Ryan O’Neal Loved Boxing So Much he let Joe Frazier Punch Him in the Face

Published

1 year ago

December 12, 2023

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Ryan O’Neal passed away last week at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at age 82. During the 1970s, O’Neal was one of the most well-known and highest-paid actors in the world. The propellant was the 1970 blockbuster “Love Story” for which O’Neal received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

O’Neal played a boxer in the 1979 comedy “The Main Event.” He was penciled-in to star as the broken-down prizefighter in the remake of the 1931 classic “The Champ,” but dropped out when the director Franco Zeffirelli reneged on his promise to cast Ryan’s son Griffin O’Neal in a secondary role and was replaced by Jon Voight.

O’Neal’s involvement in boxing wasn’t limited to the big screen. Born in Los Angeles, the son of a TV screenwriter and Hollywood actress, he fought as amateur, was a regular on fight nights at the Olympic Auditorium when he wasn’t off somewhere on a movie shoot, was involved in the management of several fighters, one of whom won a version of the world welterweight title, and once actually swapped punches with Joe Frazier!

He shared the ring with Frazier in 1967 when he was co-hosting Mike Douglas’s TV talk show. At the time, O’Neal was starring in the hit ABC nighttime soap opera “Peyton Place,” and Frazier was a fast-rising contender with 17 pro fights under his belt.

They fought a two-round exhibition with headgear in a ring pitched in the middle of the street outside the Philadelphia TV studio where Douglas’s show was taped. The referee was Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali played the role of a ringside TV commentator. The episode aired in most markets on Sept. 29, 1967.

This came about when Douglas’s producer learned that O’Neal had an amateur boxing background. Had he known more about that background, he would have undoubtedly shelved the idea.

“I fought as an amateur back in 1959 and 1960 in Santa Monica,” O’Neal told Los Angeles Times staff writer Dwight Chapin for a story that ran two years after the Frazier exhibition. “Middleweight division. I wasn’t worth a damn. My brother Kevin was a bantamweight and he wasn’t any better; we took some terrible beatings.”

Recollecting his misadventure in Philadelphia with Smokin’ Joe, O’Neal said, “Everything was OK until Frazier hit me. I still wake up screaming.” He later said that he had to visit a chiropractor to have his neck straightened.

O’Neal’s amateur background was useful in one respect. “I learned enough so that I could recognize somebody else with talent,” he said.

On Dec. 1, 1966, a young fighter from Detroit, Hedgemon Lewis, made his West Coast debut on the undercard of a show at the Olympic Auditorium where he was matched against a local tough named Phil Garcia with whom O’Neal was familiar from his amateur days. Lewis knocked Garcia out in the third round and O’Neal, watching on the TV, was mesmerized.

O’Neal wasn’t the only one who saw great potential in Hedgemon Lewis. When a man named Dell Jackson, a hair stylist in an exclusive Hollywood boutique, set about forming a syndicate to back the young prospect, he had no trouble finding investors. Ryan O’Neal jumped on board, as did Bill Cosby and recording artist and Broadway star Robert Goulet.

Lewis failed in three cracks at the world welterweight title, losing twice to the great Jose Napoles and to John H. Stracey in what would be his farewell fight, but he captured the New York version of the title when he out-pointed Carmen Basilio’s nephew Billy Backus in 1972 on Backus’s turf in Syracuse. (They fought again six months later at the same venue with the same result; Lewis won a 15-round decision.)

No member of the syndicate was more hands-on than O’Neal.

Lewis trained at LA’s Hoover Street Gym under the watchful eyes of the renowned trainer Eddie Futch and his protégé Thell Torrence. Whenever he could fit it into his busy schedule, O’Neal turned up there to keep tabs on his fighter. He eventually took a financial interest in several others that trained there, including another Hedgemon, Hedgemon Robertson, whose signature win was a first-round stoppage of Andy “The Hawk” Price at the LA Forum.

In popular fiction, boxing managers are commonly portrayed as venal, as people that extract as much mileage as they can from a prizefighter before casting him aside with only his memories to console him as he grows older. Ryan O’Neal didn’t fit the stereotype. He took an interest in Hedgemon Lewis the man, not merely in Hedgemon the boxer. With O’Neal’s encouragement, Lewis — who had taken some college courses before leaving Detroit — got his real estate license and invested his purses wisely. Ryan and Hedgemon remained close long after Lewis retired and returned to the Motor City to care for his ailing mother,

“The Main Event” reunited Ryan O’Neal with Barbra Streisand, his co-star in the screwball comedy “What’s Up Doc?” Streisand was notoriously hard to work with, but she and Ryan had great chemistry.

