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Catching Up with Jonnie Rice as He Prepares for His Rematch with Michael Coffie

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Catching Up with Jonnie Rice as He Prepares for His Rematch with Michael Coffie

There are different kinds of upsets. Some of the most storied upsets in American sports annals were actually quite mundane when measured against the betting line. The bigger the stage, the greater the shared element of surprise when an underdog brings home the bacon. Then there are upsets that are purely numerical. The magnitude isnā€™t measured by whether it provokes a great yammering, but simply by the odds displayed on a wagering board.

By this second barometer, Jonnie Rice may have forged the biggest upset of 2021 when he stopped Michael Coffie in the fifth round at Newark, New Jersey, on July 31. Coffie was chalked a 25/1 favorite at several off-shore sports books. Factoring in the straddle, a wager on Rice would have returned $15 for every dollar that was wagered.

Michael Coffie, an ex-Marine, was 12-0 heading in and was coming off a brutal third round knockout of Darmani Rock, a well-regarded 24-year-old prospect from Philadelphia with a 17-0 pro record and a strong amateur pedigree. True, Coffie was relatively untested, but on the surface it was hard to fancy Rice who was 13-6-1, hadnā€™t defeated anyone of note, and had taken the fight on short notice when Coffieā€™s original opponent Gerald Washington flunked his COVID test.

With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, however, itā€™s plain that the bet-takers didnā€™t do their homework. Five of Riceā€™s six defeats had come at the hands of opponents that were undefeated. He had gone the distance with Tony Yoka and Efe Ajagba and had lasted into the seventh round against fearsome Arslanbek Makhmudov who has 10 first-round knockouts to his credit in only 13 pro starts.

Rice was battle-tested in the gym. He had worked in the camps of Filip Hrgovic and Joe Joyce and had sparred many rounds with Luis Ortiz, Tyson Fury and Mike Hunter. Michael Coffie had worked with Deontay Wilder, Jarrell ā€œBig Babyā€ Miller and Adam Kownacki, but Riceā€™s sparring partners were certainly a more formidable lot.

In all sports, including boxing, ā€œstrength of scheduleā€ is a salient variable in the handicapping equation.

During the COVID era, promoters have taken to keeping an alternate on standby in case of a late scratch. Against Coffie, Jonnie Rice was not your conventional late sub. He knew that he might be summoned out of the bullpen, so to speak, and never stopped training.

His trainers Rodney Crisler and Bones Adams felt that Jonnie had become too defense-oriented. Against Ajagba, he had been reluctant to let his hands go until late in the fight and then he had more than held his own with the highly-touted Nigerian. It was as if he had fallen into the rut so common to ā€œB-sideā€ fighters whereby they feel pressure to perform in the manner expected of them by the promoter/matchmaker that is paying their rent.

Against Michael Coffie, Rice promised to be more offense-minded and proved to be a man of his word. He took the fight to Coffie from the opening bell. According to CompuBox, Rice out-landed Coffie 68-40 with a 54-26 edge in power punches. In the fifth round, with Coffie pawing at his left eye which was nearly shut and offering little resistance, the ref waived it off.

Now Jonnie Rice must prove that it was no fluke. In case you missed it, he and Coffie will be locking horns again on New Yearā€™s Day as part of an all-heavyweight FOX Sports pay-per-view extravaganza in primetime from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Luis ā€œKing Kongā€ Ortiz squares off against Charles Martin in the main go. (The telecast goes head-to-head against the Sugar Bowl which isnā€™t on the National Championship docket this year.)

Getting to Know Jonnie Rice

Jonathan Micah ā€œJonnieā€ Rice turned 34 in February. He was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, the son of a Baptist minister who passed away when Jonnie was 15.

Rice has a versatile sports background. He played some hoops at Winthrop, a D-1 school in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and played semi-pro football. And heā€™s not the only athlete in his extended family. The man he grew up calling Uncle Ed is none other than Jim Rice, more formally James Edward Rice, the former star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox who is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Repeating what his dad told him, Jonnie says that Jim Rice sharpened his batting eye as a young boy hitting pebbles with a broomstick.)

There is an international data bank for athletes of various stripes; a digital warehouse for scouts. Michael King found him there.

