John Scully had put his heart and soul into boxing. He'd taken part in 70 amateur bouts and 41 professional contests over the course of 14 years. He was considered a good, honest professional, who had been in camp with the likes of Roy Jones Jr. and James Toney and shared the ring with top contender Tim Littles and two-division titleholder Michael Nunn.

He hadn't been able to get a shot at the world title until he was offered the opportunity to face long-reigning IBF light heavyweight titlist Henry Maske.

"I found out on 21 March about the fight with Henry," Scully told The Ring. "I weighed 192.5 pounds at that time. I literally flew to Atlanta the same day on a vacation to hang out with some friends of mine."

Scully, who trained in Florida, sparred with Andy Sarkozy out of Larry Holmes' camp in preparation.

"I was always in the gym to some degree back then," he said. "So, I was always in some kind of shape but officially I would say the camp was around five weeks.

"The timing of that fight was a bit off for me because my mother was at home dying from cancer, and I was also being sued via a bogus lawsuit against me that I only found out about a couple days before I left for the fight. It eventually got thrown out in court a few months later."

Scully and his team, including two trainers and a sparring partner (they added a guy from Germany, who worked the corner), flew from Florida via one of the New York airports to Frankfurt and then got a connecting flight to Leipzig. They arrived on May 16, nine days before the fight.

"I do remember the absolute biggest mistake I made was that as soon as I arrived at my hotel, I went directly to sleep and stayed in bed all day and into the night," he admitted.

"After I woke up that night and ate, I never got back on track with my sleep. I would try to go to sleep at the normal time, maybe 11pm, but I would end up wide awake until falling asleep at around 6 or 7am."

A year later, he spoke to the late great Emanuel Steward, who explained the error in his ways.

"He told me that anytime you fly to Europe for a fight, you will arrive in the morning and that you should force yourself to stay awake until going to sleep at your normal time at night, maybe 9 or 10pm, and then get up the following morning at the regular time as you would back home," said Scully. "If you go to sleep when you arrive at your destination you will sleep all day and your entire sleep cycle will be destroyed as mine was."

He doesn't recall any instances of foul play during his time in Germany.

"I think I was treated pretty well when I was there," he said. "I'm not sure if they tried any tricks to interfere with my training or my preparation and I guess if they did, they would done so in a way that I probably wouldn't have realized. If they did it to me, it would stand to reason that they would have had practice with it.

"We were careful in that we didn't drink anything from open bottles or cans, keeping in mind tales of tampering from other fighters who traveled abroad. I don't know if that ever really happened to other fighters, but I do not know we were conscious of it and prepared accordingly."

Scully was always up against it against Maske, who won gold at the 1988 Olympics, which culminated a star-studded amateur career. As a professional, Maske was 29-0 and had made nine successful defenses over a three-year period.

Before the fight Scully and his team asked the renowned future Hall of Fame referee Stanley Christodoulou, to be mindful of Maske's tactics.

"We made sure to tell the referee not to let the much taller guy get away with holding my head down on the inside as he had been known to do in other fights."

Both fighters entered the arena to very different receptions.

"I can remember there were so many people there — 14,000," he said. "Just a sea of faces. I remember it sounded like everyone was whistling, which I found out later was their version of booing.

"I remember Henry walking to the ring and it kind of reminded me of Drago walking to the ring to fight Rocky."

The home favorite dominated the action throughout.

"I definitely remember feeling like I couldn't get started," he recalled. "I was trying to loosen up and get a rhythm, but the entire vibe and feeling was pretty intense. His height and southpaw style gave me trouble. It was hard to time him and let my hands go like I wanted to, because he was so tall and had a very good jab."

Scully, whose earlier request to the referee fell on deaf ears, cut a frustrated figure.

"Henry constantly held my head down on the inside in our fight and the ref never said a word," he said. "I even remember, at one point, in the last round when Henry pushed my head down, I was facing the ground, looking down at our feet and I decided to stomp on his foot. I had nothing to lose at that point and I remember the ref warned me sternly and said he would take a point away if I did it again. I remember just laughing and tapping him on the shoulder, saying "OK, ref, no problem, no problem."'

Maske (30-0, 11 KOs) was awarded a 12-round unanimous decision. Two of the judges scored the fight 120-108, while the third judge gave Scully a round, meaning the outcome was 119-109.

Maske lost his next fight to WBA titlist Virgil Hill in a unification and retired though returned over a decade later, beating Hill in a rematch. He later worked as a boxing commentator, but no longer does.

Meanhile Scully (36-6, 20 KOs) returned to Germany in a losing effort against Graciano Rocchigiani (UD 10) and fought on sporadically until retiring in 2001. Scully remains in the sport as a trainer, working most notably with former undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev.