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He turned to professional boxing
relatively late, at 25 years of
age, after winning the 1987
National Golden Gloves
championships at Welterweight,
the same year that fellow future
WBF champions Carl Daniels and
Roy Jones Jr. were crowned
champions in their weight
classes.
Turner made his paid debut on
October 8 1988 on a small show
in Jonesville, Arkansas,
knocking out in two rounds an
opponent reportedly named Tommy
Jeans with an abysmal record of
0-23.
Jeans, or whoever he really was,
was discovered to fight under
many names, sometimes more than
once in one day, so his record
is almost impossible to verify,
but no matter what its safe to
say that he wasn’t a contender
in the making, and on BoxRec his
final tally stands at 3-54.
Never the less, Roger Turner did
what he had to do, and was on
his way. His next eight
opponents were not of a much
higher quality than Jeans, and
after a year as a pro, and at
9-0 (7), Turner´s opposition had
a combined win-loss-draw record
of 8-79-3.
So when he was pitted against
another undefeated prospect, the
5-0 Gary Williamson, on October
26 1989 at the Kemper Arena in
Kansas City, he was still very
much an unproven professional
fighter. But he passed his first
real test with flying colors,
and stopped Williamson in the
second round.
In the following year Turner won
another seven fights, against
appropriately better opponents
than in the year before,
including his first ten-rounder,
a unanimous decision over
Anthony Williams (8-4-2) in
front of his hometown fans in
Lansing.
Six weeks after the Williams
victory, and now with a perfect
17-0 (11) record, Turner was
given a big opportunity to add a
known name to his record, when
he was matched with former
contender Floyd Mayweather
(SENIOR!). Mayweather brought a
28-5-1 ledger, and had fought
Sugar Ray Leonard and Marlon
Starling (twice).
They squared off at the Grand
Center Walsh Auditorium in Grand
Rapids on November 3 1990, and
while Mayweather had seen better
days, he was still considered
the biggest test so far for
Turner, by a mile, having fought
and defeated much better
adversaries.
As the main event of a show
staged by a company called
Packer Sports and Promotions, It
turned out to be quite an ugly
encounter. Mayweather was
deducted two points for holding,
while Turner had one point
deducted for punching behind the
head.
But Turner proved toughness in
the fight, and was too quick and
skilled for his 38-year-old
opponent. After ten rounds of
forgettable action, he had
passed another big test and was
awarded a deserved unanimous
decision, setting up what would
be his careers high point a few
months later.
On February 8 1991, at the Civic
Center in Lansing, Turner
delighted his fans by defeating
another former amateur stand-out
in skilled southpaw Darryl
Lattimore (15-4) from Washington
D.C. to win the vacant WBF World
Welterweight title.
Turner
rose to the occasion, and was
the sharper man on the night,
winning a unanimous twelve round
decision over a game but
out-gunned Lattimore. Just over
two years from his first paid
fight, he was now a world
champion and the future looked
brighter than ever. However, he
would never defend his WBF world
championship.
After three more victories, over
Dennis Johnson (14-17), future
IBO world titlist Kenny Gould
(20-1), and Tyrone Moore
(30-11-2), his path towards the
big mega-fights was blocked when
he suffered his fist loss, in
June of 1992, to Luis Ramon
“Yory Boy” Campas (42-0) at
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The loss to Campas was by close
majority decision, and nothing
to be ashamed of as the Mexican
would later win the IBF world
Super Welterweight title and
take part in big fights against
the likes of Felix Trinidad,
Fernando Vargas and Oscar De La
Hoya.
But the road back to the top
would be long, and when he lost
another majority decision to
Anthony Jones (33-5-1) in April
of 1994, after rebounding from
the Campas set-back with four
low-key victories, it looked
like an almost impossible task.
But, amazingly, after closing
out 1994 with three victories
over opponents with rather
horrible records, but ranked
number 9 by the International
Boxing Federation (IBF), he was
back at Caesars Palace on April
8 1995, signed by promoter Don
King to challenge Puerto Rican
legend Felix Trinidad (25-0) for
the IBF world welterweight
crown.
Fighting outdoors in a makeshift
arena in front of the luxurious
hotel, it was never a
competitive fight. Trinidad,
making his sixth title-defense,
did as he pleased in the first
round, before flooring Turner
with a left hook in the second.
Turner wan not able to recover,
and referee Mitch Halpern
stopped the onslaught shortly
after.
Two more stoppage losses
followed, to Brit Adrian Stone
(14-1-1) the following November,
and Denmark’s Mads Larsen (20-1)
at Super Middleweight in 1997
after a two year lay-off, and
that was it for the boxing
career of Roger Turner.
A former NABF Welterweight
Champion, and former WBF World
Welterweight Champion, Roger
Turner retired in 1997 at 34
years of age, and with a
respectable final professional
record of 29-5 (17).
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