James Smith

What strikes me about James "Bonecrusher" Smith is the path he took. He came out of Shaw University with a college degree, which made him a rarity among heavyweights of his era, and he didn't even start boxing professionally until 1981, already in his late twenties. By 1986 he'd grabbed the WBA heavyweight title, holding it into 1987 before the division's bigger names swallowed it back up. I find that late, educated arrival into a brutal sport genuinely interesting. His career stretching all the way to 1999 tells me he was tougher and more durable than the brief title reign alone suggests.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

James Smith

Name (Japanese)

ジェームス・スミス

Reading

じぇーむす・すみす

Born

April 3, 1953 (age 73)

Origin

Magnolia, North Carolina, United States

Height

193 cm

Occupation

boxer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Snake

University

Shaw University

Awards & achievements

• WBA World Heavyweight Champion

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20Smith%20(boxer)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1027519

Tags

• boxer

Last updated

September 26, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.