Area Hall of Fame boxer battled the titans

Dave Jaco’s best feature as a boxer was his heart.

He said he never quit during a fight, and that attitude took him from a 1979 $1,000 Toughman Contest in Ohio to the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame, in which he was inducted June 25. Other than raising his kids (former Braden River High volleyball players Kaleigh, Brittney, Maddie and Sydney Jaco, and sons Adam and Aaron Jaco), he said, his heart is the thing of which the man is most proud.

Some label Jaco, now 60 years old, as a boxer who would accept big fights on short notice purely for the payday. That’s partially accurate, he said. The difference is Jaco always felt he had a shot to win. His 24-25-1 record, with 10 of those fights coming against world champions, says as much.

I could have peppered Jaco with questions all day, but two fights of his stood out to me, a 1986 loss to Mike Tyson and a 1985 win over Donovan “Razor” Ruddock.

“I said to the ref, ‘I’m good, let’s go,’” Jaco said. “New York had a three-knockdown rule. I only remembered being knocked down twice. He said, ‘No, you fell three times.’”

Although the Ruddock victory came first, I started with the Tyson fight, because it’s always nice to end on the positive side of things. I asked Jaco if he was nervous before and he said yes, although he was nervous before every fight. If you’re not nervous before stepping into the ring, facing a potential face-smashing, there’s something wrong with you, he said. The key is not letting the fear take over your mind.

On Jan. 11, 1986, Tyson was a bona fide megastar. Jaco took the fight on six days notice for $5,000,and they fought in Albany, N.Y., a detail that became important during the fight.

The full fight is on YouTube for those interested in watching it. It’s not a long watch. Jaco was aggressive early, fearless in the face of Tyson’s fury. He was stunned by a Tyson left hook and fell to the canvas, but he made it back to his feet. A few seconds later, another Tyson hook connected. Again, Jaco rose. But a third knockdown would follow, and the referee immediately stopped the fight. Jaco wanted to continue.

“I said to the ref, ‘I’m good, let’s go,’” Jaco said. “New York had a three-knockdown rule. I only remembered being knocked down twice. He said, ‘No, you fell three times.’”

The anecdote is both an example of Jaco’s toughness and a reminder of the damage boxing can do to the brain. Jaco would be OK, although over the course of his career his face took a beating. Jaco, who started his career at 17-1, said his nose was broken six times and he accumulated 97 stitches to his face over his career.

He insists it was all worth it and he regrets nothing other than missing time with his kids while on the road. Boxing gave him priceless memories, including the aforementioned 1986 win over “Razor” Ruddock, who was undefeated at the time. Tyson would later say Ruddock had the heaviest punch of any opponent he faced. He was no joke, and Jaco beat him.

Going into the fight (which is also on YouTube, albeit in lower quality than the Tyson fight), Jaco’s strategy was the classic rope-a-dope Muhammad Ali used against George Foreman in 1974. Let your opponent tire himself, then go for the kill. That’s exactly what happened when Jaco fought Ruddock, who was known for his cutting jab and a vicious left uppercut. Jaco took Ruddock’s best shot while giving enough of his own to stay competitive, and by the seventh round, he said, he noticed Ruddock’s legs starting to buckle. He then turned on the afterburners and gave Ruddock everything he had. After the eighth round, when Ruddock was getting battered in his own corner, the referee asked him if he wanted to continue.

He said he did not, or as Jaco puts it, “No más.” He lost some respect for Ruddock that day, because he quit. Jaco didn’t respect quitters. Ruddock would later say an asthmatic infection led to a poor performance, but Jaco doesn’t believe the excuse, he said.

His can-do attitude carried into his Florida Hall of Fame Induction. They let him pick the music for his walk-up, and Jaco made an anthemic choice: Pat Benetar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

Even in retirement, the man who never turned down a fight, no matter the odds, will welcome all challengers.