Lou DiBella on EPIX

Published

12 years ago

November 12, 2012

dibella pic The first fight televised on Epix was Vitali Klitschko vs. Odlanier Solis on March 19, 2011. The network now hosts boxing on a regular basis. Fights are shown live approximately once a month on a Saturday afternoon (usually around 4:30 PM east coast time). That’s a throwback to the era when the sweet science was an anchor for Saturday afternoon sports programming.

“Our budget is a small fraction of what HBO and Showtime spend on fights,” Epix acquisitions consultant Roy Langbord says. “But by focussing on the Klitschkos and Europe, we’ve been able to buy good fights that have been overlooked in the U.S. market.”

Epix takes the European feed for its telecasts. Fights are called from a three-man studio desk in New York. For the past year, Bruce Beck has handled blow-by-blow duties. The number-two seat has been filled by Dan Rafael. The industry-insider role has fallen at various times to Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Freddie Roach.

This past Saturday (November 10th), Epix embarked on a grand experiment. It brought in promoter Lou DiBella to do commentary as the industry insider for its telecast of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Mariusz Wach and Robert Helenius vs. Sherman Williams.

In the past, DiBella has done spot commentary on telecasts of his own Broadway Boxing shows. Earlier this year, he sent a video of his work to Travis Pomposello (executive producer of Epix Sports). Travis took it from there. Before long, DiBella was slated for his Epix debut.

Inquiring minds wanted to know: “Could Lou sit still through two fights? Could Lou cope with turning his cell phone off for the two hours that he would be on the air? Could Lou control his emotions without stifling his emotional appeal?”

Seth Abraham was the architect of HBO’s boxing program. He and DiBella presided over the network’s sports department during its glory years.

“Wow!” Abraham exclaimed when apprised of DiBella’s pending engagement. “I’m rarely speechless, but this is one of those times. Lou obviously knows boxing as a sport and a business. I think his biggest challenge will be to impose moderation and control on himself. People in boxing know Lou, and they’ll be looking for one set of things from him for entertainment. But the average viewer will be looking for something else. For the average viewer, this will be about the fights, not about Lou. Will he know when to shut up? Will he explain and complement the visual or overwhelm it? It will be interesting; that’s for sure. It’s a fascinating choice.”

The commentating team that DiBella coordinated with at HBO was similarly intrigued.

“This should be fun,” Larry Merchant said enthusiastically.

“Lou always has something to say,” Harold Lederman offered. “I can’t wait to hear what it is.”

Jim Lampley was effusive in his praise.

“If anything can double Epix’s subscription rate in one night, this is it,” Lampley posited. “Lou has common-man appeal. He’s in psychological harmony with the sport. He looks and feels like a boxing guy the same way that John Madden looks and feels like football. He’s one of my favorite conversationalists, whether he’s ranting or philosophizing. He knows the sport and he knows the business. I can’t imagine that he won’t be great on the air. I think it’s fantastic.”

Steve Farhood was behind the microphone when DiBella commentated on a handful of Broadway Boxing fights.

“When one of Lou’s fighters scores a knockout,” Farhood noted, “Lou forgets that he’s an analyst on a TV show. He jumps up and down and his headset falls off. So it’s an interesting situation with Epix. On Broadway Boxing, Lou can be Lou. But the higher a commentator goes, the more filters there are and the more he’s expected to be politically correct within the context of boxing. I think it will work out. I do know that it’s enervating when Lou joins us on Broadway Boxing because his energy is contagious.”

Steve Albert looked to the past and recalled, “This brings back memories of when I was announcing hockey for the Cleveland Crusaders in the old World Hockey Association. My color commentator was the coach’s wife. Every time Cleveland scored, she got so excited that she punched me in the arm. By the end of the season, I needed a sling. So knowing Lou, my advice to Bruce Beck and Dan Rafael would be to wear some sort of protective device.”

“But seriously,” Albert added. “Lou is charismatic and colorful. He knows the sport inside and out. Be honest, respect the viewer, and he’ll do a great job.”

Al Bernstein proclaimed, “I’m certainly more curious about this telecast than I was before. The one piece of advice I’d offer Lou is that he give serious thought to avoiding the ‘F’ word on the air. I know it’s an organic part of his speech. But it wouldn’t be appropriate under these circumstances.”

Craig Hamilton spoke for boxing fans everywhere when he observed, “There’s a school of thought that the last thing Lou DiBella needs is a microphone. And let’s face it; putting Lou behind a microphone is a gamble because, as smart as Lou is, he’s all emotion. But I’m sure that Lou isn’t doing this to be part of a circus. He’ll try to do the job right. John McEnroe on the tennis court behaved one way. But behind the microphone, McEnroe is very analytical and controlled. Lou could be very good at this. I’m glad they hired him.”

