Articles of 2005

Picture a Time before Ali

Published

19 years ago

December 12, 2005

Picture a time before September 11, 2001. Before Columbine. Before Oklahoma City. Before Jonestown. Before Watergate and Kent State. Before Vietnam. Before assassins took Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. Before Watts. Before Dallas, November 22, 1963. Before “The Bay of Pigs”.

The summer of 1960. Camelot.

John F. Kennedy and the warmth and confidence his personality projected quickly are converting millions of American voters via the medium of television. The following November, they would defeat Richard Nixon in his quest for the presidency.

At the Polo Grounds one June evening, Floyd Patterson makes boxing history with one dramatic and devastating left hook.

And across the Atlantic in Rome, an 18-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, named Cassius Clay is about to burst forth for the first time on the world stage.

Then, he was only a light-heavyweight. But, as he inevitably won the gold medal, unfortunate Olympic opponents wilted under his slashing, two-fisted attacks. Moving about on feathery feet, young Clay suddenly would dart in with a barrage then, before his bewildered foe could respond, be gone.

He would call it “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” With it, little more than three years later, he would puncture the aura of invincibility of Sonny Liston…the mammoth, malevolent world heavyweight champion.

In the innocence of “The Eternal City,” that Brigadoon-like summer of ’60 and the succeeding 42 months, Clay would bubble and sparkle. He would fill the nation’s sports pages with bombastic doggerel verse that predicted his opponents’ demise.

And they fell.

After only 19 professional fights, Clay entered a Miami Beach ring a 7-1 underdog to the massive, surly Liston. “Sonny’s fate will be round eight!” seemed so preposterous that bets were made not only on the seemingly inevitable outcome, but whether Clay actually would appear.

But by then, he no longer was the lean, callow youth of Rome.

Dempsey looked as if he’d just stepped out of a back alley. Louis, like some stolid jungle cat. Marciano, as if he’d just dropped his pick and shovel and left the cement mixer.

By the middle 1960’s, Cassius Clay looked like he had just stepped off a pinnacle from Olympus. At 6-3, his still-growing, seemingly golden, body carried 210 supple pounds.

Liston never had a chance; neither did any other heavyweight of the decade.

By 1964, when the exuberant Clay had adopted the Islamic faith…taking the name Muhammad Ali, his skills had become honed like jet-age instruments.

Louis’ left jab was like a wrecking ball crashing into the side of a building. Ali’s was like a laser beam.

In the mid-‘60’s, Ali was like no fighter in history. His sleek, wondrous body would swerve and dart about the ring on mercurial legs. Watching him was like being an audience to Toscanini.

He was Nureyev in boxing togs. His mind, arms and legs worked as though to some unearthly symphony. It was as if Gershwin had choreographed his movements. He was as classic to the eye as is “Rhapsody in Blue” to the ear. Stunned opponents looked like they had encountered an alien being.

Ali went through 15-round fights virtually without being hit. He moved with such delicacy, his blows seemed like strokes from a painter…but with the results of a bar-brawler.

But Ali was much more than merely “a fighter.” The prize ring was but a lake in his quest for the oceans beyond. No athlete so completely was a synthesis of his time as Ali.

When Blacks rose in Watts and Newark…when thousands of America’s young people shouted against a war they termed as immoral, refusing to become a part of it, there was Ali.

When his religious choice was met with repulsion, he replied, “I am America, too…but the part you don’t want to see. I’m free; I don’t have to be what you want me to be.”

During his first championship reign, 1964-’67, his courage openly was questioned. The answer should have been seen during a spring day in Houston, 1967. It was then that Ali refused military induction for religious reasons.

The Hawks immediately, and gladly, proclaimed epithets against him. Ali responded: “I don’t have any quarrel with those Viet Cong.”

That sentence triggered the greatest brush-fire response in America since the events of

Dec. 7, 1941. Yet Ali stood firm. His boxing license was revoked for three-plus years. He continued to stand firm. Intimidation, whether from Liston or The System, found an invulnerable target in Ali.

Then, grudgingly, it was over. His license was returned. As always, he had prevailed. Once more, he could pursue the craft that he had elevated to a mesmerizing art-form.

After those barren 42 months, how would it be for him in the ring? So-called experts boasted, “Nobody can be away from boxing that long and come back as before.”

But Ali had been away only in body; his spirit had remained to haunt those who dared lay claim to his throne.

On an October evening in Atlanta, Ali again worked his magic. He bridged those countless lost moments with a show of artistry that confounded the world.

