Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2004-07-06, very entertaining fight between Courtney Burton and Emanuel Burton: this fight gets four stars and we want to thank “mattsnow81” who recommended this bout to us in the 2004 boxing ranking.Courtney Burton entered this fight with a pro boxing record of 20-2-0 (11 knockouts) while his opponent, Emanuel Augustus Burton, had an official record of 28-24-6 (14 knockouts). Both boxers had lost their previous bout: Courtney Burton was defeated by Julio Diaz (fight valid for the Ibf lightweight title eliminator) while Augustus lost to Tomas Barrientes by disqualification for cursing at the referee! Burton vs Augustus was the main event of the evening. Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2004-07-06
Where: LC Walker Arena, Muskegon, Michigan, USA
Division: lightweight (135 lbs, 61.2 kg)
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Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Thanks ATBF! What can I say except this fight had everything in it to be entertaining: A dancing boxer who brawls, another brawler, an absolutely inept referee, a ruckus crowd and the WORST decision EVER, sending Teddy Atlas in a raging nosedive! A lot of people got fired from the Michigan commission after this. The 2 judges having it for Burton were absolutely disgraceful. 99-90 Burton??? This guy probably wrote his score at the beginning of the fight and spent the bout texting.
Emanuel was so entertaining, and was cheated so much throughout his career, but this dancing slugfest confirms him as the best entertainer in all of boxing. He fought EVERYBODY, including Floyd Mayweather. Most deceptive record in all of boxing. Thankfully, Augustus got a rematch and knocked out Burton in another brawl. :D
great fight!! I like to see the classics. But i think that most entertaining boxer was ‘Prince’ Nassem Hamed (at least in the last 20/30 years).
You’re right, they both were amazing :) I liked Hamed a lot, only one defeat against Barrera and he went away :(
Here are some guys Augustus fought: Mayweather, Ward, Trujillo, Terrel Finger, Teddy Reid, Dyobelis Hurtado, Leavander Johnson, John John Molina, Provodnikov, Vernon Parris, Omotoso, Francisco Figueroa, Almazbek Raiymkulov, Ray Oliveira, Pinto, Carlos Vilches, Jaime Rangel, David Diaz, Jon Thaxton, Soren Sondergaard, Ivan Robinson, plus a bunch of undefeated fighters on their way up. He was totally mishandled (well, he wasn’t handled at all)
BTW, Emanuel is now incapacitated, having taken a stray bullet to the head in October 2014. :(
Always struggle to watch this one without getting agitated! The ref does my head in. So blatantly biased. I do believe this was the last match he ever officiated.
Thanks to ATBF and mattsnow81 for posting this one! Augustus is always amazingly entertaining! And so is Teddy!! The whole decision was a fiasco… I must admit I had a different scorecard than Teddy though. I gave Burton rounds 5-6 and 7, but that’s it. I also gave a 10-9 score in the 4th to Augustus, but I thought Burton was maybe winning that round before he went down. Unlike Teddy, I had the 9th scored a 9-9. In the end, I have a 96-93 decision for Augustus.
Thank you Olivier, I like the old fights I watched in my ‘youth’ lol. Honest score you have there.
In this one, Augustus did just enough fooling around to be entertaining and certainly enough fighting to win. Kudos to Burton though, he escaped with a lot of injustices but it wasn’t his fault. He came to fight, but the Drunken Master awaited him!
Very enjoyable fight and one I saw the night it was broadcast! Thanks to Allthebestfights and Matt for a chance to relive the memories.
Gutsy, gravity-defying Augustus gave us lots of fun over the years and was frequently the victim of bad decisions like this one (he would also get plenty of nasty refereeing for his classic “drunken master” antics). His shooting last year was heartbreaking — fate having one last go at him.
Matt, have you read anything recently about his condition?
That is the most recent article on him I have. I’m friends with him on Facebook and messaged a few time before it happened, since then, no status update. :( https://www.athletesquarterly.com/athletes/you-cant-keep-a-good-man-down/
Thanks for that. Sad, brilliant article, one every boxing fan must read. The photography by the great Mark Peterson is typically moving and humane.
I wonder how Emanuel’s making it financially. Some time ago, I read a relief fund was being organized, but then heard nothing more. I proposed to the Ring Magazine to get behind it, or even that they assign someone to merely report on his recovery after the shooting, but with no luck.
Good job Arjay.
I had not ever seen this fight until now, 10-24-15. Referee was obviously a douche. While I commend the judge for conceding to Atlas that he knew not how to score, and I have always, always held Atlas in high regard for his balsy guts to tell the truth; I am under the honest opinion–due to my own experienced clowning–that Augustus ought to have been serious, devoid of the foolish antics. Perhaps that would have made a difference in the decision…??
Well I think Augustus made an army of fans by clowning around WHILE fighting, I hate the argument that he should be penalized for it. Naseem Hamed did some foolish things too, but didn’t get penalized in my view?
Thanks for your comment, feel free to look around the great fights on the site :)
Excellent fight from just one of the boxers. The other one useless in my opinion and connecting dirty rabbit punches. So useless that his career went to the drain after losing his second fight with Augustus who really was extraordinary and with an entertaining style.
Augustus in this fight has four opponents. The most dangerous one was the referee ( I’m very tempted of using the “F” word). Hopefully he isn’t involved anymore in boxing matches. he was so bade as Cole actually is.
The other opponents were the two blind and useless judges sitting in Michigan’s domain. The less dangerous was Burton a guy with no skills.
This fight, if a good referee was acting, it should be finished on the fourth round. I cannot still belive that Kelley saw the punches as low blows. Shame to him for ever.
Congratulations on your 500th comment!
JAJAJA
Thank you very much Matt. Now 503 comments but you are closing the gap
I think you’ll remain the undisputed champ for a long time lol
Memories… I like how Atlas and Papa (or Tessiatore?) defended Augustus, incredible. However, I don’t agree with Atlas when he says the showboating of Augustus should stop, because that may hurt him. It got him a small legion of hardcore, loyal fans.