When ‘The Beast’ Ruled Boxing in Tampa

Published

4 years ago

January 28, 2021

When ‘The Beast’ Ruled Boxing in Tampa

A week from Sunday, the fifty-fifth Super Bowl will be played in Tampa, Florida. At various times, the city on the west coast of America’s third-most-populous state had a vibrant boxing scene. This was especially true in the mid-1980s when a fighter from Uganda, of all places, was embraced by the locals and made the turnstiles hum. A poll in the Tampa Bay Times named John Mugabi the fourth-most-notable athlete in the Bay region following Lee Roy Selmon and James Wilder, standouts with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and golfer Gary Koch.

They called John Mugabi “The Beast.” When he fought Frank “The Animal” Fletcher before an SRO crowd in 1984, the event was dubbed “Wild Kingdom.” But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

For a city like Tampa to become a boxing hub, the first pre-requisite is a tenacious promoter who is addicted to the sport. In Tampa, that man was the late John Alessi Sr. whose wholesale bakery and delicatessen, in the Alessi family since 1906, was a local institution. (Alessi’s chief lieutenant, Brad Jacobs, would remain in boxing and is currently the COO with Bob Arum’s Top Rank organization.)

Alessi had a veiled helpmate in Dr. Ferdie Pacheco who parlayed his role as Muhammad Ali’s personal physician into a gig as NBC’s director of boxing and ringside analyst. Boxing’s Renaissance man, Pacheco grew up in Ybor City, the Tampa neighborhood founded by Cuban immigrant cigar makers of Spanish descent. Although Pacheco settled in Miami, Ybor City was never far from his heart. He never missed an opportunity to go back and hold court at the historic Columbia restaurant where he had worked as a waiter as a teenager. When an NBC fight emanated from Tampa, Pacheco’s invisible hand was at work.

An Olympic silver medalist, John “The Beast” Mugabi was 14-0 when his British manager Mickey Duff brought him to Tampa in 1983 for a match with Indiana’s Gary Guiden. Mugabi knocked him out in the third round and Guiden, who was 39-6 heading in, never fought again.

This would be the first of John Mugabi’s nine fights in Tampa where he wound up purchasing a home. His bouts with Curtis Parker, James “Hard Rock” Green, the aforementioned Frank Fletcher, and Earl Hargrove were noteworthy.

Mugabi vs. Curtis Parker (Nov. 12, 1983)

They met at Tampa’s Sun Dome on a Saturday afternoon in a match nationally televised on NBC with the Tampa Bay area blacked out. A Philadelphia man, Parker was 24-4 heading in and had never been knocked off his feet, let alone stopped. But Mugabi had Parker fighting off his back foot from the opening gong and knocked him down twice before the bout was stopped in the opening frame.

Mugabi vs. James Green (Feb. 18, 1984)

They met on a Sunday afternoon at Tampa’s Hyatt Regency Hotel where Alessi potted many of his shows. The bout was buttressed by a strong undercard. Future heavyweight title-holders Bonecrusher Smith and Trevor Berbick were on the card, as was Mugabi’s stablemate Cornelius Boza-Edwards whose bout the previous year with Bobby Chacon was named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year. NBC televised only Mugabi’s fight.

“Hard Rock” Green, who came up the ladder in Atlantic City, was a rough customer, better than his 18-3 record would indicate. In the second round, Mugabi took a thumb in the eye, compromising his vision. That was seemingly a big advantage for the muscular five-foot-five Green as “The Beast” had never fought beyond six rounds, but Mugabi persevered and took Green out in the 10^th.

This fight before a raucous SRO crowd was the early favorite for Fight of the Year, but would be edged out by the rematch between Edwin Rosario and Jose Luis Ramirez.

Frank Fletcher (Aug. 5, 1984)

“Wild Kingdom,” another Sunday afternoon affair on NBC, was contested at Tampa’s Egypt Shrine Temple before another SRO crowd. Frank “The Animal” Fletcher was on the comeback trail after getting stopped in a middleweight title elimination match by Juan Domingo Roldan.