In their second collaboration, Streisand plays a perfume company tycoon who loses her fortune and her assets, save for a washed-up boxer who runs a driving school that is a subsidiary of her perfume company. She induces him to return to the ring and maneuvers him into a title fight. Yes, it’s a hokey movie, but an enjoyable romp with a surprise ending (sorry; no spoiler alert here).

As O’Neal’s popularity began to fade, he continued to make headlines in the tabloids because of his bumpy, albeit long-standing, relationship with actress and swimsuit model Farrah Fawcett who bore him a son. An intrepid reporter once asked Fawcett what she saw in O’Neal. “He’s real” was her terse reply.

Thell Torrence, who still keeps his hand, or at least a couple of fingers, in the boxing game at age 87, would concur. Torrence was also close with O’Neal. He was there in 2017 when the actor was awarded the Tom Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to boxing at the annual banquet of the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame. “I can’t say enough good things about Ryan,” he said when we talked with him yesterday.

Ryan O’Neal, who had leukemia, died peacefully with family members at his side. We here at TSS send our condolences to all of his loved ones.

—-

Arne K. Lang is a recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling. His latest book, titled Clash of the Little Giants: George Dixon, Terry McGovern, and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910, was released by McFarland in September, 2022.

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TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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To say that Mekhrubon Sanginov is excited to resume his boxing career would be a great understatement. Sanginov, ranked #9 by the WBA at 154 pounds before his hiatus, last fought on July 8, 2022.

He was in great form before his extended leave, having scored four straight fast knockouts, advancing his record to 13-0-1. Had he remained in Las Vegas, where he had settled after his fifth pro fight, his career may have continued on an upward trajectory, but a trip to his hometown of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, turned everything haywire. A run-in with a knife-wielding bully nearly cost him his life, stalling his career for nearly three full years.

Sanginov was exiting a restaurant in Dushanbe when he saw a man, plainly intoxicated, harassing another man, an innocent bystander. Mekhrubon intervened and was stabbed several times with a long knife. One of the puncture wounds came perilously close to puncturing his heart.

“After he stabbed me, I ran after him and hit him and caught him to hold for the police,” recollects Sanginov. “There was a lot of confusion when the police arrived. At first, the police were not certain what had happened.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost two liters of blood, or so I was told. After I was patched up, one of the surgeons said to me, ‘Give thanks to God because he gave you a second life.’ It is like I was born a second time.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened in any city,” he adds. (A story about the incident on another boxing site elicited this comment from a reader: “Good man right there. World would be a better place if more folk were willing to step up when it counts.”)

Sanginov first laced on a pair of gloves at age 10 and was purportedly 105-14 as an amateur. Growing up, the boxer he most admired was Roberto Duran. “Muhammad Ali will always be the greatest and [Marvin] Hagler was great too, but Duran was always my favorite,” he says.

During his absence from the ring, Sanginov married a girl from Tajikistan and became a father. His son Makhmud was born in Las Vegas and has dual citizenship. “Ideally,” he says, “I would like to have three more children. Two more boys and the last one a daughter.”

He also put on a great deal of weight. When he returned to the gym, his trainer Bones Adams was looking at a cruiserweight. But gradually the weight came off – “I had to give up one of my hobbies; I love to eat,” he says – and he will be resuming his career at 154. “Although I am the same weight as before, I feel stronger now. Before I was more of a boy, now I am a full-grown man,” says Sanginov who turned 29 in February.

He has a lot of rust to shed. Because of all those early knockouts, he has answered the bell for only eight rounds in the last four years. Concordantly, his comeback fight on Saturday could be described as a soft re-awakening. Sanginov’s opponent Mahonri Montes, an 18-year pro from Mexico, has a decent record (36-10-2, 25 KOs) but has been relatively inactive and is only 1-3-1 in his last five. Their match at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, is slated for eight rounds.

On May 10, Ardreal Holmes (17-0) faces Erickson Lubin (26-2) on a ProBox card in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s an IBF super welterweight title eliminator, meaning that the winner (in theory) will proceed directly to a world title fight.

