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For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2021 Boxing Obituaries PART TWO (July-Dec.)

Here is the second and final installment of our annual year-end report in which we pay homage to those for whom the final bell tolled.
July
2 – Lehlo Ledwaba – He won the IBF 122-pound title in 1999 and made five successful defenses before losing the belt on a sixth-round stoppage to Manny Pacquiao in what was Pacquiao’s U.S. debut. He trained and managed several fighters after leaving the sport with a record of 36-6-1. At age 49 of Covid complications at a medical clinic in his home province of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.
12 – Conroy Nelson – According to various sources, Nelson spent the last 20 years of his life living in a bamboo hut with no electricity on a family farm in his homeland of Jamaica. Fighting out of Canada, he compiled a 21-24-2 record during a 20-year career during which he was fodder for the likes of Mike Tyson, Herbie Hyde, and Riddick Bowe. He was battling pancreatic cancer when he died of a heart attack at age 62.
22 – Andre Thysse – From the Gauteng province of South Africa, Thysse answered the bell for 221 rounds during a 10-year career that began in 1999. He finished 20-8, but was stopped only twice and reportedly never knocked down. In retirement, he owned several businesses and promoted a few fights in Johannesburg. At age 52 of Covid-19.
August
10 – Stanley “Kitten” Hayward – He was right in the thick of things when Philadelphia was a hornets nest of rugged welterweights and middleweights and had one crack at the 154-pound world title, losing a 15-round decision to underrated Freddie Little in Little’s adopted hometown of Las Vegas. After leaving the sport with a 32-12-4 record, he spent 33 years as a Court Crier in Philadelphia where he died from complications of a stroke.
21 – Jarvis Astaire – A Hall of Fame boxing promoter with a wide range of business interests, he was the man most responsible for bringing U.K. boxing into the closed circuit and pay-per-view age. The Astaire Alliance, which included matchmaker Mickey Duff, ruled British boxing with an iron thumb for decades beginning in the late 1960s. At age 97 in London.
23 – Giovanni Pretorius – A former OIympian, the heavy-handed Johannesburg bomber challenged Robin Reid for the WBC super middleweight title in 1997, succumbing in seven rounds. He finished 28-2-1 (24). At age 49 in a hospital in Alberton, S.A., a victim of Covid.
September
1 – Jeanette Zacarias – Only the second known female ring fatality following South Africa’s Phindile Muelas (2014), Zacarias collapsed after the fourth round of an Aug. 28 bout in Montreal and died four days later without regaining consciousness. It was her sixth pro fight. A native of Aguascalientes, Mexico, she was only 18 years old.
2 – Doyle Baird – A brawler from Akron, Ohio who turned pro at age 28, Baird turned heads in 1968 when he held middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti to a draw in a non-title fight. Benvenuti stopped him in 10 rounds in the rematch. He went on to challenge Vincente Rondon for the light heavyweight title (L TKO 6) and retired with a record of 34-7-1. At age 83 in Akron.
10 – Manuel Calvo – Fighting almost exclusively in Spain, Calvo compiled a 54-18-6 record in a 12-year career that began in 1963. Both he and his son of the same name won European featherweight titles. At age 79 in Madrid where he was battling a heart condition.
October
9 – Keitaro Hoshino – Active from 1988 to 2003, Hoshino engaged in six world title fights in the smallest (105 pound) weight class and was a two-time world title-holder. He finished 23-10, somewhat misleading as he was on the wrong end of several razor-thin decisions. At age 52 in his native Yokohama after a long but unspecified illness.
11 – Tony DeMarco – Born Leonardo Liotta, DeMarco won the world welterweight title in 1955 with a 14th-round stoppage of Johnny Saxton, but lost it 10 weeks later in the first of his two sizzling matches with Carmen Basilio. Ushered into the IBHOF in 2019, he finished 58-12-1. An impressive bronze statue of him sits near his boyhood home in Boston where he died at age 89.
31 – Tommy Thomas – Born and raised in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Thomas compiled a 34-8 record during a 10-year career that began in 1977. He tangled with the likes of Michael Dokes, Leon Spinks, and Pierre Coetzer. In retirement, he worked as a police officer in Clarksburg and ran a boxing gym. At age 67 after a long battle with Parkinson’s and dementia.
