The Hauser Report: James Earl Jones and More

Published

8 months ago

September 28, 2024

The-Hauser-Report-James-Earl-Jones-and-More

A word of remembrance about James Earl Jones who died on September 9 at age 93.

Born in Mississippi during the height of segregation, raised by his grandmother after being abandoned by his parents, and plagued by a stutter so severe that he often refused to speak when he was young, Jones became one of the great actors of modern times. During a storied career on stage, in movies, and on television, he was honored with an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy. He was the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars and Mufasa in The Lion King and known the world over for his iconic intonation “This is CNN.”

“Audiences,” Robert McFadden wrote, “were mesmerized by the voice. It was Lear’s roaring crash into madness, Othello’s sweet balm for Desdemona, Oberon’s last rapture for Titania. He liked to portray kings and generals, garbage men and bricklayers.”

Jones was recognized in theatrical circles as an extraordinary talent for years. But boxing propelled him to mainstream stardom.

In 1968, The Great White Hope opened on Broadway with Jones (6-feet-2-inches tall, 200 pounds) in the role of Jack Jefferson – a character modeled on Jack Johnson. Jones didn’t like boxing. “I’m not and never have been a fan of boxing,” he told me years later. “I had an unfortunate experience at a fight I went to long ago in Spain. A Nigerian fighter was killed in front of my eyes.”

But Jones played the role of Jack Jefferson to perfection and, two years later, reprised the role in the film adaptation. I had the honor of interviewing him when I was researching Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.

“I met Muhammad Ali for the first time backstage after a performance of The Great White Hope, “Jones reminisced. “Ali was still not allowed to fight, and meeting him was exciting, particularly given his response to the play he’d just seen. He said of Johnson, ‛That’s me. You take out the white woman, and that play is about me.’ Then he told me, ‘I want to go on stage and say those lines.’ He was referring to the scene where the Jack Johnson character is in exile in Europe. He’s been reduced to performances of Uncle Tom’s Cabin to earn a living, and the powers that be keep pursuing him, hoping to get him to agree to a title fight with a prearranged loss. Finally, they talk him into coming back to fight with the idea of turning the crown over to Jess Willard in Cuba. And the character says, ‘Come get me. Here I is!’

“We waited until the audience had left,” Jones continued. “Then Ali went out onto the stage and spoke to an empty theater. ‘Here I is! Here I is!’ He felt those lines expressed his life, and he spoke them with feeling.”

As for Ali’s own acting ability, Jones contemplated Muhammad’s extraordinary charisma and noted, “I wondered at the time, could he translate that into the craft of acting, which is using somebody else’s lines, which is the most difficult thing for any natural performer to do? I never saw him when he played in Buck White, because I was working somewhere else myself. I did see him on television much later in Freedom Road. And I played Malcolm X in two very short scenes in The Greatest, where Ali played himself but was essentially reading someone else’s lines. And what I found was, given his own words he was a great performer. But given somebody else’s words, there was a self-consciousness that he was unable to overcome. So he wasn’t a great craftsman in the art of acting, but that by no means takes away from his accomplishments. Ali represents America to me; power at its best, power well used, because real power is individual power. And each time we reconsider Ali, we realize there’s more to him and more value than we realized before.”

And there was a footnote to it all.

“Ali visited the set at Twentieth Century Fox when we were filming The Great White Hope,” Jones recalled. “We got in the ring together. We were both wearing boxing gloves. The photographers were busy flashing. Muhammad said, ‘Go ahead, hit me as hard as you can.’ Well, I’d played the Jack Johnson character since the play opened on Broadway. I‘d been put through my paces by real boxing trainers. So I gave Muhammad my best left hook. He blocked the blow. And in the process, quite accidentally, he broke my thumb. You know, when a fighter like Ali blocks a punch, the block is devastating in its own power. I felt the pain immediately.”

***

The main event at Madison Square Garden between Sandy Ryan and Mikaela Mayer didn’t start until Saturday morning at 12:45 AM. But it was worth the wait.

