Nino Benvenuti’s Akron Misadventure: A Don Elbaum Production (Natch)

Published

3 years ago

September 30, 2021

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Nino Benvenuti and Akron, Ohio, were an awkward fit. Benvenuti was something of a Renaissance man, or at least that is how he was portrayed. He was a connoisseur of fine wines, whereas Akron, which led the world in the production of automobile tires, was a blue-collar city where a fellow with an affinity for fine wines was likely to be put down as a sissy. But Benvenuti was certainly no sissy.

In March of 1968, seven months prior to his appearance in Akron, Benvenuti had recaptured the world middleweight title in his third meeting with Emile Griffith. He was 77-2 as a pro and purportedly 110-1 as an amateur, a career climaxed with a dominant 5-0 run to a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics.

Benvenuti, who reputedly enjoyed visiting art museums and loved the opera, wasn’t hurting for money. Back home in Italy, he owned a factory that produced auto parts and a health club. But his career was winding down and the $20,000 he was guaranteed for touching gloves with a local schlub in a non-title fight was too good to pass up.

The presumptive schlub (and he was hardly that) was Doyle Baird.

Born in a little town in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, Baird had grown up in Akron. As a pro he was 21-2, a nice record but devoid of a signature win. A close but unanimous decision over Detroit veteran Ted Wright looked good on his ledger in that Wright was a recognizable name, but the former world-ranked Wright was on the skids, having won only one of his previous nine fights.

In common with many preacher’s kids, Baird in his younger days was quite the hellraiser. “He spent more time in the back seat of a cop car than a police dog,” wrote Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Tom Melody. He didn’t turn pro until age 28, but his style never wavered much from his days as teenage street fighter. He was a brawler, a man willing to take two or three punches to land one of his own, the antithesis of the classy Benvenuti whose style was that of a man who didn’t like to get his hair messed up.

Benvenuti vs. Baird was a Don Elbaum production. Back in those days, Elbaum was Mr. Boxing in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. He nourished boxing at its roots, promoting shows in armories, community centers, American Legion halls and high school gymnasiums. On occasion, Elbaum the promoter morphed into Elbaum the boxer, subbing for a no-show. Once he successfully impersonated a doctor when the physician failed to show at a weigh-in. One surmises that he kept a stethoscope in the trunk of his car on the off-chance that it might come in handy someday.

Elbaum went whole-hog for the Benvenuti-Baird fight, parking the Oct. 14, 1968 event at Akron’s municipal football stadium, the Rubber Bowl.

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To no great surprise, the fight was a messy affair. “For every good punch there was an elbow, for every jab a butt,” said Beacon Journal reporter Jack Patterson. At times. Benvenuti resorted to a headlock to get Baird off his chest.

The fight went the full 10 and at the final bell the referee raised Baird’s hand. The crowd loved it. The local man had accomplished what only two fighters before him had done. The gifted Korean southpaw Ki Soo Kim won a split decision over Benvenuti in Seoul and Emile Griffith had prevailed in the middle fight of their trilogy. Now Doyle Baird, of all people, had joined that elite group. But hold the phone.

The referee had acted before the scorecards were tallied. One of the judges favored Baird by 96-95, but his colleagues each had it a draw, 96-96 and 97-97.

Akron had its own boxing commission. The head honcho was out of town, vacationing in Florida, and the men that he delegated to supervise the show stood around not knowing what their next move should be.

Lester Bromberg, the fine boxing writer of the New York Post, was there and seized the reins. “Listen up here, boys,” he said, or words to that effect. “A man can’t be declared the winner if only one judge favored him. It takes at least two. Do the math and you will see that this fight should be ruled a draw.”

The Associated Press correspondent didn’t wait for the retraction and for many weeks after the fight the story that Baird had won was still circulating. An item about Benvenuti’s forthcoming title fight in Italy with Don Fullmer that ran in dozens of U.S. papers included this line: “Benvenuti may have loafed a bit too much in Akron, Ohio, last Oct. 14 when he dropped a 10-round non-title fight to little-known Doyle Baird.”

The attendance at the Benvenuti-Baird fight was the highest in Akron boxing history: 3,412. But the number included 395 freebies and was well below what Elbaum needed to break even. In addition to the $20,000, he was on the hook for Benvenuti’s expenses which included three round-trip tickets from Italy for the fighter and two of his cohorts.

