The Hauser Report: Notes and Nuggets from Sony Hall

Published

2 years ago

April 29, 2023

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When Eric Greene took his seat at a ringside table at Sony Hall on April 27, fans in attendance could have been forgiven for thinking that he was an athlete. Greene is 6-feet-5-inches tall and well-built with a physical aura about him. But he’s not an athlete; not in the conventional sense anyway. He’s an opera singer.

Greene is one of the stars in the Metropolitan Opera Company’s production of Champion – an opera based on the life of Emile Griffith that will run at Lincoln Center through May 13. He sings the role of Benny Paret, who taunted Griffith with homosexual slurs at the weigh-in prior to their 1962 fight and was beaten to death in the ring that night. He also plays the role of Paret’s son, Benny Jr. (The photo above, provided by The Met, shows the aging Griffith tormented by memories of Benny Paret Sr.)

Greene grew up in Baltimore and began singing in a Pentecostal church when he was four years old. Verdi is his favorite composer. One of his ambitions is to sing a lead role in a major production of each opera in the Wagner Ring Cycle. He listens to classical music and jazz for pleasure and has a liking for Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

As a child, Greene heard about boxing’s all-time greats from his grandfather and uncles. Later, he went to parties where people watched Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Manny Pacquiao on television. But he’d never been to a fight before.

“I worked out with purpose for the role of Benny Paret,” Greene says. “It underscored for me the rigors of being a boxer and the commitment it takes to do it well.” But he has no illusions about the difference between boxing and an operatic production. “Watching the fighters move in the ring is interesting to me,” Eric notes. “I worked on movement for Champion. But to see it for real up close like this is very different.”

Eric Greene

As the fights at Sony Hall progressed, Greene offered some thoughts on what he saw as parallels between boxing and opera:

* “Fighters need technique. They have to keep form. That same technique and form are what allow me to do what I do well.”

* “The focus and tenacity a fighter has to have round after round after round is a bit like the focus and tenacity you need to sing opera.”

* “Can you box? Can you sing? Can you do what it is that people pay money for you to do? So many people promote themselves on social media as being bigger and better than they are. But at the end of the day, either you deliver or you don’t.”

And what would Greene tell Benny Paret if he were able to talk with him today?

“I’d tell him that I admire his courage in getting in the ring, particularly that night when he didn’t feel right before the fight,” Greene answers. “There are times when I go onstage for a performance and don’t feel right. But that’s nothing compared to being a fighter.”

* * *

As for the fights . . .

This was promoter Larry Goldberg‘s fourth fight card at Sony Hall. He’d lost significant money on the first three but is coming closer to making the economics of promoting club fights in New York work.

The event was styled as a “Broadway Boxing” promotion under the banner of DiBella Entertainment. DiBella was using the card as a pilot for what Lou hopes will be an ongoing series with DAZN. But Goldberg was responsible for most of the nuts-and-bolts work.

The first bout saw David Lopez (2-0, 2 KOs) outclass Nelson Morales (3-5) over four tedious rounds. Some “opponents” come to win. Morales (who’d lost his most recent four fights) came to survive. He didn’t want to engage and lost every round.

Then Joshua Rivera (8-2, 3 KOs) faced off against Larry Fryers (11-6, 4 KOs, 3 KOs by). Fryers had been winless in his most recent six outings and Rivera had lost two of his last three. On the plus side, the fighters were evenly matched. Fryers prevailed when ring doctor Nitin Sethi appropriately stopped the bout after round five.

Then it was time for the most anticipated fight of the evening, a six-round grudge match between two fighters who are often on the B-side of bout sheets and genuinely dislike each other – Sydney Mccow (8-8, 3 KOs) vs. Christian Otero (4-3, 2 KOs). Adding fuel to the fire, Mccow’s wife had slapped Otero at the prefight weigh-in. That led Goldberg to hire extra security for the night.

Years ago, I interviewed Sylvester Stallone.

