HART WANTS TO HOLD ONTO WHAT’S LEFT OF PHILLY’S ONCE-GREAT BOXING HERITAGE

Published

10 years ago

December 13, 2014

Rising super middleweight prospect Jesse “Hard Work” Hart is looking toward the future, which is obviously the proper thing to do for a talented 26-year-old whose best days presumably are still ahead of him.

But Hart (15-0, 12 KOs), who takes on hard-hitting veteran Samuel Miller (28-9, 25 KOs) in the eight-round co-feature tonight at the 2300 Arena in South Philadelphia (Puerto Rican lightweight Felix Verdejo [15-0, 11 KOs] squares off against Spain’s Karim El Ouazghani [16-5-2, 4 KOs] in the other marquee eight-rounder), couldn’t help but also steal a glimpse at his hometown’s pugilistic past, which seems to again be headed toward a date with the wrecking ball.

At a press conference Thursday at the Stadium Holiday Inn, located across a vast parking lot from where a familiar Philly sports landmark, the Spectrum, used to stand, Hart took his place at the podium and glanced at the first row of seats where sat his father, former middleweight contender Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, 63, who was a staple at one renowned venue that is no longer there (the Spectrum, 12 bouts) and another (the Blue Horizon, 13 bouts) that also could also become nothing more than memory. As a child, Hart often accompanied his by-then-retired dad to fight cards at the Blue Horizon, where, as one of the city’s enduring boxing legends, he routinely was introduced to thunderous applause.

“It doesn’t give you too much of a secure feeling,” Jesse Hart said of increasing likelihood for the razing of the Blue Horizon, which hosted its first fight card on Nov. 3, 1961, when middleweight contender George Benton stopped Chico Corsey in three rounds, and what now looks to be its last, on June 4, 2010, when featherweight Coy Evans scored a six-round unanimous decision over Barbaro Zepeda.

A certificate authorizing demolition of the Blue Horizon has been issued, and if funding issues for its conversion into a hotel aren’t resolved, the historic building, which was constructed as a fashionable private residence in 1865 and converted into a Loyal Order of Moose Lodge in 1912, could soon become history of another sort. It was purchased by current co-owners Vernoca Michael and Carol Ray in 1994, the women going $500,000 into debt in the process. But, despite their receiving a $1 million state grant in 2002, as well as a $1 million low-interest loan from the Delaware River Port Authority, that money amounted to little more than an adhesive bandage placed upon a gaping wound. Michael said it would take another $5 million cash infusion to fully repair the antiquated facility, which proved unavailable, and when the owners reportedly failed to pay taxes on it for several years, it was shuttered by order of City Hall. In August 2011 the Blue Horizon was nearly $60,000 in arrears on its taxes, a figure that likely has substantially increased.

Ray had put the building up for sale for $6.5 million in 2007, with few if any serious inquiries at that price. But in 2011, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett approved $6 million in state tax credits for Mosaic Development Partners to redevelop the property into what was then envisioned as a hotel/arena with a boxing motif. In that initial configuration, the preserved arena still would be used to host boxing events. But, with a projected overall price tag of $18 million for the project, Mosaic partners Leslie Smallwood and Greg Reaves concluded the retention of the arena was not cost-effective and that they would prefer to proceed with a hotel-only plan.

Lines thus have been drawn in the sand, with developers on one side and the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, which seeks to save the Blue Horizon in its full or near-full entirety, on the other.

“We went to a hearing about a month ago and the Preservation Alliance wants to keep the Blue Horizon as it is, as do a lot of people,” said J Russell Peltz, who promoted fight cards at the 1,500-seat venue for many years and is staging, along with Top Rank, Saturday’s show at the 2300 Arena. “But a permit has already been issued to tear it down.

“There’s an offer of $6 million on the table, but the money’s not up yet. Vernoca doesn’t want it demolished until all of the $6 million is up. I don’t want it demolished at all. I think it’s a disgrace that they would even consider tearing down something like that.”

Peltz said that T-shirts advocating the saving of the Blue Horizon will be on sale at Saturday’s nine-bout card.

Hart, who grew up in North Philadelphia, will be fighting within the Philly city limits for only the second time in his professional career, the first being his four-round decision over Steven Tyner on Dec. 8, 2012, in McGonigle Hall, on the Temple University campus, just 2½ blocks from the Blue Horizon’s address at 1314 North Broad Street.

“I think it’s time we bring boxing back to Philadelphia,” he said. “Man, it means everything to me. Nobody knows how excited I am to be fighting here again. I posted all about it on Instagram and on Facebook.”

But while the 1,200-seat 2300 Arena – which was known as Viking Hall when it hosted its first fight card, and has since been known as the ECW Warehouse, the New Alhambra, The Arena and the Asylum Arena – has some history of its own, it can’t rival that of the Blue Horizon or, for that matter, the Spectrum.

Peltz, 68, noted that Cylone Hart’s rousing 10-round draw with another noted Philly banger, Bennie Briscoe, drew 11,000-plus when it was staged at the Spectrum on Nov. 18, 1975, and was named as the second-best fight anywhere in the world that year by Boxing News, behind only a little scrap known as the “Thrilla in Manila.”

“I met Jesse’s father when he was 17 years old,” Peltz recalled. “We never told anybody that he turned pro before he was 18. In my 45 years in the business, Cyclone Hart was the best left-hooker I ever saw in person, with one shot.”

Jesse Hart isn’t exactly the second coming of his father. He considers himself more of a boxer-puncher than a let-’er-rip knockout artist, which was Cyclone’s ring persona, and the son’s best weapon is his overhand right. But Jesse is a chip off the old block in one respect, that being his fondness for a local tradition that is in danger of fading away, one site at a time.

“I wanted to fight in the Spectrum, in the Blue Horizon, like my dad did,” he said, somewhat forlornly. “It was my dream.

“If I had the money, I’d pay whatever it took to keep the Blue Horizon open. When I was a child, my dad used to take me there after he retired. They called him into the ring to take a bow every time we went, and every time the people cheered him like they did when he was still fighting. Gave me chills.”

Philadelphia is a city heavily steeped in history. People come from all parts of the United States and around the world to visit Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was drafted and the U.S. Constitution ratified, and the Liberty Bell. It’s most iconic citizen remains Benjamin Franklin, dead these past 224 years.

But the city many consider to be America’s true capital of boxing – there’s a reason Sylvester Stallone chose to make his greatest fictional character, Rocky Balboa, a Philly guy – hasn’t had as much success commemorating and preserving its fighting past. In addition to the Spectrum and now possibly the Blue Horizon, such boxing landmarks as the Civic Center, the original Arena and the original Alhambra have vanished from the landscape. Another, Joe Frazier’s Gym, 16 blocks up the street from the Blue Horizon, has been converted into a discount furniture store. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places which means the building, which dates back to the 1890s, also has become a battleground for preservationists who would like to see again used as a boxing gym or possibly a museum honoring the memory of Smokin’ Joe, who passed away on Nov. 7, 2011.

Then again, historic boxing places don’t seem to rate as high a priority as do old buildings used for other purposes. Preservationists in Detroit and Miami Beach weren’t able to save the Kronk Gym and the original 5^th Street Gym, respectively. Even Madison Square Garden, the “Mecca of Boxing,” is in its fourth incarnation, three other structures in New York having previously borne the MSG label.

In boxing, as in life, nothing lasts forever.

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Bernard Fernandez

The Challenge of Playing Muhammad Ali

Published

7 hours 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

4 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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