Major Props to Jonathan Guidry and more

The fictional Rocky Balboa lost a split decision to Apollo Creed in the first installment of the fecund “Rocky” series. Thirty-five years later in Warren, Ohio, in a real-life saga with many parallels to Sylvester Stallone’s award-winning screenplay, Jonathan Guidry lost a split decision to Trevor Bryan.

Guidry, like Rocky Balboa, was dismissed as a no-hoper. Prior to meeting Trevor Bryan, this real-life Rocky had fought all but one of his fights in Cajun Country (the exception was a bout in Mobile, Alabama), and he had never fought a match scheduled for more than eight rounds. Some of America’s best jockeys have emerged from the Cajun parishes of South Louisiana, but never a prizefighter who achieved international recognition.

Guidry hails from Dulac, a little town on the outskirts of Houma, Louisiana, a place that has been a bullseye for catastrophic hurricanes originating in the Gulf of Mexico. Like many other men in his community, he makes his living from the water, shrimping and crabbing. A 32-year-old father of four, he never had the luxury of pursuing boxing as a full-time profession. He moonlighted in boxing as a way to make ends meet.

When it was announced that Guidry would be fighting Bryan, the reaction, if not a horse laugh, was one of derision. No one really knew how good Trevor Bryan was, but he was undefeated (21-0) and owned a piece of the WBA world heavyweight title. Moreover, he was promoted by Don King who was positioning him for a match down the road with a much bigger payday and it didn’t figure that King would jeopardize that scenario by putting Bryan in against someone with a reasonable chance of winning.

Among the scoffers, this reporter was perhaps the most caustic. I called the Bryan-Guidry fight a travesty and called the entire show a piece of junk.

In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t been as harsh. Kudos to prominent Canadian boxing journalist Corey Erdman who had a much smarter take on the match-up, a take that was more respectful of Jonathan Guidry.

By rule, no challenger can compete for a WBA title without being ranked in the top 15. Guidry, whose previous opponents were a motley lot, made his debut in the WBA rankings in December at #13. Don King effectuated the bump with a simple phone call. The WBA ratings committee, if there is such a thing, has the spine of a rubber toy.

But, wrote Erdman, “criticizing sanctioning bodies and the belts and bouts they create, and respecting the fighters who participate in them and perhaps benefit from them, shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. Particularly when the fighters, like Guidry, aren’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.”

Indeed, Jonathan Guidry, who was originally scheduled to fight Chattanooga journeyman Alonzo Butler on the undercard, refused to engage Trevor Bryan in the usual pre-fight trash talk. “I’m a nobody,” he said, “but yesterday’s nobody is tomorrow’s somebody…[Bryan] is good, but he’s not one of those elite fighters. I have a better chance fighting him than one of the other guys.”

Prior to getting the Bryan fight, Guidry never had the advantage of a full camp. Training was something he squeezed in between more pressing obligations. But he had too much pride to just show up and take the money. He hied himself to Houston where he submitted to the rigors of the noted trainer Bobby Benton. While there, by his reckoning, he lost 30 pounds. He was still something of a butterball — at the weigh-in he carried 246 ½ pounds on his 5’11” frame – but he worked himself into the best condition that he could under the circumstances.

Many years ago, in my capacity as a part-time fight publicist, I attended several Tough Man tournaments. The competitors included a good smattering of striptease club bouncers, all well-muscled young men. Watching them huff and puff after a round or two – and these were one-minute rounds! – gave me a greater appreciation of the dedication required to reach and maintain the level of a world-class prizefighter. It says here that the ability to fight unwaveringly hard across 12 rounds is the most under-appreciated feat in the pantheon of human endurance sports.

In his eight years as a pro, Jonathan Guidry had answered the bell for only 69 rounds. If he didn’t get knocked out, it figured that he would eventually drop from exhaustion. Fatigue did set in and he almost didn’t make it to the final bell, but he pulled himself upright after getting knocked down in the final seconds of the fight and denied Trevor Bryan the satisfaction of winning inside the distance.

As heavyweight fights go, this was hardly a classic, and the scorecard of ringside judge Steve Weisfeld – he had it 115-112 for Guidry – was off-kilter. However, it was, in the words of the aforementioned Erdman, a solid, spirited scrap.

Yes, there is such a thing as a moral victory and Jonathan Guidry proved it this past Saturday night in Warren, Ohio.

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P.S. – Heading in to his fight with Jonathan Guidry, the jury was still out on Trevor Bryan. The sum of his previous fights didn’t yield enough information to tell us how good he was.

We know a little more about Bryan after his showing on Saturday and we can now say with confidence that the man who reigns as the WBA “regular” heavyweight champion and is undoubtedly Don King’s last hope for another heavyweight cash cow doesn’t figure to significantly arrest King’s declining fortunes.

Bryan’s next assignment, by all indications, will pit him against British heavyweight Daniel Dubois. New Orleans Times-Picayune staff writer Ted Lewis reached out to Hall of Fame boxing writer Bernard Fernandez to get his take on a Bryan-Dubois fight. “Dubois would knock him into next week,” said Fernandez who is currently recuperating from major back surgery.

Mark Kriegel

Congrats to author and ESPN boxing commentator Mark Kriegel who has been named the 49^th recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

January was a good month for Kriegel who was re-signed by ESPN barely one week prior to learning of this latest honor. Previous winners of the Nat Fleischer Award include such notables as Red Smith and John Schulian, to name just two.

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