Fourteen years ago, Michael King had an epiphany. It struck him that there were a lot of great college athletes who just werenā€™t quite good enough to make the NFL or the NBA and that the next heavyweight champion could be culled from this rich talent pool. To this end, King founded a company named ā€œAll American Heavyweightsā€ and built a mammoth, state-of-the-art training facility in Carson, a city in Los Angeles County. He called it The Rock.

King had the resources to pull it off. He was the President of King World, a company founded by his father. King World syndicated Oprah Winfreyā€™s talk show and the iconic game shows ā€œWheel of Fortuneā€ and ā€œJeopardy.ā€ Michael King was rolling in dough.

King passed away in 2015 at age sixty-seven. He never came anywhere close to earning back his investment in boxing. The only heavyweights of note to emerge from The Rock were two-time world title challenger Dominic Breazeale and the aforementioned Charles Martin who had a cup of coffee as a world title-holder. His reign lasted only 85 days.

Although it certainly must be considered a longshot, perhaps Jonnie Rice will come to be seen as the best of Michael Kingā€™s ā€œAll Americanā€ alumni.

Rice prepared for the Makhmudov fight in Las Vegas and decided that this was where he needed to be to make headway in his career. He left behind his girlfriend in Los Angeles, a Swedish exchange student at Cal State-Northridge.

Absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder. But reconnecting with her was complicated. After Jonnie put down roots in Las Vegas, she returned to Sweden.

Rice spent the bulk of his purse from the Coffie fight on what would prove to be something of a wild goose chase. He spent an entire month in Sweden, returning without her, cognizant that he might never see her again. He hurt in a way that made Tyson Furyā€™s punches pin-pricks by comparison.

Jonnie Rice is a big bear of a man. He carries about 270 pounds on his six-foot-five frame. If one were to encounter him for the first time in a dark alley, one would make a quick U-turn. But that wouldnā€™t be necessary. It has been observed that many prizefighters have a tender side; an attribute more striking because of their violent profession. Jonnie Rice has a tender side.

Unlike career women, men donā€™t have biological clocks that begin to tick as they approach the end of their child-bearing years. But many men, as they slip into their mid-thirties, feel a pull to settle down and start a family. Itā€™s not something that men readily talk about, but Jonnie Rice doesnā€™t shrink from acknowledging that he yearns to find the right woman and become a father.

Thereā€™s a certain irony there in that Rice is whelmed by voluptuous women at work. In common with many MMA fighters based in Las Vegas, he works the night shift as a bouncer/doorman at a so-called gentlemanā€™s club. He doesnā€™t have the luxury of giving boxing his full attention.

Jonnie Rice picked the right moment to come out of the shadows. His bout with Michael Coffie was the main event of a show nationally televised on FOX. As such, viewers got to see more of him than just the fisticuffs. A scene in his dressing room before the fight undoubtedly turned many people off. Looking straight into the camera, Jonnie took a bunch of bills out of his wallet and made it rain in a Mayweather-ish fashion.

ā€œI wasnā€™t expecting the camera crew to barge in like that,ā€ says Rice. ā€œAt the time, I was getting text messages from friends and I was very nervous. I decided I would give them a show because I knew thatā€™s what they wanted.ā€

He may have lost some potential fans with that display, but he gained new fans in his post-fight interview. Standing in the center of the ring, his body dripping with sweat, Rice gave an extemporaneous speech that would have been the envy of any motivational speaker. ā€œThe whole key to life is getting better every day you walk this earthā€¦I didnā€™t let my past dictate my future,ā€ he told Heidi Androl. ā€œIā€™m always looking to learn from the greats as well as my peersā€¦Iā€™ve got a great team around me that believe in me. But I have to believe in me too and you have to believe in you to be successfulā€¦{What I learned tonight} is that if I do the work, I will see the results; I will reap what I sow and thatā€™s a universal rule for everybody.ā€

ā€œI spoke from the heart,ā€ says Rice, re-visiting that moment.

Now comes the hard part, proving to himself and others that he isnā€™t a one-trick pony. The day of judgment comes on Jan. 1 in Florida. And if he comes up short, that would be insignificant in the larger scheme of things if he satisfies his yearning to become a good father.

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The Hauser Report: What’s Going On With Premier Boxing Champions?

