Beat The Press: Awkward Moments With Problematic Boxers (A TSS Classic)

Published

5 years ago

September 2, 2020

Jeffrey Freeman

Beat The Press: Awkward Moments With Problematic Boxers (A TSS Classic)

“Get him a straitjacket!”

That’s how all this craziness started.

In 2002, boxing writer Mark ‘Scoop’ Malinowski stood at the back of a Mike Tyson press conference in New York City and shouted his exasperation at the former baddest man on the planet. Tyson, having just bitten Lennox Lewis on the leg during a media face-off gone horribly wrong, was livid. Hearing what Malinowski said, Tyson turned his attention to the fedora-clad reporter and let loose with one of the most vulgar diatribes ever heard in professional sports.

“Put your mother in a straitjacket,” the crazy-eyed Tyson screamed back at the “white boy” newshound best known (until this moment) for his informative Biofile write-ups about boxers. It only got so much worse from there with a totally unhinged Iron Mike threatening to sodomize Malinowski in public.

Seventeen years later, it’s becoming more and more common for angry boxers to take their frustrations out on credentialed media members charged with asking them questions and covering the sport on their behalf. It’s happened to me on conference calls and at live events, most memorably with Andre Berto in the lead-up to his 2011 bout with Jan Zaveck. Triggered by my suggestion that he was now at risk of becoming a forgotten fighter, Berto got pugnacious.

“Is that what it is?” Berto responded to me on the media teleconference. “You lose one fight and now you’re forgotten about? Saying that kind of thing just blows my mind about you reporters.”

Berto continued to let me have it.

“You’ve seen a guy like Shane Mosley resurrect his career three or four times, a guy like Bernard Hopkins and all these other guys, and they have four, five, six losses. I went through a tough defeat. I had a bad night. I don’t care about what people think or what you’re gonna write. I’m doing this for me, my family, and the real Berto fans out there and that’s it.”

I definitely got under his skin.

Last week in Las Vegas, Adrien Broner got into beefs with Showtime’s Al Bernstein and with ESPN’s Dan Rafael. Before his January 19th PPV non-effort against Manny Pacquiao, Broner refused to answer softball questions tossed by Bernstein during the final press conference.

It was an ugly scene, AB vs. AB.

problem

Bernstein, miffed but maintaining his professionalism, backed down when Broner disrespectfully told him he had nothing to say to him, calling him a “bitch ass nigga” and saying that he’d rather be questioned by Roy Jones Jr. or Stephen A. Smith.

No less indignant after losing a unanimous decision to Pacquiao, Broner was asked by Rafael if he really believed what he was saying about being robbed. Broner went for the low-hanging fruit.

He fat shamed Big Dan Rafael. “Hell ya I believe I won that fight,” he told the plus-sized writer. “It’s like when you believe you want cheese on that burger.” Broner, giggling like a goof, amused by his own mean-spirited sense of humor, threatened to go even lower before the mic was passed to South Central News.

Why are these confrontations with the fight media happening? Is it just a case of “fake news” getting what’s rightfully coming back at them by those they insult and otherwise misrepresent? Clearly, the days of Muhammad Ali verbally sparring with Howard Cosell and harmlessly playing with the man’s toupée are long gone. Is social media to blame or is it all just a sign of the times?

I don’t have all the answers.

What I do have are questions. That’s how this job is supposed to work for any working journalist. We ask you. You answer us. We then report to our readers and/or followers, the boxing fans.

Unfortunately, this dynamic is dying if it’s not already dead. Perhaps fighters no longer feel they need the boxing media to get their message out, particularly when they (like any President or entertainer) can use Twitter to say whatever the heck they want, whenever the hell they like.

Before going any further let me just say that the vast majority of boxers are exceedingly polite in their interactions with the media but boxing is a sport where passions run deep and tempers often flare. Sometimes we wordsmiths get burned. Here then are five infamous instances of boxers behaving truculently in the presence of writers, reporters, and television/radio announcers.

James Toney vs. Jim Gray: After becoming one of only two men to stop Evander Holyfield, ‘Lights Out’ Toney gave Showtime’s Jim Gray a little taste of the streets. Gray, interviewing Toney in the ring after the 2003 upset in Las Vegas, asked the tough talking former middleweight champion of the world if he was just “too quick and too fast” for the aging Holyfield. It seemed like a legitimate question but Toney responded as if Gray had personally disrespected him. “Don’t come up in here trying to give me no bad ass questions, trying to degrade me.”

