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U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Fidel La Barba Was a Phenom After a Rocky Start

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In just a few weeks, the 2024 Summer Olympics will commence in Paris. One hundred years ago, also in Paris, two American boxers – Fidel La Barba and Jackie Fields — captured Olympic gold medals. In an earlier story, we profiled Fields. Now it’s La Barba’s turn.

The fifth of seven children born to Italian immigrants, Fidel La Barba turned pro in his hometown of Los Angeles three months after returning from Paris where he won the flyweight competition. As a pro, he would carve out a Hall of Fame career, but it sure didn’t start out that way. After five pro bouts, his record stood 2-2-1.

There was an extenuating circumstance. Both losses and the draw came at the hands of Jimmy McLarnin. The baby-faced McLarnin was actually younger than La Barba, but he was more experienced and history would show that he was much more than a formidable foe; he can be fairly numbered among the all-time greats.

La Barba had to settle for another draw in his eighth pro fight, but this redounded well to him. Newsboy Brown, undefeated and with 36 pro fights under his belt, was thought to be too good for Fidel, but La Barba was every bit his equal in their 10-rounder at Hollywood’s Legion Stadium. Most of the newspapermen shaded the match to him. ”Fidel’s rounds were more decisive and he scored [the only] knockdown. On points he was clearly ahead,” wrote Sid Ziff in the Los Angeles Evening Express.

Three fights later, La Barba was thrust against Frankie Genaro in what was believed to be the first pro fight between former Olympic gold medalists. Genaro, a New Yorker, had won his diadem in Antwerp in 1920.

As a pro, La Barba was 6-2-2. Frankie Genaro, per boxrec, brought a professional record of 52-3-4.

Genaro was recognized as the American Flyweight Champion. As was common in those days, the champion was accorded the right to bring his own referee when he fought in his opponent’s backyard. Genaro picked New Jersey’s Harry Ertle, best known for being the third man in the ring for Dempsey-Carpentier.

La Barba vs Genaro was contested before an estimated 18,000 at LA’s Ascot Park where the usual bill of fare was motorcycle racing. At the end of 10 lusty rounds, the honorable Ertle raised La Barba’s hand without a moment’s hesitation. According to the correspondent for the San Francisco Examiner, a phalanx of 25 policemen were needed to keep well-wishers at bay as La Barba was being herded back to his dressing room.

This fight had taken on a much brighter tint the previous month when the great Filipino boxer Pancho Villa, recognized as the world flyweight champion, passed away at age 23 following surgery for an ulcerated tooth. With the title vacant, La Barba vs Genaro was elevated into a world title fight although not recognized as such in every jurisdiction.

At this juncture, Fidel La Barba was 19 years old and had been a pro for less than a year. Writing in 2019, the prominent boxing historian Matt McGrain mused that La Barba’s conquest of Genaro just may be the best win ever recorded by a teenager in all of boxing history.

La Barba stayed busy after this fight with 14 bouts in the next 17 months. Most were no-decision affairs meaning that La Barba would get to keep his title unless he got knocked out. On Jan. 21, 1927, he was matched against Scotland’s Elky Clark in a 12-rounder at Madison Square Garden.

The New York boxing commission, at odds with the National Boxing Association (NBA), had never formally recognized the Californian as the world flyweight champion. If Fidel were able to get past Clark, the undisputed European champion, he would receive their blessing and unify the title.

Clark, 29, had fought a slew of 20-round fights. As manifested in his cauliflower ears, he had a lot of mileage on him. The Scotsman lasted the distance, but Fidel had him on the canvas five times and won every round.

La Barba, who had reportedly been the president of his senior class at LA’s Lincoln High School, had always aspired to attend Stanford and in the fall of 1927 he did just that, turning his back on boxing to enter the prestigious university where he lived in the freshman dorm and helped-out with the school’s boxing team. But he left Stanford after one year and returned to the ring.

When he returned to boxing, he was no longer a champion, having outgrown the division, and a married man, having wed the ex-wife of prominent newspaper cartoonist Billy DeBeck (the first of Fidel’s three wives). Four fights in LA and one in San Francisco prefaced a belated honeymoon in Australia where La Barba had four fights in seven weeks, all scheduled for 15 rounds. He won them all.