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Eight years ago, Al Haymon unveiled what many thought would be the future of boxing. The boxing community had been awash in rumors for months. Haymon was amassing a war chest totaling hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of a venture capital fund in an effort to take over the sport . . . Haymon was signing hundreds of fighters to managerial and advisory contracts . . . Haymon was planning some sort of TV series . . . Time-buys on multiple networks for an entity called Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) were confirmed.

On March 7, 2015, Haymon began the rollout of his plan when NBC televised the inaugural PBC offering – a fight card featuring Keith Thurman and Adrien Broner in separate bouts. Free boxing. On network television.

But the plan fell short of expectations. Advertisers didn’t come onboard. DAZN and then Saudi Arabia became the flavor of the month. Now PBC is seeking to reassert itself through an alliance with Amazon. The first “PBC on Prime Video” offering will be a pay-per-view event on March 30 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But PBC isn’t the power it once was. No one talks about Al Haymon taking over boxing anymore.

Amazon will distribute the PBC show. It wants to build a live pay-per-view platform for multiple events, and this is an early foray into that realm. It has no interest in playing the sort of role that HBO and Showtime played in boxing. Amazon (like In Demand) will take and distribute the product it’s given.

The PBC pay-per-view events that are streamed on Prime Video will also be available to viewers through other streaming platforms like PPV.com as well as linear-TV cable and satellite PPV distributors.

In addition, Prime Video has said that it will stream a series of “free” (with a subscription to Amazon Prime)Ā PBC Championship Boxing events in the United States and other designated countries on an exclusive basis.

The degree to which Amazon will provide a marketing push for PBC’s shows is unclear at the present time.

Four fights will be on the March 30 PPV stream. The main event was to have matched Keith Thurman vs. Tim Tszyu. Eight years ago when he headlined PBC’s inaugural telecast on NBC, Thurman was young and fresh. Now he’s 35 years old and has won only one fight in the preceding five years (a ten-round decision over Mario Barrios). Tszyu (the son of Kostya Tszyu) was eased into the WBO 154-pound title through an “interim” portal and is being groomed for a big-money fight down the road.

Then, earlier today (March 18), it was reported that Thurman had been injured in training camp and Sebastian Fundora (who’d been slated to fight Serheii Bohachuk on the undercard) will likely face Tszyu. Fundora was speeding along a fast track until his most recent fight which saw him pitching a shutout against Brian Mendoza when a one-punch knockout in round seven derailed his dream.

Sebastian Fundora

Sebastian Fundora

The primary supporting bouts on the pay-per-view stream are expected to be Erislandy Lara vs. Michael Zerafa and Rolly Romero vs. Isaac Cruz.

Lara is forty years old. During the past five years, he has fought Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, Thomas LaManna, and Gary O’Sullivan (which somehow enabled him to claim the WBA 160-pound belt). Zerafa’s primary qualification seems to be that (like Tszyu) he’s from Australia.

Romero is a tiresome loudmouth who often fails to back up his talk. He was knocked out by Gervonta Davis and was trailing Ismael Barroso on all three judges’ scorecards when a premature stoppage by referee Tony Weeks gifted him the WBA 140-pound belt. Cruz went the distance in a losing effort against Davis.

Former Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza has been consulted with regard to production on the March 30 PPV stream. As of this writing, the commentating team hasn’t been announced (which is odd since the event is less than two weeks away).

Meanwhile, the rest of the sports landscape is rapidly changing.

On January 23, it was announced that Netflix (Prime Video’s most formidable competitor with 247 million subscribers) had signed a deal to stream WWE’s flagship wrestling show – Raw. The ten-year deal will cost Netflix roughly five billion dollars. Netflix can opt out of the deal after five years or, if it chooses, extend it for another ten years.

Then, on March 7, Netflix furthered its commitment to “trash sports” when it announced that Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will meet in the ring in Texas on July 20 in an encounter to be streamed live on Netflix. It’s unclear whether the encounter will be a “fight” or a glorified sparring session.

Adding to the mix; Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers announced on February 6 that they will launch a joint subscription streaming service later this year that will bundle sports content from ESPN and affiliated networks (such as ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS), the Warner Brothers’ Discovery networks that showcase sports (TNT, TBS, TruTV), and Fox (the Fox broadcast network in addition to FS1, FS2 and BTN).

