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Nino Benvenuti’s Akron Misadventure: A Don Elbaum Production (Natch)
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.
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 10th 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.
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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.
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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 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.
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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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Many of the best female fighters of all time including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and others are gathering in the glitzy lights of Las Vegas this week.
Several hundred fans including current and former world champions are attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 4 and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
It’s one of my favorite events.
Where else can you talk to the female pioneers and stars of the 1980s and 1990s?
The last time I attended two years ago, Germany’s super star Regina Halmich spoke to the packed house about her career in boxing. She and Daisy Lang were two female world champions who sold out arenas wherever they fought. The pair of blonde fighters proved that female prizefighting could succeed.
Many times, I debated with promoters who believed women’s boxing could not succeed in the USA. Though it was popular in Germany and Mexico, various organizers felt female boxing was not appealing to the American masses.
Now promoters and media networks know women’s boxing and women’s sports have crowd appeal.
Expected to attend the IWBHOF event at Orleans will be Mexico’s Jessica Chavez and Jackie Nava who will be inducted into the women’s hall of fame along with Vaia Zaganas of Canada among many others.
It’s also a gathering place for many of the top proponents of women’s boxing including the organizers of this event such as Sue Fox whose idea spawned the IWBHOF.
Each event is unique and special.
Many of my favorite people in boxing attend this celebration of women’s boxing. Stop by the Orleans Casino on the second floor. You won’t be disappointed.
Heavyweight prospects
Heavyweights take the forefront this weekend in two pivotal battles in different continents.
In England, a pair of contenders looking to maintain their footing in the heavyweight mountain will clash as Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) meets Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. DAZN will stream the event.
Both lost their last match and need a win to remain relevant. Joyce has lost his three of his last four, most recently coming up short in a riveting slugfest with Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, two young heavyweights looking to crack contender status clash as undefeated Richard Torrez (12-0,11 KOs) fights Italy’s Guido Vianello (13-2-1,11 KOs) at the Palms Casino.
Both are Olympians who can crack and each can take a blow.
The winner moves up into contention and the other will need to scrape and claw back into relevance.
Coming up
April 12 in Atlantic City: Jarron Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) vs Eimantis Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) IBF welterweight title.
April 12 Albuquerque: Fernando Vargas Jr. (16-0) vs Gonzalo Gaston (23-7); Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4) vs DeAundre Pettus (12-4).
April 19 Oceanside, Calif: Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs). Also, Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs Jorge Garcia (32-4, 26 KOs).
April 26 Tottenham Stadium, London, England; Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) vs Liam Smith (33-4, 20 Kos).
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Joe Joyce (16-3) vs Filip Hrgovic (17-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Richard Torrez (12-0) vs Guido Vianello (13-2-1).
Sat. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 8:00 8 p.m. Tim Tszyu (24-2) vs. Joey Spencer (19-1)
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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.
This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.
Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.
Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.
And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.
Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.
Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.
The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.
In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.
Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)
The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.
Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.
That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.
The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.
The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.
Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.
Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.
Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:
Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)
Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.
Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”
Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.
What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.
What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.
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LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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A Fresh Face on the Boxing Scene, Bryce Mills Faces His Toughest Test on Friday
Bernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: Callum Walsh Returns to Madison Square Garden
Spared Prison by a Lenient Judge, Chordale Booker Pursues a World Boxing Title
Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
A Wide-Ranging Conversation on the Ills of Boxing with Author/Journalist Sean Nam
Ever-Improving Callum Walsh KOs Dean Sutherland at Madison Square Garden
Keith Thurman Returns with a Bang; KOs Brock Jarvis in Sydney
Price Conquers Jonas on an All-Female Card at Royal Albert Hall
Avila Perspective, Chap. 318: Aussie Action, Vegas and More
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 316: Art of the Deal in Boxing and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Nick Ball Wears Down and Stops TJ Doheny Before the Home Folks in Liverpool
Results and Recaps from Sydney where George Kambosos Upended Late Sub Jake Wyllie
Avila Perspective, Chap. 317: Callum Walsh, Dana White and More
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
High Drama in Japan as ‘Amazing Boy’ Kenshiro Teraji Overcomes Seigo Yuri Akui
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