Former LA Times Scribe Steve Springer Reflects on His Days on the Boxing Beat

Published

2 years ago

May 7, 2023

Rick Assad

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Nestled in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, Steve Springer, a former sportswriter who for nearly 35 years covered several sports including the world of boxing, is at peace.

Springer, who spent 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, is definitely thankful for the opportunity to be ringside, which he was for 23 years, but doesn’t miss those days when he covered boxing.

“I really don’t keep up with it like I used to. I don’t find many of today’s fighters interesting or exciting and I don’t have any interest in MMA or WrestleMania,” he said. “Yes, I know, I’m just an old guy living in the past, but it was a glorious past.”

In what way is boxing different for Springer, who wrote 14 books including three bestsellers?

“It’s changed, but not for the better. A century ago, the top sports columnists basically covered only four sports: boxing, baseball, horse racing and college football. Boxing’s popularity had faded by the time I covered the sport (1985 to 2008), but was still relevant,” he offered. “Today, however, it ranks third in popularity among combat sports behind MMA and WrestleMania. Back when I covered boxing, Butterbean, an overweight four-round fighter, was a novelty act, comic relief before the big matches. Today, Jake Paul, another gimmick, wannabe boxer, is a main attraction. Sad, but true.”

Springer didn’t intend to become a sportswriter. Instead he hoped to be the second coming of Vin Scully, the legendary Dodgers announcer who for 67 years was the voice of the team.

Springer did play-by-play for basketball, football and baseball at California State University Northridge, where he graduated in 1968 with a broadcasting degree and later did play-by-play for high school football in El Centro from 1969 through 1972.

Springer kicked off his writing career in 1974 at the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle where he later became sports editor and won various awards, then left in 1979 when he joined the Orange County Register where he worked until 1983, covering the Lakers before being hired by the Times that same year.

Once assigned to boxing, what was the attraction for Springer?

“The opportunity to cover dramatic life-and-death events and write about colorful, fascinating people who have often had to battle all their lives just to survive,” he said of what made boxing exciting. “Every fighter has a story and no one in boxing ever refuses to tell it to you unless it’s because they have just been knocked out.”

Interviewing some of the legends was for Springer the whipped cream on the ice cream sundae.

“Given an opportunity to talk to Muhammad Ali, Don King, Mike Tyson, Bob Arum, Floyd Mayweather Jr., George Foreman and Joe Frazier, to name just a few, there’s no chance you’ll walk away without a dozen or more new stories floating around in your head,” he said.

And if you’re lucky, you might speak with someone not entirely famous but still worthy of your time.

“Actually, everybody in the sport has a tale worth telling, from the trainers and corner men to the promoters and managers,” Springer said. “There was a little-known member of King’s organization who once gave me a line that kind of summed up the richness of the material generated by those in the fight game. “I was in boxing for 40 years,” he said. “The first three years were about boxing. The last 37 were about revenge.”

Sometimes what happens inside the ring during the course of a career has debilitating results.

This wasn’t pleasant for Springer, who was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award given by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

“I didn’t like the results of the brutality in the ring. I covered two fights that ended with one of the boxers dying,” he pointed out. “I wrote a story about a fighter named Bobby Chacon who had to carry a map of his neighborhood in his shirt pocket because he couldn’t remember how to find his way home. He was 44 years old at the time. And, of course, there was the sadness of watching Ali in his final years. Very few boxing stories end happily.”

A featherweight and super featherweight champion, Chacon passed away in 2016 at the age of 64.

Springer covered the entirety of Oscar De La Hoya’s epic career and co-wrote a biography with the 1992 Olympic gold medalist titled “American Son: My Story.”

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De La Hoya is a complex person and one Springer knows fairly well.

“Oscar has two passions outside of boxing: golf and singing. He often insisted that he was going to try to join the Senior PGA golf tour when he qualified by reaching the age of 50. He hit that milestone several months ago, but there are no signs yet that he’s seriously considering trying to take that big leap,” he said.

“Oscar has a great sense of humor on the golf course. Playing with him one time, I hit my tee shot into a ravine so far down that I couldn’t see the flag on the green. With Oscar waiting for me on that green, I hit a blind shot that somehow landed in the cup. From then on, Oscar always called me Mr. Hole-In-Two.”

Springer spoke about De La Hoya’s fondness for music.

“His love of music came from his mother, Cecilia, who died of cancer at 39. He still remembers the day he got into his mother’s car to join her in a loud duet in the driveway of their family home,” he said. “Oscar went on to sing a song that was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance.”

