Avila Perspective, Chap. 79: Boxing 101 (Part One)

Published

4 years ago

January 3, 2020

Avila Perspective, Chap. 79: Boxing 101 (Part One)

In a dusty room in a loft-style apartment in Montebello began my adventure into the world of prizefighting as a journalist.

A very small throw-away newspaper that was circulated in the San Gabriel Valley area of Southern California was looking for a writer. The publisher had been printing left wing newspapers for more than a decade when he realized there was no financial reward.

One day this publisher ran into me at a supermarket and asked if I would be interested in writing for his brand-new publication. The content, he added, would be left to my whim.

For about a week I thought about what content would suit his readers. The newspaper was going to be circulated at night clubs, bars, restaurants and fast food joints in Pasadena, East L.A. Rosemead, San Gabriel and Montebello.

Catching the eye of the reader was key and I also needed a topic that wouldn’t date so quickly. After eliminating a few sports, I realized that boxing suited this new newspaper perfectly. Most of the people reading would be Latino and most Latinos love boxing. It’s also a sport that is based on big moments and big events.

It was April 1985 and one of the lesser known stars of the boxing world was a light flyweight world champion named Jung Koo Chang. His other moniker was the “Korean Hawk” and he would terrorize the world of 108-pounders from 1983 to 1989. I wrote my first feature on this little-known terror.

But in that same month a tantalizing fight was taking place in Las Vegas between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns on April 15. It would be the first actual prize fight that I would sit down and write an analysis on. That epic fight was my baptism into the world of boxing journalism. It remains one of the greatest three-round fights in history.

For two years I scavenged sports pages of newspapers, magazines and other throw-away newspapers looking for boxing material. Our newspaper was doing pretty good and the publisher was pleased by the results. According to him the owners of the clubs and restaurants saw people going into their places of business looking for our newspaper. They wanted to read about boxing.

In 1984 the legendary Main Street Gym closed its doors and in 1987 the world of boxing lost Aileen Eaton who passed away in November. She had promoted boxing for decades and following her death the Olympic Auditorium no longer produced weekly shows.

With the departure of the Main Street Gym and Eaton, the local Los Angeles newspapers virtually eliminated the sport of boxing from their beats. In 1989 the Herald-Examiner shut its doors and with no stiff competition the Times had no real rivals to keep them headed in the right direction.

For five years I wrote for the L.A. Times and during that span it was always a battle convincing sports editors that boxing was not dead just because the Main Street Gym and Eaton were no longer around. Sports editors always think they know best. Usually, they have no actual sports background aside from journalism. Most definitely they have no expertise other than dabbling in sports here and there. And when it comes to boxing, they have zero knowledge other than watching it on television once in a while. It’s not completely their fault.

From birth I was raised in boxing. I’ll get to that later.

The Second Golden Boy

Around 1993, Oscar De La Hoya arrived on the pro boxing scene and with him began a reboot for boxing on the West Coast as his success and popularity increased.

When girls of all ages begin flocking to boxing cards it sparks interest from all sectors. Even the sports editors take notice from behind their dusty desks and myopic mind sets.

De La Hoya’s media success was slow at first as newspapers and television networks drudgingly got up off their butts to cover his fights. Though he was born and raised in East Los Angeles and was the only American to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing at the 1992 Barcelona Games, the media was slow to cover his ascent.

I was reporting news for the Times but not sports news. One of the editors knew about my East L.A. background and asked me to do a feature on De La Hoya’s influence at his old stomping grounds. That was my actual re-introduction to covering the boxing world in 1993.

Because of this feature on De La Hoya, I connected with the original Golden Boy, another East L.A. fighter named Art Aragon. During his span of success from the 1940s to 1960s, the original Golden Boy could pack an arena like the Olympic Auditorium and Hollywood Legion Stadium. He was gold.

At first Aragon poo-pooed the Golden Boy label given to De La Hoya. Seven years later he nodded that De La Hoya was indeed an even better Golden Boy than he had been after winning several division world titles and selling out the Staples Center that had just opened in October 1999.

