Best I Faced: Randall Bailey

The devastating power of Randall Bailey helped him win world titles in two weight classes, first as a complete unknown in the late 1990s and then again as a seasoned veteran 13 years later, when, trailing on the scorecards, he proved that he still had dynamite in his gloves.

Bailey was born near Miami, Florida, on September 13, 1974. His parents weren’t together and he was brought up by his mother and older sister.

“I started in Liberty City, and in 1981 we moved to Carol City (a neighborhood in Miami Gardens). Growing up, it was rough,” Bailey told The Ring. “A lot of drugs, poverty. I see now what it was, but as a kid you don’t pay attention. You think that’s normal. My sister was like my bodyguard; she did all the fighting. She didn’t play no games.”

As a youngster, Bailey and his friend passed a boxing gym while on a bus, and he was intrigued. When he was 13, he was invited to try it out.

“On my first day at the gym, I learned to throw a jab and a right hand. On my second day at the gym, I was sparring with someone who had five fights already,” he recalled. “All I was doing was using my jab and right hand, and I was pretty much dominating him with that after being in the gym two days.”

Bailey had just 19 amateur fights, going 15-4. 

“I really didn’t train a lot as an amateur,” he said. “I would go train, and stop, and my trainer would call and me: ‘We got fights next week.’ I’d be like, ‘OK, I’m coming to the gym.’ So, I’d train for a week … (laughs) … to get ready for a fight at the end of the week.”

Bailey didn’t initially finish school, though he later went back and completed his high-school diploma. In the meantime, he had some run-ins with the law in his late teens.

“I had little odd jobs, but I was on the streets – I was a street kid,” he said. “I was doing all types of nonsense, playing with guns, that could have got me killed or in jail.”

Bailey spent a day in jail for being caught in possession of a gun in 1993. He was caught a second time in the summer of 1995, which meant a two-month stay, and he knew he needed to make some changes to his life.

“When I got out of jail and I ended up finding a job, I’m making freaking 200-some dollars every two weeks – that wasn’t what it was gonna be,” he said. “I had to get it together, real quick.”

Years earlier, Bailey had become friends with Freddie Pendleton, who was the IBF lightweight champion in the early 1990s. Pendleton recognized Bailey’s prowess.

“He took me under his wing and he always told me whenever I was ready to be serious, let him know,” he explained. “Upon getting out of jail and finding a job I didn’t like, I ended up quitting that job and calling him, and he brought me right in. I started training with him in camp when he was getting ready for a fight with Felix Trinidad.”

Bailey weighs in alongside Rocky Martinez ahead of their April 2000 fight in Paris. Bailey defended his WBO 140-pound title for the second time with a sixth-round stoppage. (Photo by Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images)

Bailey, who made $250 for his professional debut, scored a first-round knockout over Fernando Granda in April 1996. He reeled off 12 wins, all inside the distance, before signing with Don King in the fall of 1997 and fighting on the undercard of Vince Phillips’ IBF title defense against Pendleton (Bailey scored a first-round TKO).

He continued to rack up the wins until a big opportunity came his way in May 1999.

“Vince Phillips was supposed to get that fight with [WBO 140-pound titleholder] Carlos Gonzalez, but something happened with him and they needed a replacement, and I guess they wanted to find someone local,” he recalled. “Everybody in the Don King office was like, ‘Give it to Randall.’ They loved me in the office. When Don King used to do shows in Miami, I would actually work. I would drive the van and pick fighters up at the airport, take them to the hotel – I did that kind of stuff and nobody knew who I was. 

“On a different occasion, Carlos Gonzalez’s people had come down and I drove for them. When they found out I was a fighter, they were like, ‘Let us fight the driver.’ (laughs) But this wasn’t one of those Mexican cab drivers they thought it was gonna be! (laughs) Don was a little suspicious at first. He didn’t want to do it. I was like, ‘Do it.’ My trainer was like, ‘Do it.’ Everybody in the office was like, ‘Give Randall the shot.’ And he went ahead and did it. I was 18-0 (18 knockouts). I was ready. I was ranked in the top 10. I took that fight with two weeks’ notice. 

