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It’s Kentucky Derby Week (sort of), so Let’s Talk Boxing
It’s Kentucky Derby Week (sort of), so Let’s Talk Boxing
This is the week that many of us would have shifted our gaze from boxing to thoroughbred racing. The Kentucky Derby, an event pinned to the first Saturday in May, is America’s biggest single-day sporting spectacle aside from the Super Bowl.
How many people nowadays are as conversant with the Sport of Kings as with the Sweet Science? Whatever the number, it has to be miniscule. But there was a time when men of a certain age who followed boxing religiously were also, by and large, attuned to the doings on the turf.
All sports were once identified with gambling, but none more so than horseracing and boxing. In the late 19th century, as prizefighting was coming out of the shadows, the leading destinations for big fights were Coney Island, New Orleans, and the Bay Area of San Francisco. It was no coincidence that horse racing also flourished in these locales. Coney Island, which was then an adult playground – having not yet morphed into a family amusement park — then housed three racetracks which sat in close proximity. Jockeys were well-represented among boxers in the smallest weight class.
Back in those days, boxing writers often doubled-up as turf writers during the racing season. The boxing scribe invariably knew where to find the best odds in the bookmakers’ ring; the baseball guy not so much.
The great John Lardner, who created vivid portraits of Stanley Ketchel, Doc Kearns, and other boxing characters, could hold his own talking angles and systems with the sharpest of horse handicappers. The same could be said of Hall of Fame boxing writer Dan Parker who authored an outstanding primer for novice horseplayers titled “The ABC of Horseracing.”
Bill Corum, a nationally syndicated columnist, had his feet planted in both worlds while writing for the New York Journal-American. Corum did hundreds of fights on radio as Don Dunphy’s sidekick before scooting off to Bluegrass Country where he became the president of Churchill Downs.
The boxing/turf writer, someone who follows these two sports above all others, appears to have passed into oblivion with the death of Bill Nack in 2018. The title of Nack’s 2004 memoir, “My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money, and the Sporting Life,” captures his fancies but it should be noted that Nack wasn’t a conventional turf writer. He was drawn to the romance and pageantry of the racing game, feeling no obligation to share any tidbits that might prove useful to a fellow trundling off to the track with hopes of returning home with a few more bucks in his pocket.
During the bare-knuckle days in England, fights were commonly hitched to horseracing festivals. The custom, although somewhat diluted, carried over to the United States. With the advent of electric lights, many big fights were staged on the eve of a big race or the eve of the opening day of a racing meet.
Between 1921 and 1947, 13 future Hall of Famers boxed in Louisville on Derby Eve. In order of appearance, they were Joe Lynch, Memphis Pal Moore, Sammy Mandell, Bud Taylor, Young Stribling, Tommy Loughran, Mickey Walker, Jackie Fields, Freddie Miller, Barney Ross, Wesley Ramey, Sammy Angott, and Joey Maxim. All of their fights were held at the Jefferson County Armory, Louisville’s largest indoor meeting place.
Lynch, Loughran, Walker, Miller, Ross, and Angott were title-holders, but only Miller and Angott fought title fights in Louisville. In those days, champions typically fought non-title fights – sometimes lots of non-title fights – between title defenses and Kentucky actually had a law against title fights that wasn’t rescinded until 1934.
The well-known fighters that fought in Louisville on Derby Eve were typically on the downward slope of their careers, not necessarily washed-up, but well-seasoned. The American Legion, which had the final say-so on approving matches, wanted a recognizable name to ensure good newspaper coverage.
The exception was Sammy Angott who won the vacant NBA lightweight title (recognized in 41 states) in Louisville on Derby Eve, 1940, with a 15-round unanimous decision over Chicago’s Davey Day.
Angott hadn’t yet reached his peak. He was still three years away from what many would consider his signature win, a 10-round unanimous decision over Willie Pep at Madison Square Garden. Pep was 62-0 going in.
There were, however, extenuating circumstances. Angott was born in Pennsylvania and made his pro debut in Brooklyn, but in the late 1930s he made his home in Louisville and was one of the city’s most popular athletes before the onset of his title reign.
The thread between boxing and the Kentucky Derby frayed and eventually broke apart. The reasons aren’t completely clear, but the local organizers took to sponsoring competing attractions on the eve of the big race, giving visitors many more diversions from which to choose.