Undeterred, Gray pressed on but to no avail. “I ain’t gotta answer nobody’s questions,” said Toney before knocking the mic out of Gray’s hand and onto the canvas; then turning his back on the announcer and starting to walk away. As Gray went to recover his fallen tool of the trade, Toney spun back around to accost Gray for “walking up” on him. “I don’t like you,” griped Toney.

Deontay Wilder vs. Radio Raheem: In L.A. last year to cover Wilder-Fury for the website Seconds Out, boxing personality Radio Raheem quickly fell afoul of the ‘Bronze Bomber’ at the final fight week press conference following Wilder’s face-off with Tyson Fury. Raheem made the mistake of bringing up the history of slavery. He reminded Wilder of comments he had made but had not elaborated on. “You said your people have been fighting for four hundred years…”

This upset Wilder more than Fury ever could.

“They your people too,” Wilder sneered at his brother from another mother. Raheem asked for clarification but Wilder was fuming, accusing the reporter of trying to “bait” him. Raheem asked again for an explanation. “I don’t have to explain what’s understood,” dismissed Wilder, now mocking ‘Radio Raheem’ for his on-air name. “Go Google that shit,” he angrily instructed. Wilder ripped off his own glasses and then asked Raheem how he could dare ask such a thing, getting in his face with a loud rant about their people still fighting “to this day, to this day, to this day!”

Tyson Fury vs. Elie Seckbach: The comebacking ‘Gypsy King’ won respect and admiration from the mainstream media for his brutal honesty about addiction and depression, but he got off on the wrong foot with American boxing media veteran and YouTube sensation Elie Seckbach.

During an in-ring media event held to promote his then upcoming WBC heavyweight title fight with Deontay Wilder, Fury was introduced to Seckbach and encouraged to be interviewed by him. Fury was having none of it. He waved his finger at Seckbach and told him to leave the ring immediately. The publicist in charge of media relations was surprised at Fury’s attitude towards the videographer. “I don’t want him,” Fury bluntly blurted. The publicist tried to tell Fury how good Seckbach had been for the fight’s promotion but Fury’s mind was already made up about him.

“Elie is a wanker, that’s who he is.”

“He’s a hater,” said Fury.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Larry Merchant: After winning an ugly dog fight on HBO PPV against Victor Ortiz by using a well-deserved cheap shot to win the WBC welterweight title by knockout, Mayweather took a few more cheap shots at Merchant during the post-fight interview. The result was a spectacularly uncomfortable exchange between a fighter and an announcer.

With Merchant congratulating the winner and commenting on how he was “in charge” of the fight, Mayweather suddenly snapped. “You never give me a fair shake,” he said. “HBO needs to fire you, you don’t know shit about boxing.” The deer in the headlights look on Merchant’s face told the whole story. “You ain’t shit,” Mayweather repeatedly told the 80-year-old broadcasting legend. Protecting himself at all times, Merchant shot back with a line that’s sure to go down in history as one of the great comebacks. “I wish I was 50 years younger, I’d kick your ass!”

Mayweather wasn’t done feuding with the media. In 2015, he revoked the May-Pac press credentials for three journos whose applications for press passes had already been approved. They were CNN’s Rachel Nichols, ESPN’s Michelle Beadle and TSS’s own Thomas Hauser.

Victor Ortiz vs. Joel Sebastianelli: More amusing than obnoxious, this case of vicious fighter versus writer happened in 2011, just five months before the aforementioned Mayweather-Ortiz bout. The scene was the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Ortiz had just won the WBC welterweight title; defeating Andre Berto in the ‘Fight of the Year’ on HBO. The post-fight press conference was buzzing with media eager to question the new champ. Then it happened.

A baby-faced writer for Ring News 24 stood up and put a well-crafted question to Ortiz. It had to do with Ortiz overcoming adversity in this fight after he’d failed to overcome it against Marcos Maidana two years prior. Stupefied by such an inquiry, Ortiz ducked the question and threatened to come down off the stage to “spank” the teenaged cub reporter with his newly won green belt.

Everyone laughed. Next question please.

I later hired that kid to do KO Digest interviews including fully fleshed out Q&A’s with Wladimir Klitschko, Ray Mancini, Keith Thurman, Paulie Malignaggi, Marlon Starling, Shannon Briggs, Steve Cunningham, Jeff Fenech, Virgil Hill, Mike Alvarado, and Mike Weaver among others.

Way to go Scoop, way to go!

Boxing writer Jeffrey Freeman grew up in the City of Champions, Brockton, Massachusetts from 1973 to 1987, during the marvelous career of Marvin Hagler. He then lived in Lowell, Mass during the best years of Micky Ward’s illustrious career. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, Freeman covers boxing for The Sweet Science in New England.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on Jan. 22, 2019.