The Trilogy

The highlight of La Barba’s post-college boxing career was his three-fight series with Kid Chocolate, one of the best trilogies in boxing history. They first met on May 22, 1929 at the New York Coliseum in the Bronx on a show promoted by Jess McMahon (the grandfather of WWE magnate Vince McMahon).

According to a story in a Brooklyn paper, Chocolate, born Eligio Sardinas, was unbeaten in 146 fights which included his amateur bouts in Cuba. There was no way to verify that record but the Havana Bon Bon was undefeated in bouts on American soil and was looked upon as a future world champion.

At five-foot-six, Chocolate was the taller man by three inches and he had a substantial edge in reach, but Fidel was able to smother his punches and after five rounds, said a reporter for a Pennsylvania paper, La Barba “was so far out in front that Chocolate wouldn’t be able to catch him with a deputy sheriff.”

But Chocolate did catch him and won the 10-round fight on a majority decision. “[Fidel] flouted one of the major tenets of gaming,” he wrote. “This merely demands that when you have the pot won, keep it won.”

The verdict was unpopular and it was inevitable that La Barba and Kid Chocolate would meet up again. The sequel was staged at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 3, 1930.

This would be La Barba’s finest hour since his conquest of Frankie Genaro back when he was just starting out. He took the fight to the Cuban right from the opening bell and at the end of the 10-round contest there was no doubt that his hand would be raised. “At the end,” wrote the ringside reporter for the Buffalo News, “the usually dancing, darting Cuban was flat-footed, leg-weary and swinging wildly.” (The decision was unanimous; the scores were not announced.)

Twenty-five months would elapse before the rubber match. In the interim, Kid Chocolate suffered three defeats, but against top-tier opponents — Battling Battalino, Tony Canzoneri, and Jack “Kid” Berg – in bouts so closely contested they could have gone either way. LaBarba also lost to Battalino, failing to capture Bat’s featherweight strap in a dull 15-round fight, but La Barba-Chocolate III had a patina that was lacking in the first two encounters. In New York and a few other places, Chocolate had come to be recognized as a two-division champion, having laid claim to the featherweight and (lightly regarded) junior lightweight belts.

After 14 rounds, in the estimation of the New York Daily News man, the rubber match was deadlocked 7-7. But Fidel had run out of bullets and Chocolate out-slugged him in the final stanza.

La Barba emerged from this bout with a torn retina in his left eye, but would have three more fights before his career was finished. He lost a 10-round decision to four-time rival Tommy Paul, a first-rate fighter from Buffalo, lost a 12-round decision to British featherweight champion Seaman Tommy Watson, and ended his career on a winning note with a 10-round decision over a Pittsburgh club fighter in Pittsburgh. His final record was 69-15-7 and he was never stopped.

In Retirement

Although La Barba went to Stanford to study finance, in retirement he discovered he had a knack for writing. Two of his stories, one of which was published in Collier’s, were adapted into screenplays: “Savannah of the Mounties,” a 1939 western starring Shirley Temple and Randolph Scott, and “Footlight Serenade,” a 1942 musical wherein Victor Mature plays a former boxing champion turned Broadway stage actor. Both films were produced by Twentieth-Century Fox. Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was a close friend.

During World War II, La Barba enlisted in the Army. Having only one good eye precluded him from combat duty. Discovered by a reporter in Naples, Italy, he defined his role as comforting old ladies in air raid shelters who were traumatized by the bombing. During the Korean conflict, he served as a physical fitness instructor at Southern California’s March Air Force Base.

La Barba was also a sportswriter for two short-lived newspapers, the Wilmington (CA) Daily Press Journal and the Santa Monica Evening Outlook where he was named Sports Editor. In the mid-1950s, he served on the California Athletic Commission, coached a paraplegic wheelchair basketball team, and attracted notice as the manager of promising heavyweight Elmer Willhoite, a former All American football lineman at USC who aborted his boxing career after only four pro fights because of brittle hands.