Many racetrack terms diffused into boxing. In the olden days when proceeds from winning bets were an important component of a boxer’s earnings, boxers were often accused of fighting under wraps, meaning fighting in a way that concealed their true form so as to build up the odds in a rematch. The unscrupulous Abe Attell, by his own gloating admission, mastered this artifice. “Under wraps” was originally a racetrack term. It denoted the practice by which a trainer covered a horse’s unique leg markings with bandages so as to confuse the clockers that timed the workouts. I don’t know who invented the term “tomato can,” but before this cruel aspersion entered the language an inferior boxer was often classed as a selling-plater, the reference to a horse only good enough to run in a cheap claiming race where every horse is for sale.
Nowadays, both horse racing and boxing are derided as an old man’s sport. This is certainly true of horseracing. A handful of historic races, most notably the Kentucky Derby, attract large crowds, but on an ordinary racing day, the races play to a sea of empty seats and the few regulars in attendance are invariably pensioners. The sport would have died out years ago if the U.S. government hadn’t carved out an exemption for horseracing when updating legislation prohibiting sports betting across state lines and if the technology hadn’t advanced to where a man could wager into a pari-mutuel pool from the comfort of his home or office.
As for boxing, it has struggled to attract new fans in the United States in the white non-Hispanic demographic, but calling it an old man’s sport betrays a parochial sensibility. Moreover, it should be noted that the popularity of boxing has always been cyclical.
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The Kentucky Derby, a rite of May from the very inception, has been held every year on the first Saturday of the month since 1932.
With one exception.
In January of 1945, all of America’s racetracks went dark by order of the Department of War Mobilization, a lockout that ended with the signing of the Armistice on May 8. That year, the Derby was run on June 9, five weeks past the due date.
The United States, indeed virtually the entire world, now finds itself in a different kind of war. The 2020 edition of the “Run for the Roses,” the 145th renewal, won’t transpire until Sept. 5 (knock on wood) where it will rub up against the first big weekend of college football (knock on wood).
I’m not a horseplayer, but I wouldn’t let a Kentucky Derby pass without having a flutter (a British expression). Over the years I have made a few nice scores, a corroboration of the daffodil that even a blind squirrel will sometimes find an acorn.
I’ll miss the Kentucky Derby this Saturday. I have no tie to Kentucky, but hearing “My Old Kentucky Home” always brings a tear to my eye. And the sense of anticipation as the final horses enter the starting gate just can’t be beat.
Stay safe. Be well.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 300: Eastern Horizons — Bivol, Beterbiev and Japan
Avila Perspective, Chap. 300: Eastern Horizons — Bivol, Beterbiev and Japan
All eyes are pointed east, if you are a boxing fan.
First, light heavyweights Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol meet in Saudi Arabia to determine who is the baddest at 175 pounds. Then a few days later bantamweights and flyweights tangle in Japan.
Before the 21st century, who would have thought we could watch fights from the Middle East and Asia live.
Who would have thought Americans would care.
Streaming has changed the boxing landscape.
Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), the IBF, WBC, WBO light heavyweight titlist meets WBA titlist Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) for the undisputed world championship on Saturday Oct. 12, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The entire card will air on DAZN pay-per-view. In the United States, the main event, expected to start at 3:15 pm PT, will also be available on ESPN+.
A few decades ago, only Europeans and Asians would care about this fight card. And only the most avid American fight fan would even notice. Times have changed dramatically for the worldwide boxing scene.
In the 1970s and 80s, ABC’s Wide World of Sports would occasionally televise boxing from other countries. Muhammad Ali was featured on that show many times. Also, Danny “Lil Red” Lopez, Salvador Sanchez and Larry Holmes.
Howard Cosell was usually the host of that show and then denounced the sport as too brutal after 15 rounds of a one-sided match between Holmes and Randall Cobb at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas in 1982.
That same Cobb would later go into acting and appear in films with Chuck Norris and others.
Streaming apps have brought international boxing to the forefront.
Until this century heavyweights and light heavyweight champions were dominated by American prizefighters. Not anymore.
Beterbiev, a Russian-born fighter now living in Canada, is 39 years old and has yet to hear the final bell ring in any of his pro fights. He sends all his opponents away hearing little birdies. He is a bruiser.
“I want a good fight. I’m preparing for a good fight. We’ll see,” said Beterbiev.
