Boxing Gods Bring Sunshine to Hall of Fame Celebration

Published

12 years ago

June 10, 2013

CANASTOTA, N.Y. – There is a tale, which might or might not be apocryphal, of the transcendence of the late, great Alabama football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. On an overcast, drizzly afternoon in Birmingham’s Legion Field, a Crimson Tide player was injured and lying motionless on the field. A hush fell over the crowd, and Bryant walked out to check on the player’s condition.

Just as Bryant leaned over, someone yelled, `Heal him, Bear!’” And at that very moment the rain stopped, the sun peeked out from behind a cloud and the player rose to his feet.

Perhaps there are gods of boxing capable of controlling the elements, or maybe Carmen Basilio, the Canastota native, two-division world champion and pied piper of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was smiling from his celestial perch and making Bear-like magic. But for whatever reason, the IBHOF’s 24^th annual Induction Weekend – a bit of a misnomer, given that the four-day festivities actually begin on a Thursday – caught a clear, bright and dry break here Sunday, after steady rains for much of the week had dampened the ground, if not the spirits of pilgrims who come here every year to celebrate great fights and great fighters.

If not by Basilio, for whom the earthly bell tolled 10 on Nov. 7, 2012, the overcast skies might have been chased away by one or both of two Hall of Famers who also passed away last year, Angelo Dundee and Bert Sugar, whose cheerfulness and winning ways with the public made attendance for these festivities a must on any fight fan’s calendar.

“You couldn’t ask for nicer weather,” said one fan from New Jersey, who had changed out of his Friday and Saturday attire of windbreaker and long pants, made necessary by mid-50s temperatures, a chill wind and steady rain, into shorts and a T-shirt. “Somebody up there must be looking out for us down here.”

There had been a nettlesome school of thought that the IBHOF, first dreamed of in the mid-1980s, made a reality in 1989 by Canastota city fathers and persistent benefactors, and whose first induction class was in 1990, could not be the same with so many of the old standbys gone to their eternal reward. But boxing endures despite whatever adversities are thrown at it, and so it was on another glorious afternoon this picturesque central New York village of 5,000 permanent residents that doubles and sometimes triples in size when the boxing superstars descend upon it.

The 11-member Class of 2013 included former world champions Virgil Hill and the late Arturo Gatti, both of whom were chosen in their first year of eligibility, along with Myung-Woo Yuh; “Let’s get it on!” referee Mills Lane; ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. and British boxing writer Colin Hart.

Also inducted – all posthumously — were Joe Coburn in the pioneer category, Wesley Ramey, Arturo Hernandez and Jeff Smith in the old-timers category, and cartoonist Ted Carroll in the observer category.

The moment in the sun, both literal and figurative, enjoyed by the living inductees was heightened by the presence of the usual phalanx of boxing superstars and near-superstars: 91-year-old Jake La Motta, the only attendee from the inaugural Class of 1990, along with, among others, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Micky Ward, Aaron Pryor, Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Tony DeMarco, Pipino Cuevas, Danny “Little Red” Lopez, Gerry Cooney, Earnie Shavers, Carlos Ortiz, Julian Jackson, Iran Barkley, Mike Weaver, Tracy Harris Patterson, Angel Manfredy, Carlos Palomino, Gaspar Ortega, Mike Weaver, Simon Brown, Zab Judah, Simon Brown, Marlon Starling and Basilio’s nephew, Billy Backus, who, like his uncle, became a welterweight champion.

Pryor, a 1996 IBHOF inductee who has come here for 18 Induction Weekends, spoke for many when he described what it means to return to a place that has become to boxing what Cooperstown, N.Y., about an hour’s drive away, is to baseball.

“It’s like a dream that comes true every time I’m here,” said the former junior welterweight champion from Cincinnati known as “The Hawk,” who fashioned a 39-1 record, with 35 knockouts. “You can get hooked. If you come once, you’re probably going to want to come year after year after year.

“To me, it’s one of the greatest feelings you could ever have to come to this special place. I look forward to it like a little kid looks forward to Christmas. The fans here just take you in. They embrace you.”

Pryor believes that a big part of that is location. Like Cooperstown and other non-large-city sites of sports halls of fame – Cooperstown, Canton, Ohio, and Springfield, Mass. – Canastota doesn’t offer so many entertainment outlets that a gathering of former boxers is swallowed up.

“It’s different, it’s special,” Pryor said. “If the Hall of Fame was in, say, New York City, I don’t think it would feel the same. Too many different things to do or see there. Here, it’s all about boxing for these four days.”