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Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

Published

3 days ago

March 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

March 7 was an unusually heavy Friday for professional boxing. The show that warranted the most ink was the all-female card in London, a tour-de-force for the super-talented Lauren Price, but there were important fights on other continents.

Brighton

Michael Conlan, who sat out all of 2024 on the heels of being stopped in three of his previous five, returned to the ring in the British seaside resort city of Brighton in a shake-off-the-rust, 8-rounder against Asad Asif Khan, a 31-year-old Indian from Calcutta making his first appearance in a British ring.

Conlan, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist who famously signed with Top Rank coming out of the amateur ranks, is now 33 years old. Against Khan, he was far from impressive, but did enough to win by a 78-74 score and lock in a match with Spain’s Cristobal Lorente, the European featherweight champion.

Conlan, who improved to 19-3 (9), absorbed a lot of punishment in those three matches that he lost. With his deep amateur background, Michael has a lot of mileage on him and he would have been smart to call it quits after his embarrassingly one-sided defeat to Luis Alberto Lopez. His frayed reflexes speak to something more than ring rust. Heading in, Khan brought a 19-5-1 record but had scored only five wins inside the distance.

Conlan vs Khan was the co-feature. In the main event, Brighton welterweight Harlem Eubank, the cousin of Chris Eubank Jr, improved to 21-0 (9 KOs) with a dominant performance over Conlan’s Belfast homie Tyrone McKenna. Eubank was credited with three knockdowns, all the result of body punches, before referee John Latham had seen enough and pulled the plug at the 2:09 mark of round 10. It was the fourth loss in his last six outings for the 35-year-old McKenna (24-6-1).

Harlem Eubank wants to fight Conor Benn next and says he is willing to wait until after his cousin “wipes Benn out.” Chris Eubank Jr vs Benn is slated for April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The North London facility, which has a retractable roof, is the third-largest soccer stadium in England.

Toronto

Local fan favorite Lucas Bahdi and his stablemate Sara Bailey were the headliners on last night’s card at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto. The event marked the first incursion of Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions into Canada.

Bahdi, who is from Niagara Falls but trains in Toronto, burst out of obscurity in July of last year in Tampa, Florida, with a spectacular one-punch knockout of heavily-hyped Ashton “H2O” Sylva. His next fight, on the undercard of Jake Paul’s match with Mike Tyson, was less “noisy” and the same could be said of his homecoming fight with Ryan James Racaza, an undefeated (15-0) but obscure southpaw from the Philippines who was making his North American debut.

Bahdi vs Racaza was a technical fight that didn’t warm up until Bahdi produced a knockdown in round seven with a sweeping left hook, a glancing blow that appeared to land behind Racaza’s ear. The Filipino was up in a jiff, looking at the referee as if to say, “this dude just hit me with a rabbit punch.”

The judges had it 99-90, 97-92, and 96-93 for the victorious Bahdi (19-0) who was the subject of a recent profile on these pages.

Sara Bailey, a decorated amateur who competed around the world under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo and now holds the WBA light flyweight title, successfully defended that trinket with a lopsided decision over Cristina Navarro (6-3), a 35-year-old Spaniard who “earned” this assignment by winning a 6-round decision over an opponent with a 1-4-3 record. The judges scored the monotonous fight 99-91 across the board for Bailey who improved to 6-0 and then returned to the ring to assist her husband in Lucas Bahdi’s corner.

Also

Twenty-two-year-old super bantamweight Angel Barrientes, a Las Vegas-based Hawaii native, delivered the best performance of the night with a one-sided beatdown of Alexander Castellano whose corner mercifully stopped the contest after the seventh round as the ring doctor stood in a neutral corner chatting with the referee.

The gritty Castellano, who hails from Tonawanda, New York, brought an 11-1-2 record and hadn’t previously been stopped. A glutton for punishment, he appeared to suffer a broken orbital bone. Barrientes improved to 13-1 (8 KOs).

The show was marred by an excessive amount of fluffy gobbledygook by the TV talking heads which slowed down the action and made the promotion almost unwatchable.

Cartago, Costa Rica

Fighting in his hometown, super flyweight David Jimenez scored a lopsided 12-round decision over Nicaragua’s Keyvin Lara. The judges had it 120-108, 119-109, and 116-112.