But back to PBC on Prime Video. If the March 30 fight card were streamed as part of the Amazon PrimeĀ membership package, it would be a plus for boxing fans. But it won’t be. It’s a pay-per-view event. And even before Thurman’s injury, it wasn’t pay-per-view-worthy as that term was once understood.

You get only one chance to make a first impression. This isn’t a good first impression for PBC on Prime Video.

***

On December 17, I posted a column in which I urged that Gerry Cooney and Cedric Kushner be included on the ballot for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. There’s another, more obvious omission that I’d like to address.

Al Haymon has been at the center of the boxing universe for two decades. He built his power through a series of alliances with HBO (his point person was Kery Davis), Golden Boy (Richard Schaefer), and investors (Waddell & Reed) and maintained it through dealings with Showtime (Stephen Espinoza) and various other networks. There were times when it seemed as though he was on the verge of “taking over boxing.” Now Saudi Arabian oil money is the dominant force. But Haymon is breaking new ground through an association between Premier Boxing Champions and Amazon Video.

Haymon likes to style himself as an “advisor” or “manager.” In reality, he functions as a promoter. But labels are irrelevant. The bottom line is that no one has had a greater influence on boxing over the past twenty years than Al Haymon. He belongs in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and the first step toward that end is to put his name on the ballot for induction.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book — ā€œMY MOTHER and me” — is a personal memoir that will be published by Admission Press this spring and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Dillian Whyte Returns from Purgatory and Brushes Away a Wimpy Opponent in Ireland

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Dillian Whyte Returns from Purgatory and Brushes Away a Wimpy Opponent in Ireland

Tomorrow (Monday) is a national holiday in Ireland which is always the case whenever Saint Patrickā€™s Day happens to fall on a Sunday. That explains why todayā€™s fight card in the County Mayo town of Castlebar is being staged on a Sunday. After the show, the attendees with regular jobs can stay up late quaffing down a few pints at their favorite pub knowing they can sleep-in tomorrow. (And they likely needed a few pints to wash away the pain of paying good money to see this craphole show.)

All of the A-Side fighters were Irishmen including the headliner Dillian Whyte, a Londoner of Jamaican extraction who claims that one of his grandparents was born in Ireland. The ā€œBody Snatcherā€ was matched against German-Romanian slug Christian Hammer.

Whyte, who turns 36 next month, last fought in November of 2022 when he won a lackluster decision over Jermaine Franklin. His rematch with Anthony Joshua in August of last year fell out when an ā€œadverse analytical findingā€ turned up in his VADA test. Whyte bellowed loudly that he was innocent, but there was the presumption of guilt because he had served a two-year ban for illegal substances earlier in his career. But lo and behold, in a curious development, Whyte was cleared this month when a forensics expert associated with the Texas Boxing Commission asserted that the adverse result was caused by a nutritional supplement that contained a contaminent that wasnā€™t disclosed on the supplement’s list of ingredients. (Whyte was training in the United States and licensed to fight in Texas when the random drug test was administered.)

Hammer brought a 27-10 (17) record but had been stopped five times, most recently by Joe Joyce who blew him away in four rounds. He was in Castlebar just for the payday and retired on his stool after three frames. He was never down in the fight, but was tattooed with a bunch of punches on his flabby midsection. (The weights were not announced.)

With the win, Dillian Whyte advanced his record to 30-3 (20 KOs). More relevantly, he is back in the mix in the heavyweight picture. His American trainer Buddy McGirt hopes to have him back in the ring in a couple of months.

Other Bouts of Note

Roy Moylette, a 33-year-old junior welterweight from the nearby town of Islandeady, made the locals happy when he got off the deck to win the decision in an 8-round bout with Argentine journeyman Requen Facundo (17-15-2). Moylette (14-2-1) entered the pro ranks with a wealth of international amateur experience, but his pro career never took off. Heading into this match, he announced it would be his farewell fight.

The Argentine, a late sub who had begun his pro career as a featherweight, had Moylette on the canvas in the second round but couldnā€™t sustain the momentum. The referee, who had the unusual but unmistakably Irish name of Padraig Oā€™Reachtagain, scored it 76-75.