Fidel La Barba passed away on Oct. 2, 1981 at age 76 at a VA hospital in Los Angeles where he was being treated for a heart condition. He was inducted posthumously into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 1996.

—-

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

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: A Hectic Boxing Week in L.A.

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The Los Angeles area is packed with boxing.

Japan’s Mizuki “Mimi” Hiruta, Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk, and the indefatigable Jake Paul are all in the Los Angeles area this week.

First, Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs) defends the WBO super flyweight title against Argentina’s Carla Merino on Saturday May 17, at Commerce Casino. The 360 Boxing Promotions card will be streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Voted Japan’s best female fighter, Hiruta faces a stiff challenge from Merino who traveled thousands of miles from Cordoba.

360 Promotions is one of the top promotions especially when it comes to presenting female prizefighting. Two of their other female fighters, Lupe Medina and Jocelyn Camarillo, will also be fighting on Saturday.

They are not only promoting female fighters. They have several top male champions including Bohachuk and Omar “Trinidad performing this Saturday.

Don’t miss this show at Commerce Casino.

“This card is one of the deepest cards we’ve promoted in Southern California which has been proven by the rush for tickets and the wealth of media interest. Serhii, Omar and Mizuki are three of the top fighters in their respective weight classes and it’s a great opportunity for fans to see a full night of action,” said Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions.

Jake and Chavez Jr. in L.A.

Jake Paul took time off from training in Puerto Rico to visit Los Angeles to hype his upcoming fight against former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. next month.

“The fans have wanted to see this, and I want to continue to elevate and raise the level of my opponents,” said Paul, 28. “This is a former world champion, and he has an amazing resume following in his dad’s footsteps.”

Paul, who co-owns Most Valuable Promotions with Nakisa Bidarian, last staged a wildly successful boxing card that included Amanda Serrano versus Katie Taylor and of course his own fight with Mike Tyson.

It set records for viewing according to Netflix with an estimated 108 million views.

Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) is set to face Chavez (54-6-1, 34 KOs) in a cruiserweight battle at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on June 28. DAZN pay-per-view will stream the Golden Boy Promotions and MVP fight card that includes the return of Holly Holm to the boxing world after years in MMA.

No one should underestimate Paul who does have crackling power in his fists. He is for real and at 28, is in the prime of his boxing career.

Yes, he is a social influencer who got into boxing with no amateur background, but since he engaged fully into the sport, Paul has shown remarkable improvement in all areas.

Is he perfect? Of course not.

But power is the one attribute that can neutralize any faults and Paul does have real power. I witnessed it when I first saw him in the prize ring in Los Angeles many years ago.

Chavez, 39, the son of Mexico’s great Julio Cesar Chavez, is not as good as his father but was talented enough to win a world title and hold it until 2012 when he was edged by Sergio Martinez.

The son of Chavez last fought this past July when he defeated former UFC fighter Uriah Hall in a boxing match held in Florida. He has been seeking a match with Paul for years and finally he got it.

“I need to prepare 100%. This is an interesting fight. It might not be easy, but I’m going to do the best I can to be the best person I am, but I think I’m going to take him,” said Chavez.

Paul was not shy about Chavez’s talent.

“This is his toughest fight to date, and I’m going to embarrass him and make him quit like he always does,” said Paul about Chavez Jr. “I’m going to expose and embarrass him. He’s the embarrassment of Mexico. Mexico doesn’t even claim him, and he’s going to get exposed on June 28.”

Also on the same fight card is unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) who defends the WBA and WBO titles against Yuniel Dorticos (27-2, 25 KOs).

In a surprising addition, former boxing champion Holm returns to the boxing ring after 12 years away from the sport. Can she still fight?

Holm (33-2-3, 9 KOs) meets Mexico’s Yolanda Vega (10-0, 1 KO) in a lightweight fight scheduled for 10 rounds. Holm is 43 and Vega is 29. Many eyes will be looking to see the return of Holm who was recently voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Wild Card Honored by L.A. City

A formal presentation by the Los Angeles City Council to honor the 30th anniversary of the Wild Card Boxing Club takes place on Sunday May 18, at 1:30 p.m. The ceremony takes place in front of the Wild Card located at 1123 Vine Street, Hollywood 90038.

