Athletes and Guns: STUCK ON STUPID

Published

11 years ago

April 1, 2013

After his final bid for a berth on the American boxing team that would compete in the 2012 London Olympics had ended with an upset, double-tiebreaker computer loss to Terrell Gausha in the U.S. National Championships, Jesse Hart angrily suggested he just might quit the sport altogether.

Asked if his talented son might actually walk away from the ring forever because of the bitter disappointment he had just experienced, Hart’s father, former middleweight contender Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, shrugged and said, “We ain’t going to stay stuck on stupid.” And Jesse Hart, who definitely is not stupid, did the right thing after he took some time to calm down and think things through. He turned pro, signed with Top Rank and is now 5-0, with four knockout victories, as a promising super middleweight.

When it comes to athletes and guns, however, staying stuck on stupid seems to be a persistent condition that shows little signs of abating. The most recent example – and one of the more egregious – of a world-class athlete who put himself in danger of being shot down, in a legal sense, is Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KOs), who is scheduled to challenge WBC welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KOs) on May 4 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. The fight, the first for Mayweather in his multimillion-dollar deal with CBS/Showtime, will be televised via Showtime Pay-Per-View and in theaters nationwide.

But although there appears to be little chance the bout won’t go off as scheduled, less certain is the possible damage done to Guerrero’s career in the long term as the result of his March 28 arrest for attempting to bring a handgun onto a flight from New York to Las Vegas. Airport security personnel were summoned and Guerrero (seen above in Tom Casino-Showtime photo) was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Guerrero’s next court appearance in New York isn’t scheduled until May 14, 10 days after he and Mayweather duke it out.

Unlike some athletes who treat firearms the way a certain fraternity’s lothario did during his produce-section come-on to Mrs. Wormer – who can forget Otter telling the cougarish wife of the Faber College dean that “Mine’s bigger than yours,” as he brandished his XL-sized cucumber – Guerrero isn’t stupid, particularly self-absorbed or in need of more and bigger toys that go bang. He is a devout Christian and an inspiration to many for his steadfast support of his wife, Casey, during her ordeal with leukemia (the dread disease is in remission after a successful bone-marrow transplant). Oh, yeah, he’s also a very good boxer who was named co-Fighter of the Year for 2012 (with Nonito Donaire) by Thesweetscience.com after impressive points triumphs over Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto.

But, although his intentions appeared to be pure, Guerrero – or his advisers – should have known that New York has the strictest gun-control laws in the nation and that trying to bring a handgun unlicensed in that state (it is legally licensed in Guerrero’s home state of California) into an airport, even if it was unloaded and in a lock box, was bound to carry potentially severe consequences. In addition to the firearm, Guerrero, who voluntarily told a Delta Airlines official what was in the lock box, was in possession of two empty 15-round ammunition magazines.

“He was trying to do the right thing, the poor guy,” a law enforcement source, who asked not to be identified, told the New York Daily News when asked about Guerrero’s unwise decision. “The cop had to arrest him. He had no choice. Now it’s up to the DA.”

And the district attorney who has jurisdiction in the matter, Queens Borough’s Richard A. Brown, might not be so inclined to dismiss the incident simply because it involves a squeaky-clean celebrity who believed he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Ignorance of the law is seldom a legitimate excuse for breaking one, and that excuse almost never flies (pun intended) when the violation involves a lethal weapon .

“I hope that Mr. Guerrero fights better than he thinks,” Brown said. “For anyone who hasn’t gotten the message, let me be crystal clear: You cannot bring an unlicensed weapon – loaded or unloaded – into this county or this city. And if you do you will be arrested and face felony charges.”

Guerrero is charged with one count of criminal possession of a firearm and three counts of third-degree possession of a weapon. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison, although some form of probation and a stern admonishment from a judge seems a more likely outcome.

There always will be debate among lawmakers and the pubic involving the rights of gun-owners as accorded by the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and it says here that those rights are inviolable and should not be abridged without a compelling reason. But there is a time and a place for everything, and there are common-sense solutions to matters that too often result in inflamed emotions. Guns and airports simply do not go together. Can we all agree on that?

I am not some anti-gun zealot. I served in the Marine Corps and can generally hit what I aim at. My late father was a cop, as are both my sons and their wives. They left or do leave for work each day armed with service weapons and in the knowledge that bad stuff can and does happen out on the street.

Some of that bad stuff involves highly paid boxers and ballplayers who often feel they can’t step out the door unless they have more concealed firepower than Dirty Harry. But feeling a need to carry a gun, in places where it isn’t really necessary to do so and highly improper in any case, isn’t restricted to athletes pulling down big bucks. College kids do it, too, and more often that you might imagine.