“I never went to a fight before I wrote Rocky,” Stallone told me. “The first fight I went to was Larry Holmes against Ken Norton at Caesars in Las Vegas. And to be honest, if I’d seen that fight before writing Rocky, the movie might have been a little different because one of the things that struck me about Holmes-Norton was the audience participation. At Holmes-Norton, I realized that the crowd is a character in itself.”

If you want to know whether or not a fight is entertaining, you can do one of two things. You can watch the fight or you can watch the crowd. If all eyes are focused on the ring and the crowd is cheering and “oohing” and “aahing,” it’s an entertaining fight. If people in the crowd are checking their cellphones and chatting casually with one another during rounds, most likely they’re bored.

Mccow-Otero was an entertaining fight between two evenly matched fighters, each of whom was fighting to win. Mccow was the aggressor and the stronger of the two. He was boxing and fighting. Otero was just boxing.

Matchmaking isn’t rocket science. People knew going in that Mccow-Otero would be a good fight. And it was. Mccow won a unanimous decision.

Miyo Yoshida (15-3) vs. Indeya Smith (6-6-2, 1 KO) was next – a bout between two women with one knockout between them in 32 fights. The room went quiet. People began checking their cellphones again. Yoshida won a majority decision.

That was followed by Tsendbaatar Erdenebat (5-0, 3 KOs) vs. Edy Valencia Mercado (20-9-6, 7 KOs). Erdenebat (a 2020 Mongolian Olympian) disappointed. As the bout progressed, he spent too much time moving and counterpunching en route to winning a lopsided 8-round decision rather than engaging with a one-dimensional opponent who has now won only once in his last six fights. There were some boos.

In the final bout of the evening, Brian Ceballo (13-1, 7 KOs) dominated but couldn’t stop Luis Alberto Veron (20-6-2, 9 KOs, 1 KO by), who has now won only 3 of his last 12 fights.

It was an unusual evening in that there were no knockdowns. More significantly, three of the six fights on the card were expected to be competitive. And they were. That’s a welcome relief from the A-side vs. B-side promotions that plague boxing today.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – In the Inner Sanctum: Behind the Scenes at Big Fights – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. 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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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 235: Las Vegas Aftermath

Skylar Lacy Blocked for Lamar Jackson before Making his Mark in Boxing

Published

2 days ago

January 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Skylar Lacy, a six-foot-seven heavyweight, returns to the ring on Sunday, Feb. 2, opposing Brandon Moore on a card in Flint, Michigan, airing worldwide on DAZN.

As this is being written, the bookmakers hadn’t yet posted a line on the bout, but one couldn’t be accused of false coloring by calling the 10-round contest a 50/50 fight. And if his frustrating history is any guide, Lacy will have another draw appended to his record or come out on the wrong side of a split decision.

This should not be construed as a tip to wager on Moore. “Close fights just don’t seem to go my way,” says the boxer who played alongside future multi-year NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at the University of Louisville.

A 2021 National Golden Gloves champion, Skylar Lacy came up short in his final amateur bout, losing a split decision to future U.S. Olympian Joshua Edwards. His last Team Combat League assignment resulted in another loss by split decision and he was held to a draw in both instances when stepping up in class as a pro. “In my mind, I’m still undefeated,” says Lacy (8-0-2, 6 KOs). “No one has ever kicked my ass.”

Lacy was the B-side in both of those draws, the first coming in a 6-rounder against Top Rank fighter Antonio Mireles on a Top Rank show in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and the second in an 8-rounder against George Arias, a Lou DiBella fighter on a DiBella-promoted card in Philadelphia.

Lacy had the Mireles fight in hand when he faded in the homestretch. The altitude was a factor. Lake Tahoe, Nevada (officially Stateline) sits 6,225 feet above sea level. The fight with Arias took an opposite tack. Lacy came on strong after a slow start to stave off defeat.