First, there was Jerry Quarry. Then, Oscar Bonavena. And finally, “The Fight of Champions”. The true “Fight of the Century”. March 8, 1971. Joe Frazier. The physical clash of two ideologies in America.

For 14 rounds, Ali matched his skills and magic against a seeming machine. Then, with less than two minutes remaining, the public gasped as Ali again displayed the dormant courage that lay just beneath the surface. Like the rest of the proverbial iceberg beyond the tip.

Frazier’s killer-left hook dumped him on the canvas, and everyone left him for dead…led again by those who had been affronted by his choice not to ascribe to the doctrine that his country is inevitably right, regardless of the issue.

But Ali defied the naysayers and finished the momentous fight on his two feet…only to hear the decision against him. He became “the loser, but still champion.”

Undaunted, he began a quest to regain his lost crown. But on another March day, in 1973, there was another mountain. Ken Norton astonishingly broke Ali’s jaw, and the newspapers said: “End of the Ali Legend”.

Yet, 18 months later…once again disdained as a hopeless underdog, Ali used his magic to perform still another miracle. A young brute of a man named George Foreman – with python-like arms – incredibly became the victim.

Their confrontation would occur in a ring pitched under an African canopy, as if in a setting to celebrate the Renaissance of a world thought irretrievable.

Once again, Ali had found the light.

Soon, there would be “The Thrilla in Manila”, his tortuous third encounter with Frazier. In “the nearest thing to death,” Ali again would absorb Frazier’s terrible punishment…yet find something deep in the sanctums of his soul to stave disaster.

At the end of the 14th round, his crusade finally ended; Eddie Futch, in Frazier’s corner, humanely disdained possible victory and allowed his battered gladiator to return no more.

Ali, still a champion, would collapse.

As he had long before walked through the door to boxing immortality, his mortality as champion became increasingly apparent during the following two-plus years.

No longer was he the butterfly who stung like a bee. Now he was a tarantula who waited, plotted and struck. On leaden legs. His bouts assumed a disturbing pattern: he would concede the early rounds, only to grasp victories in the closing ones.

Then, on a February evening in 1978, before the glaring lights of television cameras, the nation and world watched an inferior alley fighter, Leon Spinks, finally push Ali from his precarious tightrope posture.

It was as if the violin somehow had turned on Heifetz. Still, the music was not quite ended. Not yet.

Ali desperately brutalized his aging body for one last aria; even he had to realize that it was to be his final performance in boxing’s center stage. Pinza or Pavarotti straining one last time at The Met or Carnegie Hall.

Precisely six months after being dethroned, Ali called upon his final resources to combat the irrevocable sands of time. However, instead of the dazzling, unearthly speed and coordination, he reached back into his store-house of experience to smother the fire of youth against him in the ring.

Guile, more than skill, was the key ingredient for Ali’s successful final bow. He now could retire as boxing’s once-and-future king.

But Lancelot could only resist the call of the joust for a fortnight. Though Camelot long ago had crumbled, he entered the arena determined to resurrect the glory. He boasted of accomplishing another miracle…the kind he so often had performed.

And, for breathless moments, as he stood to face the foe, the court watched…transfixed by the magniloquence of his latest crusade. Hoping that he could somehow, if only for this final, fleeting evening, create at least the illusion of Camelot.

But neither Lancelot’s flesh nor magic could smite down this foe, Larry Holmes…or his inevitable one, time. Ali didn’t even depart across his shield. Tragically, he was led away.

However, the splendor of what he had created in countless arenas, across two tumultuous decades, inevitably will transcend the momentary tarnish of a single Las Vegas evening.

His masterpieces in the ring, like the classic works of Gershwin, Picasso and Hemingway, are recorded for posterity.

And, like those works, provide indelible evidence of genius.

(Hal Pritzker’s boxing-oriented romance novel Every Summer is available through Advantage Books.)

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Hal Pritzker

Articles of 2005

In Boxing News: Floyd Mayweather An All-Time Great, Valuev & More

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2005

Chris Gielty

A Shot of Boxing on the Last Day of the Year

The Guardian reports that talks have already taken place between Nicolay Valuev‘s co-promoters – Don King and Wilfried Sauerland – and Danny Williams‘ promoter Frank Warren for Nicolay Valuev to face Danny Williams. I’d suggest Danny Williams needs to worry about Matt Skelton (who Williams is reportedly scheduled to fight in February) before he entertains notions of facing the Beast From The East.

The Mirror in the UK looks forward to a big year in boxing for 2006. The Mirror considers what the future might bring for Joe Calzaghe, Amir Khan and Ricky Hatton, among others.

