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Could the D.C. Armory Become Washington, D.C.’s Boxing Institution?

by Aaron Tallent
Unless you live in the District of Columbia, you probably find it odd that Lamont Peterson will defend his IBF Light Welterweight title against Dierry Jean at the headquarters of the Washington, D.C. National Guard. In actuality, the D.C. Armory has an arena that holds 10,000 people and if you call our nation’s capitol home, you’ve probably been in it at least once. For a city with a rich boxing history, but no institutions, the D.C. Armory may be the answer.
Peterson is just one of many champions to come out of the D.C. area. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mark Johnson and William Joppy are just a few others. Yet there is no single venue where greatness and boxing are expected. New York has Madison Square Garden, Philadelphia had the Blue Horizon, and Las Vegas has the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay. The District has nothing of the sort. In a city that reinvents itself every four to eight years, an unstructured sport has little chance of finding a permanent home.
Things were a bit different during the sport’s golden era. Washington’s first recorded professional fight took place in 1882 and the next 50 years saw fights being staged in a variety of places ranging from athletic clubs to the city’s Marine Barracks to an Anheuser-Busch warehouse to Walter Reed General Hospital (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center).
By the mid-1930s, the majority of the District’s fights were held in two venues. One was Turner’s Arena, an 1,800-seat arena owned by wrestling promoter Joe Turner that hosted fights on a frequent basis. Seven champions fought there.
The other was Griffith Stadium, the home of baseball’s Washington Senators and football’s Washington Redskins. In its heyday, Griffith could hold more the 29,000 spectators and it hosted 180 fights. Joe Louis defended his heavyweight title against Buddy Baer in 1941.
In that same year, the D.C. Armory opened as the headquarters and training facility of the District’s National Guard. The year also saw the completion of another historic D.C. landmark, the Uline Arena (now the Washington Coliseum). The 9,000-seat arena hosted numerous fights, but is best remembered for being the site of the Beatles’ first U.S. concert on February 11, 1964. Because the Uline’s stage was in the middle of the arena and designed to hold a boxing ring, the Fab Four performed their concert in the round.
In 1965, both Griffith Stadium and Turner’s Arena (then known as Capitol Arena), were closed. Vince McMahon, Sr., then the owner of Turner’s, sold it to the Washington City Orphan Asylum, who demolished it to build a clinic. Griffith Stadium closed because both the Redskins and the Senators had moved to the new D.C. Stadium (now RFK Stadium). It was also torn down and is now the site of Howard University Hospital.
The 1968 riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., destroyed the area surrounding the Uline and fights, concerts and all other events became less frequent. It closed in 1986 and is now the coolest parking garage in the country. For $100 a month, one can park his or her car on the floor where the Beatles first played.
Following the riots, D.C. followed the trend of many cities of building major arenas in the suburbs. The Capitol Centre opened in nearby Landover, Maryland, in 1973 and became the home of basketball’s Washington Bullets (now the Wizards), hockey’s Washington Capitol’s, and Georgetown Basketball. It also hosted 15 major fight cards between 1974 and 1975. Leonard fought there thrice and Muhammad Ali successfully defended his heavyweight title there against Jimmy Young in 1976 and Alfred Evangelista in 1977.
Meanwhile, the D.C. Armory explored ways to use it facilities. On December 9, 1975, the Armory hosted its first fight, with Larry Holmes knocking out Leon Shaw in the main event.
On May 22, 1993, the District held its most extravagant fight ever, a card at RFK Stadium where Riddick Bowe defended his heavyweight title again with a second round stoppage of Jesse Ferguson. This was also the event where Roy Jones, Jr., defeated Bernard Hopkins by decision to win the middleweight title. Unfortunately, a crowd of only 9,000 – 3,500 of who had tickets donated by Bowe’s manager Rock Newman – attended. A fight has never been held at RFK since then.
The Capitals and Wizards moved back into Washington in 1997 when the MCI Center (now the Verizon Center) was completed. The 20,000-seat arena has hosted three fight cards, the last one being Mike Tyson’s final fight in 2005. However, like most cities in the northeast wanting to host a major fight card, it is faced with the same truth: New York and the Garden are only a few hours away.
The Armory, on the other hand, provides the perfect alternative with its mid-range size. It is next to a subway/metro stop and shares thousands of parking spaces with the adjacent RFK Stadium. Also, part of the reason places do become boxing institutions is because they reflect the culture of the city. With the D.C. Armory, a military base located in theCapitol Hill neighborhood that has hosted inaugural balls for every president since Harry Truman and has been an integral part of the city for more than 70 years, I can’t think of a better fit.
Oh, and I also live four blocks away.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More

Many of the best female fighters of all time including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and others are gathering in the glitzy lights of Las Vegas this week.
Several hundred fans including current and former world champions are attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 4 and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
It’s one of my favorite events.
Where else can you talk to the female pioneers and stars of the 1980s and 1990s?
The last time I attended two years ago, Germany’s super star Regina Halmich spoke to the packed house about her career in boxing. She and Daisy Lang were two female world champions who sold out arenas wherever they fought. The pair of blonde fighters proved that female prizefighting could succeed.
Many times, I debated with promoters who believed women’s boxing could not succeed in the USA. Though it was popular in Germany and Mexico, various organizers felt female boxing was not appealing to the American masses.
Now promoters and media networks know women’s boxing and women’s sports have crowd appeal.
Expected to attend the IWBHOF event at Orleans will be Mexico’s Jessica Chavez and Jackie Nava who will be inducted into the women’s hall of fame along with Vaia Zaganas of Canada among many others.
It’s also a gathering place for many of the top proponents of women’s boxing including the organizers of this event such as Sue Fox whose idea spawned the IWBHOF.
Each event is unique and special.
Many of my favorite people in boxing attend this celebration of women’s boxing. Stop by the Orleans Casino on the second floor. You won’t be disappointed.
Heavyweight prospects
Heavyweights take the forefront this weekend in two pivotal battles in different continents.
In England, a pair of contenders looking to maintain their footing in the heavyweight mountain will clash as Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) meets Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. DAZN will stream the event.
Both lost their last match and need a win to remain relevant. Joyce has lost his three of his last four, most recently coming up short in a riveting slugfest with Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, two young heavyweights looking to crack contender status clash as undefeated Richard Torrez (12-0,11 KOs) fights Italy’s Guido Vianello (13-2-1,11 KOs) at the Palms Casino.
Both are Olympians who can crack and each can take a blow.
The winner moves up into contention and the other will need to scrape and claw back into relevance.
Coming up
April 12 in Atlantic City: Jarron Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) vs Eimantis Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) IBF welterweight title.
April 12 Albuquerque: Fernando Vargas Jr. (16-0) vs Gonzalo Gaston (23-7); Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4) vs DeAundre Pettus (12-4).
April 19 Oceanside, Calif: Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs). Also, Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs Jorge Garcia (32-4, 26 KOs).
April 26 Tottenham Stadium, London, England; Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) vs Liam Smith (33-4, 20 Kos).
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Joe Joyce (16-3) vs Filip Hrgovic (17-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Richard Torrez (12-0) vs Guido Vianello (13-2-1).
Sat. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 8:00 8 p.m. Tim Tszyu (24-2) vs. Joey Spencer (19-1)
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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.
This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.
Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.
Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.
And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.
Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.
Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.
The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.
In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.
Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)
The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.
Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.
That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.
The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.
The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.
Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.
Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.
Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:
Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)
Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.
Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”
Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.
What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.
What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.
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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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