Brin-Jonathan Butler Reflects on Cuban Boxers, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr and More

Published

1 month ago

February 12, 2023

Rick Assad

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Brin-Jonathan Butler Reflects on Cuban Boxers, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr and More

In the truest sense of the word multimedia, Brin-Jonathan Butler more than holds his own.

An author, freelance journalist, documentary filmmaker, Amazon interviewer, and host of the podcast “Tourist Information,” Butler’s works have appeared in Harper’s, ESPN The Magazine, The Paris Review, The Daily Beast, SB Nation, Salon.com and the Huffington Post, among others. He also has a keen interest in boxing manifested in two acclaimed books that he wrote: “A Cuban Boxer’s Journey: Guillermo Rigondeaux, From Castro’s Traitor To American Champion” and “The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing With Olympic Champions And Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost In The Last Days Of Castro’s Cuba.”

A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Butler’s fascination with the island nation began when he was quite young. “Very early on in my life, my father told me stories about how the closest the world had ever come to nuclear oblivion was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. He told me terrifying stories about being a child in school learning procedures, along with his classmates, of how to hide under his school desk if the United States and Soviet Union escalated their standoff.”

“Growing up, the way Cuba was presented to me in Canada through American media with such intensity, made Cuba seem both radioactive and utterly fascinating. The iconography of Cuba and Fidel Castro was mesmerizing, deeply troubling, and also very confusing.”

Butler draws a parallel with the movie Rocky IV which came out when he was six years old.

“Sylvester Stallone’s Ivan Drago is basically a Frankenstein-like monster created by a robotic, diabolical system. Drago shows no sign of humanity after killing Apollo Creed. He takes steroids. He’s miserable. Drago’s country appears to live in a suffocating, year-round, utterly depressing winter. Rocky Balboa and everything he represents to [Ronald] Reagan’s America is the exact opposite.”

Butler, who is now a New York City resident, went on: “So I suppose Rocky IV pro wrestling-style, jingoistic propaganda just made meeting Cuban athletes that much more shocking for me. Not only was I unprepared, but I was also very much programmed to see them a certain way that did not line up in almost any way with what I encountered.”

“In 1992, Cuba basically rolled over the world in boxing. How could this happen? And then they were even more dominant around the globe with baseball!…I didn’t understand why I only saw Cuban athletes during amateur athletic competitions when they clearly had the ability to not just compete at the professional level but dominate. Then I learned about many of the greatest Cuban athletes refusing to leave Cuba and turn professional citing that they competed for something more important than money.”

Butler never had a doubt about making his way to Cuba and interviewing some of its greatest athletes. “I dreamed very early on of having the opportunity to meet the most famous boxers who rejected millions to leave Cuba, especially Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon turning down the opportunities to face Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson for profound sums of money,” he said. “It still seems beyond surreal that I had an opportunity to walk into the houses of both Stevenson and Savon in Havana to have a conversation about their legacies.”

Butler spent a fair amount of time around Tyson and found it illuminating and instructional. “Tyson probably had the greatest emotional intelligence in terms of reading other people that I’ve ever encountered,” he said.

“My feeling from meeting Tyson was that he created the artifice of being the most intimidating person in the world to cover up the fact that he always felt like one of the most sensitive and intimidated people in the world,” he offered. “From one extreme he created the other.”

Tyson was mercilessly picked on and abused throughout his childhood and was always far too timid to ever fight back,” he continued. “He felt shame, embarrassment, humiliation, and ridicule about nearly all aspects of his identity and circumstances during that time. I think 999 out of a 1000 people in the milieu he grew up in would have imploded and it’s a miracle he survived adolescence. I think his feelings of worthlessness and acute sense of cowardice drove him to be incredibly disciplined with boxing early on. He told me when I first met him, ‘Everyone that’s great has the same thing in common. We all feel worthless. Why else would anyone strive? Contented people don’t have to.’ ”

“Like so many boxers, the ring probably felt like the safest place on earth for Tyson. Every fight he participated in wasn’t just an audition for his place in boxing or even boxing history, it was an audition to be accepted outside the ring.”

