Emanuel Augustus Is and Was No Andrew Golota, Or Vice-Versa

Published

10 years ago

October 21, 2014

The near-fatal shooting of former fighter Emanuel Augustus – by all accounts, he remains in critical condition – recalled one of the more curious weekends a lot of boxing writers, myself included, ever were a part of. The contrast between what happened in The Palace at Auburn Hills, in a tony suburb of Detroit, on Oct. 20, 2000, was in stark contrast to what happened one night later, in Motown’s gritty, old Cobo Hall. Those two very different bouts should have reminded everyone in attendance at both events that success in boxing owes as much to intangibles – heart, determination, a refusal to succumb to adversity – as to physical talent. True greatness in the ring can only be achieved when a fighter is blessed with heaping measures of skill and of will, qualities that are not mutually inclusive.

The headliner for the high-visibility, big-bucks extravaganza at The Palace – prime ringside seats had a then-record face value of $2,500 (attendance was 16,228), and the subscription price for the much-anticipated Showtime pay-per-view telecast was $49.95 – was two-time former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, still the biggest draw in the sport despite, or maybe because of, his burgeoning reputation as something of an unhinged wild man. That sinister image owed in large part to “Iron Mike’s” chomping of Evander Holyfield’s ears in their rematch three years earlier, but, not surprisingly, in his first post-chew outing, against Frans Botha, Tyson had blatantly tried to break the South African’s arm during a clinch, a transgression of civility that was overlooked by referee Richard Steele en route to Tyson’s fifth-round knockout victory.

In Cobo Hall, the main attraction was a not-quite-yet-at-the-top-of-his-game Floyd Mayweather Jr., the then-23-year-old WBC super featherweight champion whose purse for the non-title 12-rounder, $250,000, was mere tip money compared to the megamillions he pulls down today.

But, in retrospect, the real stories of those companion bouts belonged to neither Tyson nor to Mayweather. The real drama was furnished by the superstars’ opponents. Tyson was paired against the “Foul Pole,” Poland’s Andrew Golota, a big man blessed with power and boxing ability as well as being saddled with an inner fear that frequently overcame him during inopportune moments. Mayweather was to swap punches with Augustus, then known as Emanuel Burton, a competent tradesman who lacked elite abilities, but who compensated for that shortcoming with an inexhaustible supply of gumption and want-to.

In Golota, the world again saw a fighter who might have become a champion, or at least a major force in the heavyweight division for a long time, again implode in a cloud of shame and recrimination. In Augustus, we saw a presumed no-hoper give one of the most gifted fighters in the planet all he could handle, simply because the designated victim didn’t realize he wasn’t in there to, you know, actually win.

Golota flat-out quit at the end of the second round, confirming what many had already believed about him, his act of surrender punctuated by his shoving of his new trainer, 72-year-old Al Certo, as well as of referee Frank Garza, each of whom were trying to get him to get back to doing what he was being paid handsomely (a reported $2.2 million) to do, which was to fight.

“I’m sorry for all my fans who count on me,” Golota, nearly in tears, said afterward as the full implication of his career suicide must have been setting in. “It was not my day. But he head-butt me, you know? And nobody took care of this, you know? Nobody gave (Tyson) a warning.”

By attempting to blame Garza, and Tyson, Golota dishonored only himself. It hardly seemed to matter that the announced result – a third-round TKO win for Tyson – later was changed to a no-decision by the Michigan boxing commission after Tyson tested positive for marijuana.

The 6-4, 240-pound Golota, of course, had already established himself as the loosest of cannons with myriad demonstrations of mindless sabotage. He was twice beating up Riddick Bowe before a spate of low blows resulted in disqualification defeats in fights he appeared to be winning handily. A bronze medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the winner of an unprecedented seven Polish national amateur titles, Golota also bit Samson Po’uha on the neck in their May 16, 1995, bout in Atlantic City, but the referee didn’t penalize him and he went on to win on a fifth-round stoppage. It was more or less the same story on March 15, 1996, when Golota blatantly head-butted Danell Nicholson, also in Atlantic City. Again Golota avoided disqualification, and he took out Nicholson in eight rounds. And Golota was far ahead on points in his Nov. 20, 1999, meeting with Michael Grant when, after being knocked down in the 10^th round, he rose and indicated to referee Randy Neumann that he’d had enough.