Springer quoted De La Hoya. “If I boxed because of my father,” he said, “why not sing because of my mother?”

When Mike Tyson was the heavyweight kingpin, noted Springer, anything could happen inside or outside the ring.

“The obvious choice [for the most bizarre fight that I covered] had nothing to do with the skills of the fighters. It was because of the jarring end of the fight after Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield’s right ear and spit it out on the canvas in the third round, then bit Holyfield’s left ear before the round was over,” he said of that eventful evening at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 1997.

Springer was also there at Tyson’s hearing on the matter.

“At a hearing later held by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to decide if Tyson should be stripped of his license, he was asked if he wished to say anything before a vote was taken,” Springer said. “All I have to say,” Tyson said, “is, I’m not Mother Teresa, but I’m not Charles Manson either.”

Springer added: “I was also present five years later at a New York press conference for a Tyson-Lennox Lewis match that turned into a brawl which ended with Tyson sinking his teeth into one of Lewis’ legs,” he recalled. “Tyson was definitely the Hannibal Lecter of the ring.”

Springer’s coverage and storylines included numerous all-time greats, whom he admired for different reasons.

“Manny Pacquiao for his ability to stretch his talent all the way from flyweight to junior middleweight, while winning the lineal championship in five weight divisions (flyweight, featherweight, super featherweight, light welterweight and welterweight) in a career that spanned four decades,” he said, “George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins for their longevity, each fighting for 28 years with Foreman becoming the oldest heavyweight champion at 45, then retiring at 48, Hopkins at 51, and Floyd Mayweather for going 50-0, beating the record of the legendary Rocky Marciano.”

Boxers have a vested interest in speaking with the press according to Springer.

“I’ve never had a boxer say, “No comment.” In other sports, athletes are exposed to the media for months at a time through a long season,” he said. “They get tired of talking to reporters, especially when they are in a slump. There is no pressure on them to talk because, if they duck reporters, they are still assured of their playing time as long as they produce.”

This isn’t true for boxers. “Fighters, on the other hand, have no guarantees about future bouts. If they are ambitious young fighters, they need to make a name for themselves. If they are serious contenders, they need a title-holder to agree to fight them. Even if they themselves hold a title, they need publicity to beef up interest in their next fight, thus beefing up the size of their purse,” he said. “The more time they can get their face on TV or their name in the papers or on the Internet, the more opportunities they will have for fame and fortune. ‘No comment’ doesn’t cut it.”

There were some negatives covering the manly sport according to Springer.

“I never felt conflicted. I certainly didn’t like seeing fighters sadly losing their lives or, even if they survived, losing their minds, suffering from pugilistic dementia, a condition often referred to as punch drunk,” he said. “It’s the risk they all knowingly take because, in so many cases, it’s the best path open to them to escape the poverty and despair that plagues so many of them and their families.”

What does Springer believe will make boxing more palatable for the viewer?

“The biggest problem facing boxing is the sanctioning bodies, the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and several smaller organizations,” he said. “This alphabet soup spells disaster for the sport. While the WBC is the biggest and most authentic of the group, even though it too has flaws, the others often have their own designated champions. Every titleholder is forced to pay exorbitant sanctioning fees in order to keep their championship belts.”

Springer does reference the good old days when he was on the boxing beat.

“Long gone and never to return are the days when there was only one recognized champ in each weight division and many qualified contenders,” he said. “Back then, every sports fan, a follower of boxing or not, knew the name of the one and only heavyweight champion.”

The offshoot is that there are additional hurdles for everyone involved.

“As a result of this mishmash system, the best fights often never happen because of disputes over money, rankings of the fighters and other issues,” Springer said. “If there was a national boxing commissioner and he or she had the power to establish national rankings and order fights between champions of various sanctioning bodies, boxing itself would be the winner. Imagine if the Dodgers refused to play the Giants or the Lakers wouldn’t schedule the Celtics for whatever reason. It wouldn’t take long for fans of MLB or the NBA to start looking elsewhere to spend their dollars.”

Springer concluded his thought: “I can’t foresee this radical change to ever happen in boxing,” he said. “Too much money and too much power would be lost by the powers that be. The biggest losers with the status quo are the boxing fans.”

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Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong

Published

4 days ago

January 10, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong

There’s not much happening on the boxing front this month. That’s consistent with the historical pattern.