“Tyson is the most interesting boxer I’ve been around. Andre Ward was probably the most complex. If boxing operates as a kind of casino, most of the great boxers have been gamblers who thought they could beat the house again and again despite all the odds against them,” he stated. “Ward was the only boxer I’ve met who wanted to work in the casino as a dealer rather than gamble. He’s the only boxer I’ve ever met who bragged about the money he’d saved rather than spent.”

Another world-class boxer struck Butler’s fancy.

“The boxer I found the most fascinating to spend time with was Roy Jones Jr. For anyone who saw Jones and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their respective primes, I have not met a single person who ranked Mayweather higher,” he says.

“Jones was a sublime talent. But I couldn’t stand his personality. After he mocked opponents and seemed to revel in humiliating them, I swore if he stuck around the sport too long and somebody beat him, I’d never feel sorry for him. And then in 2004 Antonio Tarver knocked him out cold. And, despite my best intentions, I felt horrible for Jones. Spending a week with Jones in Pensacola, Florida, for a profile, talking for several hours with his wife and kids and extended family, I adored everybody he introduced me to. And Jones is impossible to spend any time with in private and not have him grow on you. He’s extremely intelligent, sensitive, and one of the most decent people I’ve ever met.

“Unexpectedly he took me to meet his dad. They hadn’t spoken to each other in years, and it was one of the most-tense family meetings I’ve ever witnessed. It lasted for about eight seconds before Jones drove off and left me alone with his dad. Jones was willing to offer a backstage pass to his life that I don’t think the public had ever been aware of. It was one of the most unsettling profiles I’ve ever written, and I heard from some people high up at HBO that when he came into the office everyone was pretty scared to ask him directly if what had been written was true. Finally, someone did approach him to ask, and Roy didn’t say anything beyond nodding that it was true.”

Being a member of the media allows one to be close to the action without being a participant.

“Boxing has stakes that are just so incredibly frightening and intoxicating to witness,” Butler said. “The dominance and fragility of winners and losers. Life. The demonstration and performance of willpower and the risk that at any moment a human being could be rendered helpless and separated from their consciousness or even their life. I think the sport brings out a lot of the best and worst qualities from writers.”

Why then are so many boxers willing to tell their stories even if it’s sometimes unsavory?

“I think the isolation and humility at the heart of the experience of being a fighter creates that,” Butler said. “There are exceptions, but boxers I’ve encountered over the years have routinely been some of the most kind, decent, and gentle people I’ve ever met. I suspect a reason is that they’ve had to look at who they are through boxing a lot more deeply than most other people are required to in their lives and work. Greatness in boxing is almost always sharpened by fear. Very few people in the sport didn’t enter it at the outset on the basis of some kind of damage or trauma also.”

Butler said he respects and admires what boxers bring to the grandest stages.

“I think I’d just say that I love almost all boxers I’ve met and have become ever more conflicted about the sport and how it treats the individuals risking their lives,” he said. “I still think more than any other sport and occasionally more than any art form, boxing can reveal the watermark in a human soul more powerfully than anything else we have. And sometimes those characters boxing reveals also illuminate a great deal about the society and time in which they fight.”

Butler continued: “In terms of social status, you could argue the seating arrangement on the Titanic was the most important seating arrangement of the 20^th century. In the 21st Century, crazily enough, the same might be said for 2015’s Mayweather-[Manny] Pacquiao fight seating arrangement: $370,000 for one chair? Think of who was there and think what assembly of colorful characters equals it from all walks of entertainment, finance, sports, politics, whatever? Nothing comes close. Why is boxing the accident through which that group gathered to watch a terrible fight that earned two guys a quarter-billion to basically play tag across 12 rounds? I have no idea. But a commodity’s value is dependent on our desire for it. That desire for what boxing can offer, in extremely rare moments, remains undimmed.”

This alone is what makes boxing different from every other form of athletic competition and entertainment.

Photo: Brin-Jonathan Butler with Guillermo Rigondeaux

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 229: Benavidez, Plant and NCAA Hoops in Vegas

Published

17 hours ago

March 24, 2023

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 229: Benavidez, Plant and NCAA Hoops in Vegas

If you know the history of Las Vegas, it’s endured a number of phases since its first major growth spurt when the Hoover Dam project brought thousands to the desert region in the 1930s.

Then came the New York phase when the Flamingo Hotel was built in the 1940s and was followed by numerous other major casino hotels like the Sands, the Dunes and the Aladdin. Of course, boxing was always a way to entice people to the desert.