Doyle Baird, for all of his hard work, earned nothing. He was down for a percentage of the net profits. In fact, Baird actually lost money. He took two weeks off without pay from his job at a foundry to prepare for the fight.

There was a heartwarming postscript. Akron was a strong union town and the notion of a man toiling without compensation struck many as inhumane. It was as if Doyle Baird, one of their own, was being ripped off twice.

A fellow in the nearby town of Barberton who had attended the fight wrote a letter to the sports editor of the Beacon Journal and enclosed a $5 bill with instructions that it be passed along to the fighter. “I’m just a working guy with a wife and four growing children,” he wrote. “We need our money like anybody else, but my wife and I both agreed that this was something we wanted to do.”

The sports editor published his letter and then more money poured in, just little drips and drabs, but likely enough for Baird to catch up with the bills that went unpaid while he was chasing his dream. The paper reported that he was embarrassed to accept it but his wife had no such qualms.

More money would come Baird’s way two years later when he ventured to Bari, Italy, for another non-title fight with Nino Benvenuti who stopped him in the 10^th round. There was no way that the rematch would transpire in Akron. Before leaving the Ohio city, Benvenuti had bad-mouthed the community with all the English curse words that he knew.

—

Benvenuti’s victory over Baird in their second encounter would prove to be the final “W” of Nino’s career. He had three more fights, two against the great Carlos Monzon who sheared away his title in the 1970 “Fight of the Year” and then defeated him more decisively in their rematch. In retirement he dabbled as a movie actor and set up a charitable trust for his great rival Emile Griffith who had fallen on hard times. Into his eighties he reportedly still attracted a crowd when he walked the streets of Rome.

—

The craggy-faced Don Elbaum, who bears a strong resemblance to the movie actor Harvey Keitel, was undaunted by the financial bath that he took at the Rubber Bowl. Fifty-three years have elapsed since he introduced Nino Benvenuti to Akron and the erstwhile “Boy Promoter” is still with us.

elbaum

Elbaum would have long runs as the matchmaker at the Tropicana in Atlantic City and at the storied Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, but at heart he was always something of a nomad, the “king of wandering fistic minstrels” in the words of the late Scranton, Pennsylvania, sportswriter Chick Feldman. Elbaum has had his fingers in important fights in important cities around the world but was always most comfortable hustling in the boondocks where a wildcat promoter is less fettered by rules and regulations. And it is here in the boondocks where boxing is often the Theater of the Absurd.

—

Doyle Baird left the sport with a record of 34-7-1. After leaving his job at the foundry he drove a delivery truck for the Beacon Journal. In his spare time, he trained young boxers. “He was a stand-up guy who didn’t have an ounce of guile,” recollected longtime Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler who was in the audience — Trampler was then a sophomore in college — at the Benvenuti-Baird fight.

Doyle Baird passed away earlier this month at age eighty-three. His wife of 51 years preceded him. He was survived by five children, seven grandchildren, and a great grandson. May he rest in peace.

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Arne K. Lang

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Canelo-Berlanga Postscript

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2024

The Sweet Science

By TSS Special Correspondent Raymundo Dioses — There was a palpable buzz in the air befitting a mega fight in Las Vegas on a Mexican holiday weekend. Canelo Alvarez retained his unified super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga via unanimous decision at the T-Mobile Arena in front of a sold-out crowd who were treated to a one-sided, yet never boring contest.

Although Canelo, (62-2-2, 39 KOs) remains devoid of a knockout win dating back to November 2021 against Caleb Plant, there was plenty to like about his performance and enough offense being thrown his way by Berlanga to produce an entertaining fight.

It was about as jovial a crowd as any for a fight night and despite the wide scores (118-109, 118-109, 117-110) as well as Berlanga getting a “caught with his lead hand down’ moment” which enabled Canelo to score an early knockdown, the young Puerto Rican made a positive impression in his first title fight, his first main event pay-per-view, and his first Sin City atmosphere which can make or break a fighter.

“My experience, my talent, my hard work (was the difference). Everything together, because if you have a talent and you don’t have discipline you have nothing. If you have discipline and you don’t have talent you have nothing. So you need to combine both and hard work,” Canelo would say in the post-fight in-ring interview with Jim Gray. Canelo would go on to relay that message to Berlanga and tell his most recent adversary that he sees him as a future champion.