When I worked down South a lot of years ago, there was, somewhat ironically, a 5-9 shooting guard at Mississippi State University named Kent Looney. One day, during a pickup game on campus, he got into it with a teammate, left the court and returned with pistol in hand, to show that he was not someone to be messed with. Looney played for three colleges in all, displaying a nice perimeter jump shot and, at times, a hair-trigger temper.

A former colleague of mine asked Looney about the gun incident and he replied, “If you travel in the circles I do, you better be packing.” This from a guy who grew up on the famously mean streets of Guntersville, Ala.

Looney now heads the Guntersville Parks and Recreation Department, and last July he coached the Alabama Southern Starz girls to the AAU 11^th-grade Division 2 national championship. He would prefer that his youthful indiscretions not be brought up, but maybe the turnaround in his life can serve as a cautionary tale. Where would he be now had that gun gone off, accidentally or on purpose, and left the teammate lying in a pool of blood?

But there is a sense of entitlement with some athletes who equate guns with virility and strength. NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress brought a handgun with him to a New York night club a few years ago and inadvertently wound up shooting himself in the leg. Not only that, but he served two years in prison for even having the thing on his person.

Former NBA guard Delonte West was pulled over for a routine traffic stop in 2009 and was found to have two handguns (one a .357 Magnum) and a shotgun in his car. He claims he “needed” the arsenal for self-defense, but he still is looking at a possible three years behind bars. But even West was topped by NFL defensive tackle Tank Johnson, who was found to be in possession of a handgun while leaving a club in Chicago. Thirteen months later, he was arrested for possession of six guns, including two assault rifles, all loaded, in violation of his probation. Another huge defensive tackle, Shaun Rogers, has a legal carry permit for a concealed weapon yet was arrested for bringing a loaded gun into an airport.

No one is saying Robert Guerrero, with a chance to make history by becoming the first man to put a smudge on the pristine record of Mayweather, the self-proclaimed greatest fighter of all time, is an offender on a par with some of the aforementioned. But consider why Guerrero, who is training for the Mayweather fight in Vegas, was on the East Coast to begin with. He was doing a media tour to hype both the fight and himself, and there were no gossip-page reports of him being seen in the wee hours at strip clubs. He appeared on Good Morning America in New York and the 700 Club with Pat Robertson in Norfolk, Va. Neither of those engagements should have concerned him to the point where he felt he needed to be packing heat.

In the weeks ahead, Guerrero – who turned 30 the day before his arrest –will be asked, and frequently, about his strategy for the Mayweather bout. But one question some inquiring minds would like to have answered is why he thought it was a good idea to bring a gun, unloaded or not, onto a commercial airplane when some travelers have been detained in the past for trying to go through the security checkpoint with such seemingly innocuous items as tweezers and metal nail files.

It might not have been a case of getting stuck on stupid, but it was at least a stopover.

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Bernard Fernandez

In a Massive Upset, Dakota Linger TKOs Kurt Scoby on a Friday Night in Atlanta

Published

2 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

In-a-Massive-Upset-Dakota-Linger-TKOs-Kurt-Scoby-on-a-Friday-Night-in-Atlanta

Although it was an 8-rounder on a show with two “tens,” Kurt Scoby’s match with Dakota Linger was accorded main event status on tonight’s card at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. This had everything to do with Scoby (pronounced Scooby), a former record-setting college running back who was considered one of the brightest prospects in the 140-pound weight class. “[Scoby] works harder than almost anyone I’ve ever seen,” said veteran New York promoter Lou DIBella in a conversation with Keith Idec. “But he’s literally getting better after every fight and he’s got the hammer of Thor, man. He can punch through walls.”

The Duarte, California product who has relocated to Brooklyn and trains at Gleason’s Gym, was undefeated (13-0) heading in and was expected to make Linger his ninth straight knockout victim. But Linger, a 29-year-old Buckhannon, West Virginia policemen whose first ring engagements were in Toughman competitions, wasn’t intimidated by Scoby’s press clippings or by Scoby’s bodybuilder physique.

Linger, who improved to 14-6-3 with his tenth win inside the distance, took the fight right to Scoby and repeatedly found a home for his overhand right. In the sixth round, after Linger strafed the ever-retreating Scoby with a barrage of punches, referee Malik Walid determined that he had seen enough and waived it off. The decision seemed a tad premature, but neither Scoby nor his cornermen offered anything in the way of a protest.

Tournament results

In the first installment of an 8-man super welterweight tournament, Brandon Adams returned to boxing after his second three-year layoff and showed no ring rust whatsoever. Adams, a 34-year-old family-man who grew up in the Watts district of LA, dismissed Ismael Villareal with a wicked punch to the liver in the waning seconds of round three. The official time was 2:59.

A former wold title challenger, Adams who improved to 23-3 (16 KOs), has become the king of boxing tournaments. He first attracted notice in 2018 when he won the fifth edition of “The Contender” series, scoring a wide 10-round decision over Shane Mosley Jr in the championship round.

