Odds and Ends: Boxing’s ‘Ordinary Joe’, the late Stan Hoffman and More

Odds and Ends: Boxing’s ‘Ordinary Joe’, the late Stan Hoffman and More

After two fallow weekends, boxing returns with a blast of fresh air on Saturday. Two world title-holders – IBF 130-pound champ Joseph “Jojo” Diaz and WBO 154-pound champ Patrick Teixeira – defend their belts on a strong Golden Boy Card in Indio, CA. Over in London, undefeated IBF featherweight title-holder Josh Warrington meets Mexico’s Mauricio Lara, in a risky, albeit non-title, affair, and the vacant WBO light heavyweight strap will be on the line when Joe Smith Jr squares off with Maxim Vlasov at the MGM “Bubble” in Las Vegas.

The Smith-Vlasov fight, which will air on ESPN’s main platform, will likely attract the most eyeballs because Smith (26-3, 21 KOs) has become a cult favorite. It’s hard not to root for this “Ordinary Joe” who only recently quit his job as a construction worker, exchanging a jackhammer for a power saw. He now operates a tree-trimming business with his father.

This will be Smith’s second shot at the title. He came up short against Dmitry Bivol, losing a unanimous decision, but rebounded with impressive wins over Jesse Hart and Eleider Alvarez. In both of those fights he was never flustered, sticking tight to his game plan. He knocked Alvarez clear out of the ring, reprising, in a fashion, his signature triumph over Bernard Hopkins.

Smith (pictured) is an over-achiever, yes, but not in the classic sense as he always had good boxing skills and has now honed them to a brighter hue.

Vlasov has a nice record (45-3, 26 KOs), but the lanky, 34-year-old Russian was inactive all of 2020 and hasn’t defeated anyone of note. As a pro, he’s competed from middleweight to cruiserweight. To his credit, he’s never been stopped and avenged the first of his three setbacks when he out-pointed Isaac Chilemba across 12 rounds in July of 2019.

Top Rank notes that if Smith wins on Saturday, he will become the fourth Long Island native to win a world title, joining Buddy McGirt, Chris Algieri, and Jamel Herring. Not so. Since the reference is to people born on Long Island, not those who grew up there, Errol Spence Jr also belongs on the list.

R.I.P.

Stan Hoffman, who died this week at age 89, was one of boxing’s foremost wheeler-dealers. Hoffman, who grew up in Brooklyn and the Bronx, “managed, advised and/or promoted 38 world champions during his nearly 50 years in the boxing industry,” according to a blurb released by the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame in conjunction with Hoffman’s induction with the class of 2019.

A fitting inscription for Hoffman’s tombstone would be “upset-maker.” He was involved with Michael Bentt who knocked out defending WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison in the opening round on Morrison’s turf in Tulsa in 1993, with Iran “The Blade” Barkley, who forged upsets of Michael Olajide and Tommy Hearns twice, and, most notably, with Hasim Rahman, who scored one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight title history when he knocked out Lennox Lewis in the fifth round in South Africa in 2001.

Hoffman, who came to boxing from the record industry where he worked with such artists as Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, first attracted national notice while working as the matchmaker for Josephine Abercrombie’s Houston Boxing Association. During the mid-1980s, the HBA, fueled by Abercrombie’s deep pockets (she was a Texas oil heiress) was one of the most important promotional groups in boxing. Hoffman later established a boxing camp in Kerhonkson, New York.

Kerhonkson, a quiet hamlet in the Catskill Region of the Empire State, was an odd fit for Hoffman, a street kid from the bustling Big Apple. At an Atlantic City weigh-in in 1989, a North Carolina reporter described the pony-tailed Hoffman as a person “who wears enough jewelry to fence in your average backyard.”

Evander

Brian Custer’s recent interview with Evander Holyfield on Custer’s Last Stand podcast was distressing. Evander was never a good talker, but now the words that come out of his mouth don’t flow as easily. It’s a condition that affects virtually all of us if we live long enough, but boxers who fight many rounds invariably get there faster.

Holyfield, as we know, has been angling for a third fight with Mike Tyson. If it happens, shame on whoever promotes it.

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