The Parksville Qualicum News has an interesting column on the travails of former Canadian Super Middleweight title holder Mark Woolnough. Woolnough’s career turned controversial – as widely reported in the Canadian press – at the beginning of this year when Woolnough and four other men were charged with manslaughter and assault after a fight outside a Parksville nightclub. The case returns to court next month. It’s an interesting read, as Woolnough is still looking to the future with hope.

Our own Marc Lichtenfeld provides plenty of food for thought with his Top Ten Wish List for boxing in the New Year. There’s plenty of good stuff here, but what really jumped out for me is Lichtenfeld’s opinion that a win over Zab Judah could have Floyd Mayweather knocking on the door of all-time great status. Seems to me this might be jumping the gun a little. Or is Marc right? Will it soon be time to call Floyd Mayweather Jr. an all-time great?

(More Boxing News Links at TheSweetScience.com)

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Articles of 2005

ShoBox Friday Night Fights

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2005

Editor

Hot bantamweight prospect Raul “The Cobra” Martinez heads back to Chicago next Friday night as he is featured in the co-main event of SHOBOX “THE NEW GENERATION,” an action packed evening of professional boxing presented by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions,’ HOME OF THE BEST IN CHICAGO BOXING, Kathy Duva’s Main Events Inc., along with Miller Lite and TCF Bank.

The two-time national amateur champion sporting a perfect 12-0 record with 9 knockouts, six of which have come in the first round, will take on Colombian Andres “Andy Boy” Ledesma, 13-1 (8 KOs) in a scheduled eight round bout.

Speaking after a training session at his home gym in Georgetown, Texas, Martinez said, “I’m truly looking forward to returning to Chicago. The fans were terrific in September, they were very supportive from the start of the fight,” an internationally televised first round knockout of Miguel Martinez on September 16th at the Aragon Ballroom.

Regarding his upcoming fight with Ledesma, “The Cobra” said, “I haven’t seen him fight, although I understand he’s fought at higher weights and will be naturally bigger than me. I’ve had great training for this fight and feel very confident. I really haven’t left the gym in months, just taking off Sunday’s and even then I get my running in. My thinking is that fights are won in the gym and complete preparation is the key.”

When asked about his being mentioned by Dan Rafael, ESPN’s boxing writer as one of the top prospect’s in the boxing world the 23-year-old San Antonio native said, ‘It’s a great compliment, but I still have much work to do. I want to be a champion for Main Events like Fernando Vargas and Arturo Gatti. But like Fernando said while he was in town, ‘be patient, work hard and your time will come.’”

Finishing the conversation, Martinez said, “I’m looking forward to starting out this year with a bang. I might have a couple less fights than the seven I had in 2005, but I’m looking to stepping up the competition, move up to ten-rounders and climb in the rankings.”

Headlining the evening is a ten-round welterweight showdown between boxing’s hottest prospect, unbeaten Joel Julio of Monteria, Columbia, and Ugandan native Roberto “The Doctor” Kamya. Julio, turning 21 years old the day before the fight, is 25-0 with 22 knockouts, twelve of which have come in the first two rounds. Kamya, now fighting out of West Palm Beach, Florida is 15-5 with four knockouts.

Tickets, starting at $30, are on sale in advance by calling 312-226-5800. Cicero Stadium is located at 1909 S. Laramie, at the corner of 19th and Laramie, just ten minutes south of the Eisenhower Expressway and ten minutes north of the Stevenson Expressway. Doors for this evening will open at 6pm with the first bell at 7pm.

The full bout lineup for the evening is:

Joel Julio vs. Roberto Kamya, ten rounds, welterweights

Raul Martinez vs. Andres Ledesma, eight rounds, bantamweights

Miguel Hernandez vs. Butch Hajicek, eight rounds, middleweights

David Pareja vs. Derek Andrews, eight rounds, light heavyweights

Mike Gonzales vs. Tony Kinney, four rounds, lightweights

Omar Reyes vs. Luis Navarro, five rounds, featherweights

Reynaldo Reyes vs. Ricardo Swift, four rounds, middleweights

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Articles of 2005

Pick ‘Em: Plenty of Big Upcoming Fights in ’06

Published

19 years ago

December 31, 2005

Phil Woolever

Here’s the early call on many top matches scheduled for the first half of 2006: Happy New Year!

As the new calendar dawns, there are already a considerable amount of premium bouts on the horizon. Things don’t look to be bogged down by undetermined championships next year. In many cases the scheduled face-offs involve the best fighters in the division, or at least close enough for general bragging rights. If anybody else with proper qualifications signs up to force the issue, all the better.