Though De La Hoya was beaten by split decision against Shane Mosley, his popularity and financial drawing power made him a powerful force not only in boxing, but the sports world period.

Since 1993 the sport of boxing has flourished and grown to unimaginable levels never seen before in Southern California. More than 100 gyms fire up their lights and host dozens of fighters each day of the week except Sundays.

Boxing has become an invisible force in the Southern California landscape and has now spread to Texas, Arizona and Nevada like radiation spread from an Atomic blast. Prizefighting permeates like a blanket over the entire Southwest region of the US and not in niche sport fashion.

Back in the 1990s you could count on one hand the number of boxing gyms in Los Angeles. Las Vegas was another place where three or four gyms provided a place to train. Today both areas have more than four dozen gyms each within their city limits.

Branching Out

De La Hoya started his own promotion company Golden Boy Promotions in 2002 and continues to succeed. He has the top earner in prizefighting with Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez who signed a $365 million dollar deal with DAZN.

From Golden Boy promotions spawned Premier Boxing Champions after Al Haymon split from the L.A.-based company and began his own boxing organization.

One of the key directions PBC took was reinvigorating the East Coast and African American prizefighting. They had taken a severe hit when it came to getting exposure in the fight game. Most of the action was taking place in Las Vegas and very little in New York City or the surrounding region.

In 2010, Haymon had several fighters including Chris Arreola. But soon he was signing multiple boxing prospects, especially after the 2012 London Olympics. Suddenly young fighters like Errol Spence Jr. Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder and Daniel Jacobs were showing up on fight cards.

Some fighters failed but most proved to be very talented.

The best of the Haymon-advised fighters was, of course, Floyd “Money” Mayweather who was toppling the older generation of champions and now headed to a collision course with Canelo Alvarez in a battle of undefeated fighters.

Mayweather and Alvarez met in the boxing ring on September 14, 2013.

(Part 2 begins next week)

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David A. Avila

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 254: Canelo vs Jermell Charlo in a Battle of Undisputed Champions

Published

11 hours ago

September 29, 2023

David A. Avila

Avils-Perspective-Chap-254-Canelo-vs-Jermell-Charlo-in-a-Battle-of-Undisputed-Champions

LAS VEGAS-Less than the usual massive crowd gathered for boxing kingpin Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Jermell Charlo in the desert heat outside of the T-Mobile Arena on Friday afternoon. Usually the weigh-ins are slightly bigger for Mexico’s idol.

Is the declining crowd an indicator of Alvarez fans ebbing belief in his abilities?

Still, on Saturday night, two undisputed world champions from differing divisions will collide as Guadalajara, Mexico’s Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) meets Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena for the super middleweight world championship. PPV.Com will stream the clash of champions.

This year has seen a hyper-speed uptick in champions fighting other champions, perhaps the result of watching their female counterparts Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor produce the biggest fight of 2022. This year several marquee collisions were spawned from lightweights to heavyweights.

Or maybe the pandemic lull created a twitch panic among the elite.

Charlo was one of those who had been sidelined while others like Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Naoya “Monster” Inoue and Canelo Alvarez filled their pockets with cash. And others like Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez gained undisputed glory.

Instead of watching on the sidelines, Charlo decided to make his move for greater glory by attempting to dethrone one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, if not the kingpin of boxing when it comes to money.

“If I accomplish this massive goal, it will be hard to top,” Charlo said a few weeks ago during his media workout. “I’ll be in the record book with the greats of boxing for a long time.”

Risks brings rewards.

Canelo, long a member of the boxing elite, has held his position as the box office king for many years now by taking the daunting risks throughout his boxing life.

“Jermell is right, I have nothing to prove. But this time I have something to prove to him,” said Alvarez while in Las Vegas on Wednesday. “He never believed in my skills. He’s been calling me out. Now I have an opportunity to show him my skills.”

