The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BERTRAM ‘Bert Perry’ Perigord, one of the country’s most prolific boxers, was found unresponsive in his apartment on Monday morning.

Perigord, 72, was a former two-time heavyweight champion of the Bahamas and New York State Golden Glove silver medallist in 1968.

From his second place achievement in the New York Golden Gloves of 1968, Perigord returned home and became an instant attraction.

He had huge box office bouts with Leonard ‘Boston Blackie’ Miller, ‘Baby Boy’ Rolle, Ollie Wilson, Levi Forte and Johnny Hudgins.

Perigord won his first two fights before losing to Bob Cleroux on September 23, 1968 in Hull, Quebec, Canada. He then went on a three-win streak before losing two straight. Then he turned in an eight-fight winning streak, only to have it snapped as he lost the next four before he finally won his final match.

Along the way, Perigord won the Bahamian heavyweight championship twice. He first captured the title in May of 1969 in a decision over Miller. They fought one month later for the title and Perigord knocked out Miller in the 12th round.

In October of 1969 they met for the third time and Miller was successful in regaining the crown. However in their fourth encounter, in November of 1970, Perigord stopped Miller in the 9th round to win the title for the second time. He ended up with a 3-1 record against Miller.

During his career, Perigord had 21 recorded fights and posted a 14-7 win-loss record. He began by knocking out Joe Brewster on September 5, 1967 in Bangor, Maine and concluded by winning an unanimous decision over Phil Fritz in Grand Bahama on January 18, 1977, in Grand Bahama.

While Perigord was regarded as one of the more successful Bahamian heavyweights, it was his role as a trailblazer in another aspect of boxing that cemented his Hall of Fame consideration.

On Friday, July 1, 2011, he was inducted into the Bahamas Boxing Commission’s Hall of Fame as one of the most significant individuals in the history of Bahamian boxing.

Perigord joined Yama Bahama, Gomeo Brennan and Elisha Obed who were selected as the class of 2009.

Perigord was the man behind the idea for the start of the amateur boxing programme in the country. He became the first national coach and trained all of the initial quality performers.

Later on in life, he became a noted businessman in Grand Bahama, a radio show host and then he wrote the book “The Fight Goes On.”

The book is a rather nice mixture of chapters of his life through interesting stories (like only Bert can tell them) and photographs.