Mussachio in Disputed Draw in Delaware

Photo credit : Katie Riggan

Light heavyweight Willis Lockett, an Apostolic minister, didn't exactly follow the Golden Rule against Wildwood's Chuck "The Professor" Mussachio in their eight-round draw on Friday, September 19, at the palatial PAL Center in Hockessin, Delaware.

Lockett, out of Tacoma Park, Maryland, was warned innumerable times by referee Vic deWysocki for low blows and holding, yet the ref failed to penalize the Marylander, and a one-point penalty would have given Mussachio a victory. As it was, Judge Dewey LaRosa scored the bout 79-73 for Mussachio, but judges Joe Pasquale and Dave Greer had it 76-76.

The draw kept Chuckie Mussachio undefeated at 12-0-2 with 5 kayos, but afterwards, both he and his father and trainer, Al Mussachio, were loud and clear that they thought the former Wildwood schoolteacher had been robbed.

"I thought I won every one of those rounds," a disappointed, teary-eyed Mussachio stated. "I didn't get touched, dancing around, making him miss. I hit him with every jab I threw at him, landing squarely on his face. He didn't even hit me. Do I have any mark on my face? His whole face is swollen. Give me a break."

For his part, Lockett also felt he was robbed. "I think I out-hustled him, but I'm thankful I didn't get another loss," he said. "Most of all, I'm thankful to be in one piece. This is God's will for my life."

In front of a loud and boisterous contingent from Wildwood, who made the 90-mile hike to Hockessin, Chuck Mussachio mostly kept his left hand down like the late, great Archie Moore, snapping stinging jabs off his hip, followed by right hands, especially in the fourth round. In the prior round, he had vaulted off the ropes to throw a hard right-left combination and in the fifth round, he went into his version of Muhammud Ali's famous rope-a-dope, only Chuckie used the center of the ring to let Lockett wear himself out flailing away at his body, which is cut like boiler plate.

Mussachio started the sixth round waving his arms to pump the Wildwood folks up and ended the stanza with a solid right hand. Obviously feeling he was substantially ahead, he took a lot of the final round off, which might have poisoned the two dissenting judges against him.

The seven-fight card was promoted by Dave "TNT" Tiberi, who was robbed of the IBF middleweight title against James Toney in Atlantic City in 1992, and was so incensed at the sport that he never fought again.

After Mussachio's draw on his card, Tiberi said to Chuckie, "Now you know a little bit of how I felt."