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Andre Ward Talks About Injured Hand, Bute, Going To 175…MARKARIAN

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WardFroch Bailey9“Onward and upward, turn not back nor sheath thy sword. He it is who now commands thee.”

Fanny Crosby might have had super middleweight champion Andre Ward in mind when she wrote those lyrics in 1876.

Because since he laced up gloves for the first time and won almost every tournament in amateur boxing then continued his dominance as an undefeated professional at 25-0, with 13 knockouts, Ward has looked forward to the next challenge. No reflection on past performances. For him, in the midst of a promising career and the boxing world seemingly at his mercy for the time being, mental preparation for the next battle is constant.

 Fresh off of the victory over Carl Froch on Saturday night to win the Super Six Tournament and stake his claim as one of the best fighters in the world, Andre Ward sat with me late Monday night to discuss the past, future, and all that has transpired over the past few years that turned an unproven “puppy,” as Ward likes to say, into a world champion. “It’s been a long road,” he says, filled with “unbelievable, surreal experiences.”

In a reflective two-part interview focused on mindset, pressure, and the great big target on his back, Andre Ward says he is ready to fight again in April or May. He also gives thoughts on possible bouts with Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler.

RM: Congrats on the victory Andre. How do you feel physically after the fight?

AW: What’s up Ray? I am sore but I have felt worse after fights in the past. There are times when it’s hard to get out of bed. It’s crazy. When you get yourself worked up like that for a fight, the adrenaline is powerful. But then it leaves you fast.

RM: You feel drained afterwards?

AW: You feel drained. Your energy level is low and your body is sore. You don’t realize what you are going through in a fight. The physicality of it, I mean, you feel some things but you don’t know if he hit your elbow or he hit you in the back of the head. You feel all of that stuff after the fight. Not just the next day, the second and third days are the worst days. But I feel good now man. Other than my hand being swollen, I feel good.

RM: Froch was hitting you a lot behind the head in the fight. I noticed that.

AW: Yeah, he has a tendency to do that, especially when he gets frustrated. I tried to block them as much as I could.

RM: I saw that picture of your swollen hand on Twitter. You injured it before the fight? How did that happen?

AW: Well, we got to Atlantic City on Wednesday. I had a sparring session on Thursday. I think it was the last round of sparring. I turned southpaw and hit my opponent on the top of the head. I felt the pain but I didn’t stop. I kept going. When we cooled down, I took my gloves off and it just felt weird. I kept feeling it and telling Virgil, it felt like, I don’t want to say a fracture, but it felt like that. We went back to the hotel, laid down, and I called Virgil at like 4 in the morning and told him I was concerned. We needed to get this hand x-rayed. We went in the morning to get it checked the doctor said it was soft tissue damage, or a third degree bruise. And it bothered me from that point on until the day of the fight.

RM: Did it swell before the fight?

AW: The swelling went down because I iced it like crazy. I had a Ziploc bag with ice wrapped or taped on my hand all day. I slept with it and everything. And the day before the fight I asked Stitch Duran to come in my room to show me what kind of wrap he was going to put on my hand. Then I put a 10 ounce glove on and I still felt the pain. I knew it was going to be a problem but hey, what are you going to do? I had to go through with the fight. I didn’t want a second postponement. We had come too far so I just knew that it was going to be one of those fights where I had to bite down.

RM: What did your hand feel like during the fight?

AW: It felt fine for most of the fight. But in the sixth round I hit him with a hook, and oh my goodness, I felt the pain all the way down to my leg. And it would go and come and go and come. It would throb and go away. Or I would hit him in the wrong spot or hit him with a good shot and the pain would come right back. From the sixth round on it was tough.

RM: It seemed like you were using your left hand more than anything. 

AW: I know. And I didn’t even tell Virgil about it in the fight. I don’t know why. I just wanted to stay focused. I didn’t want any distractions you know. I didn’t want him to take his mind off of what he needed to tell me and I didn’t want to take my mind off of what I needed to do. I just dealt with it, man. Guys have fought with a broken hand before. Mine felt like it was broken. But I just had to dig down. I told the guys at Showtime before the fight, ‘I got a bruise on my left eye and a swollen hand. But to win the Super Six, I would take this any day.’

RM: Ok,  so how do you feel right now mentally? I mean, you won the Super Six Tournament. You were an underdog going into the tournament. But you won. SportsIllustrated.com named you their Fighter of the Year. The lights are shinning bright. What’s going on in your mind, man?

AW: It has just been a long time coming, Ray. And you have been behind the scenes with us, coming to the gym and watching us train. You saw all the hard work, man. I am just thankful to God, to Showtime, for the opportunity. Some guys never get their shot and I got mine. And we were able to make the most of it. I have always believed, and I have told you this many times, I always believed that I could beat everyone in this tournament. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. And I knew I couldn’t get ahead of myself in this tournament and had to focus on each fighter individually. We did that. We fought the biggest punchers in the division. We stood our ground. We were able to dish out more than we took. I went from a young puppy to – I don’t want to say I am full-grown fighter just yet, but I have matured a lot in the last two and a half years. I had a good performance on Saturday night but it wasn’t my best. I know that I have a lot more that I could show.

