In Boxing News: Spike Lee Joe Louis Biopic, Tommy Morrison On Joe Mesi

In Boxing News: Spike Lee’s biopic of Joe Louis

Spike Lee, the director of genius everyone loves to hate, the grandmaster flash of aesthetic in-your-face, has announced that his next big project (once his documentary on Hurricane Katrina is a wrap and in the can) will be a biopic based on the life of 1930s heavyweight champion Joe Louis.

Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard, of “Hustle & Flow” fame, will play the former champ from Detroit via Alabama. With Lee at the helm, his Joe Louis should be one part musical, one part object lesson, one part comedy and two parts tragedy. The stale hot air of Michael Mann’s “Ali” is about to get blown away by the Brooklyn auteur Boxing writer emeritus Ed Schuyler gives us a guided tour through the land of One-Punch Knockouts. Buckle your seatbelts. And don’t blink Amir Khan has the sort of boxing celebrity in England unthinkable in U.S., and some commentators are complaining that his promoter Frank Warren needs to pick up the pace. Sounds good on the face of it, but Khan just turned pro and has had only five fights. Team Khan is wisely resisting the entreaties. They say Khan fights for a title in a year The NY Daily News’ longtime boxing columnist Tim Smith maps what looks to be the end of the road for either Fernando Vargas or Shane Mosley, assuming (and praying) Saturday’s fight at the Mandalay Bay and on HBO PPV is not declared a draw. He also brings us up-to-date on a busy boxing schedule in New York: seven shows in the next five weeks Young gun Benn Schulberg spotlights slugger Andre Berto, the cream of the fistic crop, exemplar of a New Generation of hard-hitting boxing star … Former top-ten heavyweight contender Tommy Morrison has broken a long silence and come out publicly against Buffalo’s Baby Joe Mesi getting licensed to fight. He (Tony Holden, Morrison’s ex-promoter) called me up and flew me up to Buffalo, NY, Morrison said. He wanted me to watch Joe Mesi and tell him what I thought. I told Tony he doesn’t have it. He doesn’t hit hard enough and he’s too good looking!