Along with city councilmembers will be a number of the top first responder officials.

Championing Mental Health

A star-studded broadcast team comprised of Al Bernstein, Corey Erdman and Lupe Contreras will announce the boxing event called “Championing Mental Health” card on Thursday May 22, at the Avalon Theater. DAZN will stream the Bash Boxing card live.

Among those fighting are Vic Pasillas, Jessie Mandapat and Ricardo Ruvalcaba.

For more information including tickets go to www.555media.com/tickets.

Fights to Watch

Sat. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Mizuki Hiruta (7-0) vs Carla Merina (16-2).

Thurs. DAZN 7 p.m. Vic Pasillas (17-1) vs Carlos Jackson (20-2).

Mimi Hiruta / Tom Loeffler photo credit: Al Applerose

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Sam Goodman and Eccentric Harry Garside Score Wins on a Wednesday Card in Sydney

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Australian junior featherweight Sam Goodman, ranked #1 by the IBF and #2 by the WBO, returned to the ring today in Sydney, NSW, and advanced his record to 20-0 (8) with a unanimous 10-round decision over Mexican import Cesar Vaca (19-2). This was Goodman’s first fight since July of last year. In the interim, he twice lost out on lucrative dates with Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue. Both fell out because of cuts that Goodman suffered in sparring.

Goodman was cut again today and in two places – below his left eye in the eighth and above his right eye in the ninth, the latter the result of an accidental head butt – but by then he had the bout firmly in control, albeit the match wasn’t quite as one-sided as the scores (100-90, 99-91, 99-92) suggested. Vaca, from Guadalajara, was making his first start outside his native country.

Goodman, whose signature win was a split decision over the previously undefeated American fighter Ra’eese Aleem, is handled by the Rose brothers — George, Trent, and Matt — who also handle the Tszyu brothers, Tim and Nikita, and two-time Olympian (and 2021 bronze medalist) Harry Garside who appeared in the semi-wind-up.

Harry Garside

Harry Garside

Harry Garside

A junior welterweight from a suburb of Melbourne, Garside, 27, is an interesting character. A plumber by trade who has studied ballet, he occasionally shows up at formal gatherings wearing a dress.

Garside improved to 4-0 (3 KOs) as a pro when the referee stopped his contest with countryman Charlie Bell after five frames, deciding that Bell had taken enough punishment. It was a controversial call although Garside — who fought the last four rounds with a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads in the opening frame – was comfortably ahead on the cards.

Heavyweights

In a slobberknocker being hailed as a shoo-in for the Australian domestic Fight of the Year, 34-year-old bruisers Stevan Ivic and Toese Vousiutu took turns battering each other for 10 brutal rounds. It was a miracle that both were still standing at the final bell. A Brisbane firefighter recognized as the heavyweight champion of Australia, Ivic (7-0-1, 2 KOs) prevailed on scores of 96-94 and 96-93 twice. Melbourne’s Vousiuto falls to 8-2.

Tim Tsyzu.

The oddsmakers have installed Tim Tszyu a small favorite (minus-135ish) to avenge his loss to Sebastian Fundora when they tangle on Sunday, July 20, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Their first meeting took place in this same ring on March 30 of last year. Fundora, subbing for Keith Thurman, saddled Tszyu with his first defeat, taking away the Aussie’s WBO 154-pound world title while adding the vacant WBC belt to his dossier. The verdict was split but fair. Tszyu fought the last 11 rounds with a deep cut on his hairline that bled profusely, the result of an errant elbow.

Since that encounter, Tszyu was demolished in three rounds by Bakhram Murtazaliev in Orlando and rebounded with a fourth-round stoppage of Joey Spencer in Newcastle, NSW. Fundora has been to post one time, successfully defending his belts with a dominant fourth-round stoppage of Chordale Booker.

