Utah’s gentleman bruiser, Don Fullmer , 72, who fought some of the world's most famous boxers and came within a single fight of a world title himself, died peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by the prize he valued most — his family.
Fullmer and his boxing brothers, Gene, the oldest and a world middle weight champion in 1957, and Jay, second oldest who left the sport with a 20-5-2 record after an eye injury, put Utah on the international boxing stage in the 1950s and ’60s. Don Fullmer had been battling his toughest opponent, lymphocytic leukemia, for the past 15 years. In November, doctors told him an infection had damaged his spine and a valve in his heart and that he had a few days, maybe a few weeks. He lived another two months.
The one that got away
One punch, thrown 43 years ago at a world champion, haunted Fullmer's dreams. What if it had been harder? What it if was better placed? What if he'd had the strength to follow it up with the kind of energy that would have turned the fight and maybe, just maybe, changed the life of this bricklayer and firefighter from West Jordan, Utah.
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