This Saturday, four star boxing returns to Las Vegas. But it be competing against the western regional finals of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Prepare for crowds.

Las Vegas is packed.

Undefeated David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) meets once-beaten Caleb Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, March 25. The TGB Promotions card will be televised on Showtime pay-per-view.

The winner gets a shot at undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. And that means big money.

It’s all happening in Las Vegas and so will the NCAA tournament. Expect an extremely crowded Strip as fans of boxing and basketball convene on the strip by the thousands. Its also a gambler’s paradise for betting so make sure you allow yourself time because the lines will be long at the sportsbooks.

When I first visited Las Vegas in the early 1970s sports betting was done outside of the casinos. The state law back then prohibited sportsbooks inside hotel-casinos. My favorite sportsbook, for sentimental reasons, is the Westgate Hotel, formerly the Hilton International. It’s has a huge sports betting area.

I’m not a betting type of guy but sports betting to me is the center of everything and adds luster to the atmosphere of Las Vegas. You won’t find a sports book in California.

Boxing has always been a sport made for betting, probably since the stone age.

When Benavidez steps into the prize ring he will be the big favorite but if you truly know boxing, Plant does have a chance. Anything can happen in boxing. Anything.

A man can parachute from the sky and land in the middle of the fight as happened back in 1993 when Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe were combatting for the heavyweight title at Caesars Palace. Of course, this won’t happen on Saturday because the fight is indoors at the MGM Hotel.

One major lesson about pro boxing is that nothing is a sure thing.

Though Benavidez has power and has never been defeated, he could tear an Achilles tendon right during the fight. Or he could break a wrist delivering a punch. I’ve also seen a great fighter like Pernell Whitaker get his clavicle broken from a single punch and be unable to continue.

Don’t bet your house on the outcome.

What you will see on Saturday is two very talented super middleweights with completely different fighting styles engage. They do not seem to care for each other but that doesn’t matter. It’s a fight, not a marble contest.

Words have been exchanged all through the promotion. But words don’t mean a thing once the first bell rings.

Plant has speed, agility and solid defensive skills. His only loss came to Canelo Alvarez. That’s more a medal of honor than an embarrassment.

“I feel I’m the better boxer, I have the better IQ and I have more experience,” said Plant. “I have the better pedigree and its going to show on Saturday night.”

Benavidez has power, speed and a very solid chin. He seems to intimidate foes with a come forward style that reminds me of a young George Foreman.

“We’re going to see what that chin is like on Saturday,” said Benavidez.

Supporting fights

Cody Crowley meets Abel Ramos in an welterweight elimination fight for the WBC title held by Errol Spence Jr.

Both of these guys are rough and tough. It’s the ram versus the bull.

The other Ramos, Abel’s brother Jesus, is fighting Joey Spencer in a super welterweight clash.

Six other fights are planned at the MGM Grand.

Top Rank

Fresno’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) gets a hometown crowd when he meets Richard Commey (30-4-1, 27 KOs) on Saturday March 25. The former super lightweight titlist needs a win to get back in the hunt. ESPN will televise the Top Rank card.

“All of a sudden after one loss people started walking away,” said Ramirez. “We’re focused on Richard Commey.”

Commey wants what Ramirez wants too, a title.

“I really want to become a two-time world champion, so I’m coming strong,” said Commey.

Also on the same Fresno card will be WBA titlist Seniesa Estrada (23-0, 9 KOs) seeking to unify the minimumweight titles against Germany’s WBC titlist Tina Rupprecht (12-0-1, 3 KOs).

“This is the moment that Ive dreamed of since I was seven years old,” said Estrada. “Its crazy to think how far I’ve come in this sport.”

Rupprecht is also excited.

It’s a big honor to fight for both titles,” Rupprecht said. “This is always what I wanted.”

Fights to Watch

Sat. Showtime ppv 6 p.m David Benavidez (26-0) vs Caleb Plant (22-1); Cody Crowley (21-0) vs Abel Ramos (27-5-2).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Jose Carlos Ramirez (27-1) vs Richard Commey (30-4-1); Seniesa Estrada (23-0) vs Tina Rupprecht (12-0-1).

