Kenny Adams will be formally enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum in Canastota, New York, next month. It is a long overdue honor for the longtime Las Vegas boxing coach who turns 84 in September.

Adams grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he was raised by a great aunt and her husband. He had his first amateur fight at age 11 in Sikeston, Missouri, and dozens more in smokers in other nearby towns. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Army where he was a two-time all-service champion and was part of an elite squadron that worked behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. He would eventually rise to the rank of Master Sergeant.

Adams first attracted attention as the coach of an Army team that dominated inter-service competitions. After serving as an assistant on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, he was named head coach of the 1988 squad for the Seoul Summer Games.

The U.S. dominated the boxing competition at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, winning a gold medal in nine of the 12 weight categories, but that achievement should probably come with an asterisk. The Soviets boycotted the Games as did the powerful East Germany contingent.

Expectations were low for the 1988 squad which lacked a charismatic personality. There was no Sugar Ray Leonard or Mark Breland to whet the interest of America’s top sports scribes. The fighter that got the most pre-tournament buzz was Kelcie Banks, a spindly featherweight from Chicago who would be knocked out in the opening round.

Defying the odds, the Americans won three gold medals and two silvers. Heavyweight Ray Mercer, light heavyweight Andrew Maynard, and bantamweight Kennedy McKinney won gold. All three were Army men. Light middleweight Roy Jones Jr and light flyweight Michael Carbajal had to settle for silver after losing controversial decisions in the finals. Jones’ setback to his South Korean opponent was considered so rancid that he was named the tournament’s outstanding boxer.

Adams acknowledges the role played by his top assistants, Hank Johnson, an Army combat medic and the brother of light heavyweight champion Marvin Johnson, and Alton Merkerson, best known as the trainer of Roy Jones Jr. However, Kenny gives himself full credit for selecting the venue where the Army fighters trained for the Summer Games.

He chose Fort Huachuca, an Army installation near the Mexican border in Cochise County, Arizona. “It was perfect,” says Adams, “very secluded. A boxer couldn’t leave the base or have a visitor without us knowing about it.” (The nearest good-sized city was Tucson and that is 77 miles away.)

After the 1988 Games, as Adams was finishing up a 30-year hitch, Top Rank came calling with the proverbial offer too good to refuse. Bob Arum was putting together a syndicate to manage the careers of some of the top amateur boxers who were about to turn pro and he wanted Adams to coach them.

Notable members of the syndicate, which took the name Las Vegas Gloves, were Las Vegas businessman/restaurateur Freddie Glusman, future Las Vegas mayor Ron Lurie, and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The fighters entrusted to Adams included McKinney, the most prized of the signees, Vincent Phillips, Cleveland Woods, and Eddie Cook, all former U.S. Army soldiers, plus Freddie Norwood, a boyhood friend of Cook from St. Louis.

The syndicate lost money, notwithstanding the fact that McKinney, Cook, Phillips, and Norwood captured world titles.

Eddie Cook was the first American fighter that Kenny Adams molded into a world title-holder. In 1992, Cook dethroned WBA bantamweight champion Israel Contreras, knocking out the Venezuelan veteran in the fifth round. (He lost the belt in his first defense and retired two years later, leaving the sport with a 19-3 record after suffering a TKO at the hands of future Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera.)

Before Cook won his title, Adams played a role in one of the most startling upsets in boxing history.

While training boxers in Germany, Adams was introduced to Rene Jacquot, a boxer from France. Jacquot’s management inquired if Adams would “polish” him.

“He was a very good student,” recalled Adams, “a hard worker. I trained him in the American style and it enhanced him.”

Nonetheless, no one gave Jacquot a chance when he was matched against Donald Curry in Grenoble, France on Feb. 11, 1989 in a match televised on CBS. Jacquot’s reported record, 24-10, was that of a journeyman.

Curry had started to slip. He had been stopped by Lloyd Honeyghan and Mike McCallum. But a few years prior during his reign as a world welterweight champion, Curry was rated in some quarters as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Although the fight was in France, Rene Jacquot was considered nothing more than speed bump for the American invader.

When the smoke cleared, Rene Jacquot was the new WBC 154-pound champion. The decision in his favor was unanimous and eminently fair. (He would lose the belt in his first defense, knocked out in the opening round by John “The Beast” Mugabi. Adams wasn’t around for that one.)

The Ring magazine named Jacquot vs Curry the 1989 Upset of the Year. Eight years later, Adams would be on the right side of yet another fight that would receive this distinction.