There was talk around town and the sports world that the Spherical ‘Noche UFC’ event a few miles down the road would take some of the flair away from the PBC on Prime Video event which featured a $90 price with the B-side fighter Berlanga gloving up against an 18/1 favorite in Canelo.

Yet when all was said and done, 20,312 boxing fans were provided a good show with a decent undercard that saw Erislandy Lara retaining his WBA middleweight title against Danny Garcia via stoppage, plus an entertaining Caleb Plant-Trevor McCumby match won by Plant via TKO, and a first- time title challenger in Berlanga who didn’t show up to lay down against a top pound-for-pound fighter despite having literally all the odds stacked against him.

The post-fight press conference was held following T-Mobile Arena staff impressively breaking down the ring and transforming the canvas into a stage for fighters and their camps to react to the night’s proceedings. Up to the dais first were Plant and Lara, two veterans of the sport. Plant has made himself into a fan favorite with impressive performances throughout the years including solid showings in his only defeats in bouts with Canelo and David Benavidez. Lara spoke through an interpreter and thanked everyone involved in the win that solidifies him as the sport’s oldest title-holder at 41 years of age.

Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) preceded Canelo to the mic and had Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and his team alongside him. The press showed great respect to Berlanga who said that he felt 50/50 towards the event and its outcome, knowing that while his first career loss was registered, he knows that the performance that he delivered was of the type that often propels the B-side fighter into more big fights and lucrative paydays (see Caleb Plant).

Reminiscent of a champion-last ring walk, Canelo arrived with his team and after the obligatory “thank you” to all involved, spoke briefly on a next possible opponent and was asked about the UFC fight that that took place the same night.

A media member brought up ‘Noche UFC’ sponsor Turki Alalshikh’s comments about a matchup between Canelo and fellow top pound-for-pound fighter Terence Crawford.

After once again filling up the T-Mobile Arena while headlining a pay-per-view event and securing a payday perhaps upwards of $50 million, Canelo’s response to Alalshikh was perhaps his best punch of the night:

“No comment.”

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Canelo Proves Too Canny and Tough for Edgar Berlanga in Las Vegas

Published

2 days ago

September 14, 2024

David A. Avila

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Canelo Proves Too Canny and Tough for Edgar Berlanga in Las Vegas

Never underestimate a Puerto Rico versus Mexico fight.

Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez needed all 12 rounds to defeat Puerto Rico’s super strong Edgar Berlanga and retain the unified super middleweight championship on Saturday.

Berlanga never quit.

“He’s very strong,” Canelo said.

Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) showed that championship fighting is like high-speed chess and Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) did not have enough moves to out-wit the Mexican redhead at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Especially on Mexican Independence Day weekend.

Despite an early knockdown by a Canelo left hook, Berlanga was able to survive the Mexican fighter’s onslaught and withstand punishment that could have felled a rhinoceros.

“I got a little bit of Mexican in me,” Berlanga joked.

During an exchange in the third round Alvarez snapped a quick left hook that timed the Puerto Rican perfectly. Down he went for only the second time in his career. But he got up quickly and rallied a bit in the round.

It was the theme of the fight.

Every time Alvarez scored heavy with combinations to the head and body, Berlanga responded back as much as possible. He never wilted though he had plenty of opportunities.

It was a methodical attack by the Mexican champion that kept Berlanga guessing in every round. The Puerto Rican tried firing back and using his height and reach but Alvarez was always a step ahead.

Berlanga managed to score, but he never could mount a long rally. In the fifth round Berlanga used rough tactics including a head butt that angered Alvarez. It was the first time the Boricua was able to connect heavily.

But Alvarez proved too canny for Berlanga. The Mexican redhead who has won world titles as a super welterweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight, showed off his experience. The Puerto Rican could only absorb the blows and retaliate. But his strength was impressive.

“He will be a champion,” said Alvarez.

After 12 back-and-forth rounds, both hugged like old friends. It was exactly the type of fight Alvarez wanted for the thousands of Mexican and Puerto Rican fans at the arena and worldwide.

Alvarez was deemed the winner by unanimous decision 117-110, 118-109 twice and retains the world titles.

“I did good,” said Alvarez. “I’m the best fighter in the world.”

Berlanga was gracious in defeat.

“I could have done a lot more, but I was fighting a legend,” Berlanga said.

