The Complexity of Dickie Eklund

By Ted Sares: There is any number of reasons to know something about former boxer Dickie Eklund (19-9), not the least of which is that he is the half-brother of Irish Micky Ward. After Eklund’s boxing career ended, he became Ward’s full-time trainer for 26 fights, from Ward’s professional debut in 1985 until his first retirement in 1991. Three of Micky’s post-retirement fights were voted fight of the year by Ring Magazine. Eklund served as Ward’s trainer until his retirement after his third fight with Arturo Gatti on June 7, 2003.

Dickie also was a great amateur fighter and was tagged as a sure-shot professional star. In a 1978 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard that went the 10-round distance, Dickie, after having been decked by Leonard, scored what looked like a half punch-half push that floored Ray in round nine. Dickie nonchalantly walked over Ray and the partisan Boston crowd roared its approval. .But the referee said it was not a knockdown, though most observers disagreed. Still, it was a Rocky-like performance by the popular fighter from hardscrabble Lowell, Mass. In fact, Eklund became known as “The Pride of Lowell. But most of us know all this, and we also know that the 2010 award winning biopic The Fighter is based on the two brothers’ fall and rise to the boxing title.

But not all of Dickie’s life has been positive–quite the contrary. HBO documented Eklund’s life for a period of 18 months. The resulting 1995 documentary titled High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, followed Eklund and other crack addicts as their lives spiraled out of control. The documentary ends with Eklund being sentenced to prison for several different crimes. He was paroled in 1999.

After the aforementioned Gatti-Ward trilogy and the well-received movie, things took a decidedly better turn for the brothers. Dick now works as a personal trainer and boxing coach in the Boston area and also is a sought after motivational speaker.

Dickie Eklund is as complex a person as you will ever come across. But during two fights in Halifax, Canada in 1981, there were some things that occurred that revealed still another side to his makeup.

Alan Clarke vs. Eklund: 1981

Hidden in Eklund’s dossier was a particularly interesting and somewhat revealing fight at the Metro Center in Halifax, Canada in 1981. Dickie met tough Allen Clarke (20-4-1 coming in). The referee was one Honey Carvery. After a back and forth battle during the first 8 rounds, Eklund maneuvered his Canadian foe into a corner and launched an overhand right. He then unloaded a devastating gut shot that caused the stunned Clarke’s hands to come down. Dick immediately shot a left hook upstairs and Clarke was out on his feet. But it didn’t end there as the referee failed to smother Dickie’s unrestrained attack of 8 or 9 rights and lefts at full speed. Dickie had free shots at Clark’s unprotected head before Alan sank to the canvass unconscious. The crown was aghast and horrified. Clarke was lucky to have survived. Meanwhile, a concerned Dickie watched over Clark as he slowly recovered from the nonstop battering. This was Mercer-Morrison before Mercer-Morrison, but this may have been even worse. Eklund was visibly upset at the referee. Reportedly, he then grabbed the microphone from the ring announcer and said something to the effect,” I hope Alan is okay, nobody wants to see anyone hurt like that.”This would endear him to the Halifax fans.

Chris Clarke vs. Eklund: 1981

Two months later, Dickie fought Alan’s brother, the highly regarded Chris Clarke (22-1 at the time), again at the Metro Center. Clark had defeated Aaron Pryor in the amateurs and was the first Canadian boxer to ever win gold at the Pan American Games. Chris, the former Commonwealth (British Empire) welterweight title holder, had also split two with the rugged world title contender Clyde Gary.

After a slow start, Dickie picked up the pace and trapped Chris on the ropes in the 8th and it appeared a repeat of the Alan Clarke massacre was in the offing, but for some reason Dickie deliberately backed off and let Clarke off the hook. Still, it appeared to everyone but two of the judges that Dickie had done more than enough to win. However, he shockingly “lost” a highly controversial split decision. Even though the fight was in Halifax, the crowd roundly booed the decision. It was as if the fight had been held in Lowell. Many observers (including the announcers and myself) felt Dickie may have held back too much and that the earlier fight with Alan Clark may have impacted his psyche. Curiously, before the decision was announced, Dickie and Alan (who was in his brother’s corner) hugged each other in mutual respect.

As for referee Honey Carvery, he worked on for several more years in Halifax but my memory of him is not a positive one.