Checking In With Christian Giudice, Author of Four Biographies of Latin Ring Greats

Published

3 years ago

September 6, 2021

Rick Assad

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Taking on the task of documenting the lives of Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, Wilfredo Gomez and Hector Camacho in book form was daunting, but Christian Giudice, like those four world champions, rose to the challenge.

The books in question are “Hands Of Stone: The Life And Legend Of Roberto Duran,” “Beloved Warrior: The Rise And Fall Of Alexis Arguello,” “A Fire Burns Within: The Miraculous Journey Of Wilfredo ‘Bazooka’ Gomez,” and his most recent work, “Macho Time: The Meteoric Rise And Tragic Fall Of Hector Camacho,” released last year by Hamilcar.

Camacho

All had storied ring careers and all are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

“I loved the way I felt and how I was treated in each of those countries. I gained lifelong friendships in Panama, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico,” Giudice said of his time doing research on those four legends. “Although it has been a while since I have traveled, I really enjoyed my time meeting new people each day in and outside the boxing spectrum. There is something different about Hispanic boxers that has attracted me to write about them over the years.”

Giudice tried to pinpoint why he is drawn to Latino boxers. “I don’t know if I can explain it. To me, each fighter I wrote about had to overcome a fierce struggle and then immediately face the pressure of placing a country on his back,” he said. “Thus, each fighter has encountered magnificent highs and excruciating lows and must find ways to handle the positives and negatives publicly. I see that conflict emerge and when I write about that fighter, I have to be able to convey how the fighter is able to handle fame and what comes with it.”

Giudice added: “Ever since I traveled to Panama to write a book on Roberto Duran, I knew I wanted to always write about Latin fighters,” he explained. “It was my way of giving back to the people of Panama who treated me like family. It also gave me an opportunity to travel. I wanted to cover Latin fighters who were not only fabulous boxers and heroes in their countries, but also lived lives that transcend the ring.”

Each boxer was unique and their stories needed to be chronicled. “I don’t think too many fighters experienced the same rise and fall of a Duran or the turbulent lifestyle of a Hector Camacho or the political upheaval of Alexis Arguello,” said Giudice, who grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey and teaches English at Harper Middle College High in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Voted the greatest Puerto Rican fighter ever, Wilfredo Gomez lived an amazing life as an icon in Puerto Rico. Ironically, the pressure on Gomez as a Puerto Rican icon intensified once his career ended. Each one of those fighters had a story that needed to be told. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so.”

Duran, who rose from slum to arguably the finest lightweight ever, was sometimes painted by some in the media as being something of a bully.

Giudice’s encounters with Duran, who from 1968 until 2001 posted a ring record of 103-16 with 70 knockouts, often proved enlightening.

“I learned a lot about his family life, since I traveled back to his family’s hometown in Guarare, Panama. I learned a lot about the in-depth details of family stories that helped shape who Duran really was,” he said. “Stories like how he was caught stealing fruit out of the trees off the estate of landowner [later manager] Carlos Eleta and how he used to tell jokes to his grandmother as a young boy. I listened to these stories, which were told through the lens of family members. He wasn’t the brash, intimidating guy that everyone made him out to be. He certainly didn’t embrace those labels, and, as I was writing the book, those childhood stories humanized him.”

Where does Giudice, who has an English degree from Villanova and a master’s degree in journalism from Temple, place Duran among lightweights?

“I rank Duran as the best lightweight of all time. I don’t consider it close. At his finest, he was unbeatable,” he said. “And his best weight was 135 pounds. People often come up with other great lightweights from different eras, but Duran was so skilled and, well, perfect at that weight class, it is difficult to imagine another fighter at the same level.”

In his prime, Duran was a force of nature. “With the exception of his victories over Esteban De Jesus, I still consider his first fight with Sugar Ray Leonard [at 147 pounds] his best performance. He brutalized Ken Buchanan for his first title, but the way he prepared for Leonard was unlike any other fight,” Giudice said. “He wanted it so bad. Truth is, Duran shocked Leonard before the bout and then went in the fight and fought with the same intensity. Everything he promised, he backed up. Because there was no pretense, Duran became the fan favorite as soon as he arrived in Montreal for the fight. What a performance. I believe he looked at it more than a fight, and then backed up everything he said he would do.”

That bout took place on June 20, 1980 at the Olympic Stadium and ended up a unanimous decision victory in favor of Duran.

Five months later at the New Orleans Superdome, Leonard earned redemption when late in the eighth round, Duran shockingly walked away and turned his back on Leonard and said something to Octavio Meyran, the referee.

Giudice addressed what happened. “When I traveled to Panama to write the book on Duran, I had the opportunity to meet his longtime manager and friend, Carlos Eleta. I was hesitant to speak about ‘No Mas’ fearing that it would be difficult for Duran and his family and friends to talk about it, but Eleta was very clear about one thing: In his mind, he needed to make the rematch immediately, rather than wait,” he said. “Financially it made sense, but physically many people felt that Duran needed time to rededicate himself back to the ring. Duran did not want to make that rematch so quickly, but Eleta said that at the rate Duran was going with his partying that he would never fight Leonard again.”

