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THE BREAKDOWN: Nonito Donaire-Toshiaki Nishioka

Donaire is in tough against the Japanese vet Nishioki, and will have to be on his game to prevail, according to Lee Wylie. (Chris Farina-Top Rank)
Following Andre Ward's near flawless performance against the universally recognized light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, and Sergio Martinez's stick and move seminar over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. , Nonito Donaire {29-1, 18 knockouts} will be hoping to follow in his fellow pound for pound rival's footsteps when he defends his IBF and WBO junior featherweight titles against wily Japanese veteran Toshiaki Nishioka {39-4-3, 24 knockouts} at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California this Saturday.
It is this writer's opinion that each fighter will be presenting the other with their toughest challenge to date –if you know anything about each fighter's style or how they operate, then you'll know the type of opponent that both men prosper against. Needless to say, neither Donaire or Nishioka will be accommodating one another, which is what makes this fight so intriguing on paper.
Nishioka is very smart and skillful. A southpaw technician with excellent all round capabilities, he can lay back and box cautiously behind his jab, or can press the attack and pour it on in combination if need be. And don't be fooled by his age either. He may be 36 years-old, but Nishioka's shown very little or no signs of slowing down just yet. It's no coincidence that Nishioka hasn't tasted defeat in more than eight years at fighting at an elite level. If Donaire is anticipating his hand raised this Saturday, then he needs to be at his absolute best –fully armed and operational. Speaking of which, Donaire hasn't looked anything like his best in any of his last three outings, at least not anything resembling the chilling knockout artist that we were accustomed to seeing prior to his move up in weight. There are, I believe, three reasons for this.
Firstly, it's very rare that a fighter is able to increase or even maintain the same level of punching power as he/she moves up through the weight classes. Roberto Duran didn't, nor did Alexis Arguello, and despite what many believe, neither has Manny Pacquiao, who's yet to put a fighter weighing more than 140 pounds down and out for the count of ten.
Secondly, Donaire, also reminiscent of Pacquiao recently, is now facing fighters who aren't playing into his style by simply trying to take his head off. On paper, Vic Darchinyan and Fernando Montiel were considered very dangerous. In reality, to those with knowledge of styles and how they mesh, they were tailor-made for the quick trigger, counterpunching Donaire. On the other end of the stylistic spectrum, fighters like Omar Narvaez –cagey and defensive– are almost impossible to find openings against. This is the type of opponent that causes a fighter like Donaire to underperform, not a knockout-seeking head-hunter who loads up on every single punch he throws.
Which brings me to my third and final point. Lately–possibly buying into his own hype–I believe Nonito Donaire has suffered from what I like to call “Mike Tyson Syndrome.” By that, I mean he's fallen in love with his own power, and in particular, his left hook. As I'm sure you're all aware, during his prime, Mike Tyson was so much more than a one handed slugger. Sadly, once the likes of Kevin Rooney were no longer part of his world, that's exactly what Mike Tyson became. Gone were the combinations, the footwork, and the side to side head movement, and in their place? A caricature of his former self, who, while still too strong a puncher for most heavyweights, lacked the creativity to get his punches home on the Evander Holyfield's of this world –all the other flaws in his make up came flooding through as a result. Likewise, Nonito Donaire must get back to setting up his left hook and refrain from loading up with it every chance he gets. The more predictable Donaire becomes with it, the easier it will be for a smart and calculating fighter like Nishioka, who will surely have it scouted, to defend against.
Battle of the left hands.
While both fighters are more than proficient with their right hand –Donaire's uppercuts and straight right and Nishioka's short right hand on the inside– it's the left hand work of both men, that I feel, will likely dominate the fight.