Mugabi stalked Fletcher and caught up with him in the fourth round, blasting him out with a four-punch combination. “The Animal” had one more fight before leaving the sport with an 18-6-1 record.

Earl Hargrove (March 17, 1985)

This St. Patrick’s Day card on NBC, yet another sellout, was billed as the “Shootout at the OK Corral.” Between them, Mugabi and Hargrove had 49 knockouts in 50 fights. Hargrove was 26-1, his lone defeat coming in a world title fight with Mark Medal.

Mugabi had a habit of beating up on Philadelphia fighters and Earl Hargrove, who came out blazing, would suffer the same fate as Parker and Fletcher, only quicker. Mugabi dismissed him in 109 seconds. The fight didn’t last as long as ring announcer Mark Biero’s pre-fight introductions.

—

Mugabi’s braintrust had been angling for a fight with WBC 154-pound title-holder Thomas Hearns, but Hearns wanted no part of him, bypassing “The Beast” for matches with Roberto Duran and Fred Hutchings. Ergo, Mugabi set his sights on middleweight kingpin Marvin Hagler. They met in the outdoor arena at Caesars Palace on a soggy evening, March 10, 1986. Hagler was making his 11^th title defense.

Mugabi was 25-0 with all of his wins coming by stoppage. Only nine of his opponents had lasted beyond the second round. Against Hagler, he was a beast but Marvelous Marvin was the more beastly beast. The fight ended in the 11^th round with the Ugandan on the seat of his pants after eating two crushing right hands.

There were some doubts about Mugabi despite his eye-popping record. In defeat, Mugabi dispelled many of those doubts. The fight was competitive through 10 heats with Mugabi trailing by only one point on the scorecard of Dave Moretti. When Hagler left the ring, said LA Times sportswriter Jim Murray, “his face looked like a sack of plums.” Said Hagler’s manager Pat Petronelli, “Marvin’s whole body hurts.”

After this fight, Mugabi dropped back to 154 and fought Duane Thomas, a Kronk Gym fighter, for the vacant 154-pound belt. The fight was stopped in the third round after Mugabi turned his back on the referee, unable to see out of his left eye, which he claimed had been thumbed. Then, after taking off all of 1987, Mugabi won the 154-pound title in his second crack at it with a first-round stoppage of Rene Jacquot in Paris. (The lightly-regarded Jacquot had won the belt from Donald Curry in what was truly an astounding upset.)

The belt was at stake on Dec. 5, 1986, when Mugabi opposed Terry Norris at the Sun Dome in what would be his final appearance in Tampa. The 22-year-old Norris, trained by up-and-comer Abel Sanchez at a compound on a California ranch situated by the Mexican border, gave the Beast a taste of his own medicine, stopping him in the opening round before a stunned crowd that stood around for an hour after the fight trying to figure out what had just happened.

One hard punch from Norris and Mugabi turned into a zombie. He fought as if he were sleepwalking, which he blamed on pills that he had taken for itching a few hours before the fight. He said he did not know the name of the pills which were provided to him by a doctor in England and which he consumed without anyone knowing.

The final blow to John Mugabi’s reputation came at Prince Albert Hall in London where he was knocked out in the opening round by Gerald McClellan. Five years after this setback he popped up in Australia where he had a series of small fights before quitting the sport for keeps.

John “The Beast” Mugabi had 50 pro fights in all, winning 42, but like so many boxers he left the sport with little to show for it. An illiterate who never learned to read and write, he was easy prey for the finaglers, of which there are more than a few lurking about in professional boxing. He now lives in Brisbane where he hangs out at the gym where Jeff Horn and Dennis Hogan train while picking up side jobs as a personal trainer.

It has been written that in Brisbane, Mugabi is anonymous; when he walks the streets, no one recognizes him. That’s quite a comedown for a boxer who was once the Toast of the Town in Tampa.

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Arne K. Lang

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

Published

6 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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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

2 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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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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