“Record-wise, he was the best guy I had fought, but I fought opponents that really came to fight. I saw tapes of this guy and I already knew I was going to knock this guy out. I thought it would go four or five [rounds].” 

It didn’t take that long. Bailey landed a huge left hook that nearly decapitated the defending champion in the opening round. After hitting the canvas hard, Gonzalez tried to make it to his feet but was clearly in no position to continue and was rescued by the referee after just 41 seconds had elapsed. 

Bailey would make two defenses of his belt against former title challengers Hector Lopez (TKO 9) and Rocky Martinez (RTD 6). In hindsight, however, Bailey wishes he’d taken more time off and feels that contributed to him surprisingly losing his title and unbeaten record in his third defense.

“I fought December against Lopez and April Martinez, and in July I’m fighting [Ener] Julio,” he explained. “You’ve got to remember, in the Martinez fight, my hand was messed up. 

“I was knocking them out. I guess they felt I could keep going. After the Ener Julio fight, the first knuckle on my right hand had swollen so big I had to go to the hospital and they had to drain it.”

He got back on the horse with four wins (all of his victories still inside the distance) before losing to Diosbelys Hurtado (TKO 7). Soon after that, he failed to regain his old WBO title against the tricky DeMarcus Corley (UD 12).

“Life started to set in,” he admitted. “I was trying to change up my style a little bit, because they had figured me out.”

Bailey was outpointed up at welterweight by Ishe Smith (UD 12) before losing to WBO junior welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto (TKO 6), both in 2004. 

Bailey takes a swing at Mike Jones during their IBF welterweight title fight in June 2012. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

“I really didn’t start to learn boxing fully until after the Cotto fight,” he said. “After the Cotto fight, I really had to have a mirror talk with myself, and I said to myself, ‘If I don’t find somebody that can teach me what I need to know, I probably should retire.’ 

“I found that somebody was Norman Wilson. After the Cotto fight, I fought one time and then I took a whole year off. I spent that time in the gym with Norman – training, drilling, learning – and he showed me and got me back to where I understood what I was doing.”

The result was a more well-rounded Bailey who went 11-1 in his next dozen fights, including an eight-round decision victory over Corley. He then met Juan Urango for the IBF 140-pound title in August 2009. Bailey put up a gallant effort but was stopped in the penultimate round.

It prompted him to step up to welterweight, where he stayed active and was presented with a fight against the younger, bigger Mike Jones for the vacant IBF title on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley in Las Vegas in June 2012.

However, while he had plenty of notice for the fight, Bailey’s training camp was far from ideal. His trainer at that point was John David Jackson, who had several other fighters and wasn’t able to give Bailey the attention he needed.

“All I knew in my head was if he gives me one opportunity to hit him, I’m going to knock him out.”

“I pretty much trained myself. I had my agent, Chico Rivas, bring all my gym equipment to my house and put it in my garage,” he revealed. “I basically did most of my training at home in my garage, just getting my body strong, and would just go to the gym for sparring. I knew I would be strong and there wasn’t going to be too much he could do to hurt me.”

At 37 years old, Bailey was a 4-to-1 underdog, but he remained focused on the task in hand.

“All I knew in my head was if he gives me one opportunity to hit him, I’m going to knock him out,” he said. “I told everybody I was going to knock him out, and he gave me the opportunity when he slowed down. I knew he was going to move a lot after the first round when I grazed him and he took off on me. I knew he was going to stay away and move a lot.”

Bailey was widely behind and needed a knockout as the klaxon signaled the final 10 seconds of Round 10. He threw a jab followed by a booming right hand down the middle that dropped Jones flat on his back. The younger man made it to his feet and the bell sounded to end the round. 

“I knew his trainer had a big ego and would send him out to come to me [in Round 11] like he was back in control. I kind of baited him in a little bit and threw a wild right hand because I knew he was going to block it. When he was coming back, he’s throwing his jab with his chin tucked inside his jab. I let him do his pitty-pat thing, and when he threw the jab out there, I was setting him up to slip and hit him with the uppercut, because I knew he’d be sitting there for it. And that was it.”

Jones walked into the power-punch and was dropped heavily. He tried to make his way to his feet but was rescued by referee Tony Weeks.

