Pennsylvania Boxing Head Greg Sirb, Much Admired, Steps Aside After 33 Years

Published

7 months ago

October 4, 2023

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When it comes to assessments of anyone’s career longevity, it helps to have a particularly persistent standard-bearer against whom an apt comparison can be made. Not that their respective involvements in boxing fit the same criteria, but consider this: Greg Sirb, the just-retired executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, stayed the course for 33½ years, during which he served in the administrations of seven governors and outlasted 14 secretaries of the Commonwealth. B-Hop swapped punches with gloved opponents in sanctioned bouts for 28 years, a span covering the time in office of “only” five occupants of the White House and six chief executives of his home state of PA.

Not that Sirb, 61, doesn’t know a thing or two about getting into scraps of a different sort and, like Hopkins, winning most of them. Just 28 when he was appointed by then-Governor Bob Casey Sr. on Jan. 29, 1990, to a post that seemingly came with scant prestige and even less sense of direction, the two-time former All-America wrestler at Edinboro (Pa.) University (that’s wrestling as it is done at the intercollegiate level, not scripted rasslin’ as performed by the pros) immediately went about the task, as Paul McCartney sang in Hey, Jude, of taking a somewhat sad song and making it better. A lot better, which is the consensus opinion of even some of those who periodically butted heads with Sirb over his intransigence when it came to the observance of rules, some of which he personally wrote when in 1992 he drafted language to amend the PSAC’s 1989 bylaws which many believed to be in need of an overhaul.

“I had a professor in grad school (Penn State, where he earned a master’s in Public Administration) who told me that when you leave a position, leave it better than when you took it over,” said Sirb, whose farewell gig was at ringside for a fight card in Philadelphia on Sept. 29. “Never leave the cupboard bare. I think I’m doing that.”

Time will tell, of course, but Sirb is confident that his hand-picked successor, Ed Kunkle, can keep a high gloss on the reputation of the PSAC which owes in large part to his predecessor’s handiwork that often lapped over the boundaries of Pennsylvania into other states. Sirb is a co-founder of the Association of Boxing Commissions, serving as its president from 1996 to 2001, and he was instrumental in the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000. That the same legislators who passed those groundbreaking initiatives into law have given the ABC inadequate authority to enforce their tenets is embarrassing, but even Sirb is only capable of carrying the ball so far toward the goal line.

Professional boxing, of course, has its share of murky areas, so much so that identifying contributors to any cleanup project can be a daunting task. That said, the Boxing Writers Association of America’s vote to present Sirb with the James A. Farley Award for Honesty and Integrity in 2019 offers further proof that even a short guy with good intentions can stand tall among his peers.

“Greg has been instrumental in shaping the landscape not just of Pennsylvania’s state athletic commission, but also of athletic commissions across the country,” current Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said in a statement in praise of the retiring Sirb. “During his 33 years here, Greg has left an indelible mark on innumerable athletes through the sports and events he’s overseen.”

How many such events have there been during Sirb’s three-decades-plus watch? The man himself can’t give an exact number, but reasonably close estimates are than he has regulated 2,000-plus boxing events and 1,000 or so martial arts shows in Pennsylvania, in addition to supervising combat-sports cards in 21 states and tribal jurisdictions. He also oversees wrestling, nee rasslin’, events, which suits him fine given his stellar work on the mat as a college grappler at Edinboro.

So, what went into the making of Greg Sirb the ring-rattling rebel who was not content to settle for the status quo when he took on a state agency that needed just such a feisty fixer-upper? Well, his family background, and natural temperament, definitely were factors.

“When I was nine or 10 years old my father, who had boxed in the Army, would take me to the gym and that’s what we learned to do, me and my brothers,” he recalled. “It’s just something that I fell in love with. I also fell in love with wrestling. I liked the physicality of those sports, as well as MMA. It’s just a part of my DNA.”