Ryan, age 31, came into the fight with a 7-1-1 (3 KOs) record. She won the WBO 147-pound title by decision over Maria Pier Houle last year, kept it on a draw against Jessica McCaskill, and stopped Terri Harper in four rounds this past March.

Mayer, age 34 (and now 20-2 with 5 KOs), once held the WBO 130-pound belt but lost a close decision in a title-unification bout against Alycia Baumgardner two years ago. She has since moved up to welterweight and was narrowly defeated by Natasha Jones in an IBF title fight in January of this year.

An element of bad blood was injected into the proceedings when trainer Kay Koroma (who had previously worked with Mayer) began working with Ryan, leaving Mayer in the hands of Kofi Jantuah. Then, as Team Ryan was leaving its hotel for Madison Square Garden on fight night, an attacker wearing a hoodie splashed Sandy with red paint and escaped in a waiting car with an accomplice.

Ryan was a slight betting favorite. The encounter shaped up as a competitive fight but turned out to be much more than that. It was an exceptionally good, non-stop action battle.

Ryan moved inexorably forward and Mayer couldn’t keep her off. But it wasn’t always effective aggression and Mikaela held her own on the inside. Each woman went effectively to the body which is a weapon often absent from the arsenal in women’s boxing. Both fighters were in good shape. Ryan was physically stronger.

It was a hard fight to score. According to CompuBox (which is an inexact science) Mayer landed 186 punches to Ryan’s 185. All three judges gave rounds eight and ten to Mayer. Those were the only rounds they scored alike.

I thought each woman clearly won three rounds with the other four up for grabs. The judges scored the bout 97-93, 96-94, 95-95 for a majority decision in Mayer’s favor.

A rematch is definitely in order.

***

Question: What do Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum (who oversaw the fights that stretched from 6:40 on Friday evening till 1:20 on Saturday morning), Mae West, Bobby Fischer, and Barbra Streisand have in common?

Answer: They all went to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.

Erasmus was founded in 1786 as a private institution and became part of the New York City public school system in 1896. Arum graduated in 1949 and is one of the school’s many famous alumni.

Erasmus graduates who made a mark in the National Football League include Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman, owner Al Davis, and coach Sam Rutigliano. Jerry Reinsdorf (who owns the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox) and baseball hall of fame pitcher Waite Hoyt went to Erasmus, as did NBA all-star forward and championship coach Billy Cunningham.

Bobby Fischer (arguably the greatest chess player of all time) attended Erasmus. So did former New Jersey governor James Florio and author Mickey Spillane.

Then we come to the world of entertainment. Oscar winner Susan Hayward and opera diva Beverly Sills (whose original name was Belle Miriam Silverman) are on the list of Erasmus attendees. So is Mae West (the quintessential sex symbol of the 1920s and 1930s who at one point was the highest-paid woman in the United States and starred in films opposite Cary Grant).

“I never met Mae West,” Arum says. “But I enjoyed watching her movies; that’s for sure.”

Record company executive Clive Davis (who graduated from Erasmus and counts Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin, and Billy Joel among his signees) is a lifelong friend of Arum’s.

“Neil Diamond, I know because he wrote Sweet Caroline,” Arum adds, referencing another Erasmus alumnus. “That’s boxing’s new anthem, and my granddaughter’s name is Caroline.”

And finally – drumroll, please – there’s Barbra Streisand (Erasmus, Class of 1959). “I’ve met her,” Arum recounts. “But she wasn’t very friendly.”

***

The New York State Athletic Commission took a step in the right direction on Saturday when Matt Delaglio was named executive director.

Delagio served as director of boxing during the rocky tenure of Kim Sumbler who resigned as executive director in May of this year. He was then designated as acting executive director, but there were fears in boxing circles that he would be passed over for the job on a permanent basis in favor of a less qualified political appointee. Those fears have now been laid to rest.

The next thing Governor Kathy Hochul needs to do is upgrade the NYSAC at the commissioner level.

In theory, the NYSAC is overseen by five commissioners. Two of these positions are currently vacant. Too often, NYSAC commissioner appointments are made as trade-offs for political favors. The result is that, because of uninformed leadership, the NYSAC has been known to embarrass itself.

