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Who Goes With Fergus?
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photo by Chris Farina-Top Rank
Who goes with Fergus?
In 1998, Tom and Ann Lee, along with their six children, journeyed from London, almost five hundred miles away, to settle in a small village called Castle Connell, six or so miles out of Limerick, Ireland. The Lee family had returned to their homeland.
WHO will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
As working class families do, the Lee family made use of their hands to earn their wages. Tom Lee worked the soil for a living, and his three sons, Tommy, Ned and Andy, learned their father’s trade. They likely learned many things from tilling the earth – things like the importance sowing seeds, the value of consistency, and that nature can only be mastered by hardworking, resilient hands.
Brothers like to fight. The Lee brothers had learned the craft of boxing at the Repton Boxing Club in London, and when they moved from the bright city lights of London to the darkened nights of Castle Connell, they had to find a new place to apply it. They settled on St. Francis Boxing Club in Limerick.
The youngest of the brothers, Andy, was almost immediately successful when he laced up the gloves for the first time under the careful guidance of his Uncle Cheasie. Three years later, he had his first amateur bout and showed even more promise. After the move to Ireland, his rise continued. Lee honed his craft to become one of Ireland’s most decorated amateur stars, which culminated in him being Ireland’s sole Olympic boxing representative in 2004.
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.
Lee did not medal in the Olympics, but his promise as a hopeful contender was such that the Irish Sports Council made him a lucrative offer to remain an amateur for four more years in order to compete again for Ireland at the 2008 Bejing Olympics. Likely influenced by his working class upbringing, and perhaps augmented by his inborn sense of diligence and adventure, Lee decided instead to turn professional after a chance encounter with legendary American trainer Emanuel Stewart.
Stewart had seen the then-unknown Lee upset one of Stewart’s (and America’s) top middleweight contenders at the 2002 World Juniors in Cuba.Intrigued by the rangy southpaw with power in both hands, Stewart and Lee began a relationship in 2003 that culminated in Lee leaving his homeland behind to follow his dream of becoming a great boxing champion. Stewart offered him a five-year contract with a sizeable signing bonus to come to Detroit, as well as the opportunity to live with him along with a slew of other world class fighters who train at Stewart’s world famous Kronk gym.
“I had to decide if I was willing to go out of my comfort zone and come to America,’’ Lee told TSS (Ron Borges) back in 2008. “My Mum wanted me to stay in Ireland, of course. Detroit is a long way from home. I’d never been there. It was difficult.
“The Irish Sports Council had made a great offer for me to stay amateur for four more years that included funding and a new car and a chance to get an education. It was a chance to try once more for the gold medal in familiar surroundings. The decision wasn’t easy but I finally told me Mum and Dad I had to go and follow my dream.
“Since I was a kid I’d read about all the great fighters. Now I had a chance to try to become one with one of the greatest trainers in the world. I couldn’t pass that up.”
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love's bitter mystery;
As in his amateur days, Andy Lee was immediately successful when he turned pro. His first professional contest was March 10, 2006, at the famed Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Lee defeated Anthony Cannon by points in six rounds.By 2007, both HBO and ESPN were praising the undefeated middleweight from Ireland-by-way-of-Detroit as one of the sport’s top prospects.Larry Merchant commended him during one broadcast with “he looks like ten million dollars.” Dan Rafael labeled him a virtual can’t miss superstar, lauding Lee as a fighter “as blue chip as they come.”
Lee’s winning ways continued as his adulation grew. He did everything a future champion is supposed to do. He lived and breathed boxing almost 24/7.He fought various types of opponents in various places in both America and abroad. He sparred against the very best competitors he could find.He stayed undefeated.
By the end of 2007, Lee was the Irish super middleweight champion with not even the sky seeming a limit, but it would soon come crashing down.
Lee was undefeated in fifteen fights when he ran into the crude but unrelenting slugger Brian Vera on March 21, 2008. Things went according to the script in the first. Vera hit the canvas and appeared badly shaken with over a minute left in the round, but survived intact. As the fight wore on, Lee pressed the action with vigor but seemed to overexert himself to the point of exhaustion trying to outslug the slugger. The game challenger Vera capitalized by stopping Lee in round seven with a barrage of heavy shots that prompted referee Tony Chiarantano to stop the fight (albeit too quickly by most reasonable standards).
The luster perhaps now worn, all was not lost for Andy Lee. He rebounded in his next fight by stopping Willie Gibbs in ten, and seemed not to miss a beat in his continued rise towards challenging for a title, even if it would take longer now than previously anticipated. In fact, it’d take him twelve more wins and over three more years for him to get another opportunity to right the wrong he suffered against Vera. On October 1, 2011, Lee met the hard-charging Vera again. This time, Lee used his superior boxing skill to virtually shut-out his opponent over ten lopsided rounds.
