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B-Hop’s Latest Hall of Fame Extends Beyond the Ring
B-Hop’s Latest Hall of Fame Extends Beyond the Ring
Thomas Wolfe’s celebrated novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, published posthumously in 1940, paints a rather bleak picture of a fledgling author who writes of the hometown he left years earlier but still mostly remembers with fondness, although his literary return to his roots is greeted with menacing letters and death threats from the town’s residents who don’t like his not-always-complimentary takes on the place where they still live.
In legend and lore, Philadelphia is a tough city that infrequently grants its love, especially to individual athletes or those who wear the colors of its local teams, and only then with large dollops of show-me skepticism. It isn’t enough just to be from Philly or to have arrived as a hired mercenary; in the City of Brotherly Love, it is necessary to earn civic affection through hard work and an absolute commitment to a common cause that transcends place of birth or any previous stops along the way.
Joe DeCamera, the sports-talk radio host who served as master of ceremonies for Thursday night’s 20th annual induction ceremony of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, acknowledged as much when he offered his opinion that James Harden, a would-be major cog in the unfulfilled championship aspirations of recent 76ers squads, would never have a seat at the dais for a future enshrinement because the star point guard, traded to the Los Angeles Clippers two days earlier, simply did not “get” Philadelphia, nor did Philly “get” Harden, a chronic malcontent who was with the team for only 79 regular-season games (and 23 playoff contests) in less than two full seasons.
Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, unlike Wolfe’s George Webber character in You Can’t Go Home Again, doesn’t have to worry about an unwelcoming return to Philly because, well, he never really left. Although B-Hop still maintains a residence in Delaware, it is within the Philadelphia metropolitan area’s footprint, and he also has a lavish condo in Philly overlooking the Delaware River, befitting someone who has accrued so many professional successes. He is an inductee into the International, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame, but the one that took him to its collective bosom Thursday at Live! Casino & Hotel in South Philly, a stone’s throw from the stadiums and arenas where the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers and Flyers play, puts him not only in the company of such cherished hometown fighters as Joe Frazier, Tommy Loughran, Joey Giardello, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Jeff Chandler and Meldrick Taylor, but with some of the team-sports heroes of his youth, the ultimate accolade for someone who continues to wear his pride of Philadelphia’s intermittent sports competitive successes on his sleeve.
“It’s 2023 and to be recognized again at this time in my life (Hopkins is 58) and in my hometown is right up there with any honor I’ve received in my career,” B-Hop said before he took his place at the head table in the Live! Event Center. “This is the cherry on top of four scoops of vegan ice cream. You got baseball greats, football greats, basketball greats. And, of course, boxing greats. It’s a whole bunch of people who did unique and extraordinary things.
“One thing about Philly, you cannot just walk into an honor like this. You have to earn it from a generation of tough fans, maybe a couple of generations worth.”
Hopkins’ appreciation for being viewed as not only an iconic Philadelphia boxer, but an iconic Philly athlete regardless of the sport, is hardly a newly minted revelation. On Oct. 9, 2004, 19 days after he knocked out Oscar De La Hoya to become the first middleweight to fully unify the division title in the four-belt era, Hopkins was the man of the moment in a parade down North Broad Street, from the front of the legendary Blue Horizon to City Hall, where he was praised as one of the city’s sporting treasures by then-Mayor John Street. An estimated 10,000 Hopkins fans lined the parade route, which might seem a bit skimpy in comparison to, say, the Eagles’ multimillion-celebrants parade after they won Super Bowl LII, a 41-33 conquest of the New England Patriots on Feb. 4, 2018, but it was nonetheless historic. Longtime Philly boxing promoter and local boxing historian J Russell Peltz, also an inductee into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2020), noted that it was the first such parade held for a boxer since 1939, when thousands of Italian-Americans lined South Broad Street to cheer heavyweight contender “Two-Ton” Tony Galento, a native of Orange, N.J., who was in town for a bout with Lou Nova. In his previous bout, Galento had knocked down heavyweight champion Joe Louis before being knocked out himself.
“It’s an emotional thing for me to be recognized in my hometown,” Hopkins said before the parade in his honor began. “There are so many great athletes and fighters in Philadelphia – legends, really – who never got anything like this. It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”
So moved by the emotion of the moment when he was called to the microphone by DeCamera, Hopkins, whose responses to even the most innocuous question from a member of the media can result in a 20-minute soliloquy, that he required less than one full minute to express his gratitude to be joining the PSHOF. To longtime observers of B-Hop, it was like whittling down Tolstoy’s War and Peace to a one-page synopsis from a Cliff’s Notes. Then again, the career gists of all of the inductees in attendance were shown beforehand in well-crafted videos that left few stones unturned.
Truth be told, Hopkins’ historical milestones are so numerous and impressive that it was as inevitable as a morning sunrise that he would pass muster with the PSHOF selection committee. Despite a late start to his boxing career, the result of an armed robbery committed as a teenager that landed him behind bars for 56 months, his 20 successful middleweight defenses (since matched by Gennadiy Golovkin) were a division record and he became the oldest fighter to win a world championship when he won a light heavyweight title, the IBF’s, by outpointing Karo Murat over 12 rounds on Oct. 26, 2013, in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. So fantastically fit was Hopkins that, even when he was nearly 52, he still remained a world-rated fighter.
“Bernard Hopkins is as close to a perfectionist with nutrition (hence his remark about vegan ice cream) as anyone I’ve ever dealt with,” said renowned physical conditioning guru Mackie Shilstone, who helped B-Hop (then 41) bulk up the right way from the middleweight limit of 160 pounds for his unanimous decision over stellar light heavyweight Antonio Tarver on June 10, 2006.
The 16-member PSHOF Class of 2023 increases the total number of inductees to 217, just 14 of whom have ties to boxing. It says much about how high that bar is set that such cherished Philly main-eventers as “Bad” Bennie Briscoe, Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, Stanley “Kitten” Hayward and Willie “The Worm” Monroe remain on the outside looking in (Briscoe, Hayward and Monroe are deceased.)
In addition to Hopkins, other notable Philadelphia athletes and coaches getting their call to the hall included former Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright, who guided the Wildcats to NCAA championships in 2016 and 2018; Eagles standouts Jeremiah Trotter and Irving Fryar; former Phillies owner Bill Giles; former Flyers defenseman Joe Watson, who helped the team to win Stanley Cup titles in 1974 and ’75; Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, an important member of the team’s 2008 World Series champions; Olympic long jumper Carol Lewis, younger sister of track and field legend Carl Lewis, and jockey Tony Black, who was on board 33,964 mounts during his long career, during which he brought home 5,211 winners.
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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. “Championship Rounds, Round 4,” the fourth installment of Fernandez’s four-volume anthology, is now out and available via Amazon and other book-selling outlets.
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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
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 11th-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 11th-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
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.
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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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