This writer has interviewed many boxers over the past near twenty years and doesn’t have to tell you how many who have been knocked out cannot remember it.
I fell several years ago, leaving a Wal-Mart, and landed on my head, which caused what doctors called a “slight concussion,” leaving me with what is known as brain fog, a form of memory loss.
I once did an article on two Coatesville, PA boxers who suffer from this. One was former IBF featherweight champion Calvin “Silky Smooth” Grove, 49-10 with 18 stoppages, who was stopped seven times. I met up with him in a rehabilitation center where he lives in Phoenixville, PA. They have to watch him due to him trying to leave the facility on his own.
Grove looks good even now, much heavier than his fighting weight of 126 pounds. He was stopped six times by technical stoppage and was knocked out in his final fight by then-IBF super lightweight champion Kostya Tszyu in April of 1998 in Australia.
The other was former National Golden Gloves champion Jimmy Clark, who as a pro went 18-1 before being stopped by Reggie Gross by technical stoppage in March of 1985 in Scranton, PA.
I met with Clark in a Norristown, PA rehabilitation center. When asking about his past career, including losing three times to Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson and being stopped once, he showed a lack of memory pertaining to his career. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame this past October, a year after myself. He didn’t say anything, if my memory serves me right, upon receiving the award.
What many years ago was called a former boxer being “punchy” is now referred to as brain fog.
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Last Updated on 12/22/2025