The counter left hook of Nonito Donaire is, I believe, the most spectacular single shot in all of boxing –it's been said here before that there probably isn't a better shot in boxing that encapsulates both its savagery and artistry simultaneously. Providing Donaire is smart, he could win the fight with it. Performed at its best, Donaire's coup de gras is meticulously prepped. With his lead hand low and his right hand extended out in front of him, which enables him to parry his opponent's jab, Donaire is trying to lull his opponent into thinking it's safe to attack. Looking at Donaire's low left, and extended right, opponents generally think it's safe to lead off…and that's strategic suicide. As they lead, Donaire transfers his weight over to his right side {his head is away from the centre line, not giving away any free targets as he throws} and launches his left hook from outside his opponent's line of vision, pushing off of his lead leg and pivoting on the ball of his lead foot as he throws it, almost giving the impression that he's in reverse as it lands {check out the Vic Darchinyan knockout}. It's all about split second timing and deception. Again, the problem here is if Donaire becomes too predictable and begins telegraphing it or over-using it, then he runs the risk of leaving himself open to counters…and Nishioka could counter his counter.
By contrast, Nishioka's left hand is similar in its deception, but different in its execution. Nishioka likes to step to his left –considered unusual for a southpaw– almost daring his opponent into releasing their right hand, the perceived southpaw kryptonite. As an opponent releases his right hand, Nishioka, similarly to Donaire, shifts his weight back across and counters with a straight left hand. But whereas Donaire's left hand comes wide and from the outside, Nishioka's comes straight up the middle. If there's a left handed gun-slinging contest between the two, it's not hard to imagine Nishioka's straighter and more conventional left hand reaching its target first. The flip side of this argument though, is that Donaire can land his left hook even though his body isn't correctly aligned. Imagine Nishioka, a southpaw, shooting his straight left hand. He'll be looking to get his lead foot outside of Donaires's lead foot, enabling him to land it whilst being out of range for a counter right hand {think of Marquez's right hand positioning against Pacquiao, but in reverse}. The beauty of Donaire's left hook, however, is that it can land from the orthodox stance even though his lead foot may or may not be outside of Nishioka's lead foot. This is how Andre Ward managed to land his left hook over and over against the taller southpaw Chad Dawson. Dawson did everything correctly –his lead foot was outside of Ward's with his body perfectly aligned to land his straight left. But because Ward's a converted southpaw {left handed but fights out of the orthodox stance} he could shoot a left hook from inside of Dawson's range –inside the southpaw jab and with his lead foot INSIDE of Dawson's lead foot.
Having read this, I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that there's a lot of technical mumbo jumbo that probably won't come into play. In many cases you could be right. Sometimes boxing can come down to the simplest of things –Who's quicker? Who's stronger ? Or even who is fitter. However, I believe this is going to be one of those occasions, with plenty of feinting and foot positioning, where geometry will be paramount.
Prediction:
As was mentioned here earlier, on paper, neither man's had it as tough by my estimation. A win here for either would easily be a career best. Speed, reflexes, timing and power seem to go with Donaire, but experience, ring savvy and toughness –Nishioka's been down and got up to win on more than one occasion– are with the Japanese veteran.
I can see this fight going one of two ways. The first, is that Nishioka, a technician who likes to work out angles before implementing his findings in later rounds, can generally be a slow starter. Donaire on the other hand, has been known in the past to be a somewhat fast starter. Merge the two notions together and I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility to suggest that Donaire catches him cold –either with his vaunted left or with his uppercuts– and ends the fight early. The second, is that like in his last fights when he lacked creativity by neglecting the body and refusing to set up his left hand, Donaire becomes a tad predictable and we see a fight with Donaire hitting nothing but arms and elbows with his power shots from the outside. There's no question that Donaire hits hard, which has lead to many of his opponents closing their defensive doors early in fights against him. Should Nishioka experience Donaire's power early enough to decide that opening up isn't worth the risk of being knocked out, then Nishioka may be happy enough to just see out the remainder of the fight. Hopefully, this won't be the case. As Nishioka has a real chance of winning here.
Even though I think Nishioka is a terrific fighter, who's vastly underrated by many, I think Donaire wins. I believe the fact that Nishioka won't have fought in over a year by the time he steps into the ring could play a major part, especially against a younger talent like Donaire, who's probably the most active fighter out of all the pound for pound claimants.
