Featured Articles
CANCER HAD KNOCKOUT PUNCH EVEN THE ELUSIVE HOWARD DAVIS JR. COULDN’T SLIP
Maybe it really is true that only the good die young.
Howard Davis Jr., the best boxer on what many believe to be the best U.S. Olympic boxing team ever, was a master at evading big punches from opponents intent on knocking him out. But Davis, the lightweight gold medalist who received the Val Barker Award as the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, had no defense against the ravenous cancer cells that ate away at his lungs and other internal organs to the point that he was literally a shell of his former self. Diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in February, Davis was just 59 when he succumbed to the dread disease on Dec. 30.
In a cruel twist of fate, the clean-living Davis never smoked or drank alcohol. According to Cancer.Net, the average age of patients who contract lung cancer is 71, with the vast majority of those heavy smokers whose tobacco habit tends to court disaster. But the Big C is a random destroyer of health and of lives, as Davis’ untimely passing again demonstrates.
“I spoke to him just last week,” Davis’ Olympic teammate and fellow gold medalist, Sugar Ray Leonard, said from his office in Pacific Palisades, Calif. “Here’s a guy who did everything the right way. For this to happen … it’s so disturbing.
“Every time we talked, it was special. We were close, like brothers. I called him `John-John.’ We’d talk about anything, sometimes everything except boxing.
“The last conversation that we had, he said, `Ray, I’m going to beat this thing.’ He really believed that. Or maybe not. Maybe he was saying that for my benefit. I told him, `Man, you’re a fighter. If anybody can do it, you can.’ But I knew. The thing that stands out in my mind was that his voice was so calm. Reassuring.”
The eldest of 10 children, Davis never attained the sort of professional success he enjoyed while fighting for trophies and medals. After going 125-5 in the amateurs (with victories over, among others, Aaron Pryor and Thomas Hearns), winning National AAU championships in 1973 and ’76, and a 1974 World Amateur title in addition to Olympic gold, Davis was a highly competent but not-quite-top-tier pro, going 36-6-1 with 14 wins inside the distance. Three of his losses came with world titles on the line as he came up short on decisions against WBC lightweight champions Jim Watt and Edwin Rosario, and by first-round knockout to IBF junior welterweight titlist Buddy McGirt.
But regardless of whatever ups and downs he experienced throughout his career, Davis was always regarded as a champion in life, a class act who was admired by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him well. Among those who held the native of Glen Cove, N.Y., in high esteem is Randy Gordon, the former head of the New York State Athletic Commission and former editor of The Ring magazine.
“He was a loyal friend and devoted husband, father and brother,” Gordon told Kevin Iole of YahooSports.com. “To know Howard Davis was to love him. Heaven is gaining one very special angel.”
There are those who would say that Davis, at least as a pro, was something of an underachiever, and others who are of the opinion that the vast potential he flashed in Montreal during that charmed summer of 1976 was an illusion. But for a moment in time he was a national hero and an international sensation, a golden god of the Olympic ring.
It is a matter of endless debate whether the 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team, which amassed five gold medals, a silver and a bronze, was better than the 1984 American squad that competed in Los Angeles and came away with nine golds, a silver and a bronze. The fields for each of those Olympiads was thinned by a boycott. In ’76 28 black African nations stayed away in protest of the participation of New Zealand, which had flouted international sanctions by welcoming a touring rugby team from South Africa, whose white ruling class had an official policy of apartheid. The ’84 Games were skipped by 13 Soviet Bloc countries and Cuba in response to the United States having boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“I may be biased, but I consider my team better than any other team,” said Leonard, who, along with fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Michael Spinks, went on to enjoy the most professional success among the 1976 U.S. Olympians. “We went to Montreal favored to win only one gold medal, and that was by Howard Davis.
“But we surprised a lot of people, didn’t we? We showed the world that we had a sensational, incredible team. All of our matches were against Cuba, against Russia. To win, we had to beat the best of the best.”
Leonard’s opinion is shared by Ed Schuyler Jr., the retired boxing writer for The Associated Press who covered both the 1976 and ’84 Olympics.
“That was by far the best team the United States has ever produced. Hands down,” Schuyler said of the 1976 squad whose other gold medalists were Leon Spinks and Leo Randolph, with Charles Mooney taking a silver and John Tate a bronze. “It’s not even fair to compare that bunch with any other.
“Leo Randolph beat a Cuban. Leon Spinks beat a Cuban. Sugar Ray beat a Cuban. I mean, come on. Yeah, there was a boycott by some of the African countries, but they weren’t medal threats in boxing for the most part. The Russians and the East Germans and especially the Cubans were.”
