Filam boxer who fought Sugar Ray dies
February 23, 2009
Written by News Team, in Latest News
By Joseph G. Lariosa
An open Bible, instead of a pair of gloves, lies on top of his tombstone in Flat Rock, Michigan where he was buried last Jan. 14 three days after he succumbed to several heart attacks “related to congestive heart failure.”An epitaph as an “uncrowned champion of the 1940’s and 1950’s” as he was described by boxing writer Bob Ryder could have fittingly been inscribed in his gravestone.
But the family decided to leave on his gravestone the likeness of an open Bible, which has occupied most of his reading time after retiring from boxing in 1953. His daughter, Patricia Ann “Patsy” Docusen Maddox, in an email to this reporter said her Dad had devoted most of the remaining days of his 81 years of living reading the Bible.
She even remembers the favorite passage in the Bible of his Dad, a protestant: John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Docusen had just turned 21 a few days before the fight and was competitive until he was knocked down in the 11th round and went on to lose to the best pound for pound boxer of all time.
He never succeeded in his title comeback bid.
By March 30, 1949, he had fought 68 bouts in four years as a professional, with one loss. He defeated former champions and contenders Phil Terranova, Johnny Bratton, Tippy Larkin, John L. Davis and Gene Burton on his way to a log in a 73-10-6 pro record. He called it quits after suffering a TKO defeat from Joey Giambra in 1953.
After retiring from the ring, Docusen moved to the Detroit, Michigan area where he worked as a welder and later as a custodian for a local high school.
Bernard was inducted into the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008.
He documented his exploits in a book he hand-wrote, “A Memoir, New Orleans Amazing Filipinos,” edited by his daughter, Patricia Ann, an office manager for a counseling center in Colorado.
The book was self-published and the copyright is for 2008. The book is $50 per plus $7 for priority shipping. Each book was personally signed by her dad. It took him two days to sign the books in 2008 “when his health was better.” There are many orders coming in and a limited number is left. Only about 50 signed books are left and there will be no more reprints, unless there is “great demand for them,” she said.
Docusen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 19, 1927 to Regino Elegado Docusen, a member of the Old Philippine Scouts, and a French mother, Viola DelMolle Lytell. He had two other brothers, who were also boxers – Regino and Bantamweight and Featherweight contender Maxie “Little Duke” Docusen. He never visited the Philippines.
He was excited when Patricia told him that Patricia and her husband, Glenn, a retired United Airlines employee, were planning to take a trip to the Philippines to find out what province of “San Juan” was her grandfather was born. From San Juan, the family of Regino Elegado Docusen moved to Rosales, Pangasinan in Northern Philippines.
Her grandfather immigrated to the United States after the turn of the 20th century.
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