The Newsboy Boxer: Remnant of a Bygone Era

Published

3 years ago

November 4, 2021

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In olden days, many boxers were drawn from the ranks of newsboys. The newsboy boxer was a staple of so-called smokers during the early decades of the twentieth century. Some amateur tournaments were restricted to newsboys. The promoters had no trouble finding volunteers.

Some newsboys went on to have Hall of Fame careers. Abe Attell, Tony Canzoneri, Young Corbett III, Pete Herman, Rocky Kansas, Fidel LaBarba, David Montrose, Lew Tendler, and Kid Williams are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY. There are undoubtedly a few others in there with a newsboy background. Montrose was enshrined under his ring name, Newsboy Brown.

There are different types of newsboys. Many years ago, this reporter had a newspaper route. At the distribution center, copies of the Long Island Press were folded in such a way that they became projectiles which could then be launched on to a homeowner’s stoop without getting off one’s bicycle. The Press was an afternoon paper so there was no conflict with school.

This was the sissified version of a newsboy.

With few exceptions, the newsboys that went on to become boxers were city dwellers who had to hustle to make a little money in the face of fierce competition. They did not have the luxury of a well-defined route free of interlopers like the kids in suburbia. They had to fight to defend their turf.

A boy holding a bunch of newspapers under one arm as he barked out his spiel was once a ubiquitous shard of the urban landscape. The peak years were the years straddling the dawn of the twentieth century when new technologies sharply reduced the cost of producing a newspaper. During the decade of the 1890s, notes the celebrated historian Vincent DiGirolamo in his 2019 opus “Crying The News,” 657 new daily papers emerged in the United States, bringing the total to 2,179. In 1899, there were more than two dozen dailies in New York City alone with a combined circulation of more than a million. Many of the newcomers were tabloids that practiced so-called yellow journalism. They were known for their lurid headlines, a boon to the newsboys who had their hook for roping in passersby who might need a sensational storyline to trigger them into shaking loose a few coins.

During this period, the newsboy demographic changed. Jews and Italians displaced the Irish. Boxing mirrored the transition. Of the Hall of Famers previously mentioned, only Kid Williams, born in Denmark, was unique. Young Corbett III (Raffaele Giordano), Pete Herman (Peter Gulotta), and Rocky Kansas (Rocco Tozzo) were Italian. Montrose was Jewish, as were Attell and Tendler.

There were two diametrically opposed stereotypes of newsboys.

In books for young readers, he was often portrayed as an orphan who would return a lost wallet to its owner with its contents undisturbed. He was applauded for his industriousness. But as the ranks of newsboys were swelled by immigrants and children of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, a pernicious stereotype emerged. Newsboys were now frequently portrayed as truants whose moral fiber, already tattered, was worsened by a life on the streets. Newsboys, it was noted, were more likely to smoke, swear, and gamble than were their non-newsboy peers. At Newsboy Alley in Chicago, one could reportedly find a craps game at any hour of the day.

For some boxers identified either as newsboys or former newsboys, hawking papers was likely an irregular and fleeting occupation. Some may not have been newsboys at all. Old-time sportswriters were notorious for playing loose with the facts. But for some, work as a newsboy continued while their boxing careers were in progress. And newsboys weren’t all boys. There were always adult men in the mix and a smattering of girls and women too. Their percentage increased during periods of economic instability.

Plug the word newsboy into BoxRec and more than 100 citations appear. Monk the Newsboy, a fighter from Providence, Rhode Island, born Harry Kronski, had the distinction of being the last man to defeat George Dixon, knocking the immortal “Little Chocolate” into retirement. Newsboy Millich, who did not confine his fisticuffing to the ring, was one of the great sporting characters in the history of Sacramento.

Millich had more than 100 pro fights, but the prize in this category belonged to Abraham “Abe the Newsboy” Hollandersky who claimed to have had more than a thousand, earning him a citation in the Guinness Book of Records and in Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Abe sold newspapers on the streets of New London, Connecticut before graduating to the life of a maritime newsboy-businessman. Through an arrangement with the Department of the Navy, he acquired a supply boat from which he peddled newspapers and magazines and various sundries such as shaving cream to servicemen aboard military ships. He had his most notable fights in Panama where the U.S. Navy established a large presence during the building of the famous canal.

Abe did so well at his trade that he was able to finance the publication of his memoir. Titled “The Life Story of Abe the Newsboy: Hero of a thousand Fights,” the book went to so many editions that it became almost as commonplace as Pete Rose’s autograph. It is a most curious tome as one would have inferred from this promotional blurb: “a story that has all the charm of conversation…unspoiled by any editorial blue-pencil.”