Jimenez, now 17-1, came to the fore in July of 2022 when he upset Ricardo Sandoval in Los Angeles, winning a well-earned majority decision over a 20/1 favorite riding a 16-fight winning streak. That boosted him into a title fight with the formidable Artem Dalakian who saddled him with his lone defeat.

Jimenez’s victory over Lara was his fifth since that setback. It sets up the Costa Rican for another title fight, this time against Argentina’s Fernando Martinez who acquired the WBA 115-pound title in July with an upset of Kazuto Ioka in Japan. Lara, who unsuccessfully challenged Ioka for a belt in 2016, falls to 32-7-1.

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Price Conquers Jonas on an All-Female Card at Royal Albert Hall

Published

3 days ago

March 7, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Price-Conquers-Jonas-on-an-All-Female-Card-at-Royal-Albert-Hall

Ben Shalom’s BOXXER Promotions was at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall tonight with an all-female card topped by a welterweight unification fight between WBC/IBF belt-holder Natasha Jonas and WBA champion Lauren Price.

Liverpool’s Jonas, who turns 41 in June, has had a sterling career, but Father Time has caught up with her. The 30-year-old Price, an Olympic gold medalist, had faster hands, faster feet, and hit harder. The classy Jonas (16-3-1) acknowledged as much in her post-fight interview: “She beat me to the punch every time.”

The scores were 100-90, 98-92, and 98-93.

In advancing her record to 9-0 (2), Price built a strong case that she is the best fighter to come down the pike from Wales since Joe Calzaghe. As for her next bout, she hopes to fight the winner of the March 29 rematch in Las Vegas between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan. That match, with all of the meaningful welterweight hardware at stake, would be a hot ticket item if potted in Cardiff.

Semi-wind-up

Caroline Dubois staved off a late rally to successfully defend her WBC lightweight title with a majority decision over South Korea’s spunky Bo Mi Re Shin. The judges had it 98-92, 98-93, and 95-95. Although the 95-95 tally by the Korean judge was quite a stretch, Shin performed far better than the odds – Dubois was a consensus 35/1 favorite — portended.

Dubois, a 24-year-old Londoner trained by Shane McGuigan, is the sister of IBF heavyweight title-holder Daniel Dubois. Reportedly 36-3 as an amateur, she advanced her pro record to 11-0-1 (5). Heading in, Shin (18-3-3) had won nine of her previous 10 with the lone setback coming via split decision in a robust fight with Belgium’s Delfine Persoon in Belgium.

Other Bouts of Note

Kariss Artingstall returned to the ring after a 14-month absence and scored a unanimous decision over former amateur rival Raven Chapman. The scores were 98-91, 97-92, 96-93.

The prize for Artingstall, who happens to be Lauren Price’s partner, was the inaugural British female featherweight title and a potential rematch with Skye Nicolson who would relish the chance to avenge her last defeat, a loss by split decision to Attingstall in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics. Nicolson, who was part of tonight’s broadcast team, defends her title later this month in Sydney against Florida’s Tiara Brown.

It was the first 10-rounder for Artingstall (7-0). Chapman (9-2) had an uphill battle after Artingstall decked her in the second round with a straight left hand.

In a mild upset, Jasmina Zopotoczna, a UK-based Pole, won a split decision over Chloe Watson, adding Watson’s European flyweight title to her own regional trinket. One of the judges favored Watson 97-93, but each of his colleagues had it 96-95 for the Pole. Although there was no great furor, the verdict was unpopular.

Zapotoczna, who fought off her back foot, improved to 9-1. It was the first pro loss for Watson who is trained by Ricky Hatton.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 316: Art of the Deal in Boxing and More

Published

5 days ago

March 6, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-316-Art-of-the-Deal-in-Boxing-and-More

So, they want to save boxing?

A group of guys with recent ties to the sport of boxing and bags of money suddenly believe they can save a sport that is older than any other sport since the dawn of mankind.

Boxing is the oldest sport.

When cavemen roamed the planet, you can believe one tribe bet another tribe their guy could whip the other guy. Thus began the sport of boxing. There was no baseball, soccer or horse racing.

Even the invention of the wheel was still a few generations away when men were duking it out with other men for sport.

Throughout history mentions of one man fighting another man without arms are written in the Tales of Ulysses and other literary references.

Boxing will never die. Period.

Here is the reason why.

Boxing requires only two men in their underwear with no weapons and no requirement of classes in jujitsu, kickboxing, wrestling or advance training facilities. You can prepare in your backyard with one heavy bag and a pair of boxing gloves. It’s simple.

MMA, on the other hand, requires money.

Boxing is for the poor. Any kid can walk into a gym and begin training. When they become adults, then they start paying to use the gym.