Fight promoters of yesteryear tended to pull back after the Christmas and New Year holidays on the assumption that fight fans had less discretionary income at their disposal. Weather was a contributing factor. In olden days, more boxing cards were staged outdoors and the most attractive match-ups tended to be summertime events.

There were exceptions, of course. On Jan. 17, 1941, an SRO crowd of 23,180 filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters to witness the welterweight title fight between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. (This was the third Madison Square Garden, situated at 50^th Street and Eighth Avenue, roughly 17 blocks north of the current Garden which sits atop Pennsylvania Station. The first two arenas to take this name were situated farther south adjacent to Madison Square Park).

This was a rematch. They had fought here in October of the previous year. In a shocker, Zivic won a 15-round decision. The fight was close on the scorecards. Referee Arthur Donovan and one of the judges had it even after 14 rounds, but Zivic had won his rounds more decisively and he punctuated his well-earned triumph by knocking Armstrong face-first to the canvas as the final bell sounded.

This was a huge upset.

Armstrong had a rocky beginning to his pro career, but he came on like gangbusters after trainer/manager Eddie Mead acquired his contract with backing from Broadway and Hollywood star Al Jolson. Heading into his first match with Zivic – the nineteenth defense of the title he won from Barney Ross – Hammerin’ Henry had suffered only one defeat in his previous 60 fights, that coming in his second meeting with Lou Ambers, a controversial decision.

Shirley Povich, the nationally-known sports columnist for the Washington Post, conducted an informal survey of boxing insiders and found only person who gave Zivic a chance. The dissident was Chris Dundee (then far more well-known than his younger brother Angelo). “Zivic knows all the tricks,” said Dundee. “He’ll butt Armstrong with his head, gouge him with his thumbs and hit him just as low as Armstrong [who had five points deducted for low blows in his bout with Ambers].”

Indeed, Pittsburgh’s Ferdinand “Fritzie” Zivic, the youngest and best of five fighting sons of a Croatian immigrant steelworker (Fritzie’s two oldest brothers represented the U.S. at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) would attract a cult following because of his facility for bending the rules. It would be said that no one was more adept at using his thumbs to blind an opponent or using the laces of his gloves as an anti-coagulant, undoing the work of a fighter’s cut man.

Although it was generally understood that at age 28 his best days were behind him, Henry Armstrong was chalked the favorite in the rematch (albeit a very short favorite) a tribute to his body of work. Although he had mastered Armstrong in their first encounter, most boxing insiders considered Fritzie little more than a high-class journeyman and he hadn’t looked sharp in his most recent fight, a 10-round non-title affair with lightweight champion Lew Jenkins who had the best of it in the eyes of most observers although the match was declared a draw.

The Jan. 17 rematch was a one-sided affair. Veteran New York Times scribe James P. Dawson gave Armstrong only two rounds before referee Donovan pulled the plug at the 52-second mark of the twelfth round. Armstrong, boxing’s great perpetual motion machine, a world title-holder in three weight classes, repaired to his dressing room bleeding from his nose and his mouth and with both eyes swollen nearly shut. But his effort could not have been more courageous.

At the conclusion of the 10^th frame, Donovan went to Armstrong’s corner and said something to the effect, “you will have to show me something, Henry, or I will have to stop it.” What followed was Armstrong’s best round.

“[Armstrong] pulled the crowd to its feet in as glorious a rally as this observer has seen in twenty-five years of attendance at these ring battles,” wrote Dawson. But Armstrong, who had been stopped only once previously, that coming in his pro debut, had punched himself out and had nothing left.

Armstrong retired after this fight, siting his worsening eyesight, but he returned in the summer of the following year, soldiering on for 46 more fights, winning 37 to finish 149-21-10. During this run, he was reacquainted with Fritzie Zivic. Their third encounter was fought in San Francisco before a near-capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Civic Auditorium and Armstrong got his revenge, setting the pace and working the body effectively to win a 10-round decision. By then the welterweight title had passed into the hands of Freddie Cochran.

Hammerin’ Henry (aka Homicide Hank) Armstrong was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990. Fritzie Zivic followed him into the Hall three years later.

Active from 1931 to 1949, Zivic lost 65 of his 231 fights – the most of anyone in the Hall of Fame, a dubious distinction – but there was yet little controversy when he was named to the Canastota shrine because one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had fought a tougher schedule. Aside from Armstrong and Jenkins, he had four fights with Jake LaMotta, four with Kid Azteca, three with Charley Burley, two with Sugar Ray Robinson, two with Beau Jack, and singles with the likes of Billy Conn, Lou Ambers, and Bob Montgomery. Of the aforementioned, only Azteca, in their final meeting in Mexico City, and Sugar Ray, in their second encounter, were able to win inside the distance.