Skylar will be the B-side once again in Michigan. The card’s promoter, former world title challenger Dmitriy Salita, inked Brandon Moore (16-1, 10 KOs) in January. “A capable American heavyweight with charisma, athleticism and skills is rare in today’s day and age. Brandon has got all these ingredients…”, said Salita in the press release announcing the signing. (Salita has an option on Skylar Lacy’s next pro fight in the event that Skylar should win, but the promoter has a larger investment in Moore who was previously signed to Top Rank, a multi-fight deal that evaporated after only one fight.)

Both Lacy and Moore excelled in other sports. The six-foot-six Moore was an outstanding basketball player in high school in Fort Lauderdale and at the NAIA level in college. Lacy was an all-state football lineman in Indiana before going on to the University of Louisville where he started as an offensive guard as a redshirt sophomore, blocking for freshman phenom Lamar Jackson. “Lamar was hard-working and humble,” says Lacy about the player who is now one of the world’s highest-paid professional athletes.

When Lacy committed to Louisville, the head coach was Charlie Strong who went on to become the head coach at the University of Texas. Lacy was never comfortable with Strong’s successor Bobby Petrino and transferred to San Jose State. Having earned his degree in only three years (a BA in communications) he was eligible immediately but never played a down because of injuries.

Returning to Indianapolis where he was raised by his truck dispatcher father, a single parent, Lacy gravitated to Pat McPherson’s IBG (Indy Boxing and Grappling) Gym on the city’s east side where he was the rare college graduate pounding the bags alongside at-risk kids from the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Lacy built a 12-6 record across his two seasons in Team Combat League while representing the Las Vegas Hustle (2023) and the Boston Butchers (2024).

For the uninitiated, a Team Combat League (TCL) event typically consists of 24 fights, each consisting of one three-minute round. The concept finds no favor with traditionalists, but Lacy is a fan. It’s an incentive for professional boxers to keep in shape between bouts without disturbing their professional record and, notes Lacy, it’s useful in exposing a competitor to different styles.

“It paid the bills and kept me from just sitting around the house,” says Lacy whose 12-6 record was forged against 13 different opponents.

As a sparring partner, Lacy has shared the ring with some of the top heavyweights of his generation, e.g., Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. He was one of Fury’s regular sparring partners during the Gypsy King’s trilogy with Deontay Wilder. He worked with Joshua at Derrick James’ gym in Dallas and at Ben Davison’s gym in England, helping Joshua prepare for his date in Saudi Arabia with Francis Ngannou and had previously sparred with Ngannou at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas. Skylar names traveling to new places as one of his hobbies and he got to scratch that itch when he joined Whyte’s camp in Portugal.

As to the hardest puncher he ever faced, he has no hesitation: “Ngannou,” he says. “I negotiated a nice price to spend a week in his camp and the first time he hit me I knew I should have asked for more.”

Lacy is confident that having shared the ring with some of the sport’s elite heavyweights will get him over the hump in what will be his first 10-rounder (Brandon Moore has never had to fight beyond eight rounds, having won his three 10-rounders inside the distance). Lacy vs. Moore is the co-feature to Claressa Shields’ homecoming fight with Danielle Perkins. Shields, basking in the favorable reviews accorded the big-screen biopic based on her first Olympic journey (“The Fire Inside”) will attempt to capture a title in yet another weight class at the expense of the 42-year-old Perkins, a former professional basketball player.

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Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce

Published

4 days ago

January 18, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.

Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.

In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.

It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.

For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.

Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.

It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.

“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”

Trinidad Wins Too

Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.

Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.

“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”

After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.

Other Bouts

Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.

Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.

Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.

More Winners

Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Published

5 days ago

January 16, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.

Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.

Hopefully the worst is over.

Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.

Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.

“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.

He knows talent.

Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.

Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.

Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.

Can Trinidad reach world title status?

Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.

It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.

Mizukii Hiruta

Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.

Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Boxing and the Media

The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.

Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.

Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.

Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.

MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.

Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.

Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.

It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.

Photos credit: Lina Baker

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