As author DiGiralamo notes, although young boys hawking papers flooded the sidewalks of cities both big and small, they were yet invisible to social reformers concerned with improving conditions of children working in factories and mills. Part of this owed to the fact that newsboys were independent contractors and there was a great deal of turnover in their ranks. However, some young newsboys were compelled to quit school because of circumstances at home and their lot wasn’t an easy one. Their bosses could raise the wholesale cost of papers on a whim or reduce the number of unsold papers they were willing to take back. Working in harsh weather was a challenge and there were predators on the streets – older boys that coveted their pitch and men with sordid propensities.

In this environment, it figured that many boys would take up the sport of boxing. And as history would show, many proved to be quite good at it.

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Arne K. Lang

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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

Published

19 hours ago

April 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.

Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.

Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.

The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.

Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.

Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11^th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.

That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.

Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.

In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.

Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30^th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.

Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.

The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welterweight Week in SoCal

Published

2 days ago

April 18, 2025

David A. Avila

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Two below-the-radar super welterweight stars show off their skills this weekend from different parts of Southern California.

One in particular, Charles Conwell, co-headlines a show in Oceanside against a hard-hitting Mexican while another super welter star Sadriddin Akhmedov faces another Mexican hitter in Commerce.

Take your pick.

The super welterweight division is loaded with talent at the moment. If Terence Crawford remained in the division he would be at the top of the class, but he is moving up several weight divisions.

Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) faces Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs) a tall knockout puncher from Los Mochis at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Calif. on Saturday April 19. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also features undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora. We’ll get to her later.

Conwell might be the best super welterweight out there aside from the big dogs like Vergil Ortiz, Serhii Bohachuk and Sebastian Fundora.

If you are not familiar with Conwell he comes from Cleveland, Ohio and is one of those fighters that other fighters know about. He is good.

He has the James “Lights Out” Toney kind of in-your-face-style where he anchors down and slowly deciphers the opponent’s tools and then takes them away piece by piece. Usually it’s systematic destruction. The kind you see when a skyscraper goes down floor by floor until it’s smoking rubble.

During the Covid days Conwell fought two highly touted undefeated super welters in Wendy Toussaint and Madiyar Ashkeyev. He stopped them both and suddenly was the boogie man of the super welterweight division.

Conwell will be facing Mexico’s taller Garcia who likes to trade blows as most Mexican fighters prefer, especially those from Sinaloa. These guys will be firing H bombs early.

Fundora

Co-headlining the Golden Boy card is Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) the undisputed flyweight champion of the world. She has all the belts and Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs) wants them.

Gabriela Fundora is the sister of Sebastian Fundora who holds the men’s WBC and WBO super welterweight world titles. Both are tall southpaws with power in each hand to protect the belts they accumulated.

Six months ago, Fundora met Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz in Las Vegas to determine the undisputed flyweight champion. The much shorter Alaniz tried valiantly to scrap with Fundora and ran into a couple of rocket left hands.

Mexico’s Badillo is an undefeated flyweight from Mexico City who has battled against fellow Mexicans for years. She has fought one world champion in Asley Gonzalez the current super flyweight world titlist. They met years ago with Badillo coming out on top.

Does Badillo have the skill to deal with the taller and hard-hitting Fundora?

When a fighter has a six-inch height advantage like Fundora, it is almost impossible to out-maneuver especially in two-minute rounds. Ask Alaniz who was nearly decapitated when she tried.

This will be Badillo’s first pro fight outside of Mexico.

Commerce Casino

Kazakhstan’s Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0, 13 KOs) is another dangerous punching super welterweight headlining a 360 Promotions card against Mexico’s Elias Espadas (23-6, 16 KOs) on Saturday at the Commerce Casino.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions card of about eight bouts.

Akhmedov is another Kazakh puncher similar to the great Gennady “GGG” Golovkin who terrorized the middleweight division for a decade. He doesn’t have the same polish or dexterity but doesn’t lack pure punching power.

It’s another test for the super welterweight who is looking to move up the ladder in the very crowded 154-pound weight division. 360 Promotions already has a top contender in Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk who nearly defeated Vergil Ortiz a year ago.

Could Bohachuk and Akhmedov fight each other if nothing else materializes?

That’s a question for another day.

Fights to Watch

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs. Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs); Gabriela Fundora (15-0) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1).

Sat. UFC Fight Pass 6 p.m. Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0) vs Elias Espadas (23-6).

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TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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