Sanginov will be watching closely. He and Holmes were scheduled to meet in March of 2022 in the main event of a ShoBox card on Showtime. That match fell out when Sanginov suffered an ankle injury in sparring.

If not for a twist of fate, that may have been Mekhrubon Sanginov in that IBF eliminator, rather than Ardreal Holmes. We will never know, but one thing we do know is that Mekhrubon’s world title aspirations were too strong to be ruined by a knife-wielding bully.

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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

6 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

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In the showdown between undefeated welterweight champions Jaron “Boots Ennis walked away with the victory by technical knockout over Eamantis Stanionis and the WBA and IBF titles on Saturday.

No doubt. Ennis was the superior fighter.

“He’s a great fighter. He’s a good guy,” said Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) faced Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 10 KOs) at demonstrated an overpowering southpaw and orthodox attack in front of a sold-out crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It might have been confusing but whether he was in a southpaw stance or not Ennis busted the body with power shots and jabbed away in a withering pace in the first two rounds.

Stanionis looked surprised when his counter shots seemed impotent.

In the third round the Lithuanian fighter who trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, began using a rocket jab to gain some semblance of control. Then he launched lead rights to the jaw of Ennis. Though Stanionis connected solidly, the Philly fighter was still standing and seemingly unfazed by the blows.

That was a bad sign for Stanionis.

Ennis returned to his lightning jabs and blows to the body and Stanionis continued his marauding style like a Sherman Tank looking to eventually run over his foe. He just couldn’t muster enough firepower.

In the fifth round Stanionis opened up with a powerful body attack and seemed to have Ennis in retreat. But the Philadelphia fighter opened up with a speedy combination that ended with blood dripping from the nose of Stanionis.

It was not looking optimistic for the Lithuanian fighter who had never lost.

Stanionis opened up the sixth round with a three-punch combination and Ennis met him with a combination of his own. Stanionis was suddenly in retreat and Ennis chased him like a leopard pouncing on prey. A lightning five-punch combination that included four consecutive uppercuts delivered Stanionis to the floor for the count. He got up and survived the rest of the round.

After returning shakily to his corner, the trainer whispered to him and then told the referee that they had surrendered.

Ennis jumped in happiness and now holds the WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

“I felt like I was getting in my groove. I had a dream I got a stoppage just like this,” said Ennis.

Stanionis looked like he could continue, but perhaps it was a wise move by his trainer. The Lithuanian fighter’s wife is expecting their first child at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ennis finally proved the expectations of greatness by experts. It was a thorough display of superiority over a very good champion.

“The biggest part was being myself and having a live body in front of me,” said Ennis. “I’m just getting started.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was jubilant over the performance of the Philadelphia fighter.

“What a wonderful humble man. This is one of the finest fighters today. By far the best fighter in the division,” said Hearn. “You are witnessing true greatness.”

Other Bouts

Former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) showed that moving up in weight would not be a problem even against the rugged and taller Thomas Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs) in winning by a convincing unanimous decision.

The quicksilver southpaw Ford ravaged Mattice in the first round then basically cruised the remaining nine rounds like a jackhammer set on automatic. Four-punch combinations pummeled Mattice but never put him down.

“He was a smart veteran. He could take a hit,” said Ford.

Still, there was no doubt on who won the super featherweight contest. After 10 rounds all three judges gave Ford every round and scored it 100-90 for the New Jersey fighter who formerly held the WBA featherweight title which was wrested from him by Nick Ball.

Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) made good on a promise to his departed daughter by knocking out Argentina’s Franco Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs) in their welterweight battle.

Giyasov floored Ocampo in the first round with an overhand right but the Argentine fighter was able to recover and fight on for several more rounds.

In the fourth frame, Giyasov launched a lead right to the liver and collapsed Ocampo with the body shot for the count of 10 at 1:57 of the fourth round.

“I had a very hard camp because I lost my daughter,” Giyasov explained. “I promised I would be world champion.”

In his second pro fight Omari Jones (2-0) needed only seconds to disable William Jackson (13-6-2) with a counter right to the body for a knockout win. The former Olympic medalist was looking for rounds but reacted to his opponent’s actions.

“He was a veteran he came out strong,” said Jones who won a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “But I just stayed tight and I looked for the shot and I landed it.”

After a feint, Jackson attacked and was countered by a right to the rib cage and down he went for the count at 1:40 of the first round in the welterweight contest.

Photo credit: Matchroom

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