Andy Lee was no longer a strapping youth destined for amateur greatness.He was no longer a sought after Olympic competitor, or a can’t miss professional prospect. Andy Lee had become a legit, seasoned middleweight contender, and it showed.
“I showed in the rematch how much better a fighter I am now and how much I’ve improved since the first fight both physically and mentally,” he told TSS back in April.
“I think I was just really immature the first fight, and I fought a silly fight but I’ve learned from that mistake and moved on. I think it was a shut-out against Vera [in the rematch] so it just showed a difference in class really. I’m improving all the time, and I’m still learning a lot. And I’ll have a lot more to show when I fight Chavez.”
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.
Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. is the WBC middleweight champion of the world.He’s a plodding, heavyset slugger who uses his famous father’s trademark left hook to the body to barrel in on his opponents and inflict damage.
Chavez isn’t a pound-for-pound superstar. No one confuses him for the lineal champion Sergio Martinez, but he’s a legit world titlist who’s proven his mettle against some of the very best in his division. His TKO win over Peter Manfredo last November proved he wasn’t just a paper champion who would struggle against the kind of fighter he should beat handily, and his clear decision win over Marco Antonio Rubio earlier this year perhaps further legitimized his claim to a title.
And don’t tell guys like Chavez, Jr. and Andy Lee that title belts don’t matter.
“Well, it’ll be the biggest fight of my career, but more importantly I want to be WBC champion,” Lee said about the opportunity to fight for a world title.
“I’ve always seen that belt through history growing up, and it’s been a dream to have that around my waist. Being champion of the world is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and I’m one fight away from doing it.”
One fight away.
Andy Lee, the son of Tom and Ann Lee, younger brother of brothers Tommy and Ned, brother to three sisters, nephew of Uncle Cheasie, Irish amateur hero, Kronk gym prospect, and dream-chasing contender from Ireland, is one fight away from becoming middleweight world champion.
He is not a folk hero. Not yet. But Andy Lee is standing where only a few Irish-born fighters have stood before, and even fewer, men like Jimmy McLarnin, Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey and Tom Sharkey, have trodden with ballyhooed success.
A win over Chavez this Saturday in El Paso, in front of what is sure to be a hostile, pro-Chavez and Mexican crowd would set up a showdown with aging linear champion Sergio Martinez.
A win over Martinez and, well…who knows? One day there just might be no lore left more sacred in all the Emerald Isle than that of Andy Lee.
[Author’s Note – Who Goes With Fergus? was published in 1892 by Y.B. Yeats, perhaps Ireland’s most celebrated poet.]
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The Challenge of Playing Muhammad Ali
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There have been countless dramatizations of Muhammad Ali’s life and more will follow in the years ahead. The most heavily marketed of these so far have been the 1977 movie titled The Greatest starring Ali himself and the 2001 biopic Ali starring Will Smith.
The Greatest was fictionalized. Its saving grace apart from Ali’s presence on screen was the song “The Greatest Love of All” which was written for the film and later popularized by Whitney Houston. Beyond that, the movie was mediocre. “Of all our sports heroes,” Frank Deford wrote, “Ali needs least to be sanitized. But The Greatest is just a big vapid valentine. It took a dive.”
The 2001 film was equally bland but without the saving grace of Ali on camera. “I hated that film,” Spike Lee said. “It wasn’t Ali.” Jerry Izenberg was in accord, complaining, “Will Smith playing Ali was an impersonation, not a performance.”
The latest entry in the Ali registry is a play running this week off-Broadway at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street) in Manhattan.
The One: The Life of Muhammad Ali was written by David Serero, who has produced and directed the show in addition to playing the role of Angelo Dundee in the three-man drama. Serero, age 43, was born in Paris, is of Moroccan-French-Jewish heritage, and has excelled professionally as an opera singer (baritone) and actor (stage and screen).
Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The play is flawed. There are glaring factual inaccuracies in the script that add nothing to the dramatic arc and detract from its credibility.
On the plus side; Zack Bazile (pictured) is exceptionally good as Ali. And Serero (wearing his director’s hat) brings the most out of him.
Growing up, Bazile (now 28) excelled in multiple sports. In 2018, while attending Ohio State, he won the NCAA Long Jump Championship and was named Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year. He also dabbled in boxing, competed in two amateur fights in 2022, and won both by knockout. He began acting three years ago.
Serero received roughly one thousand resumes when he published notices for a casting call in search of an actor to play Ali. One-hundred-twenty respondents were invited to audition.
