Does the name Jack Obermayer RING a bell?

KO JO

(Jeffrey Freeman, KO Digest) A week or so ago I was going through some of my old Ring Magazines, long forgotten issues from the 80's. In the back of the magazine was a feature I always liked called Rings Around the World, or Ringside Reports which was basically as described, reports from fight cards across the country and around the world. As I was reading them on my trip down memory lane, I came across a name I had long forgotten about.

Jack Obermayer.

Jack was a boxing reporter who did hundreds of these reports and he had a style of doing them I really enjoyed. Jack was funny, occasionally sarcastic, and he made really good reports. He was definitely a favorite of mine. At that moment, I literally thought to myself,  "I wonder whatever happened to Jack Obermayer?"

A week or so later, The Boxing Universe gave me the answer. Last Wednesday night when I was covering the fights up in Manchester, NH for Knockout Digest, take a guess who was suddenly sitting right next to me in press row? You guessed it, none other than Jack Obermayer. I could not believe it!

More than a coincidence I thought, The Secret applied to the boxing world.

Jack needed a little help with his computer and a few other things and so I was  glad to help him, honored in fact. I told him how much I always enjoyed his work, and that I had just recently been wondering whatever happened to him and so he filled me in on some recent details of his life and I was surprised to find out we had quite a few things in common, more than just boxing. Jack no longer reports for The RING but he was there covering the fights and collecting stats for a boxing website (fightfax.com) that currently employs his statistical talents, and meticulous attention to detail. As the night went on it was a treat to be seated next to him and it was great to chat boxing with a true old school boxing guy like Jack Obermayer! A statistical prodigy, Jack knew exactly how many boxing cards he'd been to in his entire life, on this night: 3,307 to be precise. Jack also told me that he likes boxing trivia and so I said, "Hit me with your best shot Jack!"

Here was his trivia question to me: Since Liston-Patterson, name the five heavyweight champions who weighed less than 200 pounds when they won the title. Now keep in mind, he told me that this was not limited to linear champs, and just about anyone who ever held a heavyweight title belt would apply for the answer, so long as they weighed less than 200 pounds for the fight.

Bible of KO

I got 4 out of 5 of the correct answers. For the record, the answer is Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Roy Jones, Jimmy Ellis, and the one I didn't get, Ernie Terrell, which pretty much means that I don't know Jack!