RM: You think you can get better?

AW: I feel like I am getting to the point where I could put together a string of fights that really show everything that I have. I turn 28 years-old in February. I am getting close to my prime, I think. Saturday was a good performance. But it wasn’t my best.

RM: Do you feel like you have a target on your back now?

AW: I have always felt like there was a target, absolutely, even more so now that we won the tournament. There are guys that call me out and that’s cool. We just have to take it one fight at a time. It is not about all the talk. It is not about that. We dealt with every type of guy you could deal with in this tournament. We dealt with different personalities in and out of the ring. We understand boxing. People are going to talk. We just focus on the next fight. Whoever the next fighter is, we will be ready to go. And we will be ready to defend our belts.

RM: But are you even thinking about the next fight? I mean, you just won the tournament two days ago. Are you looking forward to the next fight already?

AW: Oh yeah! That’s the nature of the beast, Ray. I mean, twenty minutes after I got out of the ring they were already asking me about my next opponent. That’s the way it is. But in the back of my mind, I know this (tournament victory) was great, it was historical, and it meant a lot. In the front of my mind I continue to push forward, looking for what’s next. I am looking forward to this rest, though, because my body needs it physically. But in my mind, I am already thinking about what I need to do to get better, what I need to do to get stronger, faster, and craftier. That has been my mindset from day one. Just like the Olympics. In the back of my mind, I knew it was a tremendous achievement, unbelievable. But I couldn’t enjoy it simply because you have to keep working. You have to keep moving. In the back of my mind, I am trying to grasp what this (Froch) victory meant but in the front of my mind I am thinking, it is just another victory and I have to keep moving. We were able to beat a tough skilled fighter, and I believe Carl Froch will be champion again one day. We were able to beat a great fighter. But when I watched the fight, I still see that there is room to grow. I am excited because I know that I could get better.  

RM: Well, if you start reflecting on your victories and achievements, then you are not going to be hungry anymore, right?

AW: Yeah, I mean, everybody’s mindset is different but that’s how we’ve done it. Even when I was a young kid fighting in national tournaments, hey, we’d win the nationals and talk about it for a day or two then it was on to the next tournament. Hey, we got the Blue and Gold coming up or we got the Silver Gloves coming up. That is just the way it is. It seems like it is not right but that is just the way it is.

RM: Right.

AW: It is like a writer putting out a great story and you have a deadline two weeks from now. Everyone tells you how great your last story was and it was the best story you’ve ever wrote. You can’t stay there and risk not showing up for the other deadlines and become mediocre. So you have to take it and appreciate the compliments and say ‘thanks man, I appreciate it. Thank you.’ Don’t get me wrong Ray;, we are going to be happy about this performance. We are going to celebrate it. We are. But in the front of my mind I know, we are just getting started. 

RM: So about your next opponent, Kessler and Bute are names being thrown out there. Virgil and I have talked about a possible Kessler rematch for you even before the Froch fight. Some people want to see you fight Lucian Bute. He was in Atlantic City to watch and seems thirsting to get you in the ring. Is there anyone in particular that you want to fight next?

AW: No, I am not going to call anyone out, Ray. I meant what I said about the Bute situation. I think Bute is a great talent. Obviously he is a great draw in Quebec. I also feel, actually collectively everyone that has been in the Super Six can say that he has laid back. I think Bute needs to beat some significant fighters before he could demand a unification bout. But he is definitely someone I’d like to fight. I would love a rematch with Kessler. You know, they have shown interest. He is fighting in April against Robert Stieglitz for the WBO belt. There is another belt that could be on the line. So there are a lot of options, Ray. We are just going to sit down as a team and see what makes sense. That is the beauty of winning a tournament like this. We are able to make a solid decision. We are not forced to do anything. We have paid our dues up until this point to make a sound decision. All of the names that you mentioned are realistic options. Nobody can say we are ducking anybody. We just fought the best fighters in the division for the last two and a half years. So nobody can say we are ducking anybody. We just have to see what makes sense.

 RM: Is moving up in weight is an option?

AW: Yep.

RM: Well, you beat the best at 168, except Bute, who has not fought anyone in the Super Six besides Glen Johnson. And it is going to take at least a year for Bute to beat two or three guys that were in the Super Six.

AW: Right.

RM: So for you, it is either a Kessler rematch or move up in weight?

AW: Moving up is on my radar. I don’t know if I would campaign at light heavyweight. I always wanted to become a multidivisional champion. I think I can fight at 175. That is definitely something that I want to do at some point. And that is the downside to winning a tournament like the Super Six. Because like you said, most of the top guys were in that tournament. Everything was put together and boom we’re done so it’s like, who do you fight now? So now, there are still some fights at 168 pounds and 175 is an option.

See what else Andre Ward has to say about moving up in weight and fighting Kessler or Bute in part two.