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Thomas Hauser’s Literary Notes: Johnny Greaves Tells a Sad Tale

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Johnny Greaves was a professional loser. He had one hundred professional fights between 2007 and 2013, lost 96 of them, scored one knockout, and was stopped short of the distance twelve times. There was no subtlety in how his role was explained to him: “Look, Johnny; professional boxing works two ways. You’re either a ticket-seller and make money for the promoter, in which case you get to win fights. If you don’t sell tickets but can look after yourself a bit, you become an opponent and you fight to lose.”

By losing, he could make upwards of one thousand pounds for a night‘s work.

Greaves grew up with an alcoholic father who beat his children and wife. Johnny learned how to survive the beatings, which is what his career as a fighter would become. He was a scared, angry, often violent child who was expelled from school and found solace in alcohol and drugs.

The fighters Greaves lost to in the pros ran the gamut from inept local favorites to future champions Liam Walsh, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby, Gavin Rees, and Jack Catterall. Alcohol and drugs remained constants in his life. He fought after drinking, smoking weed, and snorting cocaine on the night before – and sometimes on the day of – a fight. On multiple occasions, he came close to committing suicide. His goal in boxing ultimately became to have one hundred professional fights.

On rare occasions, two professional losers – “journeymen,” they’re called in The UK – are matched against each other. That was how Greaves got three of the four wins on his ledger. On September 29, 2013, he fought the one hundredth and final fight of his career against Dan Carr in London’s famed York Hall. Carr had a 2-42-2 ring record and would finish his career with three wins in ninety outings. Greaves-Carr was a fight that Johnny could win. He emerged triumphant on a four-round decision.

The Johnny Greaves Story, told by Greaves with the help of Adam Darke (Pitch Publishing) tells the whole sordid tale. Some of Greaves’s thoughts follow:

*        “We all knew why we were there, and it wasn’t to win. The home fighters were the guys who had sold all the tickets and were deemed to have some talent. We were the scum. We knew our role. Give some young prospect a bit of a workout, keep out of the way of any big shots, lose on points but take home a wedge of cash, and fight again next week.”

*        “If you fought too hard and won, then you wouldn’t get booked for any more shows. If you swung for the trees and got cut or knocked out, then you couldn’t fight for another 28 days. So what were you supposed to do? The answer was to LOOK like you were trying to win but be clever in the process. Slip and move, feint, throw little shots that were rangefinders, hold on, waste time. There was an art to this game, and I was quickly learning what a cynical business it was.”

*        “The unknown for the journeyman was always how good your opponent might be. He could be a future world champion. Or he might be some hyped-up nightclub bouncer with a big following who was making lots of money for the promoter.”

*        “No matter how well I fought, I wasn’t going to be getting any decisions. These fights weren’t scored fairly. The referees and judges understood who the paymasters were and they played the game. What was the point of having a go and being the best version of you if nobody was going to recognize or reward it?”

*        “When I first stepped into the professional arena, I believed I was tough. believed that nobody could stop me. But fight by fight, those ideas were being challenged and broken down. Once you know that you can be hurt, dropped and knocked out, you’re never quite the same fighter.”

*        “I had started off with a dream, an idea of what boxing was and what it would do for me. It was going to be a place where I could prove my toughness. A place that I could escape to and be someone else for a while. For a while, boxing was that place. But it wore me down to the point that I stopped caring. I’d grown sick and tired of it all. I wished that I could feel pride at what I’d achieved. But most of the time, I just felt like a loser.”

*        “The fights were getting much more difficult, the damage to my body and my psyche taking longer and longer to repair after each defeat. I was putting myself in more and more danger with each passing fight. I was getting hurt more often and stopped more regularly. Even with the 28-day [suspensions], I didn’t have time to heal. I was staggering from one fight to the next and picking up more injuries along the way.”

*        “I was losing my toughness and resilience. When that’s all you’ve ever had, it’s a hard thing to accept. Drink and drugs had always been present in my life. But now they became a regular part of my pre-fight preparation. It helped to shut out the fear and quieted the thoughts and worries that I shouldn’t be doing this anymore.”