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / TGB Promotions

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Mbilli Stays Unbeaten: Outpoints Gongora in a Bruising Tiff

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2023

Arne K. Lang

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Camille Estephan’s “Eye of the Tiger” promotions returned to the Montreal Casino tonight with an 8-bout card capped by an intriguing match between super middleweights Christian Mbilli and Carlos Gongora, both former Olympians.

The Cameroon-born Mbilli (pictured on the left) represented France in the 2016 Rio Games. He was undefeated (23-0, 16 KOs) coming in and ranked #2 by the WBA. The Massachusetts-based Gongora, a two-time Olympian for his native Ecuador, brought a 23-1 (16) record, his lone defeat coming on the road in Manchester, England, to currently undefeated Lerrone Richards.

When the smoke cleared, Mbilli won a unanimous decision, but the scores (99-91, 98-92, and 97-93) were misleading as this was an entertaining fight and the granite-chinned Gondora, a southpaw, was always a threat to turn the tide with his signature punch, a left uppercut. In fact, he may have landed the best punch of the fight when he hurt Mbilli in the opening minute of the eighth round. But the muscular Mbilli shook off the cobwebs and stormed back, dominating the final minute of the eighth and then finishing strong, nearly forcing a stoppage with a non-stop assault in the final frame.

Mbilli would love to fight the winner of Saturday’s tiff between David Benavidez and Caleb Plant, but that’s not likely to happen. A more likely scenario finds Mbilli opposing fellow unbeaten Vladimir Shishkin, the Detroit-based Russian.

Co-Feature

Simon Kean, a six-foot-five, 250-pound heavyweight from Three Rivers, Quebec, advanced to 23-1 (22 KOs) with a seventh-round stoppage of 40-year-old warhorse Eric Molina (29-9).

Both were tentative during most of the match. The end came rather suddenly when Kean knocked Molina down with an overhand right after landing a good left hook. The punch did not appear to land flush, but Molina was swaying as he made it to his feet and the referee called it off.

It was not a particularly impressive performance by Kean. Molina, a special education teacher in the Rio Grande Valley community of Edinburg, Texas, hinted before the bout that this would be his final fight. That would be a sensible idea. He has been stopped six times in his last 10 outings and nine times overall.

Also

In a 10-round bout contested at 140 pounds, Calgary veteran Steve Claggett improved to 34-7-2 (24) with a TKO over Mexican import Rafael Guzman Lugo (26-3-2) whose corner pulled him out after seven frames. This was a good action fight fought at close quarters, albeit Claggett was clearly in control when the bout was halted.

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A Conversation About Boxing with Author and Journalist Steve Marantz

Published

3 days ago

March 22, 2023

Rick Assad

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If you ask former sportswriter Steve Marantz when was boxing’s Golden Age, he’s quick with a response.

His answer just so happens to coincide with the period when he was on the beat as a boxing columnist for the Boston Globe (1979-1987).

“You could argue that boxing has had a few Golden Ages, but yes, that was an exciting and memorable era,” said Marantz, who sat ringside for many legendary matches. “The round-robin bouts amongst [Ray] Leonard, [Marvin] Hagler, [Thomas] Hearns and [Roberto] Duran, certainly was a major element.”

Those four legends are important but other weight division kings also played an integral role in boxing’s global popularity.

“Let’s not forget [Aaron] Pryor, [Alexis] Arguello, [Julio Cesar] Chavez, [Salvador] Sanchez, [Hector] Camacho, [Wilfredo] Gomez, Michael Spinks, [Dwight Muhammad] Qawi, [Donald] Curry, [Mike] Tyson and [Evander] Holyfield,” Marantz offered. “The key was competitive balance in most of the divisions.”

Marantz began his journalism career in 1973 at the Kansas City Star after graduating from the University of Missouri. After leaving the Globe, he worked for the Boston Herald (1999-2004) and ESPN (2004-2016). Nowadays, in addition to freelance writing for publications such as the Jewish Journal of Greater Boston, he produces the podcast “Championship Stories.”

Marantz recalled one particular moment that stood out while covering boxing and it happened at Aaron Pryor’s training camp.

“I have a vivid memory of his workout before he fought Arguello in Miami, November 1982. He had a hot funk song on the speakers, “You Dropped A Bomb On Me,” and as it played, loudly, he shadow-boxed to its beat and lyrics,” he recalled. “A rope was stretched across the gym, four feet off the floor, and Pryor moved along the rope, ducking under and back, gloves flashing. He was hypnotized by the music, in a trance. Hypnotized me, too. A moment that made boxing so cool to cover.”