Of course, the fight was made and Duran became annoyed with Leonard, who moved, jabbed and landed numerous punches, and in the seventh round began taunting him, which frustrated him.

“He [Eleta] was also clear that Duran never said, ‘No Mas,’ but instead said, ‘I will not fight with this clown anymore.’ As the years went by, people concocted so many different stories, but most of them had little merit,” Giudice said.

In Nicaragua, Arguello, who capped his 27-year career with a mark of 77-8 and 62 kayos, was a near-mythic figure.

“The Nicaraguan people had never witnessed anything like Alexis. As he once said, he lived a life that no one else could have lived. He was kind, affectionate, devoted, and, most importantly, loyal,” Giudice said. “During a career that was plagued by politics, corruption, and the reality of having everything taken from him and being exiled from Managua, Arguello’s career was never just about wins and losses.”

Giudice continued: “His people recognized the injustices that he faced and loved him for the fact that he was fiercely devoted to Nicaragua until the end,” he said. “It was easy to see how beloved Alexis was, not only in Nicaragua, but here in the United States. He was genuine, and always treated others with respect and kindness. He was an original.”

Arguello committed suicide on July 1, 2009 at age 57, and is still regarded as a hero.

Camacho had a commanding aura in and out of the squared circle and his life also ended tragically. On November 24, 2012 at age 50, he was murdered.

“Hector had a presence that everyone felt. What was unique about Hector was that even when the spotlight was not on him, he felt an urgency to ensure that by the end of the event, everyone would be looking at him,” said Giudice of Camacho, who boxed from 1980 through 2010 and crafted a record of 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts. “Hector was a natural entertainer and understood that, in his mind, he had to test boundaries and create controversy even when it didn’t exist. Away from the spotlight, those who loved him, describe a much different, more humble person, but not when it came to boxing.”

With a mark of 44-3-1 and 42 kayos over 15 years, Gomez was simply sublime.

“Gomez was so good at 122 pounds, but I just think he started to fade too soon and his body of work doesn’t compare with Duran and Arguello because of longevity and other factors,” Giudice said.

There is something all four men have in common that made them worthy of having their stories told.

“When you look at these four fighters, all of them had to struggle to survive growing up and then use their boxing skills to get their families out of poverty,” Giudice noted. “That forced them to make sacrifices, grow up a lot quicker, take financial responsibility for their families, and then live with an added discipline.”

And they each had to perform at the highest level in the ring. “The pressure to live up to the expectations of being a champion must have been so difficult,” Giudice reasoned. “Thus, in their lives, for so many years, there was little room for error. Then once they reached that level of superstardom, they were not able to truly embrace it because they had to prepare for their next bout. Also, every mistake is magnified publicly, so the emotional ups and downs made it even harder. Nothing was ever ‘normal’ for them.”

Even for the best, being a boxer is a tough way to make a living and it’s often lonely once the ring lights dim.

“All fighters struggle with finding an outlet to replace the high that the sport provided them,” Giudice said. “Hector and Alexis were no different. The only difference was that Hector had succumbed to drugs and other vices his whole life; whereas, Alexis struggled with his mental health throughout his life and then was cornered in an untenable position by powerful people in Managua who manipulated him at the end of it.”

The end for many is more often than not extremely sad. “Only a handful of fighters have a backup plan once their careers end,” Giudice said. “Even those fighters cannot fill that empty space. It is not an empty space, but a huge gaping hole. For adoring fans, Hector and Alexis had given them so many thrills and wonderful moments that even the prospect of meeting them or a photo gave them a level of fulfillment or happiness.”

Giudice went on: “But for the fighters like Alexis and Hector, the high of being in the ring is something that stays with them forever. No standing ovation in retirement can bring those memories back, so they need to find other pursuits,” he said. “Alexis was aware of this; Hector was well aware of this, too, but, back then, there was not the support available to combat those pressures.”

Note: Christian Giudice’s books can be ordered from Amazon or direct from the publisher and are found at better booksellers everywhere.

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Rick Assad

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.

Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.

On Friday, 360 Promotions’ Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.

The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. It’s still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.

Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?

The first world champion from East L.A. or “East Los” as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.

Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.

All that action takes place on Friday.

Elite Boxing

The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.

Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.

Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.

For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com

Claressa Shields in Detroit

Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.

Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.

Shields doesn’t lose.

I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?

The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.

Don’t get Shields mad.

Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.

That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.

Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.

Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.

Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphia’s Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .

Fights to Watch

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).

Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).

Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker

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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

2 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.”

Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.

Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturday’s co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.

Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t mention.

The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)

Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.

The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paul’s next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.

Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) won’t elevate her stature in our eyes.

Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancun’s Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.

Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse

True, on the women’s side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)

Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.

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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63

Published

4 days ago

July 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.

News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: “Boxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.”

Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.

Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert “Superfly” Sandoval, became a big draw at LA’s fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintor’s world bantamweight title.

Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

As a pro, Sandoval’s signature win was a 15^th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.

Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.

Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richie’s lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).

Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.

A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.

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