In what was likely his final pro fight, 39-year-old Cork super middleweight Gary ā€œSpikeā€ Oā€™Sullivan left on a downbeat note, losing an 8-round decision to Sofiane Khati. Oā€™Reachtagain had it 77-76 for the outsider.

Oā€™Sullivan (31-6, 21 KOs) will be remembered as the Irishman who wore a handlebar mustache during his fighting days in Boston, a look that harked to John L. Sullivan who Spike believed to be a distant relative. In his previous bout in May of 2022 he was stopped in eight frames by Erislandy Lara in Brooklyn, his fourth setback inside the distance and third in his last six.

A 31-year-old French-Algerian, Khati improved to 15-4 (5).

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Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: ‘The Blue Cornerā€™

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Boxing, like all sports, is more fun to watch when the viewer has a rooting interest. That interest can spring from a variety of factors. Some people like or dislike a particular fighter on a personal level. Others – let’s be honest – root for or against a fighter based on ethnicity.

If I don’t know either of the fighters in a fight, I root for the underdog.

That can be dispiriting. Too many fight cards today consist largely of A-side vs. B-side fights. As a general rule, the A-side fighter comes out of the red corner and the B-side fighter is seated in the blue corner. Upsets are few and far between.

Tom Loeffler’s March 15 fight card at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater is a case in point. There are underdogs and then there are hopeless underdogs. I went to the fights hoping something that wasn’t supposed to happen would happen. But a look at the opponents’ records told me that was unlikely.

BoxRec.com is a wonderful tool for scoping out how competitive a fight is likely to be. Here’s what I learned from BoxRec.com before the fights and how things unfolded in the ring.

Fight #1: Giovanni Scuderi (9-0, 4 KOs) vs. Brandon Carmack – Scuderi’s last opponent had 57 losses. And that opponent might have beaten Carmack. I’m sure Brandon could decimate most people in a bar fight. But he lumbered around the ring like a heavybag with feet. Scuderi telegraphs every righthand he throws. But he has a basic jab. The match had the appearance of a picador sticking lances into a slow sluggish bull. W4 for Scuderi.

Fight #2: Nisa Rodriguez (0-0) vs. Jozette Cotton – Rodriguez is a 33-year-old New York City police officer with an extensive amateur background who was making her pro debut. Cotton was winless in four pro fights. Rodriguez fought tentatively. Cotton had a roll of flab around her waist (which spoke to her conditioning) and fought like she didn’t know how to box. W4 for Rodriguez.

Fight #3 Joseph Ward (10-1, 6 KOs) vs. Derrick Webster – Webster is 41 years old and has now won one of six fights since 2018. KO 2 for Ward.

Fight #4: Reshat Mati (14-0, 8 KOs) vs. Irving Macias – Macias has lost three of his last four fights, and the guy he beat during that stretch has 19 losses (including his last seven fights in a row). W8 for Mati.

Fight #5: Cletus Seldin (27-1, 23 KOs) vs. Jose Angulo – Angulo has lost six of his last eight fights, including four KOs by. W8 for Seldin, Here, I should note that, after the fight, Seldin took the ring announcer’s microphone, dropped to one knee, opened a small box containing a diamond engagement ring, and asked one Jessica Ostrowski to marry him. The future Mrs. Seldin (who was clad in black leather) said yes, and the happy couple paraded around the ring together.

Fight #6: Feargal McCrory (15-0, 7 KOs) vs. Carlos Carlson – Ā Carlson has had ten fights since 2016 and lost seven of them. The three guys he beat during that stretch have 92 losses between them. And he hadn’t fought in more than two years. Referee David Fields did the fans a favor by stopping the bout prematurely in round three. If Carlson had fought as vigorously during the fight as he complained about the stoppage afterward, it would have been a better fight.

Fight #7: The main event matched Callum Walsh (9-0, 7 KOs) against Dauren Yeleussinov. Walsh is a 23-year-old junior-middleweight who UFC CEO Dana White is trying to build as a boxing version of Conor McGregor. Yeleussinov has lost three of his last four fights (including a first-round KO by). And the opponent Dauren beat during that stretch has 22 losses (including a current losing streak of 19 a row). Yeleussinov was tailor-made for Walsh – slow on his feet with slow hands and not much of a punch. Callum got off first all night. KO 9.

