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

Published

1 year ago

May 7, 2023

Rick Assad

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

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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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More

Published

19 hours ago

November 1, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-303-Spotlights-on-Lightweights-and-More

Those lightweights.

Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.

Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.

Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.

Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.

“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.

Even in Las Vegas.

Verona, New York

Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.

Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.

“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.

Foster disagrees.

“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.

Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).

Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.

“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.

Muratalla likes challenges too.

“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.

Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship

WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.

Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.

But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.

“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.

In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.

Bad choice for Mucino.

Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.

Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.

Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.

Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.

“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.

It should be exciting.

Fights to Watch

Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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Bakhram Murtalaziev was the Fighter of the Month in October

Published

2 days ago

October 31, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Bakhram-Murtalaziev-was-the-Fighter-of-the-Month-in-October

As we close the book on October, let’s look back at the month’s stellar performances. Kenshiro Teraji added another exclamation point to his brilliant career with an 11^th-round stoppage of Cristofer Rosales. England’s Jack Catterall, considered no more than a decent domestic-level talent for most of his career, showed that he had been underrated with a comprehensive 12-round decision over declining Regis Prograis. But the top performance, by a landslide, was delivered by Bakhram Murtalaziev who annihilated Tim Tszyu on Oct. 19 in Orlando, Florida.

Murtalaziev was undefeated (22-0, 16 KOs) and the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, but he was the underdog and the “B” side. As champions go, and there are roughly five dozen across the 17 weight divisions, the California-based Russian ranked among the least well-known. He had won his title in Berlin with an 11^th-round stoppage of an unexceptional 38-year-old German-Ecuadorian campaigner, Jack Culcay, and he would be making his first defense.

Managed by Egis Klimas who also handles Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, Bakhram Murtalaziev came from a good barn in the vernacular of a horseplayer, but on paper that alone was insufficient to get him over the hump against Tim Tszyu who a few short months earlier was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer in the world.

That was before he met up with Sebastian Fundora who blemished his record, but that setback could have been written off as a fluke.

As we recall, Tszyu was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman in the initial PBC offering on Amazon Prime Video, but Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and Fundora was bumped up from the undercard to fill the breach. With only 12 days’ notice, Tim Tszyu went from fighting a five-foot-seven fighter who fights out of an orthodox stance to fighting a southpaw who stood almost a full foot taller. The “Towering Inferno” has his limitations, but poses a special problem to anyone, let alone an opponent with little time to formulate a good game plan.

Tszyu was hampered in the Fundora fight by a gash on his hairline that hampered his vision. The injury happened in the second round when he ducked under Fundora and walked into an elbow. The gash bled copiously throughout the fight and yet the best that Fundora could do was win a split (albeit fair) decision.

To say that Tszyu failed to rebound from the Fundora misadventure would be putting it mildly. Murtalaziev steamrolled him, knocking him to the canvas four times in all before Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel at the 1:55 mark of the third stanza. It was painful to watch. Referee Chris Young was faulted for allowing the match to continue as long as it did. Compounding Tszyu’s misery, his celebrated father, a first ballot Hall of Famer, was ringside. Kostya Tszyu hadn’t seen his oldest son fight in the flesh since Tim’s pro debut in 2016.

Although the dichotomy is imperfect, Tim Tszyu, who turns 30 on Saturday, is more of a puncher than a boxer. That may work against him so far as clawing his way back to a position of prominence. The noted boxing coach Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, a keen student of the history of boxing in the modern era, expressed this sentiment in a Q and A story for Boxing Scene. “Destructive fighters usually don’t come back to full capacity after bad KO losses,” he said, citing John Mugabi, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Naseem Hamed to illustrate his point. Moreover, added Edwards, “No one will ever be afraid of him again.”

But there were two stories that emerged from the Murtalaziev-Tszyu fight. Tim Tszyu crashed, but Bakhram Murtalaziev emerged from obscurity, announcing his presence (pardon the cliché) as a force to be reckoned with. As for his next assignment, the best guess is that it will come against Sebastian Fundora or Errol Spence Jr. who are expected to meet early next year. And based on Murtalaziev’s stunning performance in Orlando, it will be impossible to bet against him.

