDoux disagreed with such pessimism. The long ring walk might as well have been a march to the gallows, a stutter-step to the flagstone wall where a firing squad awaited, a sad shuffle to the bobbing edge of a gangplank, mid-squall, perhaps. For now, however, the ham-and-egger from Crosby, Minnesota, far from the fighting hotspots of Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, or Atlantic City, was the latest designated victim for the undefeated Holmes. In a few years, Ledoux would wind up in the wilting AWA, the Minneapolis-based grunt-and-groan outfit on the verge of demise, where he would referee some of the clumsy action (snapmare, collar-and-elbow, chinlock, sunset flip, spinning toehold, wheelbarrow) before finally feuding with Larry “The Living Legend” Zbyszko.
Championships Tournament, a Don King supercon sold to ABC TV with the help of his bold backroom henchmen Paddy Flood and Al Braverman and a crooked assist from The Ring and its editorial quisling, Johnny (Bought) Ort. That was in 1977, during the rotten-to-the-core U.S. In the ensuing chaos, Cosell saw his hairpiece zapped from his dome-almost Looney Tunes style-as if he had stuck his finger in an electrical outlet. Leaning through the ropes, “The Fighting Frenchman” swiped at Boudreaux, setting off a melee witnessed by millions of viewers across the country. Boudreaux was in the early stages of an interview with George Foreman and Cosell when Ledoux struck, unexpectedly, from the ring apron.
After losing a debatable unanimous decision to Johnny Boudreaux, a seething LeDoux lashed out at the nefarious forces so familiar, even then, in boxing. Until the lead-up to his challenge of Larry Holmes, in a title fight that was simultaneously off-the-boards and off-the-wall, Scott LeDoux was best known for having thrown a fit on national television, one that culminated in Howard Cosell wrestling with his own mutinous toupee at ringside.
I’m a truck driver with a clean shirt on.” Scott LeDoux The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrisonįor the good old American life: For the money, for the glory, and for the fun … mostly for the money.