Upon getting his master’s degree in Public Administration from Penn State, the 28-year-old Sirb, a native of Sharon, Pa., got a job in state government, with the Budget and Finance Committee. One of his duties was to audit all the state agencies, one of which was the state athletic commission. He quickly determined that the commission had “a lot of problems,” which led he and his colleagues to write a “not-so-good report about it.” It must have been a convincing document, because legislators basically decided that they were going to address the issue by coming up with a new and improved set of bylaws.

“They rewrote the law and created an executive director position,” said Sirb, noting that the commission was then headed by “executive secretary” Frank Walker, who did not have much authority to enact needed changes. Walker was eventually replaced by an older man who was with the horse racing commission, but he resigned after six weeks and then-Governor Bob Casey Sr., a Democrat, called upon Sirb to fill the vacancy on a trial basis.

“When I took the job I was young,” Sirb noted. “I had to earn my stripes. But I knew boxing – not as well as I know it now, but, boy, I got an education real quick. But I told myself (the commission) would be run a certain way. I did learn a few things, particularly from guys like (promoters) Russell Peltz, Artie Pelullo and Joe Hand Sr. and Jr. Those guys taught me there were a few things I needed to be a little more flexible on, like changing weigh-ins from the day-of to the day-before. With other things, though, I just couldn’t back down.”

Sirb’s status was hardly entrenched, and he wondered if he’d be let go when Casey left office and was replaced by Republican Tom Ridge. “I had to go for an interview and tell him what I did,” Sirb said of Ridge. “Obviously, state athletic commissions aren’t a high priority for any governor. But I was kept on, and (Ridge) was one of the best governors I’ve been with. He was very pro-boxing, came to a lot of the events. He turned out to be a huge fan of the commission.”

It didn’t hurt that Sirb made the PSAC self-sufficient financially, to the extent that the profits were funneled back into the general fund. So he kept on keeping on, making friends and also the occasional contrarian, most of whom he eventually won over. But more recent developments have made Sirb’s responsibilities even more taxing of his time and energy, which contributed to his decision to finally step away after the Sept. 29 fight card in Philly.

“I don’t think many people realize there aren’t many positions like mine,” he said. “I bet there’s less than 20 full-time executive directors of state commissions in the country. You’re working every single weekend, and since ’98 or ’99 I’ve had to deal with licensing athletic agents. With the work I was doing for the ABC, it was literally seven days a week. That phone never stopped ringing. But (Josh) Shapiro is my seventh governor. I just figured, let’s just get a new guy in here (as executive director of the PSAC) with a new governor.”

So, what’s next for the Energizer Bunny who felt he needed some much-deserved time off?

“I’m kind of mulling over some offers,” Sirb said. “I might do some consulting with (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). It’s going to be hard, though, just walking away from something I’ve done for 33 years. There is interesting stuff I can do, but that’s not going to be for a couple of months.”

Bernard Fernandez, named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category with the Class of 2020, was the recipient of numerous awards for writing excellence during his 28-year career as a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Fernandez’s first book, “Championship Rounds,” a compendium of previously published material, was released in May of last year. The sequel, “Championship Rounds, Round 2,” with a foreword by Jim Lampley, is currently out. His third boxing anthology, “Championship Rounds, Round 3,” is now out and available from Amazon and other book-selling outlets.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 282: Ryan’s Song, Golden Boy in Fresno and More

Published

18 hours ago

April 26, 2024

David A. Avila

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Don’t call it an upset.

Days after Ryan Garcia proved the experts wrong, those same experts are re-tooling their evaluation processes.

It’s mind-boggling to me that 95 percent thought Garcia had no chance. Hear me out.

First, Garcia and Haney fought six times as amateurs with each winning three. But this time with no head gear and smaller gloves, Garcia had to have at least a 50/50 chance of winning. He is faster and a more powerful puncher.

Facts.

Haney is a wonderful boxer with smooth, almost artistic movements. But history has taught us power and speed like Garcia’s can’t be discounted. Think way back to legendary fighters like Willie Pep and Sandy Sadler. All that excellent defensive skill could not prevent Sadler from beating Pep in three of their four meetings.