By the way, it has been written that no event of any kind at any of the four Madison Square Gardens ever drew a larger crowd than the crowd that turned out on Jan. 17, 1941, to see the rematch between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. Needless to say, prizefighting was big in those days.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.

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Jai Opetaia Brutally KOs David Nyika, Cementing his Status as the World’s Top Cruiserweight

Published

6 days ago

January 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Jai-Opetaia-Brutally-KOs-David-Nyika-Cementing-his-Status-as-the-World's-Top-Cruiserweight

In his fifth title defense, lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) successfully defended his belt with a brutal fourth-round stoppage of former sparring partner David Nyika. The bout was contested in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia where Opetaia won the IBF title in 2022 with a hard-earned decision over Maris Briedis with Nyika on the undercard. Both fighters reside in the general area although Nyika, a former Olympic bronze medalist, hails from New Zealand.

The six-foot-six Nyika, who was undefeated in 10 pro fights with nine KOs, wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Opetaia although had never fought beyond five rounds and took the fight on three weeks’ notice when obscure German campaigner Huseyin Cinkara suffered an ankle injury in training and had to pull out. He wobbled Opetaia in the second round in a fight that was an entertaining slugfest for as long as it lasted.

In round four, the champion but Nyika on the canvas with his patented right uppercut and then finished matters moments later with a combination climaxed with an explosive left hand. Nyika was unconscious before he hit the mat.

Opetaia’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants Opetaia to unify the title and then pursue a match with Oleksandr Usyk. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, a Golden Boy Promotions fighter, holds the WBA and WBO versions of the title and is expected to be Opetaia’s next opponent. The WBC diadem is in the hands of grizzled Badou Jack.

Other Fights of Note

Brisbane heavyweight Justis Huni (12-0, 7 KOs) wacked out overmatched South African import Shaun Potgieter (10-2), ending the contest at the 33-second mark of the second round. The 25-year-old, six-foot-four Huni turned pro in 2020 after losing a 3-round decision to two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov. There’s talk of matching him with England’s 20-year-old sensation Moses Itauma which would be a delicious pairing.

Eddie Hearn’s newest signee Teremoana Junior won his match even quicker, needing less than a minute to dismiss Osasu Otobo, a German heavyweight of Nigerian descent.

The six-foot-six Teremoana, who akin to Huni hails from Brisbane and turned pro after losing to the formidable Jalolov, has won all six of his pro fights by knockout while answering the bell for only eight rounds. He has an interesting lineage; his father is from the Cook Islands.

Rising 20-year-old Max “Money” McIntyre, a six-foot-three super middleweight, scored three knockdowns en route to a sixth-round stoppage of Abdulselam Saman, advancing his record to 7-0 (6 KOs). As one can surmise, McIntyre is a big fan of Floyd Mayweather.

The Opetaia-Nyika fight card aired on DAZN pay-per-view (39.99) in the Antipodes and just plain DAZN elsewhere.

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R.I.P. Paul Bamba (1989-2024): The Story Behind the Story

Published

1 week ago

January 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Paul Bamba, a cruiserweight, passed away at age 35 on Dec. 27 six days after defeating Rogelio Medina before a few hundred fans on a boxing card at a performing arts center in Carteret, New Jersey. No cause of death has been forthcoming, leading to rampant speculation. Was it suicide, or perhaps a brain injury, and if the latter was it triggered by a pre-existing condition?

Fuel for the latter comes in the form of a letter that surfaced after his death. Dated July 25, 2023, it was written by Dr. Alina Sharinn, a board-certified neurologist licensed in New York and Florida.

“Mr. Bamba has suffered a concussion and an episode of traumatic diplopia within the past year and now presents with increasing headaches. His MRI of the brain revealed white matter changes in both frontal lobes,” wrote Bamba’s doctor.

Her recommendation was that he stop boxing temporarily while also avoiding any other activity at which he was at risk of head trauma.

Dr. Sherinn’s letter was written three months after Bamba was defeated by Chris Avila in a 4-round contest in New Orleans. He lost all four rounds on all three scorecards, reducing his record to 5-3.

Bamba took a break from boxing after fighting Avila. Eight months would elapse before he returned to the ring. His next four fights were in Santa Marta, Colombia, against opponents who were collectively 4-23 at the time that he fought them. The most experienced of the quartet, Victor Coronado, was 38 years old.