Bivol, 33, is originally from Kyrgyzstan and now lives in the desert town of Indio, Calif. He has never tasted defeat but unlike his foe, he vanquishes his opponents with a more technical approach. He does have some pop.
“Artur (Beterbiev) is a great champion. He has what I want. He has the belts. And it’s not only about belts. When I look at his skills, I want to check my skills also against this amazing fighter,” said Bivol.
The Riyadh fight card also features several other world titlists including Jai Opetaia, Chris Eubank Jr and female star Skye Nicolson.
Japan
Two days later, bantamweight slugger Junto Nakatani leads a fight card that includes flyweight and super flyweight world titlists.
Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs), a three-division world titlist, defends the WBC bantamweight title against Thailand’s Tasana Salapat (76-1, 53 KOs) on Monday Oct. 14, at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. ESPN+ will stream the Teiken Promotions card.
The left-handed assassin Nakatani has a misleading appearance that might lead one to think he’s more suited for a tailor than a scrambler of brain cells.
A few years back I ran into Nakatani at the Maywood Boxing club in the Los Angeles area. I thought he was a journalist, not the feared pugilist who knocked out Angel Acosta and Andrew Moloney on American shores.
Nakatani is worth watching at 1 a.m. on ESPN+.
Others on the card include WBO super flyweight titlist Kosei Tanaka (20-1, 11 KOs) defending against Phumelele Cafu (10-0-3); and WBO fly titlist Anthony Olascuaga (7-1, 5 KOs) defending against Jonathan “Bomba” Gonzalez (28-3-1, 14 KOs) the WBO light fly titlist who is moving up in weight.
It’s a loaded fight card.
RIP Max Garcia
The boxing world lost Max Garcia one of Northern California’s best trainers and a longtime friend of mine. He passed away this week.
Garcia and his son Sam Garcia often traveled down to Southern California with their fighters ready to show off their advanced boxing skills time after time.
It was either the late 90s or early 2000s that I met Max in Big Bear Lake at one of the many boxing gyms there at that time. We would run into each other at fight cards in California or Nevada. He was always one of the classiest guys in the boxing business.
If Max had a fighter on a boxing card you knew it was trouble for the other guy. All of his fighters were prepared and had that extra something. He was one of the trainers in NorCal who started churning out elite fighters out of Salinas, Gilroy and other nearby places.
Recently, I spotted Max and his son on a televised card with another one of his fighters. I mentioned to my wife to watch the Northern California fighter because he was with the Garcias. Sure enough, he battered the other fighter and won handily.
Max, you will be missed by all.
Fights to Watch
(all times Pacific Time)
Sat. DAZN pay-per-view, 9 a.m. Beterbiev-Bivol full card. Beterbiev (20-0) vs Dmitry Bivol (23-0) main event only also available on ESPN+ (3:15 pm approx.)
Mon. ESPN+ 1 a.m. Junto Nakatani (28-0) vs Tasana Salapat (76-1).
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Junto Nakatani’s Road to a Mega-fight plus Notes on the Best Boxers from Thailand
Junto Nakatani’s Road to a Mega-fight plus Notes on the Best Boxers from Thailand
WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani, whose name now appears on several of the Top 10 pound-for-pound lists, returns to the ring on Monday. His title defense against Thailand’s Petch CP Freshmart is the grand finale of a two-day boxing festival at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena.
One of several Thai boxers sponsored by Fresh Mart, a national grocery chain, Petch, 30, was born Tasana Salapat or Thasana Saraphath, depending on the source, and is sometimes identified as Petch Sor Chitpattana (confusing, huh?). A pro since 2011, he brings a record of 76-1 with 53 TKOs.
In boxing, records are often misleading and that is especially true when referencing boxers from Thailand. And so, although Petch has record that jumps off the page, we really don’t know how good he is. Is he world class, or is he run-of-the-mill?
A closer look at his record reveals that only 20 of his wins came against opponents with winning records. Fifteen of his victims were making their pro debut. It is revealing that his lone defeat came in his lone fight outside Thailand. In December of 2018, he fought Takuma Inoue in Tokyo and lost a unanimous decision. Inoue, who was appearing in his thirteenth pro fight, won the 12-rounder by scores of 117-111 across the board.
A boxer doesn’t win 76 fights in a career in which he answers the bell for 407 rounds without being able to fight more than a little, but there’s a reason why the house fighter Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) is favored by odds as high as 50/1 in the bookmaking universe. Petch may force Junto to go the distance, but even that is a longshot.