November
4 – Jerry Martin – Born and raised in Antigua, Martin, nicknamed “The Bull,” turned pro in Philadelphia in 1976 without the benefit of any amateur experience and compiled a record of 25-7. He went inside Rahway prison walls to upend inmate James Scott in a big upset on NBC, but failed in three cracks at the world light heavyweight title, losing to Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Matthew Saad Muhammad, and Dwight Muhammad Qawi. At age 67 in Philadelphia of an undisclosed illness.
6 – Steve Lott — A protégé of the noted boxing historian and memorabilia collector Jim Jacobs, Lott was swept into the world of boxing when Jacobs and his business partner Bill Cayton took to managing prizefighters. Closely allied with the young Mike Tyson, he handled the daily affairs of several other world champions and went on to curate a vast library of boxing ephemera at the popular website Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas. At age 71 in a Las Vegas hospital after suffering a head injury in a fall at his home.
9 – Loucif Hamani – Hamani turned pro in Paris after representing Algeria in the 1972 Munich Olympics and compiled a record of 24-3. He out-pointed a faded Emile Griffith, but was no match for Marvin Hagler who wacked him out in the second round in his lone U.S. engagement. At age 71 in Paris after a long illness.
13 – Jeff Wald – A powerful Hollywood talent agent whose clients included Sylvester Stallone, Wald was the co-creator and co-executive producer of “The Contender” series and had a financial stake in George Foreman’s last two fights. At age 77 in Los Angeles.
17 – Johnny Gant – A welterweight contender in the 1970s who finished 45-15-3, Gant battled such notables as Esteban De Jesus, Hedgemon Lewis, Hector Thompson and Sugar Ray Leonard and went 15 rounds with Angel Espada in Puerto Rico in a failed bid for Espada’s world title. In retirement, the Washington DC native founded a boxing academy in Atlanta for at-risk youth. At age 70 of an undisclosed illness.
17 – Johnny Sarduy – The Cuban featherweight, who finished 33-7-4, closed out his career with two fights in Miami Beach, the second of which included Cassius Clay on the undercard. Sarduy left boxing to join the anti-Castro, CIA-sponsored “Bay of Pigs” invasion and in retirement became a wealthy drywall contractor. At age 85 in Miami.
23 – Paul Cardoza – A two-time New England Golden Gloves champion who served in the Navy and the Marines, Cardoza, a light heavyweight, was 23-9 as a pro in a seven-year career that began in 1969. He split two fights with two-time world title challenger Richie Kates and hung up his gloves after getting stopped by future belt-holder Marvin Johnson. At age 78 in New Bedford, MA, where he was a lifelong resident.
December
13 – Gaspar Ortega – A staple on the small screen during the golden age of TV boxing, the colorful, iron-chinned Ortega, part Zapotec Indian, had 176 documented fights, finishing 131-39-6, and remarkably was stopped only twice, the first coming in 1961 in a failed bid for Emile Griffith’s world welterweight title. The father of world class referee Mike Ortega, “El Indio,” a longtime Connecticut resident, passed away at age 86 at the home of his daughter in Naples, Florida.
14 – Tony Perez – He refereed dozens of world title fights beginning with Joe Frazier vs. Jimmy Ellis on Feb. 16, 1970, and including Muhammad Ali’s first post-exile fight against Jerry Quarry later that year. At age 90 in Barnegat Township, New Jersey. His survivors include his wife Barbara, a former boxing judge who likewise worked many championship fights.
24 – Danny Kelly Jr – A 30-year-old heavyweight with a 10-3-1 record, Kelly was fatally shot in an apparent road rage incident while driving with his girlfriend and three young children on a busy roadway in Saint George County, Maryland, late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. None of the other occupants of the vehicle were injured. His assailant remains at-large.
28 – Harry Reid – A five-term U.S. Senator from Nevada and the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid was an amateur boxer who officiated at approximately 100 pro fights as a ringside judge. He introduced legislation to strengthen the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act and was named to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. At age 82 in Henderson, NV, after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton
In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.
Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”
Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.
Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.
The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.
It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.
Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.
Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.
When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.
Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”
Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.
Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.
Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.
It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.
Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.
For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”
It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.
Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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