Delagio is a hard worker and conscientious public servant who understands the sport and business of boxing. It would be nice if Governor Hochul appointed two new commissioners who understand the sport and business of boxing as well as he does and have the same commitment to public service that he has.

PICTURED: James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander, his co-star in the Broadway and film versions of “The Great White Hope.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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

Published

10 hours ago

May 11, 2025

Thomas Hauser

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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Argentina’s Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

Published

20 hours ago

May 11, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Argentina's-Fernando-Martinez-Wins-His-Rematch-with-Kazuto-Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12^th round, Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Ioka’s familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.

The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.

But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasn’t able to capitalize on the momentum swing.

Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.

Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonio’s Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africa’s obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.

As for Ioka, had he won today’s rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.

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Emanuel Navarrete Survives a Bloody Battle with Charly Suarez in San Diego

Published

22 hours ago

May 11, 2025

David A. Avila

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In a torrid battle Mexico’s Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete and his staccato attack staved off the herky-jerky non-stop assaults of Philippine’s Charly Suarez to win by technical decision and retain the WBO super feather world title on Saturday.

What do they feed these guys?

Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) and his elongated arms managed to connect enough to compensate against the surprising Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) who wowed the crowd at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.

An accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the side of Navarrete’s left eye and forced a stoppage midway through the fight.

From the opening round Navarrete used his windmill style of attack with punches from different angles that caught Suarez multiple times early. It did not matter. Suarez fired back with impunity and was just as hungry to punch it out with the Mexican fighter.

It was savage.

Every time Navarrete connected solidly, he seemed to pause and check out the damage. Bad idea. Suarez would immediately counter with bombs of his own and surprise the champion with his resilience and tenacity.

Wherever they found Suarez they should look for more, because the Filipino fighter from Manila was ferocious and never out of his depth.

Around the sixth round the Mexican fighter seemed a little drained and puzzled at the tireless attacks coming from Suarez. During an exchange of blows a cut opened up on Navarrete and it was ruled an accidental clash of heads by the referee. Blood streamed down the side of Navarrete’s face and it was cleared by the ringside physician.

But at the opening of the eighth round, the fight was stopped and the ringside physician ruled the cut was too bad to continue. The California State Athletic Commission looked at tape of the round when the cut opened to decipher if it was an accidental butt or a punch that caused the cut. It was unclear so the referee’s call of accidental clash of heads stood as the final ruling.

Score cards from the judges saw Navarrete the winner by scores of 78-75, 77-76 twice. He retains the WBO title.

Interim IBF Lightweight Title

The sharp-shooting Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) maneuvered past Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the interim IBF lightweight title after 12 rounds.

Both fighters were strategic in their approach with Muratalla switching from orthodox to southpaw at various times of the fight. Neither fighter was ever able to dominant any round.

Defense proved the difference between the two lightweights. Muratalla was able to slip more blows than Abdullaev and that proved the difference. The fighter from Fontana, California was able to pierce Abdullaev’s guard more often than not, especially with counter punches.

Abdullaev was never out of the fight. The Russian fighter was able to change tactics and counter the counters midway through the fight. It proved effective especially to the body. But it was not enough to offset Muratalla’s accuracy.

There were no knockdowns and after 12 rounds the judges scored it 118-110, 119-109 twice for Muratalla who now becomes the mandatory for the IBF lightweight title should Vasyl Lomachenko return to defend it.

Muratalla was brief.

“He was a tough fighter,” said Muratalla. “My defense is something I work on a lot.”

Perla Wins

Super flyweight Perla Bazaldua (2-0) eased past Mona Ward (0-2) with a polished display of fighting at length and inside.

Combination punching and defense allowed Bazaldua to punch in-between Ward’s attacks and force the St. Louis fighter to clinch repeatedly. But Ward hung in there despite taking a lot of blows. After four rounds the Los Angeles-based Bazaldua was scored the winner 40-36 on all three cards. Bazaldua signed a long term contract with Top Rank in March.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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