Boxers from Thailand
Four fighters from Thailand, all of whom were active in the 1990s, are listed on the 42-name Hall of Fame ballot that arrived in the mail this week. They are Sot Chitalada, Ratanopol Sor Varapin, Veeraphol Sahaprom, and Pongsaklek Wonjongham. On a year when the great Manny Pacquiao is on the ballot, leaving one less slot for the remainder, the likelihood that any of the four will turn up on the dais in Canastota at the 2025 induction ceremony is slim.
By our reckoning, two active Thai fighters have a strong chance of making it someday. The first is Srisaket Sor Rungvisai who knocked Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez from his perch at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory and then destroyed him in the rematch. The noted boxing historian Matt McGrain named Sor Rungvisai (aka Wisaksil Wangek) the top super flyweight of the decade 2010-2019.
The other is Knockout CP Freshmart (aka Thammanoon Niyomstrom). True, he’s getting a bit long in the tooth for a fighter in boxing’s smallest weight class (he’s 34), but the long-reigning strawweight champion, who has never fought a match scheduled for fewer than 10 rounds, has won all 25 of his pro fights and shows no signs of slowing down. He will be back in action next month opposing Puerto Rico-born Oscar Collazo in Riyadh.
The next Thai fighter to go into the IBHOF (and it may not happen in my lifetime) will bring the number to three. Khaosai Galaxy entered the Hall with the class of 1999 and Pone Kingpetch was inducted posthumously in 2023 in the Old Timer’s category.
Nakatani (pictured)
Hailing from the southeastern Japanese city of Inabe, Junto Nakatani is the real deal. In 2023, the five-foot-eight southpaw forged the TSS Knockout of the Year at the expense of Andrew Moloney. Late in the 12th round, he landed a short left hook to the chin and the poor Aussie was unconscious before he hit the mat. In his last outing, on July 20, he went downstairs to dismiss his opponent, taking out Vincent Astrolabio with a short left to the pit of the stomach. Astrolabio went down, writhing in pain, and was unable to continue. It was all over at the 2:37 mark of the opening round.
It’s easy to see where Nakatani is headed after he takes care of business on Monday.
Currently, Japanese boxers own all four meaningful pieces of the 118-pound puzzle. Of the four, the most recognizable name other than Nakatani is that of Takuma Inoue who will be making the third defense of his WBA strap on Sunday, roughly 24 hours before Nakatani touches gloves with Petch in the very same ring. Inoue is a consensus 7/2 favorite over countryman Seiga Tsatsumi.
A unification fight between Nakatani and Takuma Inoue (20-1, 5 KOs) would be a natural. But this match, should it transpire, would be in the nature of an appetizer. A division above sits Takuma’s older brother Naoya Inoue who owns all four belts in the 122-pound weight class but, of greater relevance, is widely regarded the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
A match between Junto Nakatani and the baby-faced “Monster” would be a delicious pairing and the powers-that-be want it to happen.
In boxing, the best-laid plans often go awry, but there’s a good possibility that we will see Nakatani vs. Naoya Inoue in 2025. If so, that would be the grandest domestic showdown in Japanese boxing history.
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Bygone Days: Muhammad Ali at the Piano in the Lounge at the Tropicana
Bygone Days: Muhammad Ali at the Piano in the Lounge at the Tropicana
Among other things, Las Vegas in “olden days” was noted for its lounge shows. Circa 1970, for the price of two drinks, one could have caught the Ike and Tina Turner Review at the International. They performed three shows nightly, the last at 3:15 am, and they blew the doors off the joint.
The weirdest “lounge show” in Las Vegas wasn’t a late-night offering, but an impromptu duet performed in the mid-afternoon for a select standing-room audience in the lounge at the Tropicana. Sharing the piano in the Blue Room in a concert that could not have lasted much more than a minute were Muhammad Ali and world light heavyweight champion Bob Foster. The date was June 25, 1972, a Sunday.
What brought about this odd collaboration was a weigh-in, not the official weigh-in, which would happen the next day, but a dress rehearsal conducted for the benefit of news reporters and photographers and a few invited guests such as the actor Jack Palance who would serve as the color commentator alongside the legendary Mel Allen on the closed-circuit telecast. On June 27, Ali and Foster would appear in separate bouts at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ali was pit against Jerry Quarry in a rematch of their 1970 tilt in Atlanta; Foster would be defending his title against Jerry’s younger brother, Mike Quarry.