“I don’t think Andrew is a coward,” Tyson’s perplexed trainer for the fight at The Palace, Tommy Brooks, assessed after Golota again had run up the white flag. “He has anxiety attacks. Mainly, he’s a front-runner. Once the tide turns in a fight, he folds the tent.”

Folding the tent, regardless of the circumstances, was not Augustus’ style, and he again showed that with his gutty performance against the vastly more talented Mayweather the night after Golota had given up in a fight he probably wouldn’t have won in any case, but in which he at least had a chance to redeem himself to some degree.

Against Mayweather –still known as “Pretty Boy” then, not “Money” – Augustus proved that there was much more to him than his nondescript record (22-16-4, with 10 wins inside the distance) might have indicated. The end came as expected when Augustus, his face swollen and bleeding from the nose and left ear, had taken three consecutive left hooks to the body in the ninth round of the scheduled 10-round. With their fighter well behind on points, Augustus’ cornermen began waving white towels, prompting referee Dan Grable to step in and wave a halt to the surprisingly competitive contest.

Not surprising, though was Augustus’ angry reaction to the stoppage. He figured he still had more than a round to land that tide-turning shot and possibly shock the world, and even if it didn’t happen, hell, he wasn’t the kind to ever give up.

“But I’m not hurt,” Augustus told Grable in animated but futile protest. “Come on, don’t stop it.”

Augustus’ manager, Luis DeCubas, said his guy had fought too hard and too well to be exposed to continued punishment in a fight he couldn’t win.

“Emanuel’s left hand was screwed up, his right hand was gone,” DeCubas said. “He had nothing left to hurt Floyd with. Why would I leave the kid in there to get killed. That’s not right. But I tell you, Emanuel has the biggest heart in boxing, and he proved that today.”

Despite the apparent ease with which he was winning, Mayweather didn’t come out of the scrap unscathed. When Grable stepped in and wrapped his arms around Augustus, Mayweather’s nose was dripping blood and his face was uncharacteristically blotchy.

Before Mayweather took on Miguel Cotto in 2012, he said, “If I was rating certain fighters out of every guy that I fought, I’m going to rate Emanuel Augustus first compared to all the guys that I’ve faced. He didn’t have the best record in the sport of boxing, he has never won a world title, but he came to fight and, of course, at that particular time, I had took a long layoff (seven months).”

Augustus is perhaps best-known for his putting Mayweather to one of his sternest tests, but that was hardly his only career highlight. Known as the “Drunken Master” for his penchant for fake-staggering around the ring, likely a ploy to draw opponents into his hitting zone, Augustus dropped a 10-round decision to the rugged Micky Ward on July 13, 2001. The ESPN2-televised brawl as so action-packed that it was named Fight of the Year by, among others, The Ring magazine and USA Today.

Losing with courage is still losing, however, and Augustus concluded his professional career on Jan. 29, 2011, the eight-round unanimous-decision defeat at the hands of Vernon Paris – on the undercard of the Timothy Bradley Jr.-Devon Alexander junior welterweight unification bout at the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Mich. – left him with a final mark of 38-34-6, with 20 wins as well as five losses inside the distance. Never a champion, or even a serious contender (he never got a shot at a widely recognized world title), it was Augustus’ destiny to simply fade away, a mostly unremembered footnote to boxing history.

Even the particulars of his near-death – the Chicago native was shot in the head (Christopher Sills was arrested several days later) in his adopted home of Baton Rouge, La., close to a gym where the 39-year-old Augustus sometimes sparred – was hardly headline news. In Louisiana’s capital city, the citizenry was far more interested in the LSU football team’s last-second, 30-27 victory at Florida three days earlier than in the shooting of a retired boxer who never really attained star status there or anywhere else.

But the fact that Emanuel Augustus is hanging on, fighting for his life with the tenacity he always exhibited inside the ropes, stands as incontrovertible proof of two things:

One, the man always could take one hell of a shot.

And two, he can never be likened to Andrew Golota.

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Bernard Fernandez

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

7 hours 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 allegation 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 that 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

4 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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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

4 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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