“Me, my manager, Si Stern, my lawyer, we went and got something to eat,” Bailey said of the aftermath. “We sat around for a little while, and then I went upstairs and got on the phone. (laughs) I think I had over 100 text messages, over 100 voicemails. I think I was trying to reply to everybody.”

Meanwhile, the struggle to make 147 pounds was all too apparent.

“If I couldn’t get the Pacquiao fight, I would move up,” he said. “I had some friends of mine reach out to Bob Arum, and he basically hung up the phone. 

“My mandatory was coming up and would have been Kell Brook. Nobody was screaming to fight me. My intention was to move up to 154 and fight the IBF champion, which would have been [Cornelius] “K9″ Bundrage at the time, but they had other plans for me.”

Bailey vs. Devon Alexander. (Photo by Naoki Fukuda)

Ultimately, Bailey fought Devon Alexander for a career-high $500,000. Alexander used his youth and skills to stay away from the power and claimed the title by lopsided 12-round unanimous decision.

Bailey forged ahead and won three fights before heading to Australia to face future titlist Jeff Horn in April 2016 – again at 147 pounds.

“I had just come back from jogging, trying to get the last pound-and-a-half off. I got in the shower, got out of the shower to get on the scale to check my weight, and as I was getting on the scale I fainted right there,” he said. “I could hear them in the background, but I was out. They laid me on the bed. I couldn’t say anything. Eventually I came back, I started sipping water so I could make the weight. I still fought despite all of that.

“That was my last fight. They weren’t going to give me any fights at 154 … I even had a fight signed in Russia. After I started training and as the weight started to come off, I started to feel really sick. I said, ‘I escaped one time, just passing out, this time it may kill me.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to kill myself to make this weight. I cannot do it.’ And I ended up pulling out of the fight.”

He stayed true to his word and retired with a record of 46-9 (39 knockouts).

Bailey, now 49, is married, has four children and three grandchildren and happily lives in Hampton, Georgia, where he works a day job as a Biohazard truck driver.

He graciously took time to speak to The Ring about the best he fought in 10 key categories.

BEST JAB

Mike Jones: “I think it was his size, because he was so big it took me a while to get to him like I wanted to. I didn’t knock him out until the 11th round, and how I knocked him out, I had to get by his jab. [The Jab] made getting closer to him a little difficult.”   

BEST DEFENSE

DeMarcus Corley: “In the first fight, he was a little slick. I was having a lot of problems adjusting to the southpaw stance. It was hard for me to hit him flush in the first fight.”

BEST FOOTWORK

Corley: “He was real slippery and able to get out the way. I couldn’t hit him like I wanted.”

FASTEST HANDS 

Devon Alexander: “Devon didn’t really throw for power; he was throwing for speed and moved out the way real quick. He was throwing to touch and escape.”

SMARTEST 

Miguel Cotto: “When I did get him in trouble, he basically retreated so he was able to get himself together, and he didn’t try to be real ballsy and show ego. He did what he had to do. He used his head.”

STRONGEST 

Cotto: “Cotto had a large bottom half, his legs and everything. He was real strong on the bottom, and that’s what made his body punches and inside attack so good.”

BEST CHIN

Ener Julio: “I would say he had a good chin, because when I hit him, I saw his head hit the ground before his knees did. (laughs) Normally nobody gets up from a shot like that, but he did, not once but twice, and I couldn’t put him away.”

BIGGEST PUNCHER

Diosbelys Hurtado: “He had sneaky power. He was fast and he had power and would definitely make you pay for mistakes.”

BEST BOXING SKILLS

Hector Lopez: “Hector was a smart, cagey veteran. He was doing things in the ring I hadn’t seen before, his movement and the way he threw his punches. He was hitting me with shots and I was saying to myself, ‘How’s he even hitting me?’ Hector went the distance with Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Angel Gonzalez – he fought these guys tooth and nail, life and death. Good skills.”

BEST OVERALL

Cotto: “His whole career. After we fought, you saw how he went to the next level. Out of all the guys I fought, I don’t think nobody has reached that pinnacle that Miguel reached. That’s why I would definitely have to give that accolade to him.”

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

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