Power has always been an equalizer against boxing skill.

Ben Lira, one of the wisest and most experienced trainers in Southern California, always professed knockout power was the greatest equalizer in a fight. “You can be behind for nine rounds and one punch can change the outcome,” he said.

Another weird theory spreading before the fight was that Garcia would quit in the fight. That was a puzzling one. Getting stopped by a perfect body shot is not quitting. And that punch came from Gervonta “Tank” Davis who can really crack.

So how did Garcia do it?

In the opening round Ryan Garcia timed Devin Haney’s jab and countered with a snapping left hook that rattled and wobbled the super lightweight champion. After that, Garcia forced Haney to find another game plan.

Garcia and trainer Derrick James must have worked hours on that move.

I must confess that I first saw Garcia’s ability many years ago when he was around 11 or 12. So I do have an advantage regarding his talent. A few things I noticed even back then were his speed and power. Also, that others resented his talent but respected him. He was the guy with everything: talent and looks.

And that brings resentment.

Recently I saw him and his crew rapping a song on social media. Now he’s got a song. Next thing you know Hollywood will be calling and he’ll be in the movies. It’s happened before with fighters such as Art Aragon, the first Golden Boy in the 50s. He was dating movie stars and getting involved with starlets all over Hollywood.

Is history repeating itself or is Garcia creating a new era for boxing?

Since 2016 people claimed he was just a social media creation. Now, after his win over Devin Haney a former undisputed lightweight champion and the WBC super lightweight titleholder, the boxer from the high desert area of Victorville has become one of the highest paid fighters in the world.

Ryan Garcia has entered a new dimension.

Golden Boy Season

After several down years the Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions suddenly is cracking the whip in 2024.

Avila

Vergil Ortiz Jr. (20-0, 20 KOs) returns to the ring and faces Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1, 17 KOs) a welterweight gatekeeper who lost to Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis. They meet as super welterweights in the co-main event at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, April 27. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card live.

It’s a quick return to action for Ortiz who is still adjusting to the new weight division. His last fight three months ago ended in less than one round in Las Vegas. It was cut short by an antsy referee and left Ortiz wanting more after more than a year of inactivity in the prize ring.

Ortiz has all the weapons.

Also, Northern California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) meets Cuba’s Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight affair set for 12 rounds.

It’s difficult to believe that former super lightweight titlist Ramirez has been written off by fans after only one loss. That was several years ago against Scotland’s Josh Taylor. One loss does not mean the end of a career.

“My goal is to get back on top and to get all those belts back. I still feel like I am one of the best 140-pounders in the division,” said Ramirez who lives in nearby Avenal, Calif.

An added major attraction features Marlen Esparza in a unification rematch against Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz for the WBA, WBC, WBO flyweight titles. Their first fight was

a controversial win by Esparza that saw one judge give her nine of 10 rounds in a very close fight. Those Texas judges.

In a match that could steal the show, Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) faces former world champion Jojo Diaz (33-5-1, 15 KOs) in a lightweight match.

Munguia and Canelo

Don’t sleep on this match.

Its current Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia facing former Golden Boy fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a battle between Mexico’s greatest sluggers next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 4.

“I think Jaime Munguia is going to do something special in the ring,” said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO for Golden Boy.

Tijuana’s Munguia showed up at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood where a throng of media from Mexico and the US met him.

Munguia looked confident and happy about his opportunity to fight great Canelo.

“It’s a hard fight,” said Munguia. “Truth is, its big for Mexico and not only for Mexicans but for boxing.”

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 6 p.m. Yoeniz Tellez (7-0) vs Joseph Jackson (19-0).

Sat. DAZN 9:30 a.m. Peter McGrail (8-1) vs Marc Leach (18-3-1); Beatriz Ferreira (4-0) vs Yanina Del Carmen 14-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Vergil Ortiz (20-0) vs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1); Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1) vs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1); Marlen Esparza (14-1) vs Gabriela Alaniz (14-1).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions

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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

5 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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