Villareal, a second-generation prizefighter from the Bronx whose dad fought the likes of Hector Camacho, declined to 13-3.

Adams next opponent will be Francisco Veron who will bring a record of 14-0-1 (10).

In an energetic 10-rounder, Veron, a Florida-based Argentine with a strong amateur pedigree, scored a unanimous decision over Mexico-born, LA southpaw Angel Ruiz (18-3-1). The judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 96-94.

Ruiz certainly had his moments, but Veron launched and landed many more punches despite fighting the last six rounds with a damaged eye.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-281-The-Devin-Haney-and-Ryan-Garcia-Show

Over the years bouts between old foes such as Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia tend to be surprising.

Yes, both are only 25 but have known each other for many years.

When undisputed super lightweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) steps into the prize ring at Barclays Center to meet challenger Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday, April 20, fans will be witnessing the continuation of a feud that began more than a decade ago.

And though the champion is a heavy favorite, familiarity is Garcia’s best weapon heading into their fight on the Golden Boy Promotions card that will be shown on PPV.COM with Jim Lampley and friends. DAZN pay-per-view is also streaming the card.

In many ways Haney and Garcia have ventured down the same path. From amateur sensations to fighting in Mexico while teens to asking for the biggest challenges available.

“Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,” said Haney who holds the WBC super lightweight title after his win over Regis Prograis.

The first time I saw Haney as a pro he battled the dangerous Mexican contender Juan Carlos Burgos at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. It was an impressive performance against a fighter who fought three times for a world title.

Haney was 19 at the time.

My first look at Garcia as a pro was in his first bout in the U.S. when he met Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Cruz at the Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. The Boricua looked at Garcia and tried intimidating him with stares, taunts and the usual patter. During the fight both swung and missed until the second round when Garcia zeroed in and took him out.

Garcia had just turned 18, the legal age to fight in California.

Both fighters did not have the Olympics credentials that lead to fame. But their talent has allowed them to fight through the dense smoke that is professional boxing.

Haney has defeated numerous world champions such as Prograis, Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., while Garcia has stopped champions Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell.

As amateurs, Garcia and Haney battled six times with each winning three.

“They know each other very well,” said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Ryan is going to beat Devin Haney.”

Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. That’s his weakness.

Garcia fights tall and has superb hand speed and a lightning quick left hook. Though his defense lacks tightness his ability to rip off three-punch combinations in a blink of an eye pauses opponents from bullying their way inside.

“These guys always just look at me and look at me like I don’t know how to box,” said Garcia on social media. “Why was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National champion…why did I beat everyone I came across.”

Haney is a strong favorite by oddsmakers to defeat Garcia. But you can never tell when it comes to fighters that know each other well and are athletically gifted.

When Sergio Mora challenged Vernon Forrest he was a big underdog. When Tim Bradley fought Manny Pacquiao the first time, he was also the underdog. And when Andy Ruiz met Anthony Joshua few gave him a chance.

Haney and Garcia have history in the ring. It should be an interesting battle.

PPV.COM

Jim Lampley will be leading the broadcast on PPV.COM for the Haney-Garcia card at Barclays and texting with fans on the card live. He will be accompanied by journalists Lance Pugmire, Dan Conobbio and former champion Chris Algieri.

The PPV.COM broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PT. and is available in Canada and the USA.

Other News

MMA stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be holding a media day event on Friday, April 19, at NOVO at L.A. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Diaz and Masvidal will be boxing against each other in a grudge match on June 1 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The two MMA stars met five years at UFC 244 with Masvidal winning by TKO over Diaz due to cuts.

This is a grudge match, but under boxing rules.

Fight card in Commerce, Calif.

360 Promotions returns to Commerce Casino on Saturday April 20 with undefeated super lightweight Cain Sandoval leading the charge.

Sandoval (12-0) faces Angel Rebollar (8-3) in the main event that will be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Also on the card are two female events including hot prospect Lupe Medina (5-0) versus Sabrina Persona (3-1) in a minimumweight clash.

Doors open at 4 p.m.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.

For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesn’t need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. It’s a genuine “pick-‘em” fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.

But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturday’s Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.

The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.

Hrgovic-Dubois

Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australia’s Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10^th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

There’s an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.

The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.

The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.

Wilder-Zhang

The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless it’s a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.

Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.

Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. It’s a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.

Other Fights

Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.

Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jersey’s Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpool’s “Wrecking” Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.

Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East London’s Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.

The Forgotten Heavyweight

“Unbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,” intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.

This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunter’s second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.

The second-generation “Bounty Hunter,” whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.

Hunter’s chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.

You won’t find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you won’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh’s 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxing’s official record-keeper, it never happened.)

Anderson-Merhy Redux

The only thing missing from this past Saturday’s match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.

Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LA’s Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.

Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)

Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.

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