Hill, the former light heavyweight and cruiserweight titlist, can relate. Born in Clinton, Mo., he was raised in Williston, North Dakota, which is a long way from Canastota, in terms of miles, but extremely close in its comfortable, rural feel.

“To me, a city is a place with 45,000 people,” said Hill, whose idea of the big time while growing up was Grand Forks, N.D. But this hick from the sticks, part Native American, went on to post a 228-11 amateur record, win a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and make 20 defenses of his 175-pound crown.

Then there is Gatti, whose blood-and-guts style made him hugely popular with fans, and whose death in 2009 – ruled a suicide by Brazilian authorities, a decision hotly disputed by his family and friends – made him the central figure in this year’s Induction weekend, even in death.

Gatti’s 40-9 record, with 31 victories inside the distance, isn’t as flashy as that of some Hall of Famers, and even some very good fighters still awaiting their call from the Hall. But he was a fighter’s fighter, backing down from no one, giving no quarter and asking none. His three bouts with Ward, as well as other memorable slugfests with Ivan Robinson, Angel Manfredy, Gabriel Ruelas and others, made him an icon in his pugilistic home of Atlantic City, and with HBO subscribers who drove the ratings up whenever he appeared on the pay-cable giant.

Still, there are those who would argue that Gatti, despite his high entertainment quotient, was not an elite fighter who deserves to walk with the real legends of the ring.

Main Events president Kathy Duva, whose company promoted Gatti throughout his career, acknowledged that Gatti’s enshrinement had raised some hackles among boxing purists, as did the earlier inductions of Ingemar Johansson and Ken Norton. But she quoted Theodore Roosevelt, whose speech at the Sorbonne in Paris in1910 almost presaged Gatti’s future arrival on the boxing scene.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better,” she said during her turn at the podium. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly … and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Lynch said after the induction ceremonies had ended that he was still bitter that there appears to be no way to reverse the ruling by Brazilian officials that Gatti – born in Italy, raised in Canada and based in New Jersey throughout his professional boxing career – had committed suicide.

“As of now the case is close in the Brazilians’ eyes,” said Lynch. “The detectives we hired and who did so much investigating say it’s 100 percent certain it was not suicide. Someone is responsible for Arturo’s murder.

“But the fact that Arturo never obtained American citizenship means that the FBI can’t look into this for us. It’s just very frustrating.”

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Bernard Fernandez

The Challenge of Playing Muhammad Ali

Published

38 mins ago

December 18, 2024

Thomas Hauser

There have been countless dramatizations of Muhammad Ali’s life and more will follow in the years ahead. The most heavily marketed of these so far have been the 1977 movie titled The Greatest starring Ali himself and the 2001 biopic Ali starring Will Smith.

The Greatest was fictionalized. Its saving grace apart from Ali’s presence on screen was the song “The Greatest Love of All” which was written for the film and later popularized by Whitney Houston. Beyond that, the movie was mediocre. “Of all our sports heroes,” Frank Deford wrote, “Ali needs least to be sanitized. But The Greatest is just a big vapid valentine. It took a dive.”

The 2001 film was equally bland but without the saving grace of Ali on camera. “I hated that film,” Spike Lee said. “It wasn’t Ali.” Jerry Izenberg was in accord, complaining, “Will Smith playing Ali was an impersonation, not a performance.”

The latest entry in the Ali registry is a play running this week off-Broadway at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street) in Manhattan.

The One: The Life of Muhammad Ali was written by David Serero, who has produced and directed the show in addition to playing the role of Angelo Dundee in the three-man drama. Serero, age 43, was born in Paris, is of Moroccan-French-Jewish heritage, and has excelled professionally as an opera singer (baritone) and actor (stage and screen).

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The play is flawed. There are glaring factual inaccuracies in the script that add nothing to the dramatic arc and detract from its credibility.

On the plus side; Zack Bazile (pictured) is exceptionally good as Ali. And Serero (wearing his director’s hat) brings the most out of him.

Growing up, Bazile (now 28) excelled in multiple sports. In 2018, while attending Ohio State, he won the NCAA Long Jump Championship and was named Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year. He also dabbled in boxing, competed in two amateur fights in 2022, and won both by knockout. He began acting three years ago.

Serero received roughly one thousand resumes when he published notices for a casting call in search of an actor to play Ali. One-hundred-twenty respondents were invited to audition.

“I had people who looked like Ali and were accomplished actors,” Serero recalls. “But when they were in the room, I didn’t feel Ali in front of me. You have to remember; we’re dealing with someone who really existed and there’s video of him, so it’s not like asking someone to play George Washington.”