While Adams worked with Rene Jacquot for only one fight, he had a long run with Vince Phillips. It was rocky at times. Phillips, in common with his pal Kennedy McKinney, developed a cocaine problem early in his pro career. Las Vegas was no Fort Huachuca. There were temptations galore.

Phillips had a fine pro record (35-3, 24 KOs) when he challenged IBF 140-pound kingpin Kostya Tszyu at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on May 31, 1997, but he had lost two of his last four fights, had been knocked out in three rounds by Ike Quartey, and was dropping down in weight to meet an undefeated fighter who was considered the best junior welterweight to come down the pike since Aaron Pryor.

“Cool Vince” took the fight out of the judges’ hands, scoring a 10^th-round TKO. It was the 1997 Upset of the Year.

Adams would eventually train more than two dozen world champions including such notables as Diego Corrales, Edwin Valero, Johnny Tapia, and Nonito Donaire. In some cases, these relationships were long-lasting; others were fleeting as some boxers seem to change trainers as often as they change their underwear.

Nowadays, Kenny Adams can be found most afternoons at the DLX Boxing Gym in Las Vegas. The facility is a short walk from the handsome home that Adams shares with his wife of 57 years, the former Claudia Campbell of Clarksville, Tennessee.

There are no stuffed shirts at DLX. Adams is often the subject of good-natured ribbing. “I didn’t know they had a hall of fame for spit-bucket carriers,” joshed the young trainer Manny Savoy, addressing Adams one afternoon when we happened to be there.

In common with most others of his vintage and especially those that led wildly exciting lives, Adams is experiencing some memory loss. Recalling events, the timeline gets jumbled. And physically he has had a number of maladies that have slowed him down. But when Kenny works the pads with a boxer – often a schoolboy as DLX trends younger in the afternoon when school lets out – the years roll off him. By some mysterious alchemy, his reflexes become that of the young man that he once was.

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Note: The 2024 renewal of the annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, a 4-day jamboree, runs June 6-9. The event concludes on Sunday with the Parade of Champions in the Downtown Canastota District followed by the formal induction of this year’s honorees in the showroom of the Turning Stone Casino-Resort in Verona, NY, one exit away on the New York State Thruway.

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Boxing with its ever-changing business landscape tests the commitment of its fans like no other sport. It doesn’t help that so many fighters create more drama outside the ring than inside it. This being the case, it’s always refreshing to learn about the people, places, and associations that are working for the betterment of the sport and the communities that they serve.

K & A Boxing Club at 3017 F Street in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood and its head trainer Timmy Sinese (pictured below with one of his students) is an example of one of these refreshing cases. While it is important to note that, yes, the gym is right across the street from McPhearson Square (unofficially known as “Needle Park”) in one of the worst open air drug neighborhoods in the country, what Sinese and the Philadelphia Pugilistic Association are doing for the youth in that area goes beyond the familiar story of a gym being a haven for at-risk boys and an alternative to a life on the street.

This Saturday (May 1), Sinese and company are putting on their first amateur show at Our Lady of Port Richmond (3233 E. Thompson St.). “All the proceeds from this event are going to kids that are talented but lack the resources to be seen. These kids can fight and without the kids there would be no pros,” states Sinese. A Kensington lifer, he would know about that neighborhood and the talent that it harbors.

Sinese is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he spent four years learning how to box. Upon his return to the city, he spent years learning how to train fighters at famed gyms like Harrowgate and Rock Ministries. (Harrowgate was the childhood home gym of heavyweight Joey Dawejko and Danny Garcia.) As for his own boxing career, that was cut short when he was stabbed multiple times during a run-in with a motorcycle gang.

After the pandemic he was approached by a friend, John Goodwin, about becoming the head trainer at a new gym that Goodwin was planning on opening. Once the old after-hours club was transformed into the gym bearing the name K & A (an iconic local abbreviation for the Kensington and Allegheny intersection), Sinese went to work on transforming lives. Except one thing has gotten in the way at times.

“It’s hard to water the seeds that we have planted at the gym with the youth,” says Sinise. “We’re trying to help build better citizens at the end of the day. It’s a shame cause we’ve seen friendships and support systems being forged organically between these kids. It’s tough when they can’t afford to see their aspirations of a better life through boxing come true cause of not having money to jump-start [the process]. That’s why Saturday is important.”

One look at the USA Amateur Boxing rankings highlights his point. For the first time in generations, there are hardly any fighters ranked in the top ten of any weight class, both male and female, from the Philadelphia region.

“It’s absolutely a shame that this great fighting city isn’t represented on all levels of the sport anymore, but ultimately, we’re about building better and stronger youth for our community. If these kids can deal with the ring, they can deal with life.”

