How great was Joe Hipp?

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-Held the World Boxing Foundation Intercontinental heavyweight title
-Fought for the WBA World heavyweight title
-Held the NABF heavyweight title
-Won the Western States Heavyweight Title


Has the distiction of being the first Native American to challenge for the world heavyweight championship title.

-Scored an upset against up-and-coming contender Cleveland Woods
-Squared off against the hard hitting Bert Cooper
-Gave future HOFer Tommy Morrison all he could handle breaking Tommy's jaw and both his hands.
-Loss a controversial decision against the crafty heavyweight champ Bruce Seldon
-Is in the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame
-One most influential Native American fighters of the last 25 years

With a career record 43-7 spanding 3 decades against elite opposition including:

Jose Ribalta, Lorenzo Boyd, Marcus "Big Tuna" Rhode, Ross Puritty, Everett "Bigfoot" Martin, Billy Zumbrun

How great was Joe "the boss" Hipp ?
 
Are you the guy asking "how great was Joppy"??
If so, you have a few of these kind of random "how great was 'fill in name of boxer that was not a great'".
 
I remember Hipp was really on a roll on USA Tuesday Night Fights, but when he stepped up to the big shows on HBO and the like against better competition he started taking some bad beatings.

He used to look like something out of a horror movie after some of his losses. His face would be just a huge mass of blood and swelling.

He was a tough, game fighter who kept coming forward.
 
The fight against Seldon was stopped in the tenth due to Hipp's face looking like hamburger meat. He just couldn't pull the trigger in that fight.

I always rooted for Hipp, he had a lot of heart and was a mainstay on Tuesday Night Fights the best boxing show ever.
 
I wish we had a Joe Hipp now.
He was a warrior and never quit moving forward and throwing punches. I remember he fought preliminaries on ESPN a few times and mowed down Top Rank's heavyweights they were grooming.
The fight against Seldon was just a stupid game plan designed by his trainers....trying to OUTBOX the WBA champion??? He could have stopped Seldon if he had just went to war with him.
 
Joe Hipp fought great, but was far from a great fighter, meaning he always gave it his all, and was certainly no pushover, but was clearly not championship, or even top contender material. He sure could take a beating, though.
 
Joe was a good, decent contender. he may have beaten Morrison had he not been given a little bit of a premature stoppage in their fight, he was giving the then unbeaten Tommy a beating. Hipp was a legitmate good boxer, he however had a terribly flabby physique (common for Indians these days) and did not look the part. I remember back in 85 I went to the seattle golden gloves, in the heavyweight division there was a fat looking, dark skinned guy fighting a very muscular but smaller black guy. the unathletic looking guy outskilled the more fit looking guy, I think he may have even stopped him. I walked by the black guy afterwards and he was telling his friends "at least I got the shirt". A few months ago I'm reading a Joe Hipp interview only to find out that that fat guy all those years ago was him. World class fighter, would have fought Tyson had Bruce Seldon not beaten him decisively. Boxing is funny, a fighter who can win a lot of fights may not be able to take even a minor step up in competition, Seldon was far from a great fighter, and he didn't have near the heart and probably not the experience of Hipp, yet he jabbed him silly.
 
Here is Hipp in action with prime Bert Cooper right before Cooper nearly pulled off the Cinderella story of all time and almost dethroned Holyfield in his next fight. This was a b.s. stoppage, but Hipp often took so much punishment and would look so beat up that I think he scared the ref and commission. Against Morrison, Hipp wound up looking like his face was raw hamburger meat. Hipp went toe to toe with Cooper this whole fight, and Cooper was who Oliver McCall no less said was the hardest puncher he ever faced, which is really saying something from the atomic bull!

 
RawHawg said:
Here is Hipp in action with prime Bert Cooper right before Cooper nearly pulled off the Cinderella story of all time and almost dethroned Holyfield in his next fight. This was a b.s. stoppage, but Hipp often took so much punishment and would look so beat up that I think he scared the ref and commission. Against Morrison, Hipp wound up looking like his face was raw hamburger meat. Hipp went toe to toe with Cooper this whole fight, and Cooper was who Oliver McCall no less said was the hardest puncher he ever faced, which is really saying something from the atomic bull!

Click to expand...


also, I really find it hard to believe that under all that flab was a true heavyweight, when dealing from a disadvantage of strength it can have consequences. I heard that he could only bench 135 pounds which is atrocious for a big man, don't know how true that is and even though boxing isn't about pushing weights he should be able to do better than that.
 
Hipp would have had a huge payday versus Mike Tyson had he fought his style against WBA heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon.....instead his trainers decided to try to match jabs and movement against Bruce hoping to "wear him down" and take him out later.....Joe's face looked like a war zone by the 10th round stoppage. He at least "got a shot" at the title.....the first Native American Indian to do so.

I was always impressed with his heart and he was a legitimate top 20 contender giving any opponent a true test.
 
djacobox372 said:
Modern version of Joe Hipp:

Roy_Nelson.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice call, I for the most part like this call, but one difference is that Roy is a massive, rare, true one punch KO artist. Hipp never quit, but was more of a "punches in bunches, swarm" type warrior.
 
Last edited:
actjac said:
Hipp would have had a huge payday versus Mike Tyson had he fought his style against WBA heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon.....instead his trainers decided to try to match jabs and movement against Bruce hoping to "wear him down" and take him out later.....Joe's face looked like a war zone by the 10th round stoppage. He at least "got a shot" at the title.....the first Native American Indian to do so.

I was always impressed with his heart and he was a legitimate top 20 contender giving any opponent a true test.
Click to expand...

some people count jack Dempsey as the first heavyweight champion, joe Louis was actually said to be mainly indian, some in his family claimed to be indian over black. neither was ashamed of their indian blood.
 
I was so mad in the title fight with Hipp. I thought for sure "Boss" was going to k.o. Seldon leading up to the fight. But noooooo.... here comes the great game plan of boxing with Seldon which lead to absolutely nothing but a stoppage.
 
Gorgo said:
I was so mad in the title fight with Hipp. I thought for sure "Boss" was going to k.o. Seldon leading up to the fight. But noooooo.... here comes the great game plan of boxing with Seldon which lead to absolutely nothing but a stoppage.
Click to expand...

Joe was a plodder with some power, decent upper body movement and using a style of throwing combinations like the throwback fighters of old was effective. In the Seldon fight they decided that he should stay on the outside and move thowing jabs instead. One of the most stupid moves by a training/management teams in a title fight.
Hipp should have gone to war, roughed up Seldon and then with the WBA title in hand fought Mike Tyson.
 
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