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Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later

Published

3 days ago

October 30, 2024

The Sweet Science

Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later

By TSS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT JAMIE REBNER — In sports, middle-aged athletes are not supposed to beat opponents who are half their age and in their athletic primes. Only the greatest ones can use guile, technique, and experience to compensate for the dulling of speed, reflexes, and athleticism that have unavoidably eroded with time.

That is why George Foreman’s feat of reclaiming the heavyweight title at 45 is so impressive. It was thirty years ago this coming Tuesday, Nov 5, 1994, that Foreman scored a monumental upset in knocking out Michael Moorer to win back the title he had lost twenty years prior against Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle. In doing so, Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion, breaking the record previously held by Jersey Joe Walcott, who had won the title at 38.

When Foreman beat Moorer, he was in the twilight of his second career, a comeback that began in 1987. George had retired in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young and experiencing a spiritual awakening in his locker room. That led him to become a minister and devote himself to his family and congregation. During his retirement, he opened a youth center in Houston, which required much financial support, prompting him to return to the ring.

After winning 24 straight fights from 1987-1990, Foreman lost his first title shot by decision to Evander Holyfield in 1991. He rebounded from that loss with three more wins before getting a crack at the WBO title against Tommy Morrison in 1993. But his performance against Morrison was disappointing and he lost another decision. After that, Foreman was out of the ring for 17 months before he was gifted another title shot against Moorer.

Foreman got that gift because Moorer, due to his sullen demeanor and curtness with the media, was not a draw with the fans. He was also an unproven champion, having beaten Holyfield for two belts only seven months prior. So. Moorer needed a name opponent who could bring in the crowds for his first title defense. And the other top heavyweights like Oliver McCall (WBC champ), Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe didn’t have close to Foreman’s drawing power. So. deserving or not, Foreman was chosen as the challenger to make a fight that would be worth the public’s attention and pockets.

Even Foreman was surprised by getting selected to fight Moorer. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d get a title shot again,” he told Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg. Still, George was determined to make his third time a charm.

But as motivated as George was, there was an irrefutable gap in speed between himself and the much younger champion. From the opening bell, Moorer used his superior quickness and reflexes to make Foreman look stiff and slow. And although George landed punches early on, he fired them one at a time while Moorer countered with multiple shots. But despite Moorer’s advantage in connects, his trainer Teddy Atlas advised him from the get-go not to stand in front of Foreman and make himself a stationary target for a right-hand bomb.

But Moorer failed to heed that advice as he continued to outwork Foreman in the middle rounds. Although he was winning, Moorer’s overconfidence kept him at close quarters, and he continued to circle unwisely to his left and into Foreman’s dangerous right hand. And despite absorbing many quality shots, Foreman never appeared hurt or discouraged thanks to his granite chin and unyielding resolve. He was determined to win and he was willing to walk through as many flush shots as he needed to do so.

With Moorer content to stay in range, Foreman gladly returned his firepower and he landed some telling right crosses, uppercuts, and plenty of thudding body blows during the battle. And while Moorer continued to pile up points and rounds, as long as George was marching forward and throwing shots, he had a puncher’s chance.

And with a minute to go in round ten, that punch came. After missing a three-punch combination, Foreman scored with a one-two, with the right hand landing on the forehead. He immediately repeated that combination but this time aimed the right hand lower on Moorer’s jaw. That slight adjustment caused his bulldozer right to collide perfectly with Moorer’s chin, sending the champion crashing to the canvas and sprawled onto his back. The champion couldn’t beat the count, and just like that, the fight was over, Moorer’s short-lived title run ending before it ever truly began.

With a single, shattering blow, Foreman etched his name into boxing history. Wearing the same trunks from Zaire 20 years before, he was now heavyweight champion of the world once again. It was a shocking result that defied conventional wisdom since seldom do 45-year-old boxers score knockouts over champions in their athletic primes. But Foreman reminded us that he was anything but your typical quadragenarian. He was special, and he had two distinct heavyweight championship reigns to prove it.

—

About the author:

Jamie Rebner lives in Toronto, Canada. He has been a freelance boxing writer since 2016 and his writing has appeared in The Fight City, Boxing News Online, The Ring, and Ringside Seat magazine. His Substack blog is Fight Fundamental, and he is currently writing a book about George Foreman’s comeback. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @J_NReb.

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