Izzy Burgos, Inspirational Figure, Is Shot and Killed

Published

10 years ago

July 22, 2015

For a time, Izzadeen “Izzy” Burgos was one of boxing’s inspirational stories, a kid who dreamed of becoming a fighter despite the amputation of his left arm at the age of two. Despite his handicap, the then-12-year-old got the opportunity to fight at Philadelphia’s legendary Blue Horizon on June 24, 2005, overcoming an early knockdown at the hands of a two-armed opponent to make it to the final bell of a scheduled three-rounder. Burgos’ scrappiness moved many in the audience to tears.

Now Burgos is gone, at 21, the victim of an apparently intentional shooting Sunday night in the Feltonville section of Philadelphia. The young man was standing next to his father, Dennis, when he was shot in the face at point-blank range by the as-yet-unapprehended assailant. He was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead 2½ hours later, at 1:29 Monday morning.

But the tragic end of Izzy Burgos’ too-brief life might have been foreshadowed. Unable to be fitted with a comfortable prosthetic on the stump of the left arm that was surgically removed at the shoulder, Burgos – twice nominated for the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award – drifted away from boxing and into a life of petty and not-so-petty crime. He had a fairly extensive rap sheet, was incarcerated on several occasions, most recently for aggravated assault. He was released after doing time for that crime last September from Graterford State Correctional Institution, the same prison which lists former middleweight and light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins as an alumnus.

Joseph Santoliquito, now the president of the BWAA, was managing editor of The Ring magazine when he wrote about Burgos nearly 10 years ago. The story became something of a cause celebre, picked up by the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer and all the Philly television stations, as well as by The Ring and ESPN.com. There was even some talk about a possible book deal, with Santoliquito to serve as the author.

“But then things started to trickle back to me, and not good things, either,” Santoliquito told me after Burgos’ murder. “If I was going to do a feel-good story about a kid who had beaten the odds, there had to be a lot of positivity attached to it. There was a growing sense that that wasn’t the case.

“I really hadn’t spoken to Izzy in close to nine years, when he was still a kid. In my mind, I still prefer to picture him as that 12-year-old in the ring at the Blue Horizon. The kid he was fighting wasn’t pulling any punches, that was for sure. But Izzy got right up and fought back. They really went at it. Izzy – that Izzy – was a tough, determined boy.

“Did it sting me when I heard the news (that he was dead)? Yes. But I can’t say I was completely surprised. As I said, I heard some things that were disturbing. I hoped someone could get through to him in time to straighten him out. It’s like he was never given a chance, almost from birth, because of where he came from and what he was raised around. It’s a shame. The only moment he had to really shine was that night at the Blue Horizon.”

As a toddler, Izzy’s left arm was shattered beyond repair by a bullet from a high-powered rifle; his left lung was also punctured. His father claimed that Izzy had accidentally shot himself with the rifle, which seemed unlikely since the loaded weapon, carelessly placed under a bed in a home in which three children resided, was taller than he was. A jury wasn’t buying Dennis Burgos’ explanation of what had happened, and he was sentenced to eight to 20 years for recklessly endangering a child.

As little Izzy fought for his life, strangers appeared at his hospital room to extend to his family their prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery. And the child did recover, although he faced a long convalescence and uncertain future.

Sports options are scarce for one-armed kids, but cruel putdowns aren’t when you grow up in a tough neighborhood.

“Sometimes people have told me I can’t do certain things,” Izzy said in October 2005. “That’s hard to take. Sometimes, I try (team) sports and other kids tell me I can’t play. They used to make fun of me. They never wanted to know anything about me and what I’ve been through. They don’t think I can play any sport because I have only one arm. I try to prove them wrong when I get the chance.”

That chance – and it was a long shot — was provided by a Philadelphia police officer, Edwin “Bo” Diaz, who ran a boxing program for children in a blighted section of North Philadelphia.

“We wanted to treat Izzy like any other kid and we taught him how to box with the mitts,” Diaz told Santoliquito at the time. “Izzy was well-accepted. He fell right into the pack of little kids and he performed better than most of them.”

But still … how do you risk putting a one-armed child in an actual bout? It was a conundrum that Diaz grappled with internally until he decided the boy deserved a chance to compete against another person, not just inanimate objects. With the help of Vernoca Michael, owner of the Blue Horizon, Diaz placed Izzy on the undercard of a pro show against another 12-year-old, Chris Delvalle, who had fought in several previous amateur bouts. There were no restrictions placed on Delvalle, who quickly floored Izzy. But Izzy fought back hard, winning over the crowd and a specially designed championship belt for himself.

“Izzy is a survivor,” Diaz said. “I know for a fact he taught himself how to ride a bicycle and he always had it in him that he could succeed at anything.”