In those days, whenever Las Vegas hosted a prizefight that was a major news story, it was customary for the contestants to arrive in town about three weeks before their fight. They held public workouts, perhaps for a nominal fee, at the hotel-casino where they were lodged.
Muhammad Ali and Bob Foster were sequestered and trained at Caesars Palace. The Quarry brothers were domiciled a few blocks away at the Tropicana.
The Trop, as the locals called it, was the last major hotel-casino on the south end of the Strip, a stretch of road, officially Highway 91, the ran for 2.2 miles. When the resort opened in 1957, it had three hundred rooms. Like similar properties along the famous Strip, it would eventually go vertical, maturing into a high-rise.
In 1959, entertainment director Lou Walters (father of Barbara) imported a lavish musical revue from Paris, the Folies Bergere. The extravaganza with its topless showgirls became embedded in the Las Vegas mystique. The show, which gave the Tropicana its identity, ran for almost 50 full years, becoming the longest-running show in Las Vegas history.
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Although the Quarry brothers were on the premises, Ali and Foster arrived at the Blue Room first. After Dr. Donald Romeo performed his perfunctory examinations, there was nothing to do but stand around and wait for the brothers to show up. It was then that Foster spied a grand piano in the corner of the room.
Taking a seat at the bench, he tinkled the keys, producing something soft and bluesy. “Move over man,” said Ali, not the sort of person to be upstaged at anything. Taking a seat alongside Foster at the piano, he banged out something that struck the untrained ear of veteran New York scribe Dick Young as boogie-woogie.
When the Quarry brothers arrived, Ali went through his usual antics, shouting epithets at Jerry Quarry as Jerry was having his blood pressure taken. “These make the best fights, when you get some white hopes and some spooks,…er, I mean some colored folks,” Young quoted Ali as saying.
This comment was greeted with a big laugh, but Jerry Quarry, renowned for his fearsome left hook, delivered a better line after Ali had stormed out. Surveying the room, he noticed several attractive young ladies, dressed provocatively. “I can see I ain’t the only hooker in here,” he said.
—
The doubleheader needed good advance pub because both bouts were considered mismatches. In the first Ali-Quarry fight, Quarry suffered a terrible gash above his left eye before his corner pulled him out after three rounds. Ali was a 5/1 favorite in the rematch. Bob Foster, who would be making his tenth title defense, was an 8/1 favorite over Mike Quarry who was undefeated (35-0) but had been brought along very carefully and was still only 21 years old. (In his syndicated newspaper column, oddsmaker Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder said the odds were 200/1 against both fights going the distance, but there wasn’t a bookie in the country that would take that bet.)
The Fights
There were no surprises. It was a sad night for the Quarry clan at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Muhammad Ali, clowning in the early rounds, took charge in the fifth and Jerry Quarry was in bad shape when the referee waived it off 19 seconds into the seventh round. In the semi-wind-up, Bob Foster retained his title in a more brutal fashion. He knocked the younger Quarry brother into dreamland with a thunderous left hook just as the fourth round was about to end. Mike Quarry lay on the canvas for a good three minutes before his handlers were able to revive him.
—
In the ensuing years, the Tropicana was far less invested in boxing than many of its rivals on the Strip, but there was a wisp of activity in the mid-1980s. A noteworthy card, on June 30, 1985, saw Jimmy Paul successfully defend his world lightweight title with a 14th-round stoppage of Robin Blake. Freddie Roach, a featherweight with a big local following and former U.S. Olympic gold medalist Henry Tillman appeared on the undercard. The lead promoter of this show, which aired on a Sunday afternoon on CBS (with Southern Nevada blacked out) was the indefatigable Bob Arum who seemingly has no intention of leaving this mortal coil until he has out-lived every Las Vegas casino-resort born in the twentieth century.
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I may drive past the Tropicana in the next few hours and give it a last look, mindful that Muhammad Ali once frolicked here, however briefly. But I won’t be there for the implosion.
On Wednesday morning, Oct. 9, shortly after 2 a.m., the Tropicana, shuttered since April, will be reduced to rubble. On its grounds will rise a stadium for the soon-to-be-former Oakland A’s baseball team.
A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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