Atlas, Steward and Goldsticker On How To Fix USA Boxing

Published

13 years ago

August 22, 2012

Teddy Atlas has never met an opinion he won't offer. It is in his fiber to keep it real, and tell it like it is, and if feathers get ruffled, well, tough tamales. The ESPN analyst offered up some suggestions and critiques about USA Boxing after the Games ended in London, with the lone bright spots coming on the women's side, with Claressa Shields' gold and Marlen Esparza's bronze.

First off, Atlas said in the future, he'd like to have desire and attitude factored in more when choosing a team. “I'd rather have guys less that are less athletic and care more about representing us and the opportunity, taking it as an honor,” he said a few days after coming back from his three week stay in London.

“We have to re-think the whole system,” he said. That starts with some Romney-style management decisions. “The first thing is, there have to be a lot of pink slips,” he said, with an eye on the USA Boxing brain trust. “It's badly organized, badly run, just like AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Association, which oversaw the London tourney, and has been accused of corruption).”

Here's a quickie refresher on the banana-peel laden path to the London Games…

Choosing a coach a month before the Games, as was done when Basheer Abdullah was inserted after Joe Zanders was yanked from his position before the Games, just a few months after replacing Dan Campbell, who oversaw the 2008 squad, which also stank the joint out, certainly didn't help matters. You'll recall the 2008 squad was in rampant disarray, with fighters in a constant state of mutiny. As Gary Russell Sr. put it to Mitch Abramson of the NY Daily News after the Beijing Games, “(Campbell) had so many arguments with these boxers it's like he's setting them all up for failure. He's threatened to throw Sadam (Ali), Demetrius, Rau'Shee (Warren), Javier (Molina), Gary Russel Jr. and Luis all off the team. That's six boxers, more than half the team. Something has to be wrong if you're threatening to get rid of half the team. It can't all be the fault of the boxers.” Campbell “retired” a bit after Beijing, and one had to think that things could only get better. Joe Zanders was hired as the US national coach in January 2011, one might say an awful long time to go without a head of the program following the Campbell departure. But then there was reason for optimism; we heard that personal coaches would get more input with the kids, and that Freddie Roach would come in and lend a hand. Zanders got the official title of head coach for London in August 2011, and publicy, things seemed to be OK. He and Roach seemingly–seemingly– co-existed nicely. But in mid March, word came that Zanders was out after the USA showing at the 2011 worlds–a lone bronze for the Stars and Stripers– didn't impress the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). Or, “promoted,” as the release put it, in yet another example of the goofy workings of USA Boxing. The Roach experiment went awry with whispers that Zanders didn't care for Freddie's presence all that much. And the release of tape of Roach labeling super heavyweight Michael Hunter as “lazy” further poisoned the waters. Basheer Adullah, who coached the 2004 squad, was named head coach on June 27, a scant month before the games kicked off. Things went goofy again a few days before the first bout, when it was learned that Abdullah couldn't coach ringside, because he'd been involved with pros too recently. This shouldn't have been a WTH moment for USA Boxing officials making such decisions, as it wasn't some obscure rule added to the rulebook at the 11th hour, under darkness. So, with Adullah yelling instructions away from ringside, and personal coaches using bullhorns to yell instructions to fighters from rows back in the arena, the fighters got fighting, and you know how that turned out.

Atlas would like the coach to be picked a good spell in advance, so that guy can help carve out a system, and see the athletes at tourneys, and trials. Whether that occurs is up to the gang that runs USA Boxing; Anthony Bartkowski is the director. As for a head coach, Atlas is more than open to a foreigner taking over the reigns. A Cuban would be stellar, as they've had success with the points system in place. Brit Terry Edwards in fact was rumored to have the job before it landed in Abdullah's lap, so it seems that possibility is in play.

Another thing we might see if Atlas had his druthers. The Staten Islander likes what the NFL does, using the intelligence and problem solving test, the Wonderlic Test, to weed out problems before the draft.

Hey, what about you, Teddy? Would Atlas take the reins, and coach the squad in Brazil in 2016, if asked?

“They'd have to fire people first,” he said. “I wouldn't do it like Freddie Roach, show up and have it be like a photo opp. I'd want to do something if I could make a difference.”