It can be argued that some pairings could have taken place within a more optimal timeframe, or that some headliners carry distracting baggage, but there are certainly enough heavy hitters on deck. That nobody can deny.

It doesn’t matter whether one considers the proverbial glass half empty or half full; there’s still the same amount of juice in the vessel. It’s nice to know that even with a high number of cancellations, there will still be plenty of important contenders on tap.

With elite fighters in weight divisions from top to bottom on the agenda, it’s an equivalent to what fans in more mainstream sports expect in a consistent championship format.

Baseball fans can almost always count on a World Series. Some hoops fanatics say too much attention to playoffs distracts unmotivated NBA teams during their regular season. In college, they project Sweet Sixteens. Football fans know there’s always a Super Bowl ahead to raise advertising dollars and test the USA’s halftime morals.

So too, there is method in boxing’s current madness.

The midnight crystal ball hasn’t even been unveiled in Times Square and there are already a number of potential thrillers scheduled. Most feature contrasting personalities that almost guarantee going along for the ride will be worthwhile. Any subsequent drops will probably be cheered.

Don King jumps right out of the auld lang gate with a January 7^th Showtime card featuring Zab Judah against Carlos Baldomir and Jean-Marc Mormeck in a cruiserweight unification against O’Neil Bell.

It will be the upset of the year, bar none, if Baldomir can tip the applecart before Judah gets to his scheduled super-showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Meanwhile, Mormeck is emerging and should keep on rolling against Bell, who can expose him if he’s not for real.

The proverbial Big Bang starts with a January 21st rematch of one of the finest fights of ‘05, when Erik Morales goes against Manny Pacquaio for the second time on HBO pay per view. The fact that Morales was upset by Zahir Raheem after beating Pacquaio was no real loss in box-office luster. Artful Raheem will get a spot on the undercard and hope his patience is rewarded.

Everyone figures Morales and Pacquaio will pick up where they left off. Like the first time, the rematch is a pick’em contest. Management distractions and glove restrictions cited as Pacquaio’s previous problems won’t matter this time. The two are very evenly matched and their styles will make for another whapathon. It could come down to corners, where Freddie Roach gets the edge since Morales will have a new trainer for the first time since replacing his father after the Raheem lesson.

February features four of the game’s most enduring attractions, in a pair of crucial matchups.

First up, Showtime presents the Jose Luis Castillo – Diego Corrales tiebreaker from El Paso on Feb 4^th. This is another pick ‘em pair, barring any sideshow. In boxing that disclaimer may be a stretch, since the sideshow is part of the act and the charm.

As far as action inside the strands goes, every round these guys have fought has been great. There’s no reason to think that pattern won’t continue. Regarding the result, Castillo keeps the pressure on as he did in the second fight, but he’ll walk into trouble from a more reserved Corrales. We still don’t know which coin to flip.

February also holds a better late than never affair between two perennial favorites as Shane Mosley collides with Fernando Vargas on the 25^th.This fight could lead to a winning ticket in the Golden Boy sweepstakes for a fall bonanza against Oscar De La Hoya.

Vargas has been in tougher recently, based on comparable strength of opposition stats, but he’s seen little action. What weight they enter the ring at may have a lot to do with the result. If Vargas has to struggle at the scale, Mosley might have the battle in the bag after round nine.

It’s hard to imagine Mosley getting stopped early, but Vargas doesn’t have to hurt him, he just has to knock him down three times. With natural size, he may be able to do just that, but Mosley would have to box uncharacteristically flat.

Unless Mosley decides to heed the crowd, the most likely scenario is that Shane plays it safe, picks a few shots, and stays away enough to capture a comfortable, dull decision. An unbowed Vargas maintains his fan base but not his bettors.

March both comes in and goes out as a lion.

On March 4^th Joe Calzaghe welcomes Jeff Lacy to Manchester UK for what may be the biggest blowout of the headlining bunch. Calzaghe gets the chance to prove his considerable home-based reputation once and for all, but if Lacy creams him as we expect, that glossy record will be severely tarnished.

All Calzaghe has to do is make a respectable stand, but that’s no small task against the rising Lacy. A motivated Calzaghe, songs of England ringing in his ears, could pull a big surprise if he can exploit Lacy’s relatively limited technical development, but that’s a longshot indeed.

It looks like Lacy can get by on power alone. He could soon emerge as a pound-for-pound leader. Old Joe’s hometown advantage will last about two left hooks.

March 11^th has the Ides of history to beware for at least one old lion, with farewell (we’ll see) fireworks featuring Roy Jones Jr. against Bernard Hopkins. Less than two years ago they were considered untouchable all time greats. Now between them they’ve lost five in a row.