Follow Ray on Twitter @RayMarkarian

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: British Family Feud and More

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ext generation rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. carry on the family legacy of feudal warring in the prize ring on Saturday.

This is huge in British boxing.

Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs) holds the fringe IBO middleweight title but won’t be defending it against the smaller welterweight Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, April 26, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.

This is about family pride.

The parents of Eubank and Benn actually began the feud in the 1990s.

Papa Nigel Benn fought Papa Chris Eubank twice. Losing as a middleweight in November 1990 at Birmingham, England, then fighting to a draw as a super middleweight in October 1993 in Manchester. Both were world title fights.

Eubank was undefeated and won the WBO middleweight world title in 1990 against Nigel Benn by knockout. He defended it three times before moving up and winning the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 1991. He defended the super middleweight title 14 times until suffering his first pro defeat in March 1995 against Steve Collins.

Benn won the WBO middleweight title in April 1990 against Doug DeWitt and defended it once before losing to Eubank in November 1990. He moved up in weight and took the WBC super middleweight title from Mauro Galvano in Italy by technical knockout in October 1992. He defended the title nine times until losing in March 1996. His last fight was in November 1996, a loss to Steve Collins.

Animosity between the two families continues this weekend in the boxing ring.

Conor Benn, the son of Nigel, has fought mostly as a welterweight but lately has participated in the super welterweight division. He is several inches shorter in height than Eubank but has power and speed. Kind of a British version of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

“It’s always personal, every opponent I fight is personal. People want to say it’s strictly business, but it’s never business. If someone is trying to put their hands on me, trying to render me unconscious, it’s never business,” said Benn.

This fight was scheduled twice before and cut short twice due to failed PED tests by Benn. The weight limit agreed upon is 160 pounds.

Eubank, a natural middleweight, has exchanged taunts with Benn for years. He recently avenged a loss to Liam Smith with a knockout victory in September 2023.

“This fight isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise and all those areas in which I excel in,” said Eubank. “I have many, many more years of experience over Conor Benn, and that will be the deciding factor of the night.”

Because this fight was postponed twice, the animosity between the two feuding fighters has increased the attention of their fans. Both fighters are anxious to flatten each other.

“He’s another opponent in my way trying to crush my dreams. trying to take food off my plate and trying to render me unconscious. That’s how I look at him,” said Benn.

Eubank smiles.

“Whether it’s boxing, whether it’s a gun fight. Defense, offense, foot movement, speed, power. I am the superior boxer in each of those departments and so many more – which is why I’m so confident,” he said.

Supporting Bout

Former world champion Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs) tangles with Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) in a middleweight fight set for 12 rounds on the Benn-Eubank undercard in London.

“Beefy” Smith has long been known as one of the fighting Smith brothers and recently lost to Eubank a year and a half ago. It was only the second time in 38 bouts he had been stopped. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did it several years ago.

McKenna is a familiar name in Southern California. The Irish fighter fought numerous times on Golden Boy Promotion cards between 2017 and 2019 before returning to the United Kingdom and his assault on continuing the middleweight division. This is a big step for the tall Irish fighter.

It’s youth versus experience.

“I’ve been calling for big fights like this for the last two or three years, and it’s a fight I’m really excited for. I plan to make the most of it and make a statement win on Saturday night,” said McKenna, one of two fighting brothers.

Monster in L.A.

Japan’s super star Naoya “Monster” Inoue arrived in Los Angeles for last day workouts before his Las Vegas showdown against Ramon Cardenas on Sunday May 4, at T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will televise and stream the Top Rank card.

It’s been four years since the super bantamweight world champion performed in the US and during that time Naoya (29-0, 26 KOs) gathered world titles in different weight divisions. The Japanese slugger has also gained fame as perhaps the best fighter on the planet. Cardenas is 26-1 with 14 KOs.

Pomona Fights

Super featherweights Mathias Radcliffe (9-0-1) and Ezequiel Flores (6-4) lead a boxing card called “DMG Night of Champions” on Saturday April 26, at the historic Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, Calif.

Michaela Bracamontes (11-2-1) and Jesus Torres Beltran (8-4-1) will be fighting for a regional WBC super featherweight title. More than eight bouts are scheduled.

Doors open at 6 p.m. For ticket information go to: www.tix.com/dmgnightofchampions

Fights to Watch

Sat. DAZN 9 a.m. Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Liam Smith (33-4-1) vs Aaron McKenna (19-0).

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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.

Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”

Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.

Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.

The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.

It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.

Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.

Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.

When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.

Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”

Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.

Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.

Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.

Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.

It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.

Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.

For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”

It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.

Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

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The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.

The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.

In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.

The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:

New York Times

New York News

New York World

New York Sun

New York Journal

New York Post

New York Mirror

New York Telegram

New York Graphic

New York Herald Tribune

Brooklyn Eagle

Brooklyn Times

Brooklyn Standard Union

Brooklyn Citizen

Bronx Home News

This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.

Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.

The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.

Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)

Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.

Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.

There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.

In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.

There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.

The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.

Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.

The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put  words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.

The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.

Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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