Other Fights

After nine rounds of whistles and boos by a disgruntled crowd due to inactivity, Erislandy Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) fired a lead left cross to drop Danny “Swift” Garcia (37-4). Lara was making the third defense of the WBA middleweight world title he won with a one-punch knockout of Thomas La Manna.

The battle between counter-punchers did not please the fans, but slowly Lara kept Garcia at bay with his sharp right jabs. The Cuban southpaw caught Garcia moving with his hands down with a single strafing left. Down he went for the first time in his career and the fight was ended at the end of the ninth round.

It was the first loss by knockout for Garcia, the former super lightweight and welterweight world titlist.

Plant

Once again Caleb Plant (23-2, 15 KOs) made the fight personal and found Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) a worthy challenge for the interim super middleweight title for most of the fight.

It was thoroughly entertaining.

McCumby battered Plant early and put him to the canvas twice, although only the second was ruled a knockdown. A strong left hook to the shoulder caught Plant perfectly and down he went.

That seemed to wake up Plant.

The former super middleweight world titlist who lives in Las Vegas took the fight inside and pinned McCumby to the ropes. Plant went to work from that point on and did not allow his foe another big opportunity.

In the ninth round Plant pinned McCumby against the ropes once again and unloaded a dozen blows that ravaged the Arizona fighter. Referee Allen Huggins stopped the fight at 2:59 of the ninth round.

“Word on the street is I cant fight inside,” said Plant sarcastically.

Rolly Wins

Former lightweight champion Rolly Romero (16-2) proved too experienced for the rugged Manuel Jaimes (16-2-1) who resembles slightly Antonio Margarito. The only problem is he doesn’t punch enough like the Tijuana tornado.

Romero hit and held through much of the fight until the referee warned him repeatedly. Still, Romero was busier and far more accurate than Jaimes. All three judges scored in favor of Romero 99-91.

Photo credit: German Villasenor

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Stephen Fulton Nips Carlos Castro in a Prelude to Canelo vs Berlanga

Published

2 days ago

September 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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In his first fight back after being dominated and stopped by pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue in a fight for super bantamweight supremacy in July of last year, Stephen Fulton nipped upset-minded Carlos Castro, improving to 22-1 (8) in his first start as a featherweight. The verdict was split, with Fulton prevailing by 96-93 and 95-94 with the dissenter favoring Castro 95-94. The decision seemed fair although not in eyes of the predominantly Mexican crowd which booed the decision.

This was an entertaining 10-round fight between two evenly-matched 30-year-old campaigners. Long-time Phoenix resident Castro (30-3) put Fulton on the deck in round five with a counter right hand and Fulton rode his bicycle to shed the cobwebs as the round played out. But the Philadelphian, with new trainer Bozy Ennis in his corner, recuperated well and had a strong sixth round.

In round eight, Castro buckled Fulton’s knees with another straight right, but was unable to press his advantage. The bout served as the “main” prelim to the four-fight PPV card.

—

In a welterweight contest slated for “10,” Mexico City’s Ricardo Salas, a 6/1 underdog, scored a second-round stoppage of Roiman Villa. The end in this slam-bang and all-too-brief skirmish came at the 2:06 mark of round three when Salas, fighting off the ropes, nailed Villa with a perfectly-placed, short right hand. Villa went down for the count.

Salas, whose de facto manager is the ubiquitous Sean Gibbons, improved to 20-2-2 with his 15^th win inside the distance. From Colombia by way of Venezuela, Villa (26-3) was making his first start since being stopped by Boots Ennis in July of last year.

—

In the opener on the PBC YouTube channel, super featherweight Jonathan “Geo” Lopez, a 21-year-old Pennsylvania-born southpaw, won a wide 8-round decision over rugged San Antonio campaigner Richard Medina. Lopez pitched a shutout, winning 80-71 on all three cards, but this was hardly a stroll in the park for him.

Lopez, who improved to 17-0 (12), simply had too much class for Medina. A 20/1 favorite, the Eddy Reynoso-trained boxer hurt Medina at the end of round seven and put him on the canvas in the final round with a straight left hand, but Medina (15-3) kept on plugging away and maintained his distinction of never being stopped.

Also

In an off-TV fight, super middleweight Bek Nurmaganbet, a 26-year-old Kazakh, won his eighth straight inside the distance, improving to 12-0 (10) with a second-round stoppage of SoCal’s Joshua Conley (17-7-1).

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