Meanwhile, Lou declared, “I’m taking this very seriously. I won’t just mail it in. I’ve watched eleven of Mariusz Wach’s fights. Obviously, I’m familiar with Klitschko. I’ve done my homework on Helenius and Williams and read the Epix briefing book. I’ll be going to the pre-production meetings. I assume I won’t fuck up. And whatever happens, I can’t be as bad as some of the guys who are commentating on fights today.”

At 4:30 PM, after a final rehearsal, DiBella and company were on the air. Because of European television commitments, Klitschko-Wach was the first fight on tap.

Klitschko, age thirty-six, was written off as an elite heavyweight in 2004 after being knocked out twice within the span of thirteen months. Corrie Sanders stopped him in two rounds. Lamon Brewster did the deed in five. But Wladimir prevailed in sixteen consecutive fights after that en route to a 58-and-3 record with fifty knockouts

As David Greisman wrote, “Long gone is the deer-in-the-headlights look that took over Klitschko’s face as Sanders sent him down again and again. Now Klitschko looks like a lion presiding over his jungle, swatting powerfully at whomever dares enter his kingdom. Much of that has to do with the teachings of trainer Emanuel Steward. Much of that has to do with the way Klitschko has put those lessons into practice. He’s gone from heavyweight scrap heap to heavyweight champion. He has learned to use distance and height; learned to work behind a powerful jab and not to lower himself by over-extending with his right cross. He has incorporated simple but deft footwork to take himself out of range of his opponent’s attacks. He has learned how to avoid trouble. It isn’t flashy. But it works.”

Wladimir is now widely accepted as boxing’s heavyweight king. Brother Vitali is the sport’s crown prince.

Wach, age thirty-two, was born in Poland, lives in New Jersey, and (for unexplained reasons) is nicknamed “The Viking”. His 27-and-0 record was devoid of quality opponents. Kevin McBride (who weighed in at a blubbery 296 pounds), Jason Gavern (a career opponent on a four-fight losing streak), and Tye Fields (a three-time first-round knockout victim) were the most recognizable names on his ledger. Against Klitschko, Mariusz was a 20-to-1 underdog.

Most of the pre-fight talk on the Epix telecast was devoted the fact that this would be Wladimir’s first fight in more than eight years without Emanuel Steward in his corner.

When the moment of reckoning came, Klitschko and DiBella both started fast.

At the opening bell, Lou declared, “The first jab that hits Wach will probably be the best jab that hit him in his life.” Seconds later, DiBella observed, “You can see the difference in their jabs. Klitschko’s jab snaps. Wach’s jab pushes.”

Wladimir outlanded Mariusz 19-to-3 in the first stanza, which was a harbinger of things to come. As the fight progressed, Wach’s game plan seemed to be to stand directly in front of Klitschko without applying pressure or moving his head. He showed an incredible chin (DiBella called it “the chin of God”), great heart, and not much more. Round after round, he absorbed hellacious right hands without going down.

The most brutal moments in the fight came in round eight, when Klitschko landed crushing blow after crushing blow (a 44-to-3 edge in punches landed in those three minutes alone). That led DiBella to opine, “I’d like to see the corner jump in here.”

That would have been the sensible thing to do, but it didn’t happen. Wach continued to take as much punishment as any fighter in recent memory. His courage gave the fight drama. The 120-107, 120-107, 119-109 decision in Klitschko’s favor was a formality.

Then the scene shifted from Germany to Finland, where Robert Helenius faced off against Sherman Williams.

Helenius, age twenty-eight, entered the ring with a 17-and-0 record and a handful of victories over badly faded heavyweights like Sergei Liakhovich and Samuel Peter.

Williams has won once since 2008. He’s forty years old, 5-feet-11-inches tall (seven inches shorter than Helenius), and weighed in at a career-high 266 pounds.

Helenius and Williams both looked awful. Williams fought to survive, and Helenius turned in a drab dull plodding performance.

In round five, DiBella took stock of the situation, turned fan, and said of Helenius, “Right now, he’s boring the hell out of me.” Later, referencing Helenius’s nickname (“The Nordic Nightmare”), Lou opined, “He might be The Nightmare; but right now, he’s NyQuil.”

It was a long ten rounds, with the fighters landing an average of seven punches per fighter per stanza. Helenius won a unanimous decision.

“It’s harder to call a bad fight than a good one,” DiBella said when the telecast was over. “But I’m satisfied with the job I did.”

The feedback so far has been complimentary. It’s hard to assess a commentator’s performance on the basis of one telecast. But Lou is off to a promising start.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that one of the problems the Klitschkos have had in gaining worldwide acceptance is that their whole is less than the sum of their parts. If there were just one of them, people would be more inclined to say, “He’s a great heavyweight champion.”

There’s something special about “one.” Two of anything tends to devalue its worth.

There’s only one Lou DiBella.

Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His most recent book (And the New: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing) was published by the University of Arkansas Press.

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

Published

14 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

3 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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