Undisputed super welterweight will challenge undisputed super middleweight in a two-division jump not often seen, except for Henry Armstrong, Roberto Duran and Sugar Shane Mosley. It’s the road taken by those who seek to be great.

Both are 33 but the redhead Alvarez has been fighting professionally since he was 15. That’s a lot of bullets in the chamber he has already used. Charlo has height, speed and the ability to adapt to different styles. Stylistically, it’s a battle that makes even the skeptics take pause.

It all depends on Alvarez’s resiliency. Charlo has ring rust, while Alvarez seemingly has lost the hunger. Whose weakness will prove the greater?

“Now is the time for this fight. We’re in our primes and at our best,” said Charlo. “I wanna shake the doubters off and prove to the world why I”m in this position. There’s a reason I made it this far.”

Alvarez remembers being as hungry as Charlo.

“I never overlook any fighter,” Alvarez said. “I know what he’s going to bring and I’m ready.”

Undercard

Several other notable bouts are included on the pay-per-view card.

Former world titlists and current welterweight contenders Yordenis Ugas (27-5) and Mario Barrios (27-2) battle for an interim title set for 12 rounds.

Super welterweights Jesus Ramos (20-0, 16 KOs) and Erickson Lubin (25-2, 18 KOs) match skills in a match that pits a southpaw veteran against an undefeated southpaw from Arizona. For the past three years Ramos has been moving up the ladder and was last seen pounding out highly-touted Joey Spencer. Can he survive Lubin who nearly toppled Sebastian Fundora?

Doors open at T-Mobile Arena at 2 p.m. Pacific Time.

Lampley is back

Legendary HBO announcer Jim Lampley was hired along with ace reporter Lance Pugmire who will co-host the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus Jermell Charlo showdown via viewer chat live on PPV.com.

It’s the same concept used by Monday Night Football that features former quarterback greats Peyton Manning and Eli Manning in alternative programming.

Lampley returns to boxing after a five-year absence following HBO’s yanking of the popular program that vaulted elite boxing to the top behind the likes of George Foreman, Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao.

The veteran announcer will be live streaming all the action on media platforms before and during the fight action. He was sorely missed by all who follow the sweet science.

Photo credit: Al Applerose

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Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk a Go for Saudi Arabia: Date TBA

Published

18 hours ago

September 29, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Tyson-Fury-vs-Oleksandr-Usyk-a-Go-for-Saudi-Arabia-Date-TBA

It is now official. Representatives of WBC and Lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and WBO/WBA/IBF title-holder Oleksandr Usyk have come to terms. The Fury-Usyk fight will be staged at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on a date to be determined. (Speculation centers around Dec. 23.)

Fury vs Usyk is the latest addition to Riyadh Season, a months-long, state-sponsored, city-wide entertainment and sports festival that commences this year on Oct. 28 with the fight between Tyson Fury and MMA star Francis Ngannou serving as the centerpiece of the grand opening ceremony.

A point that will be central to the pre-fight hype is that more than three decades have passed since boxing had a unified heavyweight champion. The last man to be recognized as such was Lennox Lewis who unified the title in November of 1999 when he won a unanimous decision over Evander Holyfield at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Lewis entered the contest sporting the WBC belt whereas Holyfield held the WBA and IBF diadems.

As noted in boxrec, the vacant IBO heavyweight title was also at stake, a fact acknowledged in most British pre- and post-fight reports, but largely omitted from stories in American papers. As for the WBO, which was born the same year as the Florida-based IBO and came to leapfrog past it in credibility, it was out of the loop. Their heavyweight champion was Vitali Klitschko who had won the belt from Herbie Hyde.

The Lewis-Holyfield fight in Las Vegas was a rematch. They had fought eight months earlier at Madison Square Garden. That fight was ruled a draw, a decision deemed so unjust to Lennox Lewis that it spawned a federal investigation.

The tentative Dec. 23 date for Fury-Usyk would be a quick turnaround for the Gypsy King but would give him two months to heal in the event that he emerges from his non-title fight with Ngannou with a facial cut or another issue requiring medical attention. As noted in a story in the London Mirror, the date of Dec. 23 has also been bandied about as the likely date for the resurrection of the aborted fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn. Something would have to give and it wouldn’t be Fury-Usyk.

