Two Coatesville, father. Boxers suffered mentally with boxing injuries. Former IBF Featherweight Champion Calvin ‘Silky Smooth’ Grove and the one-time heavyweight Jimmy Clark are both in nursing home suffering from dementia.
Grove is in the Phoenix Center in Phoenixville, Dad, and although his appearance is good, he is about forty pounds heavier, while his memory of his career in the past is void. I was told that he could not go to a toilet alone, for fear that he would leave the facility without knowing where he was going, according to former assistant coach Claude Mangum.
In his early professional days, Grove was in the camp of coach John Traitz and assistant coach Mangum in Pottstown, father. Finally, Grove moved to Texas under Josephine Abercrombie’s Houston Boxing Promotions.
Grove won the IBF Featherweight Championship in France and defeated champion Antonio ‘Tonito’ Rivera, 17-4-1, of Puerto Rico by stopping in four rounds.
In Grove’s second defense, he went to Mexico against Jorge Paez, with 25-2-1, with a record of 32-0 with Paez, and won a majority decision and won the title of Grove.
Two battles later in their re -broadcast in Mexico, Grove was stopped in the eleventh round. In his next fight, he won the IBF USBA Super Featherweight title and defeated Anthony English, in Moscow, Russia. Two more wins and he was stopped in eleven rounds by Bernard ‘The BT Express’ Taylor, 40-2-2, while being through the majority decision in New York.
Grove won his next three fights before losing in eight rounds in the legendary Blue Horizon in Philadelphia against club fighter Bryant Paden, 14-7-3. He then defeated Regillio Tuur, 28-1-1, with a split decision that the US won New York State title.
Next, Grove lost against the WBC World Super Feather Champion Azumah ‘The Professor’ Nelson, 34-2-1, by a decision in Nevada. He returned well and won his next five fights, including former IBF featherweight champion Troy Dorsey, 12-6-4, at the Blue Horizon.
Grove In his next two fights, former 3 division world champion Jeff Fenech, 26-1-1, stopped in Australia. Once again Down Under, he defeated former Australian and Commonwealth champion Lester Ellis, 35-3, with a split decision. He also beat the WBC Continental Champion Pete Taliapherro 24-1, with a split decision, in Mississippi.
Grove ends his career 2-5 four times. First in a WBC World Lightweight Title Fight by Miguel Angel Gonzalez, 34-0. Then by WBA Intercontinental Champion Angel ‘El Diablo’ Manfredy, 12-2-1, IBF Super Featherweight Champion Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti, 27-1 and in his final battle against IBF and WBC Light Welterweight Champion Russia, born in Australia, Kostya ‘Thunder of Under’ Tszyu, 19-1. He ended his career at 49-10 and stopped seven times. Why, especially late in his career, was he introduced to various Ibhof Inducers?
That seven halt ended their toll in 1998. His memory was about his boxing career in the past when I spoke to him.
Heavyweight Jimmy Clark, in the amateurs in 1975, lost to the future world champion Michael Dokes for the AAU title in 1975. In 1976 he lost to the future world champion John Tate in the Golden Gloves. In 1977, he defeated Russia’s Igor Vysotsky in a Russian-VSA competition for double encounters. The same year in the semi-final, he defeated future world champion Tony ‘TNT’ Tubbs and future world champion Greg Page for the National Golden Gloves title.
In 1978 he lost to the 3-time Olympic gold medal Cuban Theophilo Stevenson, once in Cuba and twice in the US.
In the pros, Clark had an 18-1 record with 16 downtime. He was 16-0 when he lost in nine rounds in Scranton, Dad, against Reggie Gross, 15-3. His aunt for whom he died two weeks before the fight refused to pull out of battle, but spiritually bore a heavy burden. After two wins, he ended in 1989 with a no match against Kimmuel Odum, 9-2.
Clark said coach Angelo Dundee was involved with him for several fights.
Clark is in the Towns Manor East facility in Norristown, father. He has mentioned many Philly fighters from the past, but half a dozen times he asked if I knew Duke Dugent who drove the 23rd partner in Philadelphia. In our second meeting, I brought him a photo of Dugent, myself and Philly’s ‘Gypsy’ Joe Harris that I tried to reinstate after being discovered with a blind eye. His face lighted up and saw Dugent.
Both Grove and Clark residents of the same city of Coatesville are in the 13th round of their lives suffering from injuries due to boxing.
Last updated on 03/09/2025