This goodbye fight is contracted at light heavyweight, for what seems like an oldies night. Hopkins is the senior at age 41 to Jones’s 37, but Roy seems more the grandpa figure, last seen hanging on against Antonio Tarver. Youth, as it were here, will prevail.

This bout was signed quickly as each principal, usually sticklers for favorable contract clauses, agreed to parity in a demonstration of businessman first and fighter second. They may both expect easy marks. How much the boys have left by the time they get down to business remains to be seen. The history books will show this as a climactic career bout between Hall of Famers.

At 175 pounds, Hopkins may be in for rude awakening. Jones may have been more thoroughly outfought recently, but he was rumbling with bigger, tougher men than Jermain Taylor or Howard Eastman. Respectable as he is, Taylor still falls short of the level of Tarver, at least for now. The difference is still fifteen pounds less pop.

It will be quite a feat if Hopkins can stay in the fight, even at Jones’s advanced age. Our stars point to Jones winning in overwhelming fashion.

On March 18^th, James Toney meets Hasim Rahman in another pairing of seasoned war-horses.

Toney and Rahman already had their introductions, when they brawled in Mexico during a WBC gathering to bestow Rahman’s new belt. Between formalities, Toney got married, which could bring up the old questions about carnal training.

Let’s hope when they meet in the ring, they restore some of the fire missing from the heavyweights in ‘05. Toney might have an edge in recent form, but Rahman shows fine tuning he previously lacked. The winner might get newly “crowned’ Nicolai Valuev, an easy payday outside Germany.

Rahman could be the heavyweight that finally makes Toney look like a blown up middleweight. But anything less than a top effort will probably lead to embarrassing night for the Rock and give Toney solid claim to being the true heavyweight champ.

This might not be the most artful fight of the new season, but it could well be the most grueling, and the closest. He who’s faced the better big boys gets the nod. Advantage Rahman.

March 25 features Marco Antonio Barrera, probably the strongest overall claimant to 130 pound honors. The likely opponent is said to be always tough Jesus Chavez.

Chavez seemed rejuvenated when he met Leavander Johnson, but Johnson’s tragic death may have taken some of the steam out of thoughtful Chavez, said to have received Johnson’s family blessing to continue in Leavander’s name. That could mean a lot of inspiration. Either way, if he does meet Chavez, who hung tough with one arm against Erik Morales, Barrera won’t get any slack. The Fates say Chavez, whose wife recently served in Iraq, is a live, live underdog.

Another clash to be King of the Hill finds Floyd Mayweather Jr, arguably the game’s finest practitioner, bumping heads with Zab Judah, one of very few boxers who rivals Mayweather in speed, skills, and brashness.

Their hoedown, scheduled for April 8^th, is one of the top pound-for-pound pairings in recent years. Judah will need a career best performance to have a chance of victory. That’s not to say he can’t pull it off, but currently Mayweather is in a different galaxy in terms of punching power. Slow-motion replays may be the only way to follow the flying fists once these two whirlwinds unload.

Mayweather should be around a 4-1 favorite. Judah is good enough to make taking the odds an attractive proposition, since that’s probably as good of odds as one is likely to see on Floyd for a while. Mayweather will stop Judah in his tracks.

The first half of next year is set to conclude with the star power of Oscar De La Hoya, probably against noteworthy foil Ricardo Mayorga on May 6. There could be some snags before a contract is finalized, but if it comes off count on Mayorga for promotional sound bite nastiness. One of the questions is whether or not he’ll be able to get under Oscar’s skin, and it might actually be entertaining to see the classy, model perfect De La Hoya show he’s human and freak out against the Nicaraguan maniac.

Mayorga may have burnt his best bridges already. De La Hoya has not only the boxing skill to negate Mayorga’s offense, but enough power to end it early. If Mayorga rushes in and causes a cut, De La Hoya might get ruffled enough to duck into defense and Mayorga could get a decision that goes to the cards after six rounds or so. It will be wild for as long as it lasts.

Pro boxing, like many sports, had its share of problems during 2005, but there were also many positives. Most notably, as usual, was superior and inspiring action inside the strands. Unless there’s a mass freeze-up at the top, early 2006 figures to see decisive interaction among many well-known fighters.

If even fifty per cent of the aforementioned pairings come to fruition, it’s a strong likelihood the upcoming year has at least one very positive half. Arturo Gatti, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Brian Viloria, and Shannon Briggs, to name a few, are also on deck. No matter how you chose to look at or measure mass qualities, there’s still just as much good to be seen.

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