Don’t let people fool you and tell you “boxing is dying.”

People have been saying those same words since John L. Sullivan in the late 1800s. You can look it up.

The phrase “boxing is dying,” is said by people who want you to pay them money to save it. Kind of sounds like the guy currently sitting in the White House who is going to save America by firing Americans from their jobs and allowing Russia to take over Ukraine.

Don’t believe these people.

Boxing does not need saving.

Why would Dana White, who has stated for decades that MMA is bigger than boxing, though no MMA fighter can equal the purses of a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Tyson Fury, why is he involved in boxing?

There is big money to be made in boxing, especially with internet gambling sites being allowed all over the world. And boxing is popular worldwide. MMA is not.

More people know who Canelo is than UFC’s Alex Pereira.

I respect the UFC fighters. They put in hard work and battle injuries throughout their careers. But MMA is simply not as big as boxing. The purses of MMA fighters at the top level don’t come close to boxing’s top money earners.

Why did Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz and others quickly switch to boxing when called?

The money in boxing is much bigger.

Follow the money.

NYC

A rumble is planned for Times Square in New York City.

Vatos from Southern California are fighting dudes from Nevada and Brooklyn. Sounds like a script from the Gangs of New York.

Where is Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him?

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will meet Rollie Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) in a welterweight match set for May 2, on Times Square in mid-Manhattan. This is one of three marquee bouts planned to be streamed on DAZN.

Others matched will be Arnold Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs) versus super lightweight titlist Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs), and Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) against Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) in a welterweight contest.

This is the proposed match by The Ring magazine backed by Turki Alalshikh who, along with Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing, is sponsoring this fight card.

It was also announced that Alalshikh, TKO Group Holdings, and Sela are forming a promotion company.

TKO owns UFC and WWE.

SoCal Fights

Southern California will be busy with boxing cards this weekend.

This Thursday, March 6, is Golden Boy Promotions with a boxing card featuring Manny Flores (19-1, 15 KOs) versus Jorge Leyva (18-3, 13 KOs) in a super bantamweight match at Fantasy Springs Casino. DAZN will stream the boxing card from Indio, California.

On Saturday, March 8, the Fox Theater in Pomona, California hosts a boxing card featuring super middleweights Ruben Cazales (10-0) vs Adam Diu Abdulhamid (18-16). Also, super featherweights Michael Bracamontes (10-2-1) meets Eugene Lagos (16-9-3) at the historic venue promoted by House of Pain Boxing.

On Saturday March 8, Elite Boxing hosts a boxing card at Salesian High in East Los Angeles featuring East L.A. native Merari Vivar (8-0) against Sarah Click (2-8-1) and several other fights.

On Saturday, March 8, an event hosted by House of Champions features top contenders Joet Gonzalez (26-4) vs Arnold Khegai (22-1-1) in a featherweight main event at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, Calif.

A Big All-Female Card in London

On Friday, March 7, the historic Royal Albert Hall in the Kensington borough of London will host an all-female card with two world title fights including a unification fight in the welterweight division.

Natasha Jonas (16-2-1) and Lauren Price (8-0) meet 10 rounds for the IBF, WBC, and WBA belts.

Jonas, 40, the current WBC and IBF titlist, recently defeated Ivana Habazin and before that edged past Mikaela Mayer in a win that could have gone the other way very easily. She will be facing Price, an Olympic gold medalist and current WBA and IBO titlist.

Price, 30, hails from Wales and has an aggressive pressure style that saw her win a battle between punchers with a third-round knockout of Colombia’s Bexcy Mateus this past December in Liverpool. Before that she defeated the always tough Jessica McCaskill.

In the co-main event, lightweights Caroline Dubois (10-0-1) and Bo Mi Re Shin (18-2-3) meet for the WBC world title.

Me Re Shin, 30, fights out of South Korea and has knockout power. She was one of only two fighters to stop Venezuela’s Ana Maria Lozano who has 38 pro fights. That says something. She lost a split decision to Delfine Persoon in Belgium. That really says something.

Dubois had two competitive fights, first, against Jessica Camara that ended in a technical draw due to a clash of heads. Before that she defeated Maira Moneo. Dubois has very good talent and is still young at 24. Is she ready for Mi Re Shin?

Times Square photo credit: JP Yim

Fights to watch:

Thurs., March 6: DAZN, Manny Flores (19-1) vs. Jorge Leyva (18-3)

Fri., March 7: free on DAZN, Lucas Bahdi (18-0) vs. Ryan James Racaza (15-0)

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