Ever heard of heavyweight boxer Lamar Clark, of Utah? Probably not, but 60 plus years ago Clark, born in Cedar City, Utah, was briefly a hot commodity in the sport. The heavyweight, who fought mostly in Northern Utah, including Ogden, scored 44 consecutive knockouts, including six in one night! Not all the KOs were sanctioned, although most likely shouldn't have been as Clark, after scoring a decision win in his first bout, fought a long array of novice fighters whom he destroyed. His official record was 43-3 with 42 KOs. He was managed by Marv Jenson, who helmed world middleweight champ, Gene Fullmer, and his brother, contender Don Fullmer. I often wonder why Jenson allowed Clark to fatten his record with nop-hopers, but perhaps Jenson knew Clark was overhyped and wanted to give him a big payday. The great Jack Dempsey is in the above photo with Clark.
Unfortunately, the Clark hype ended at 42-0 at Weber High School, in Ogden, on April 8, 1960. In a nationally televised bout, designed to introduce Clark to the nation, the undefeated was stopped in the ninth round by New York City's Bartoli Soni, 12-2-1, a prospect who had just lost in Madison Square Garden. Clark started well but ran out of gas late.
A couple of months later Clark, seeking to rebound, invited former Olympics heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher, who had unwisely challenged current heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in his pro debut. The battering Rademacher received affected his entire career, and he faced the 42-1 Clark with a shaky 6-3-1 record. It was a rare easy bout for Rademacher as he battered the way overrated Utah slugger around the ring, flooring him early toying with Clark through the bout before stopping him late in the final round 10. (Photo and article on the fight is below)
At this point, most boxing observers gave up on Clark. To his credit, though, Lamar attempted a comeback, scoring a KO win in Las Vegas in March 1961. In April 1961, Clark traveled to Louisville, Ky., to face Olympics champion turned young pro Cassius Clay, who would later of course change his name to Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
It was a dreadful mismatch, Clay, 5-0, stopped Clark 97 seconds into the second round. YouTube claims to have a partial recording of the bout, but I'm skeptical it is Clay versus Clark. The broadcast claims there is a fourth round. However, that could be a video typo. In the fight, "Clark" seems game but is hopelessly overmatch. In the comments, a Dave C says he knew Clark in the late 80s and describes the retired boxer as "a cheerful, kind man who spoke highly of Ali."
Clark retired after the Ali bout. There was talk of him moving to light heavyweight to compete but that never occurred. He died at at age 72 in 2006 in South Jordan, UT.
Enjoy this montage of newspaper clippings, courtesy of NewspaperArchives.com, of Clark's career. Three, of course, are placed above. The Utah Fight Game blog hopes to do a series of prominent Utah boxers periodically over the next year.