*        “My body was broken. My hands were constantly sore with blisters and cuts. I had early arthritis in my hip and my teeth were a mess. I looked an absolute state and inside I felt worse. But I couldn’t stop fighting yet. Not before the 100.”

*        “I had abused myself time after time and stood in front of better men, taking a beating when I could have been sensible and covered up. At the start, I was rarely dropped or stopped. Now it was becoming a regular part of the game. Most of the guys I was facing were a lot better than me. This was mainly about survival.”

*        “Was my brain f***ed from taking too many punches? I knew it was, to be honest. I could feel my speech changing and memory going. I was mentally unwell and shouldn’t have been fighting but the promoters didn’t care. Johnny Greaves was still a good booking. Maybe an even better one now that he might get knocked out.”

*        “Nobody gave a f*** about me and whether I lived or died. I didn’t care about that much either. But the thought of being humiliated, knocked out in front of all those people; that was worse than the thought of dying. The idea of being exposed for what I was – a nobody.”

*        “I was a miserable bastard in real life. A depressive downbeat mouthy little f***er. Everything I’ve done has been to mask the feeling that I’m worthless. That I have no value. The drinks and the drugs just helped me to forget that for a while. I still frighten myself a lot. My thoughts scare me. Do I really want to be here for the next thirty or forty years? I don’t know. If suicide wasn’t so impactful on people around you, I would have taken that leap. I don’t enjoy life and never have.”

So . . . Any questions?

****

Steve Albert was Showtime’s blow-by-blow commentator for two decades. But his reach extended far beyond boxing.

Albert’s sojourn through professional sports began in high school when he was a ball boy for the New York Knicks. Over the years, he was behind the microphone for more than a dozen teams in eleven leagues including four NBA franchises.

Putting the length of that trajectory in perspective . . . As a ballboy, Steve handed bottles of water and towels to a Knicks back-up forward named Phil Jackson. Later, they worked together as commentators for the New Jersey Nets. Then Steve provided the soundtrack for some of Jackson’s triumphs when he won eleven NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

It’s also a matter of record that Steve’s oldest brother, Marv, was arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history. And brother Al enjoyed a successful career behind the microphone after playing professional hockey.

Now Steve has written a memoir titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth. Those who know him know that Steve doesn’t like to say bad things about people. And he doesn’t here. Nor does he delve into the inner workings of sports media or the sports dream machine. The book is largely a collection of lighthearted personal recollections, although there are times when the gravity of boxing forces reflection.

“Fighters were unlike any other professional athletes I had ever encountered,” Albert writes. “Many were products of incomprehensible backgrounds, fiercely tough neighborhoods, ghettos and, in some cases, jungles. Some got into the sport because they were bullied as children. For others, boxing was a means of survival. In many cases, it was an escape from a way of life that most people couldn’t even fathom.”

At one point, Steve recounts a ringside ritual that he followed when he was behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing: “I would precisely line up my trio of beverages – coffee, water, soda – on the far edge of the table closest to the ring apron. Perhaps the best advice I ever received from Ferdie [broadcast partner Ferdie Pacheco] was early on in my blow-by-blow career – ‘Always cover your coffee at ringside with an index card unless you like your coffee with cream, sugar, and blood.’”

Writing about the prelude to the infamous Holyfield-Tyson “bite fight,” Albert recalls, “I remember thinking that Tyson was going to do something unusual that night. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was going to pull something exceedingly out of the ordinary. His grousing about Holyfield’s head butts in the first fight added to my concern. [But] nobody could have foreseen what actually happened. Had I opened that broadcast with, ‘Folks, tonight I predict that Mike Tyson will bite off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear,’ some fellas in white coats might have approached me and said, ‘Uh, Steve, could you come with us.'”

And then there’s my favorite line in the book: “I once asked a fighter if he was happily married,” Albert recounts. “He said, ‘Yes, but my wife’s not.'”

“All I ever wanted was to be a sportscaster,” Albert says in closing. “I didn’t always get it right, but I tried to do my job with honesty and integrity. For forty-five years, calling games was my life. I think it all worked out.”

 Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – will be published this month and is available for preorder at:

https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329

         In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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