And Ali was Ali. That’s a hard act to follow.

Bazile is a near-perfect fit. At 6-feet-2-inches tall, 195 pounds, he conveys Ali’s physicality. His body is sculpted in the manner of the young Ali. He moves like an athlete because he is an athlete. His face resembles Ali’s and his expressions are very much on the mark in the way he transmits emotion to the audience. He uses his voice the way Ali did. He moves his eyes the way Ali did. He has THE LOOK.

Zack was born the year that Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, so he has no first-hand memory of the young Ali who set the world ablaze. “But as an actor,” he says, “I’m representing Ali. That’s a responsibility I take very seriously. Everyone has an essence about them. I had to find the right balance – not too over the top – and capture that.”

Sitting in the audience watching Bazile, I felt at times as though it was Ali onstage in front of me. Zack has the pre-exile Ali down perfectly. The magic dissipates a bit as the stage Ali grows older. Bazile still has to add the weight of aging to his craft. But I couldn’t help but think, “Muhammad would have loved watching Zack play him.”

****

Twenty-four hours after the premiere of The One, David Serero left the stage for a night to shine brightly in a real boxing ring., The occasion was the tenth fight card that Larry Goldberg has promoted at Sony Hall in New York, a run that began with Goldberg’s first pro show ever on October 13, 2022.

Most of the fights on the six-bout card played out as expected. But two were tougher for the favorites than anticipated. Jacob Riley Solis was held to a draw by Daniel Jefferson. And Andy Dominguez was knocked down hard by Angel Meza in round three before rallying to claim a one-point split-decision triumph.

Serero sang the national anthem between the second and third fights and stilled the crowd with a virtuoso performance. Fans at sports events are usually restless during the singing of the anthem. This time, the crowd was captivated. Serero turned a flat ritual into an inspirational moment. People were turning to each other and saying “Wow!”

****

The unexpected happened in Tijuana last Saturday night when 25-to-1 underdog Bruno Surace climbed off the canvas after a second-round knockdown to score a shocking, one-punch, sixth-round stoppage of Jaime Munguia. There has been a lot of commentary since then about what happened that night. The best explanation I’ve heard came from a fan named John who wrote, “The fight was not over in the second round although Munguia thought it was because, if he caught him once, he would naturally catch him again. Plus he looked at this little four KO guy [Surace had scored 4 knockouts in 27 fights] the way all the fans did, like he had no punch. That is what a fan can afford to do. But a fighter should know better. The ref reminds you, ‘Protect yourself at all times.’ Somebody forgot that.”

photo (c) David Serero

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year

Published

2 days ago

December 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year

If asked to name a prominent boxing trainer who operates out of a gym in Los Angeles, the name Freddie Roach would jump immediately to mind. Best known for his work with Manny Pacquaio, Roach has been named the Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America a record seven times.

A mere seven miles from Roach’s iconic Wild Card Gym is the gym that Rudy Hernandez now calls home. Situated in the Little Tokyo neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, the L.A. Boxing Gym – a relatively new addition to the SoCal boxing landscape — is as nondescript as its name. From the outside, one would not guess that two reigning world champions, Junto Nakatani and Anthony Olascuaga, were forged there.

As Freddie Roach will be forever linked with Manny Pacquiao, so will Rudy Hernandez be linked with Nakatani. The Japanese boxer was only 15 years old when his parents packed him off to the United States to be tutored by Hernandez. With Hernandez in his corner, the lanky southpaw won titles at 112 and 115 and currently holds the WBO bantamweight (118) belt. In his last start, he knocked out his Thai opponent, a 77-fight veteran who had never been stopped, advancing his record to 29-0 (22 KOs).

Nakatani’s name now appears on several pound-for-pound lists. A match with Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue is brewing. When that match comes to fruition, it will be the grandest domestic showdown in Japanese boxing history.

“Junto Nakatani is the greatest fighter I’ve ever trained. It’s easy to work with him because even when he came to me at age 15, his focus was only on boxing. It was to be a champion one day and nothing interfered with that dream,” Hernandez told sports journalist Manouk Akopyan writing for Boxing Scene.

Akin to Nakatani, Rudy Hernandez built Anthony Olascuaga from scratch. The LA native was rucked out of obscurity in April of 2023 when Jonathan Gonzalez contracted pneumonia and was forced to withdraw from his date in Tokyo with lineal light flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji. Olascuaga, with only five pro fights under his belt, filled the breach on 10 days’ notice and although he lost (TKO by 9), he earned kudos for his gritty performance against the man recognized as the best fighter in his weight class.