In six of the seven fights, the underdog lost every round.

I’m tired of fighters who talk tough and posture at press conferences but won’t fight an opponent who’s remotely competitive. And yes; I know that prospects can’t go in tough every time out. But a prospect’s opponent should pose some kind of challenge.

And let’s be honest; most of the fighters on the March 15 card were there because they were local ticket-sellers, not prospects. Only Walsh has world-class potential. He’s 23 years old with skills and is getting better. Right now, he’s a very good club fighter. Let’s see if he becomes something more.

*Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  *Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  *

One moment from promoter Larry Goldberg’s March 7 club-fight card at Sony Hall in New York stands out in my mind.

In the second fight of the evening, Jason Castanon and Luis Rivera-Reyes squared off against one another in a scheduled four-round junior-welterweight bout. Each man was making his pro debut. Castanon’s opponent had pulled out the previous week, leaving matchmaker Eric Bottjer scrambling for a new opponent. Rivera-Reyes had been scheduled to fight on the undercard of a show in Puerto Rico but his opponent had also fallen out, so he was available.

Bottjer thought that Castanon vs. Rivera-Reyes would be a competitive fight. Each man was old for a boxer making his pro debut. Castano is 30; Rivera-Reyes is 35. But they had comparable amateur backgrounds.

Rivera-Reyes held his own in round one. But Castanon was the stronger, better-schooled fighter. In round two, Luis started getting beaten up. The punishment mounted in round three. Rivera-Reyes was still trying to win but it was a futile effort. With seconds left in the third stanza, a righthand staggered Luis and a second righthand put him down hard. He rose through an incredible act of will because that’s what real fighters do. But he was badly hurt and on wobbly legs. Referee Eddie Claudio asked if he wanted to continue.

Rivera-Reyes shook his head. No.

Afterward, an uncharitable observer said that Luis “quit.”

I think that Luis acted with honor. Sitting several feet from the ring, I had a perfect view of the pain and despair etched on his face as he confronted the reality that he was a beaten man. He didn’t jump to his feet at the count of ten-and-a-half, pretending that he was ready to keep fighting. He didn’t ignore the referee’s question and feign outrage when the fight was stopped. He acknowledged that he had given his all and was beaten. Fighters aren’t video-game figures. They get hurt. And sometimes they just can’t take anymore.

The moment reminded me of the 1983 rematch between Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor. Pryor had won their classic first encounter with a brutal knockout that left Arguello unconscious on the ring canvas. In round ten of Pryor-Arguello II, Alexis found himself on the canvas again. He was a warrior, one of the greatest fighters of all time. He could have gotten up. But he didn’t. He had done the best he could and realized that it was over. He sat with tears streaming down his face and later acknowledged. “Itā€™s hard to accept, but itā€™s good to accept. I did it with grace and just accepted that the guy beat me. Even though I did my best, in the tenth round I accepted it right there. I said, ‘This is too much. I wonā€™t take it. Iā€˜ll just sit and watch Richard Steele count to ten.'”The look in Luis Rivera-Reyes’s eyes when he shook his head will stay with me for a long time. He had been beaten into submission in his first pro fight. And I wondered, how long will he hold onto the dream.

*Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  *Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  *

A nod to “March Madness” which begins this week . . .

College basketball has a problem – court storming.

It’s now in vogue for fans of the home team to surge onto the court after a big win. Tearing down the goal posts in football endangers fans who are tearing down the goal posts. Court storming endangers the players.

On January 21, Caitlin Clark (Iowa’s superstar guard) was knocked to the floor when Ohio State fans stormed the court after a big win.

On February 24, Kyle Fitzpatrick (Duke’s All-American center) injured his knee when Wake Forest fans stormed the court after a dramatic upset.

To date, the NCAA has done nothing about the problem. Several conferences have taken action on their own, the most notable example being the SEC which instituted an escalating fine that begins at $100,000 for the first incident. By contrast, the ACC has no penalty for court-storming; the Big Ten has no penalty until the third incident; and the Big East penalizes offending schools the paltry sum of $5,000.

It shouldn’t be hard to end court storming.

The NCAA should institute a rule – and fans should be advised late in each contest – that court storming will result in forfeiture of the game.

***

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book ā€“ MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir that will be published by Admission Press on April 2 and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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