THE name Andre `Stone’ Purlette once drove fear into the hearts of cruiserweights and heavyweights around the world. The chiselled six foot, one inch boxer was a Knock Out specialist who had won 32 fights ( 29 stoppages ) before falling to his first defeat.
He had left Guyana in 1995 for the USA to develop a promising career. In 1996 he won all five fights in his adoptive homeland by Knock Out. Purlette was quite busy in April 1997. That month he had two fights. Both were won by Technical Knock Out.
The first was held on April 10 against Kenneth Myers, an orthodox fighter who hailed from South Carolina. Purlette was 23 years old at the time, 12 years his opponent’s junior and took only three rounds to convince the referee to halt the bout.
Fifteen days later, the power-punching Guyanese travelled to Florida to face Ed Mosley who also lasted three rounds. Purlette would suffer his first defeat five years and 15 fights later. On January 4, 2002 he was TKOed by Cuban-American Eliester Castillo in Miami, Florida. The contest was stopped at two minutes and 58 seconds of the fifth round.
In October of the previous year, the `Stone’ TKOed Jeremy Bates to snatch the vacant World Boxing Organization/ North American Boxing Organization (WBO/NABO) heavyweight title. Purlette stopped fighting in 2009 at the age of 35 after 17 years in the sport.
He secured a record of 40 victories in 44 fights and has boxed 134 rounds, with a 79 percent knockout average and is now a fitness trainer in the USA.