He did not succeed at winning the BWAA’s first Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award; that went to Kassim Ouma, who was abducted as a child in his native Uganda and was forced to serve as a soldier with rebel forces before making his way to America, where he became the IBF super welterweight titlist and the subject of an acclaimed documentary about his against-all-odds life.

Izzy also was a finalist for the second BWAA Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award, but he lost out to someone a little better known than himself – Muhammad Ali. After that, as his brush with boxing receded into the past, he more or less faded from view, except with law enforcement officials who came to know him more for his transgressions on the street.

Interestingly, Izzy got close to his father, Dennis, after the older man was released from prison. When Izzy was shot, Dennis chased the shooter for a block or so before the man turned, fired at him, and ran off, police said.

“Everywhere he went, he made friends,” Izzy’s mother, Lisa, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He had a good heart,” she continued, telling young kids “that the streets are not the way.”

Diaz, now retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, told the Philly Daily News Izzy’s story “was like a `Rocky’ movie. Izzy had this incredible will to live, and a tremendous punch. We called him the `Bionic Arm.’”

And now?

“It’s a sad story,” Diaz said. “I’ve been getting calls from guys who feel like they should have done more for him. But in the end, everyone’s responsible for themselves.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Published

14 hours ago

May 9, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Years ago, I worked at a newsstand in the Beverly Hills area. It was a 24-hour a day version and the people that dropped by were very colorful and unique.

One elderly woman Eva, who bordered on homeless but pridefully wore lipstick, would stop by the newsstand weekly to purchase a pack of menthol cigarettes. On one occasion, she asked if I had ever been to San Diego?

I answered “yes, many times.”

She countered “you need to watch out for San Diego Smoke.”

This Saturday, Top Rank brings its brand of prizefighting to San Diego or what could be called San Diego Smoke. Leading the fight card is Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defending the WBO super feather title against undefeated Filipino Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at Pechanga Arena. ESPN will televise.

This is Navarrete’s fourth defense of the super feather title.

The last time Navarrete stepped in the boxing ring he needed six rounds to dismantle the very capable Oscar Valdez in their rematch. One thing about Mexico City’s Navarrete is he always brings “the smoke.”

Also, on the same card is Fontana, California’s Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) vying for the interim IBF lightweight title against Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) on the co-main event.

Abdullaev has only fought once before in the USA and was handily defeated by Devin Haney back in 2019. But that was six years ago and since then he has knocked off various contenders.

Muratalla is a slick fighting lightweight who trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy now in Moreno Valley, Calif. It’s a virtual boot camp with many of the top fighters on the West Coast available to spar on a daily basis. If you need someone bigger or smaller, stronger or faster someone can match those needs.

When you have that kind of preparation available, it’s tough to beat. Still, you have to fight the fight. You never know what can happen inside the prize ring.

Another fighter to watch is Perla Bazaldua, 19, a young and very talented female fighter out of the Los Angeles area. She is trained by Manny Robles who is building a small army of top female fighters.

Bazaldua (1-0, 1 KO) meets Mona Ward (0-1) in a super flyweight match on the preliminary portion of the Top Rank card. Top Rank does not sign many female fighters so you know that they believe in her talent.

Others on the Top Rank card in San Diego include Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes, Albert Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez and others.

They all will bring a lot of smoke to San Diego.

Probox TV

A strong card led by Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) facing Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) in a super welterweight clash between southpaws takes place on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. PROBOX TV will stream the fight card.

Ardreal has rocketed up the standings and now faces veteran Lubin whose only losses came against world titlists Sebastian Fundora and Jermell Charlo. It’s a great match to decide who deserves a world title fight next.

Another juicy match pits Argentina’s Nazarena Romero (14-0-2) against Mexico’s Mayelli Flores (12-1-1) in a female super bantamweight contest.

Nottingham, England

Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) defends the IBO super featherweight title against Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) in Wood’s hometown on Saturday at Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. DAZN will stream the Queensberry Promotions card.

Ireland’s Cacace seems to have the odds against him. But he is no stranger to dancing in the enemy’s lair or on foreign territory. He formerly defeated Josh Warrington in London and Joe Cordina in Riyadh in IBO title defenses.

Lampley at Wild Card

Boxing telecaster Jim Lampley will be signing his new book It Happened! at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, May 10, beginning at 2 p.m. Lampley has been a large part of many of the greatest boxing events in the past 40 years. He and Freddie Roach will be at the signing.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Anthony Cacace (23-1) vs Leigh Wood (28-3).

Sat. PROBOX.tv 3 p.m. Erickson Lubin (26-2) vs Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1) vs Charly Suarez (18-0); Raymond Muratalla (22-0) vs Zaur Abdullaev (20-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Stephen-Breadman-Edwards-An-Unlikely-Boxing-Coach-with-a-Panoramic-View-of-the-Sport

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

3 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-(mostly)-Ugly-A-Weeend-Boxing-Recap-and-More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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