He won all four inside the distance and ten more knockouts would follow, the last against Medina in a bout sanctioned by the World Boxing Association for the WBA Gold title. As widely reported, the stoppage, his 14^th, broke Mike Tyson’s record for the most consecutive knockouts within a calendar year. That would have been a nice feather in his cap if only it were true.

Born in Puerto Rico, Paul Bamba was a former U.S. Marine who spent time in Iraq as an infantry machine gunner. In interviews on social media platforms, he is well-spoken and introspective without a trace of the boastfulness that many prizefighters exhibit when talking to an outsider. Interviewed in a corridor of the arena after stopping Medina, he was almost apologetic, acknowledging that he still had a lot to learn.

His life story is inspirational.

His early years were spent in foster homes. He was homeless for a time after returning to civilian life. Speaking with Boxing Scene’s Lucas Ketelle, Bamba said, “I didn’t have any direction after leaving the Marine corps. I hit rock bottom, couldn’t afford a place to stay…I was renting a mattress that was shoved behind someone’s sofa.”

He turned his life around when he ventured into the Morris Park Boxing Gym in the Bronx where he learned the rudiments of boxing under the tutelage of former WBA welterweight champion Aaron “Superman” Davis. “I love boxing,” he would say. “The confidence it gives you permeates into other aspects of your life.”

Bamba’s newfound confidence allowed him to carve out a successful career as a personal trainer. His most famous client was the Grammy Award winning R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo who signed Bamba to his new sports management company late in the boxer’s Knockout skein. Bamba was with Ne-Yo in Atlanta when he passed away. Ne-Yo broke the news on his Instagram platform.

Paul Bamba had been pursuing a fight with Jake Paul. Winning the WBA Gold belt opened up other potentially lucrative options. In theory, the holder of the belt is one step removed from a world title fight. Next comes an eliminator and, if he wins that one, a true title fight attached to a hefty purse will follow…in theory.

Rogelio “Porky” Medina, who brought a 42-10 record, had competed against some top-shelf guys, e.g., Zurdo Ramirez, Badou Jack, James DeGale, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant; going the distance with DeGale and Plant. However, only two of his 42 wins had come in fights outside Mexico, at age 36 he was over the hill, and his best work had come as a super middleweight.

Thirteen months ago, Medina carried 168 ½ pounds for a match in New Zealand in which he was knocked out in the first round. He came in more than 30 pounds heavier, specifically 202 ¼, for his match with Paul Bamba. In between, he knocked out a 54-year-old man in Guadalajara to infuse his ledger with a little brighter sheen.

Why did the WBA see fit to sanction the Bamba-Medina match as a title fight? That’s a rhetorical question. And for the record, the record for the most consecutive knockouts within a calendar year wasn’t previously held by Mike Tyson. LaMar Clark, a heavyweight from Cedar City, Utah, scored 29 consecutive knockouts in 1958 after opening the year by winning a 6-round decision. (If you are inclined to believe that all or most of those knockouts were legitimate, then perhaps I can interest you in buying the Brooklyn Bridge.)

Clark was being primped for a fight with a good purse which came when he was dispatched to Louisville to fight a fellow who was fairly new to the professional boxing scene, a former U.S. Olympian then known as Cassius Clay who knocked him out in the second round in what proved to be Clark’s final fight.

Paul Bamba was a much better fighter than LaMar Clark, of that I am quite certain. However, if Paul Bamba had gone on to meet one of the world’s elite cruiserweights, a similar outcome would have undoubtedly ensued.

One can summon up the Bamba-Medina fight on the internet although the video isn’t great – it was obviously filmed on a smart phone – and pieces of it are missing. Bamba was winning with his higher workrate when Medina took his unexpected leave, but one doesn’t have to be a boxing savant to see that Paul’s hand and foot speed were slow and that there were big holes in his defense.

This isn’t meant to be a knock on the decedent. Being able to box even four rounds at a fast clip and still be fresh is one of the most underrated achievements in all of human endurance sports. Bamba’s life story is indeed inspirational. When he talked about the importance of “giving back,” he was sincere. In an early interview, he mentioned having helped out at a Harlem food pantry.

Paul Bamba had to die to become well-known within the fight fraternity, let alone in the larger society. One hopes that his death will inspire the sport’s regulators to be more vigilant in assaying a boxer’s medical history and, if somehow his untimely death leads to the dissolution of the fetid World Boxing Association, his legacy would be even greater.

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