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Atlantic City Welcomes the 7th Annual Boxing Hall of Fame Weekend

Published

2 days ago

September 28, 2023

Luis A. Cortes III

Atlantic-City-Welcomes-the-7th-Annual-Boxing-Hall-of-Fame-Weekend

While the world of boxing will be focused on Las Vegas and the mega showdown between two undisputed champions, across the country Atlantic City will play host to the seventh annual Hall-of-Fame Induction Weekend. This year’s festivities are highlighted by the celebration of heavyweight boxers that once helped make Atlantic City the leading destination for “big time” fights. At the top of this year’s class are names like George Foreman, David Tua, Shannon Briggs, and Pinklon Thomas. With names like these, it’s easy to understand why this year’s Induction Weekend, now a staple of the city’s entertainment calendar, figures to be the best ever.

Ray McCline, a lifelong boxing fan, is the brainchild behind the event which has matured beyond the infancy stage. For McCline (himself a 2022 inductee into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame), creating an entire weekend around the sport in a way that could also benefit the city financially was a no-brainer.

“It’s great to see what this weekend has become. It’s been a long road from the original idea, but with great support and partnerships, it’s been possible,” states McCline.

In the past the ACBHOF has had to be as nimble as some of the fighters that they’ve honored to continue making sure the weekend wasn’t lost in the shadows of a city that has dealt with economic struggles. McCline and his staff at the ACBHOF have done an excellent job integrating the history of boxing with the history of Atlantic City. They’ve done this by offering fans the opportunity to spend more than just one evening immersed in the culture of the sport.

“It continues to grow and get better and that’s what it’s all about; making this the type of weekend that boxing fans mark on their calendars each year. This year we’re fortunate to partner with Hard Hitting Promotions to provide a great night of live professional boxing for fans as well,” says McCline. It’s the type of addition to an already full weekend schedule that only strengthens the ACBHOF brand.

A partnership with the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino has also been a key to recent enhancements for the weekend of events.

After years of having to adapt the schedule to the schedules of their host properties, having this partnership with Hard Rock has allowed for the ACBHOF to lock in the final weekend of September or first weekend of October which is important because it allows fans to plan out their post summer and pre-holiday schedules without having to skip their trip to Atlantic City. “A major bonus,” says McCline. “It was one of the major hurdles that we had to jump over. Integrating Hard Rock and their established relationships in the world of entertainment only benefits both parties.”

It’s a fact that isn’t lost when you see crowds of concert-goers and people arriving in the city for other events enter the Free Fan Expo that takes place prior to the award ceremony.

Which brings us to this year’s schedule of events. Tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 29) will be the customary V.I.P opening cocktail reception followed by the live fights at Bally’s Casino. On Saturday at Hard Rock is the free Fight Fan Experience which allows fans to interact with legends of the sport from the past and fighters of today and tomorrow. During the evening hours. the actual awards and induction ceremony will take place at the Hard Rock. The weekend activities culminate in a legends brunch on Sunday morning at the Blue Water Grille at the Flagship Hotel.

What’s going on in Las Vegas isn’t lost on McCline. “This year is going to be great for those attending the induction ceremony at the V.I.P. level. We were able to set up our post ceremony cocktail reception in conjunction with showing the Canelo-Charlo fight. At the end of the day, we’re all fans of the sport so why miss a historic fight?”

Just listening to the joy that springs from the voice of Ray McCline when discussing both this year’s event and plans for the future is refreshing, especially when one considers all of the roadblocks that he’s overcome to bring his vision to reality in the form of a full weekend of celebration.

Note: The main event of the boxing show on Friday is a 10-round contest between super lightweights Branden Pizarro (18-1-1) and Esteban Garcia (16-2). For more information on event tickets, room reservations, and weekend schedules, visit the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame website at: www.acbhof.com

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