Two fights later, back in Tokyo, Olascuaga copped the WBO world flyweight title with a third-round stoppage of Riku Kano. His first defense came in October, again in Japan, and Olascuaga retained his belt with a first-round stoppage of the aforementioned Gonzalez. (This bout was originally ruled a no-contest as it ended after Gonzalez suffered a cut from an accidental clash of heads. But the referee ruled that Gonzalez was fit to continue before the Puerto Rican said “no mas,” alleging his vision was impaired, and the WBO upheld a protest from the Olascuaga camp and changed the result to a TKO. Regardless, Rudy Hernandez’s fighter would have kept his title.)

Hernandez, 62, is the brother of the late Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez. A two-time world title-holder at 130 pounds who fought the likes of Azumah Nelson, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., Chicanito passed away in 2011, a cancer victim at age 45.

Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez was one of the most popular fighters in the Hispanic communities of Southern California. Rudy Hernandez, a late bloomer of sorts – at least in terms of public recognition — has kept his brother’s flame alive with own achievements. He is a worthy honoree for the 2024 Trainer of the Year.

Note: This is the first in our series of annual awards. The others will arrive sporadically over the next two weeks.

Photo credit: Steve Kim

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A Shocker in Tijuana: Bruno Surace KOs Jaime Munguia !!

Published

3 days ago

December 15, 2024

Arne K. Lang

A-Shocker-in-Tijuana-Bruno-Sarace-KOs-Jaime-Munguia

It was a chilly night in Tijuana when Jaime Munguia entered the ring for his homecoming fight with Bruno Surace. The main event of a Zanfer/Top Rank co-promotion, Munguia vs. Surace was staged in the city’s 30,000-seat soccer stadium a stone’s throw from the U.S. border in the San Diego metroplex.

Surace, a Frenchman, brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but a quick glance at his record showed that he had scant chance of holding his own with the house fighter. Only four of Surace’s 25 wins had come by stoppage and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records. Munguia was making the first start in the city of his birth since February 2022. Surace had never fought outside Europe.

But hold the phone!

After losing every round heading into the sixth, Surace scored the Upset of the Year, ending the contest with a one-punch knockout.

It looked like a short and easy night for Munguia when he knocked Surace down with a left hook in the second stanza. From that point on, the Frenchman fought off his back foot, often with back to the ropes, throwing punches only in spurts. Munguia worked the body well and was seemingly on the way to wearing him down when he was struck by lightning in the form of an overhand right.

Down went Munguia, landing on his back. He struggled to get to his feet, but the referee waived it off a nano-second before reaching “10.” The official time was 2:36 of round six.

Munguia, who was 44-1 heading in with 35 KOs, was as high as a 35/1 favorite. In his only defeat, he had gone the distance with Canelo Alvarez. This was the biggest upset by a French fighter since Rene Jacquot outpointed Donald Curry in 1989 and Jacquot had the advantage of fighting in his homeland.

Co-Main

Mexico City’s Alan Picasso, ranked #1 by the WBC at 122 pounds, scored a third-round stoppage of last-minute sub Yehison Cuello in a scheduled 10-rounder contested at featherweight. Picaso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) is a solid technician. He ended the bout with a left to the rib cage, a punch that weaved around Cuello’s elbow and didn’t appear to be especially hard. The referee stopped his count at “nine” and waived the fight off.

A 29-year-old Colombian who reportedly had been training in Tijuana, the overmatched Cuello slumped to 13-3-1.

Other Bouts of Note

In a ho-hum affair, junior middleweight Jorge Garcia advanced to 32-4 (26) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Uzbekistan’s Kudratillo Abudukakhorov (20-4). The judges had it 97-92 and 99-90 twice. There were no knockdowns, but Garcia had a point deducted in round eight for low blows.

Garcia displayed none of the power that he showed in his most recent fight three months ago in Arizona and when he knocked out his German opponent in 46 seconds. Abudukakhorov, who has competed mostly as a welterweight, came in at 158 1/4 pounds and didn’t look in the best of shape. The Uzbek was purportedly 170-10 as an amateur (4-5 per boxrec).

Super bantamweight Sebastian Hernandez improved to 18-0 (17 KOs) with a seventh-round stoppage of Argentine import Sergio Martin (14-5). The end came at the 2:39 mark of round seven when Martin’s corner threw in the towel. Earlier in the round, Martin lost his mouthpiece and had a point deducted for holding.

Hernandez wasn’t all that impressive considering the high expectations born of his high knockout ratio, but appeared to have injured his right hand during the sixth round.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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