$35 and $50 tickets will be available at the door for Saturday’s show with the opening bell scheduled for 1:00 PM.

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King’s Promotions returns this Friday night at Live Casino in South Philadelphia. Bantamweight contender and the always popular Christian Carto (21-1, 14 KO’s) fights for the second time this year in the main event of a seven-fight card. He takes on the durable Jesus Martinez (35-20-1, 16 KOs) in an eight-round bout. Carto, who is trained by Bozy Ennis, looks to stay sharp by staying active as he looks to get into top form before challenging for a world title.

Also on the card is light heavyweight Atif Oberlton. A former amateur standout and Philly native, Oberlton (9-0, 7 KOs) meets Mexico’s Juan Francisco Lopez (8-1, 4 KOs). As I’ve stated before, King’s Promotions always puts on entertaining shows with well-matched fights and this card looks to be no different. Tickets are available through Axs.com and at the door.

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Matchroom sent out a press release announcing that Jaron “Boots” Ennis will make his return to the ring at the Wells Fargo Center (home to the Sixers and Flyers) on July 13. Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) will defend his IBF welterweight title against his mandatory challenger Cody Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs) in a bout geared towards accomplishing two things: shaking off any ring rust that might have accumulated after a 12-month layoff while providing proof that Ennis can sell tickets, which will benefit both Matchroom and Ennis in future negotiations.

Ennis signed a multi-fight promotional deal with Matchroom on April 10. Eddie Hearn isn’t wasting any time getting his new young star back into the limelight.

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The latest installment of the ProBox Wednesday Night Fights played out tonight at its permanent home in the Tampa suburb of Plant City. The main event, contested at a catchweight of 142 pounds, was an international affair pitting Sergey Lipinets, an LA-based Kazkh, briefly the IBF 140-pound world title-holder, against Liverpool, England’s Robbie Davies Jr, a former British, European, and Commonwealth champion who was making his U.S. debut.

The fight went the full “10” and Lipinets, who scored three knockdowns, won by a wide margin (98-89, 96-91, 95-92), but this was yet a fan-friendly fight between two aging warriors who left nothing in the ring.

Lipinets (pictured on the right) was controlling the fight before he was wobbled in round three. Davies hurt him again in the next frame, but Lipinets wasn’t deterred from pressing the action and quickly regained control of the fight. In round five, he knocked the Englishman to the canvas with a succession of right hands, one of which appeared to break Davies’ nose.

In round eight, he put Davies on the canvas twice, the first with a left to the liver and the second with an overhand right. But remarkably, the teak-tough Davies, who appeared to be just about finished, rocked Lipinets before the round was over.

Davies, who declined to 24-4, showed no signs of the broken ankle that he suffered against Irish southpaw Darragh Foley 14 months ago. However, at age 34, this may have been his farewell fight. Lipinets, aged 35 or 37 depending on one’s source, ate punches that he would not have eaten in his younger days. Although he improved his ledger to 18-3-1 (13), he too ought to consider hanging up his gloves.

Other Bouts

In an entertaining 8-round heavyweight bout, Fernely Felix Jr (8-0, 6 KOs) had too much class for Cesar Navarro (11-2), a rugged Mexican bodybuilder who had been campaigning in Phoenix. Feliz Jr, a Dominican born and raised in Connecticut, landed the crisper punches and was returned the winner by scores of 78-74 and 79-73 twice.

Feliz Jr, whose future may be at cruiserweight, comes from a boxing family. His father fought the likes of John Ruiz and Oleg Maskaev before leaving the sport with a record of 23-9. His younger brother Ali Feliz recently signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank. Junior’s next fight has already been booked. He fights TBA next month in Buenos Aires.

Tsendbaatar Erdenebat, a 27-year-old Mongolian southpaw and two-time Olympian, scored a third-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Alberto Mercado in a lightweight match slated for “8.” The bout was stopped at the 2:39 mark by the ring physician after Mercado suffered a bad cut on his left eyelid.

Erdenebat (10-0, 5 KOs) dominated the fight for as long as it lasted. It was the sixth loss in the last eight starts for Mercado (17-7-1), a 15-year pro who has routinely been matched tough.

The TV opener was a 6-round battle of 19-year-old lightweights. Robert Meriwether III, a Louisville native who trains at the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, improved to 6-0 (2) at the expense of Mexico’s Victor Manuel Lopez (5-1). Meriwether gave up about six inches in height, but won every round against his defensive-oriented opponent.

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