One man who has tasted extreme success in the pro ranks, and thought he could help resurrect the Team USA fortunes is Emanuel Steward. The trainer-manager-TV analyst-promoter chatted with TSS about how to address our medal drought.

Steward agreed that the correct word is “disaster” when evaluating the showing by the men in London. Steward, who acted as national director of coaching for USA Boxing heading into the 2004 Olympics in Greece, has become so disenchanted with the American amateur muddle, that he admitted he basically knows almost nothing about any of the fighters who comprised the team. “Now I didn't even know who was on the team,” he admitted to me.
“The whole program fell part,” he told me. “The last team of note was maybe 1988,” he said, allowing that the rare diamond like Andre Ward, in 2004, still occasionally shines through the gloom.

Steward said the US used to produce superb athletes in track and field, and boxing, but no more. The question begs…why?

Start with the lack of international compeition, Steward said. back in 1974, 1975, heading toward the Games in Montreal, boxers who were a lock for the US squad were fighting frequently in tournaments pitting USA vs Cuba, and Poland and Germany, Steward said. “And by the time the Olympics came, they were already household names,” he said, noting that the tourneys also gave the fighters ample seasoning, something this squad lacked bigtime. “I'm a manager, and I've never heard of these guys,” he said. “Get them on TV!”

Ray Leonard and Leon Spinks lost at overseas tourneys, and learned how to bounce back, he said. Also, the judges working those shows, some of whom would work in the Olympics, became familiar, in a good way, with the boxers.

The way the world looks at America doesn't help matters, the Kronk sage stated. “We've created so many enemies,” he said. “They lok at America as the rich, spoiled brat. They don't believe that the team has little funding, that there's no money in the amateur program.” Thus, the Hall of Famer implied, it is not mere sour grapes when we hear analysts complain that judges are screwing over Americans during Olympic bouts. It is payback time, to a degree, for the policies and attitude of our nation, in the geo-political arena. America is seen as somewhat of a bully that needs a takedown; but also, many folks still aspire to make it here, so they look up to our fighters, and raise their games that much more to impress watchers. If I beat the American, they tend to think, that is a meaningful victory.

Julie Goldsticker, who ran the media relations for the team, and has done work for USA Boxing since 2001, is quite likely the single best source if you are looking for the one person who has seen what the program has done right, and wrong, in the last decade. So I asked for her input on how to tweak USA Boxing, so we start getting the medal count, and turning out the sort of fighters most think America is capable of turning out.

“Everyone wants one answer,” she told me. “They wonder why we didn't succeed, they probably need more international experience, and more time with the coaches in their corner, and other stuff, there isn't one easy fix.”

Budget cuts, by the USOC, certainly had a huge effect on the team, she agreed. The budget for USA Boxing was cut after the last Games, because of a poor medal count, and the fear is that trend will continue. Less than $500,000 for a year, to pay salaries, and fund travel to tournaments overseas, so the kids can get seasoning, doesn't cut it. Goldsticker would love to see some of the alumni step up, and open up their checkbook, to fill the vacuum.

“Oscar de la Hoya had a lot to say during the Games,” she noted. “We've reached out to him a lot, and if it's money, or time, if he just wants to give his time, we'd love the help. If Oscar wanted to fund an international event, he could.” Goldsticker, who does PR work for Andre Ward, says Ward has done his part giving back to USA Boxing.

She said that picking a coach early is on the radar of USA Boxing, so hopefully, the continuity issue will be attended to, so we aren't repeating this same column, or, at least, that same element of the column, after Brazil.

For those hoping, as I do, that personal coaches, guys who have been working with fighters for five, seven or more years, will get to travel to the Olympics, and work the corners of the fighters…sorry. Goldsticker says that there are only so many credentials to go round, that it would be too unwieldy to allow a personal coach for every person on the team. Thus, she said, it is super important for personal coaches to get onboard with the system devised by the national team head.

Readers, feel free to pitch in with your ideas. After all, this is the Team USA we are talking about. It is “your” team, they represent you as a nation. If you have some ideas on how to get things moving in the right direction; I will collect them, and present them down the line to someone at USA Boxing, and see if we can't collectively help get us to where we want to be, where we can be, where we should be.

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Michael Woods

“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Published

8 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

2 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-(mostly)-Ugly-A-Weeend-Boxing-Recap-and-More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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