That classic matchup at the famed Orange Bowl was halted in the 14th round with Pryor winning by technical knockout.

Anyone at Caesars Palace on April 15, 1985, knows what happened over roughly eight minutes of hot action when Hagler and Hearns tangled. It was nonstop punches from both participants.

“Hagler and Hearns fought as if possessed,” recalled Marantz of that showdown. “The stark final image [for me] was that of Hearns, now helpless, semiconscious, looking very like a black Christ taken from the cross, in the arms of a solemn aide.

“Hagler’s pent-up bitterness found release in a violent attack, even as each crack of Hearns’ gloves reinforced a lifetime of slights. In the end, Hearns was martyred to absolve Hagler of victimization. The first round is legendary, among the most vicious and splendid ever fought on the big fight stage. Action accelerated so quickly that spectators were left breathless. Punches windmilled into a blur, though the actual count was 82 punches for Hagler and 83 for Hearns, about three times that of a typical round.”

While that fight has blended into boxing folklore, a 1976 Olympic gold medal winner from Palmer Park, Maryland, was the epitome of true greatness for Steve Marantz.

“The way Sugar Ray Leonard maneuvered [Roberto] Duran to ‘No Mas’ in their rematch was brilliant. His grit and toughness beat Hearns, one of the great fights of the 1980s. And he beat Hagler with brains and psychology. Not to overlook his win over [Wilfred] Benitez in 1979. He was gorgeous to watch, stylish and rhythmic. His combinations were a blur. And he strategized like a chess master. Smooth and cooperative in interviews, always aware of the marketing and promotional necessities. Leonard was the gold standard.”

Marantz re-visited the Hagler-Leonard fight and the drama that surrounded it in “Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray’s Marvelous Fight,” first released in 2008 and now available as an eBook.

Boxing’s been called the cruelest and the most unforgiving sport, but it’s also filled with high drama.

“It’s a test of athleticism, intelligence, grit and character. At its best, it’s dramatic and unpredictable, exciting,” Marantz said of the fight game. “A rich history of iconic personalities and events. Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, for example. A window into history bigger than just sport, a window into popular culture and politics.”

Marantz fondly recalls some of the characters he met while covering the sweet science: “Promoters Don King and Bob Arum, both conniving quotable snakes. Trainer Ray Arcel, in his 80s, a pillar of honesty and integrity. Emanuel Steward and Prentiss Byrd, running the Kronk Gym as a beacon of light and hope in Detroit’s blighted inner city. In Brockton, Massachusetts, two Italian-American brothers, Goody and Pat Petronelli, formed a sacred trust with an African- American boxer, Marvin Hagler.”

Marantz went on: “On my first newspaper job with the Kansas City Times/Star, I met a kindly trainer, Peyton Sher, who welcomed me into his gym and taught me the basics,” he said. “Never will forget Daeshik Seo, the Korean therapist for Larry Holmes who two weeks before the Holmes-[Gerry] Cooney fight in June 1982, tipped me to a story that a member of Holmes’ entourage pulled a pistol on Cooney’s entourage at Caesars Palace. Caesars top brass had to call Holmes on the carpet to get his people under control. Holmes was incensed at the story. In his media session after he won, he said I wrote it because I was [expletive] … and that I worked in a racist city, Boston.”

Marantz has never been put off by the seedy elements of the sport. “I don’t feel polarized by it.,” he says. “Nobody is forced to box. Nobody is forced to watch it. The world has bigger problems than boxing.”

Marantz has fond memories of the people he met and the friendships he made while covering boxing. Does he miss not being rinigside? “Not really,” he says. “My time came and went. Journalism and life took me in other directions. I do have some nostalgia for that era, and for the people who were part of it.”

Having been around the sweet science for a spell, Marantz offered sage advice to anyone inclined to mix it up: “Be disciplined, work hard, find a good trainer, learn the subtleties, read the tea leaves and don’t be pig-headed.”

Actually, all of those traits are always handy, even if one doesn’t step into the ring.

You can read more about Steve Marantz at his website: www.stevemarantz.com

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