“I had people who looked like Ali and were accomplished actors,” Serero recalls. “But when they were in the room, I didn’t feel Ali in front of me. You have to remember; we’re dealing with someone who really existed and there’s video of him, so it’s not like asking someone to play George Washington.”
And Ali was Ali. That’s a hard act to follow.
Bazile is a near-perfect fit. At 6-feet-2-inches tall, 195 pounds, he conveys Ali’s physicality. His body is sculpted in the manner of the young Ali. He moves like an athlete because he is an athlete. His face resembles Ali’s and his expressions are very much on the mark in the way he transmits emotion to the audience. He uses his voice the way Ali did. He moves his eyes the way Ali did. He has THE LOOK.
Zack was born the year that Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, so he has no first-hand memory of the young Ali who set the world ablaze. “But as an actor,” he says, “I’m representing Ali. That’s a responsibility I take very seriously. Everyone has an essence about them. I had to find the right balance – not too over the top – and capture that.”
Sitting in the audience watching Bazile, I felt at times as though it was Ali onstage in front of me. Zack has the pre-exile Ali down perfectly. The magic dissipates a bit as the stage Ali grows older. Bazile still has to add the weight of aging to his craft. But I couldn’t help but think, “Muhammad would have loved watching Zack play him.”
****
Twenty-four hours after the premiere of The One, David Serero left the stage for a night to shine brightly in a real boxing ring., The occasion was the tenth fight card that Larry Goldberg has promoted at Sony Hall in New York, a run that began with Goldberg’s first pro show ever on October 13, 2022.
Most of the fights on the six-bout card played out as expected. But two were tougher for the favorites than anticipated. Jacob Riley Solis was held to a draw by Daniel Jefferson. And Andy Dominguez was knocked down hard by Angel Meza in round three before rallying to claim a one-point split-decision triumph.
Serero sang the national anthem between the second and third fights and stilled the crowd with a virtuoso performance. Fans at sports events are usually restless during the singing of the anthem. This time, the crowd was captivated. Serero turned a flat ritual into an inspirational moment. People were turning to each other and saying “Wow!”
****
The unexpected happened in Tijuana last Saturday night when 25-to-1 underdog Bruno Surace climbed off the canvas after a second-round knockdown to score a shocking, one-punch, sixth-round stoppage of Jaime Munguia. There has been a lot of commentary since then about what happened that night. The best explanation I’ve heard came from a fan named John who wrote, “The fight was not over in the second round although Munguia thought it was because, if he caught him once, he would naturally catch him again. Plus he looked at this little four KO guy [Surace had scored 4 knockouts in 27 fights] the way all the fans did, like he had no punch. That is what a fan can afford to do. But a fighter should know better. The ref reminds you, ‘Protect yourself at all times.’ Somebody forgot that.”
photo (c) David Serero
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year
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L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year
If asked to name a prominent boxing trainer who operates out of a gym in Los Angeles, the name Freddie Roach would jump immediately to mind. Best known for his work with Manny Pacquaio, Roach has been named the Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America a record seven times.
A mere seven miles from Roach’s iconic Wild Card Gym is the gym that Rudy Hernandez now calls home. Situated in the Little Tokyo neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, the L.A. Boxing Gym – a relatively new addition to the SoCal boxing landscape — is as nondescript as its name. From the outside, one would not guess that two reigning world champions, Junto Nakatani and Anthony Olascuaga, were forged there.
As Freddie Roach will be forever linked with Manny Pacquiao, so will Rudy Hernandez be linked with Nakatani. The Japanese boxer was only 15 years old when his parents packed him off to the United States to be tutored by Hernandez. With Hernandez in his corner, the lanky southpaw won titles at 112 and 115 and currently holds the WBO bantamweight (118) belt. In his last start, he knocked out his Thai opponent, a 77-fight veteran who had never been stopped, advancing his record to 29-0 (22 KOs).
Nakatani’s name now appears on several pound-for-pound lists. A match with Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue is brewing. When that match comes to fruition, it will be the grandest domestic showdown in Japanese boxing history.
“Junto Nakatani is the greatest fighter I’ve ever trained. It’s easy to work with him because even when he came to me at age 15, his focus was only on boxing. It was to be a champion one day and nothing interfered with that dream,” Hernandez told sports journalist Manouk Akopyan writing for Boxing Scene.
Akin to Nakatani, Rudy Hernandez built Anthony Olascuaga from scratch. The LA native was rucked out of obscurity in April of 2023 when Jonathan Gonzalez contracted pneumonia and was forced to withdraw from his date in Tokyo with lineal light flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji. Olascuaga, with only five pro fights under his belt, filled the breach on 10 days’ notice and although he lost (TKO by 9), he earned kudos for his gritty performance against the man recognized as the best fighter in his weight class.