Whether Donaire's going to look spectacular while doing so, however, is another thing entirely. When he's on it, I think Donaire's right up there with the very best in boxing. And yet, there remains a distinct possibility that we may have overestimated him slightly, what with his sensational one punch knockouts over good, but upon reflection, tailor made opponents. If Donaire wants to remain among the pound for pound pack, he's in need of that “special look good win” that's going to be comparable with those of Andre Ward and Sergio Martinez which will get people talking about him again. That being said, this could be a case of “win this one and look good next time,” as Nishioka is very hard to look good against. Any win over Nishioka would be a good one, but should Donaire look anything close to spectacular against a technically solid, versatile fighter who's more than proven at this weight class {a weight class that Donaire's yet to look sensational in} then that really would be something to talk about.
Also on the same night, Brandon Rios {30-0-1, 22 knockouts} will be moving up to the 140 pound division where he will face Mike Alvarado {33-0, 23 knockouts} in a WBO title eliminator in a fight that many are quick to slap with fight of the year potential. With my beers already on standby, I'd like nothing more than to bare witness to a fight of the year calibre contest. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to see one. At least not from Rios and Alvarado.
I won't lie here. I'm a Brandon Rios skeptic, always have been. Upon watching him in the past, I've seen nothing but a fighter who comes in square looking to outpunch his often smaller opponents who had no clue on infighting or how to deal with his size and strength for that weight class. That all changed last year when he faced the unknown to most Richard Abril. Sometimes, bad decisions in boxing get blown out of context –Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley was one such fight in this writer's opinion. But then, there are some decisions that are simply inexcusable. Brandon Rios's gift decision over Richard Abril was one of the worst that I've ever seen. Throughout the fight, Rios was not only dominated from the outside, but he was also mastered in close by a better infighter than himself. All Abril had to do to negate Rios's best weapon, his left hook, was push his left hip into Rios's waist and cover his face with his right glove {the Mayweather inside posture}. Rios had absolutely no idea on how to prevent it from happening or how to land his left hook. Abril chopped Rios up from the opening bell to the last, using his better outside and inside fighting skills. This, I believe, is going to be the deciding factor on Saturday night. I'm sure Rios is going to get his wish at some point by Alvarado meeting him on the inside, but there's more to infighting than walking in with your shoulders parallel to your feet whilst looking to land a wide left hook. Mike Alvarado is technically better, bigger, and stronger than Brandon Rios, inside or out.
I don't mean to be a spoiler here, but I don't think this fight will even be all that close. I think Alvarado is capable of outboxing Rios from range or in close, using the same kind of infighting/outfighting –standing side on behind a high shoulder– that Richard Abril used. Granted, I don't think Alvarado possesses the mobility of Abril, but he probably doesn't need to. Should Alvarado be able to withstand Rios's fire power, which I think he can, and proceed to land combinations on Rios, which I think he will, then we could even see Rios put on the back foot. Rios's physical strength and decent chin are what has won him fights in the past, not his skills. Now he's fighting at 140 pounds, Rios's get out of jail free card is gone by my estimation. Can you imagine how effective Julio Cesar Chavez Jr would be fighting at cruiserweight against actual cruiserweights? I'm guessing he'd probably be as effective as Brandon Rios would be fighting opponents HIS own size too. Now that Rios is fighting a physically bigger man that isn't just going to wilt under his physicality and crudeness, I think we're going to see a lot of indecision in the ring from Rios this Saturday.
I'm not going to beat around the bush here and talk about angles and foot placement. I think Mike Alvarado is better than Brandon Rios no matter where or how the fight takes place. If forced to find an argument in Rios's favour I'd point to his 26 years as opposed to Alvarado's 32 years. But even then, it seems to me that Rios is a very old 26 years-old while Alvarado is a relatively young 32 years-old.
Prediction:
No matter which way I look at it, I can't see anything other than an Alvarado win. I don't think we're going to see the knock down drag out affair that most are anticipating. Alvarado, with his superior boxing ability, doesn't need to fight that way, and even if he does, he'll likely back Rios up, who has no reverse gear, and stop him anyway.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: Benn vs Eubank Family Feud and More

Next 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 before 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

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

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.
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