Last Stand For Sargent Part 2
April 12th, 2008
By Jesse Kelley

Heavyweight John Sargent (27-5, 16 ko's) will resurrect his boxing career tonight at the Northern Lights Casino in Walker,MN. The 44 year old fighter will return to the ring after more then a three year absence, facing Ritchie Goosehead in the shows headliner. Sargent admits that this will probably be his last run at facing either a top name or getting a title shot. Dedication for the native fighter has been a question in the past but Sargent says his heart is in this final stand more then ever as he has been training in the cities for the last four months with nothing to lose. Perhaps his final comeback will lead to his greatest accomplishment yet.

PART 2
Pros To Present

After the Golden Gloves run in 1989, Sargent says he really didn't have anywhere else to go but pro. He says that there was an offer from a guy down in Arizona to have him live and train there. However, the offer just seemed too good to be true and Sargent didn't follow up.
According to Sargent, he decided to sit down with a local promoter that had also shown interest in turning him pro.
"I decided to sit down with this guy and listen to what he had to say. We talked about what I would get and what we would do if I signed with him. We hit it off right then and there. His name was (pause) Ron.....Peterson. He seemed straight forward and honest and that’s what I liked about him and still do to this day. He works with anybody that wants to work and I found out he brings the best out of you.

Sargent quickly rattled off his first seven wins as a pro in only eight months of action in 1990.
In November of 1990, Sargent would face 6'4 southpaw Russian Giant Yuri Vaulin (9-0 at the time) in his first big test.
"We knew he was quick and we knew he was a southpaw so that’s what we worked on, our speed against a southpaw" said Sargent. "I sparred a lot of quick southpaws for that fight but I found out pretty quick that he was faster then anybody I ever sparred. He took it to me for the first three or four rounds. I started hitting him with hard rights to the body in the fourth. Every time I hit him to the body I could tell he was hurt. He was still hitting me but by the sixth round the fight was mine. The scores were real close but I could tell he couldn’t take the body punches. Ron (Peterson) saw the same things I saw. He said keep throwing those body shots! Your going to get him, his hands are dropping. And sure enough he couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t make it for the eighth round."
Although there were no knockdowns in the fight, Vaulin was so exhausted he retired on his feet in the eighth.

Sargent didn't take any time off after that win, facing local heavyweight rival Jimmy Lee Smith (7-0) in front of a full Target Center in Minneapolis less then a month later. This would be the rubber match as both men split wins as amateurs.
|"They were offering something like $1200 for the fight so the offer sat on the table for a while. Well it was right around Thanksgiving time so I told them If they throw in another hundred and add a turkey I’ll go for it. A big ol turkey! They did it too! We had a pretty good fight. It was close, it went the distance but I pulled it off."

Sargent's early impressive streak continued again only a month later in January of 1991. Sargent landed on Espn again, this time facing Ross Puritty. Puritty can still be seen fighting these days with over 50 fights to his name. He is perhaps most remembered for beating Wladimir Klitschko in 1998.
Sargent recalls out-working the bigger man and notching what would turn out to be a career best win.
"Ross is a big guy, so that win really shot me up there. We knew he was big so we planned on fighting
with him real close. Our plan worked perfect. We stayed inside and threw a lot of body punches. I
thought I was going to knock him out by the end but I was pretty tired also. He was a big dude who could
take a shot."

Sargent was now (10-0) in under a year of action. That coupled along with his amateur credentials, he was starting to get recognized as a prospect in the heavyweight division.
"When I fought and beat Vaulin, Smith and Puritty, I really believed that I could fight with anyone. Me and
Ron believed that I could get a shot at a title and maybe even win it. That is the kind of trainer he is. He made me what I was at the time. I was proving everybody else wrong. These people saw me as a little chubby native brother. I could hear people in the audience saying look at that chubby guy. Pretty soon the guys that were talking shit about me were the same guys shaking my hands after the fight."

Sargent continued to rattle off wins but the level of opposition fell and so did his activity over the following years although through 1992 Sargent says he believes he was at his very peak.
"Ron had me in the best shape I could possibly be in around 92. We (him and Peterson) had a little disagreement and a falling out. I was also going through some rough times. When I would return home there would be a lot of the same old distractions going on. The drugs, the drinking, all that stuff. I kind of let myself go."

In 1999 the opportunity to face rising heavyweight prospect and now former world champion Chris Byrd. Sargent was in no condition to face Byrd but says he didn't want to miss the opportunity so he took the fight.
"I was out of shape for that fight, around 280 pounds I think" said Sargent. He was just too quick and I tired out. I think it was the second round, I was just too tired and the ref stopped it. I wasn’t hurt but he was just throwing a lot of punches and was just too quick. And I was in no shape to do much. I did catch him a few times but I was just out of shape. If I was in shape like I was against Puritty, I think he would have been in trouble. He is so quick that you have to punch where you think he will be though.
Sargent lost at 2:00 of the second round in that bout.

It would be three years before Sargent would fight again. After three smaller fights, Sargent faced heavy handed Shannon Briggs in July of 2003. It would be for the vacant IBU title.
"He caught me with a lucky punch!" said Sargent "I call it a lucky punch anyways. He caught me and I can’t explain why I didn’t see it. He came straight at me. I threw a punch and he threw a punch right over mine and that was it. I know he doesn’t have a chin like some of those other heavyweights so I knew I could have beat him. I was just throwing a punch, I missed and he landed! If I was in shape like I am today I believe I could have went the distance with Byrd and Briggs. That was ten years ago and I was a monster when I wanted to be. In fact, I am kind of a monster right now!" said Sargent half jokingly.
The fight was stopped at :17 of round one.

Things turned around for Sargent in 2004. In a fight many people gave little chance of winning, Sargent outclassed 24 year old Chauncy Welliver (16-1 at the time) on national television.
"That fight was televised on Fox Sports. We were doing interviews for tv. He was telling the interviewer that I was too old and that I was just a stepping stone. He said he though he was going to take me out.
I couldn’t believe this guy was for real. I don’t like to talk a lot like that so when it was my turn I just
told them that he is going to have to prove that to me in the ring. Chauncy Welliver underestimated me. I was in shape for that fight and I just counter punched him. I made him miss and made him look clumsy.
Towards the last rounds he started to get frustrated because he knew I was beating him. Everytime he threw a punch I would just slip it and counter, bang bang bang. After the fight he came up to me and my girlfriend and told me “Sargent, you are one smart fighter.”
Scores were 79-73, 79-73, 78-74 for Sargent.

The end of 2004 were not as good for the native fighter however as he was stopped in the first round against both Eddie Chambers and Courage Tshabalala.

So as the story goes, when Sargent wanted to fight and trained to do so, he was a dangerous fighter. Possessing a good left hook, Sargent was a thinking fighter that knew how to finish a fighter when he had them hurt.
And that brings us to today. Sargent says that although his youth is not there, he has stuck to training like never before.
"I want to get a couple tune up fights" said Sargent. "Then I want to fight somebody with a name. Even if I don’t win, I know I will look good and hopefully keep getting shots at somebody else. My goal is to look good and hopefully sneak up on a big name and upset them. I have been dedicated to being at my very best I can be at so we will see what happens. I am as close as I can possibly get to where I was in 92. I just need to work on my strength a little more and keep sparring. I am running, doing wind sprints, it is just going to take time. I know I don’t have too much time left for these last few fights but I know I can be where I want to be. I can surprise some of those heavyweights who think they’re contenders. I can sneak up on them. A lot of people out there think I am too old and rusty but I am used to being the underdog."