Andre Purlette Still Believes, And So He Must Fight

Published

11 years ago

February 19, 2014

Michael Woods

Happens all the time.

Boxer’s been off, on hiatus, out of the mix, for a year, a two, or more.

But the infection still rages within him.

He can’t kick it, won’t kick it.

It needs to play out.

Organically.

The desires within swim through his bloodstream, with his brain sending perioidic bursts of messaging.

Need to give it one more shot.

Can’t end on this note. Can do better. Must do better. Must fight again.

That state of mind can still be present long after the body starts being less of an ally, and more so the foe. More than the person across from you in the ring, it is you who is the one who will derail the comeback. Not because of a detriment in your character, but because of the inevitable erosion which time’s passage usually brings.That need to compete, to push oneself, to attempt the ascent which seemed inevitable when envisioned decades ago, when it seemed like the stars were aligned just so to insure success, fame, fortune, could be likened to infection, truly, because comebacks can be cruel. Brutal truth–most don’t end tidy. They end with the fighter slumped on his stool, common sense, vicious reality having been pummeled into him. Many of the best of them need that, need their hopefullness, that useful stubbornness, to be whaled out of them.

Comebacks can be thought of as a medicine, to treat a psychiatric condition which often verges on what can look from afar like a perverted compulsion…and the ingestion of the medicine can be bitter, to the athlete who receives the cold truth, that his time on the stage has passed, and to the family, the friends, the loved ones who see the fighters’ need to give it…one…more…shot.

But the fighter needs to know, people.

He cannot be told, he cannot be counseled, he cannot be coerced.

He knows he has one life to live–because even if he believes in reincarnation, who’s to say he won’t return as a butterfly?–and he knows that his story arc as a fighter has chapters yet to be written. And we can sit safely on the sideline, and opine, and judge, and predict…but we are not in the arena, and thus, on this subject, our opinions shouldn’t sway. The fighter has to glove up, and, armed with perhaps a bit less muscle mass, a bit more flecking of gray in the hair, but a neccessary reservoir of what doubters might term delusions, he views as fuel. It is optimism. And until the comeback plays out, and he sees for himself what he has left, and if the ascent will ever be complete, or he falls short, he deserves something from us…Respect for his process. Respect for his innate yearning. Respect for his right to fight, again.

Andre Purlette is a name some of you might remember. He fought as a heavyweight, from 1992-2009.

Born in Guyana, ring announcers called out his nickname–TOMBSTOOOONE!–against some decent names from back in the day. Jimmy Thunder, Purlette beat him (KO2) in 2001.

Elieser Castillo, Purlette couldn’t get the better of him, got stopped in the fifth round of their 2002 encounter.

Jeremy Williams, him and Purlette fought a tight scrap, which saw Williams gets the nod after ten rounds of a 2003 fight.

Look at Purlette’s Boxrec today and he has what I call a “Boxrec ugly” last chapter. Back to back losses, to Aaron Williams, in 2008, and then Harold Sconiers, in 2009. TKO2, TKO3. From afar, you could look at that Boxrec, and nod your head, and say, hey, this Purlette did the right thing. He lost two in a row. He saw the writing on that wall, and he made a wise choice, to hang ’em up before the two fight slide turned into three, four, five. But that’s from afar..

To make that judgement, you ideally have to ask the guy what happened. That is, if he wants to go there. Purlette, it turns out, does want to go there. He does want to explain those two losses. And damn right, he does want to do what we touched on before.

See what he has left.

See if he can complete the ascent.

Can do better. Must do better. Must fight again.

“I still believe I can do it,” Purlette, age 40, told me in a phoner, from Florida, where he lives.

“I believe in my heart, I can do it, with the right kind of preparation.”

Another Florida resident, sportwear designer Champ Dulcio, thinks Purlette can too. Dulcio is building his brand, Muscle Wear, and wants hungry athletes, in boxing, football, and beyond, to wear his merch.

He reached out to me, and asked me to chat with Purlette, who he is advising and backing. Dulcio seems to be someone whose eyes are wide open, yes, but who likes to traffic in the realm of why something can be achieved, not one who looks to tick off reasons why it won’t.

However, he got it that Purlette, after five years away, isn’t going to come back to the ring, dust off a light coat of rust dust, and get a crack at a Klitschko. Question is, does Purlette get that? Optimism is a good thing, but it needs to be tempered with a measure of pragmatism. I wondered, does Purlette’s comeback quest carry a whiff of excessive delusion, or is he right-minded?

“I tell you this, Mr. Tiger Woods,” Purlette told me, a few seconds after I introduced myself as ‘Michael Woods, of The Sweet Science, like Tiger Woods, no relation.’

“I’m mature to the point I can give you my word. If my word dont mean sh*t, I don’t mean sh*t. It is an uphill climb, but it’s not something that can’t be done. Look at George Foreman, that tells me it can be done.”

But, I pressed, how and why will it be different this time?

Purlette explained that back then, his in the ring inconsistency largely stemmed from the fact that he wasn’t able to go all in as a prizefighter. He was working as a nightclub bouncer in the leadup to the Sconiers fight, working 10 PM to 5 AM, training not enough. He worked the night before the fight, in fact, and hopped on a plane, assuming he’d go and knock out the guy with the sub .500 record out. This time around, he insisted, he will give the sport, and each and every foe, the respect it and they deserve.

I heard other things that left me believing a bit in Purlette, thinking that just maybe he can do what the odds say he won’t. His views on what the fans want, and what the majority of fighters I believe should enter the ring looking for, align with mine.

“I think every fighter should have that desire to knock the other guy out,” he told me, and explaining that back in Guyana, friends and guys in the hood know him as “Stone,” because he has hard hands. “They should look for it. I hit any guy the right way, I can hurt anybody.”

OK, if he can put that mindsight on display in the ring, in this era of heavyweights, who wouldn’t give the comebacker at the very least the benefit of the doubt of a long look?

He said he knows he can get it done on an even higher level than he did in his first go round, if he can get the backing to train fulltime. He recalls that he more than held his own training with Wladimir Klitschko before Wlad’s second bout with Lamon Brewster, in 2007.

From the video I watched, Purlette isn’t a mere headhunter. He agreed with that assessement when I shared that bit of scouting with him: “I worked with the late Angelo Dundee and he told us years ago, in 1996, ’97, kill the body, see the hands start falling, and the head will open.”

Add in that the guy can talk a little smack, never a bad thing in this information age, where you have to be able, ideally, to set yourself apart from the next guy with an ability to stir the buzz, in 140 characters or less.

“Right now the heavyweight state is garbage,” he said. “I just need the right people to come behind me, and I’m going to do my part.”

Purlette was candid, and admitted his missus isn’t so keen on the comeback idea. But he won’t be dissuaded, he told me. And let’s not gloss over another reason folks come back. This “every man for himself” world economy leaves many of us scrapping for crumbs while the titans–in all vocations and sectors– scarf most of the pie. Purlette would but of course like to make a mark in the division, and leverage himself into some decent money fights. No one should ever underplay the motivation which can be conjured when a man labors knowing the fruits will be of immense benefit to himself, and his loved ones.

Confession; I’m pulling a little bit for Purlette, and in fact, identify with him at a root level, being to being, when he says, in summation, “I’m a fighter in the ring and life; I’m going to find a way to make it work.”

Get in touch with Woods at MJWoods99@aol.com

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Michael Woods

Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More

Published

4 hours ago

April 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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 5^th 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

Published

2 days ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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 10^th 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 11^th 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

Published

6 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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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