Despite the enormous pressure of being the sole pre-event U.S. favorite to take gold, Davis dazzled in beating Japan’s Yukio Segawa, Colombia’s Leonidas Asprilla, Bulgaria’s Tzvetan Tzvetkov, Yugoslavia’s Ace Rusevski and Romania’s Simion Cutov, with TKO wins over Asprilla and Tzvetkov. Writing for Sports Illustrated, Pat Putnam was effusive in his praise for Davis.
“Howard Davis is even more skilled as a fighter than Leonard,” Putnam wrote. “A remarkably clever boxer, he thinks people who can take a punch to deliver one are foolish.”
Davis agreed, saying, “I’m no brawler. The Europeans take a lot of punches. They get cut up and looking ugly is just part of the day’s work. But I don’t want to be ugly. I’m not crazy.”
There is little doubt that any assessment of Howard Davis Jr. as a boxer would be at least somewhat elevated had he won just one of the three title bouts he engaged in as a pro. As the challenger, he was obliged to meet Watt (in Glasgow, Scotland) and Rosario (in San Juan, Puerto Rico) on their home turf, but he performed admirably in each instance. The first-round knockout by McGirt at the time seemed an anomaly, but it could have been a signal that Davis – the extraordinarily fast-handed and fast-footed version that had been on display in Montreal eight years earlier – was already well on the downhill side. And when Davis was knocked out in two rounds by middleweight Dana Rosenblatt on April 13, 1996 – when he was 38 and nearly 30 pounds over his Olympic weight – it was, finally, time for him to step away as an active fighter.
But there would be a prominent second act for Davis, who relocated to South Florida, as a trainer in mixed martial arts. He founded his own MMA promotional company, Fight Time Promotions, and served as a coach for American Top Team. One of his pupils was UFC Hall of Famer and former light heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Featured Articles
Steven Navarro is the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year
“I get ‘Bam’ vibes when I watch this kid,” said ESPN ringside commentator Tim Bradley during the opening round of Steven Navarro’s most recent match. Bradley was referencing WBC super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, a precociously brilliant technician whose name now appears on most pound-for-pound lists.
There are some common threads between Steven Navarro, the latest fighter to adopt the nickname “Kid Dynamite,” and Bam Rodriguez. Both are southpaws currently competing in the junior bantamweight division. But, of course, Bradley was alluding to something more when he made the comparison. And Navarro’s showing bore witness that Bradley was on to something.
It was the fifth pro fight for Navarro who was matched against a Puerto Rican with a 7-1 ledger. He ended the contest in the second frame, scoring three knockdowns, each the result of a different combination of punches, forcing the referee to stop it. It was the fourth win inside the distance for the 20-year-old phenom.
Isaias Estevan “Steven” Navarro turned pro after coming up short in last December’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Lafayette, Louisiana. The #1 seed in the 57 kg (featherweight) division, he was upset in the finals, losing a controversial split decision. Heading in, Navarro had won 13 national tournaments beginning at age 12.
A graduate of LA’s historic Fairfax High School, Steven made his pro debut this past April on a Matchroom Promotions card at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas and then inked a long-term deal with Top Rank. He comes from a boxing family. His father Refugio had 10 pro fights and three of Refugio’s cousins were boxers, most notably Jose Navarro who represented the USA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was a four-time world title challenger as a super flyweight. Jose was managed by Oscar De La Hoya for much of his pro career.
Nowadays, the line between a prospect and a rising contender has been blurred. Three years ago, in an effort to make matters less muddled, we operationally defined a prospect thusly: “A boxer with no more than a dozen fights, none yet of the 10-round variety.” To our way of thinking, a prospect by nature is still in the preliminary-bout phase of his career.
We may loosen these parameters in the future. For one thing, it eliminates a lot of talented female boxers who, like their Japanese male counterparts in the smallest weight classes, are often pushed into title fights when, from a historical perspective, they are just getting started.
But for the time being, we will adhere to our operational definition. And within the window that we have created, Steven Navarro stood out. In his first year as a pro, “Kid Dynamite” left us yearning to see more of him.
Honorable mention: Australian heavyweight Teremoana Junior (5-0, 5 KOs)
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
The Challenge of Playing Muhammad Ali
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.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year
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
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Remembering the Macho Man, Hector Camacho, a Great Sporting Character
-
Featured Articles4 days ago
A Shocker in Tijuana: Bruno Surace KOs Jaime Munguia !!
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
R.I.P Israel Vazquez who has Passed Away at age 46
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Boxing Odds and Ends: Oscar Collazo, Reimagining ‘The Ring’ Magazine and More
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Fighting on His Home Turf, Galal Yafai Pulverizes Sunny Edwards
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Avila Perspective, Chap. 304: A Year of Transformation in Boxing and More
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Philly’s Jesse Hart Continues His Quest plus Thoughts on Tyson-Paul and ‘Boots’ Ennis
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
The Noted Trainer Kevin Henry, Lucky to Be Alive, Reflects on Devin Haney and More