Two fights later, back in Tokyo, Olascuaga copped the WBO world flyweight title with a third-round stoppage of Riku Kano. His first defense came in October, again in Japan, and Olascuaga retained his belt with a first-round stoppage of the aforementioned Gonzalez. (This bout was originally ruled a no-contest as it ended after Gonzalez suffered a cut from an accidental clash of heads. But the referee ruled that Gonzalez was fit to continue before the Puerto Rican said “no mas,” alleging his vision was impaired, and the WBO upheld a protest from the Olascuaga camp and changed the result to a TKO. Regardless, Rudy Hernandez’s fighter would have kept his title.)
Hernandez, 62, is the brother of the late Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez. A two-time world title-holder at 130 pounds who fought the likes of Azumah Nelson, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., Chicanito passed away in 2011, a cancer victim at age 45.
Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez was one of the most popular fighters in the Hispanic communities of Southern California. Rudy Hernandez, a late bloomer of sorts – at least in terms of public recognition — has kept his brother’s flame alive with own achievements. He is a worthy honoree for the 2024 Trainer of the Year.
Note: This is the first in our series of annual awards. The others will arrive sporadically over the next two weeks.
Photo credit: Steve Kim
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A Shocker in Tijuana: Bruno Surace KOs Jaime Munguia !!
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It was a chilly night in Tijuana when Jaime Munguia entered the ring for his homecoming fight with Bruno Surace. The main event of a Zanfer/Top Rank co-promotion, Munguia vs. Surace was staged in the city’s 30,000-seat soccer stadium a stone’s throw from the U.S. border in the San Diego metroplex.
Surace, a Frenchman, brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but a quick glance at his record showed that he had scant chance of holding his own with the house fighter. Only four of Surace’s 25 wins had come by stoppage and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records. Munguia was making the first start in the city of his birth since February 2022. Surace had never fought outside Europe.
But hold the phone!
After losing every round heading into the sixth, Surace scored the Upset of the Year, ending the contest with a one-punch knockout.
It looked like a short and easy night for Munguia when he knocked Surace down with a left hook in the second stanza. From that point on, the Frenchman fought off his back foot, often with back to the ropes, throwing punches only in spurts. Munguia worked the body well and was seemingly on the way to wearing him down when he was struck by lightning in the form of an overhand right.
Down went Munguia, landing on his back. He struggled to get to his feet, but the referee waived it off a nano-second before reaching “10.” The official time was 2:36 of round six.
Munguia, who was 44-1 heading in with 35 KOs, was as high as a 35/1 favorite. In his only defeat, he had gone the distance with Canelo Alvarez. This was the biggest upset by a French fighter since Rene Jacquot outpointed Donald Curry in 1989 and Jacquot had the advantage of fighting in his homeland.
Co-Main
Mexico City’s Alan Picasso, ranked #1 by the WBC at 122 pounds, scored a third-round stoppage of last-minute sub Yehison Cuello in a scheduled 10-rounder contested at featherweight. Picaso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) is a solid technician. He ended the bout with a left to the rib cage, a punch that weaved around Cuello’s elbow and didn’t appear to be especially hard. The referee stopped his count at “nine” and waived the fight off.
A 29-year-old Colombian who reportedly had been training in Tijuana, the overmatched Cuello slumped to 13-3-1.
Other Bouts of Note
In a ho-hum affair, junior middleweight Jorge Garcia advanced to 32-4 (26) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Uzbekistan’s Kudratillo Abudukakhorov (20-4). The judges had it 97-92 and 99-90 twice. There were no knockdowns, but Garcia had a point deducted in round eight for low blows.
Garcia displayed none of the power that he showed in his most recent fight three months ago in Arizona and when he knocked out his German opponent in 46 seconds. Abudukakhorov, who has competed mostly as a welterweight, came in at 158 1/4 pounds and didn’t look in the best of shape. The Uzbek was purportedly 170-10 as an amateur (4-5 per boxrec).
Super bantamweight Sebastian Hernandez improved to 18-0 (17 KOs) with a seventh-round stoppage of Argentine import Sergio Martin (14-5). The end came at the 2:39 mark of round seven when Martin’s corner threw in the towel. Earlier in the round, Martin lost his mouthpiece and had a point deducted for holding.
Hernandez wasn’t all that impressive considering the high expectations born of his high knockout ratio, but appeared to have injured his right hand during the sixth round.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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