Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser

Published

5 months ago

October 24, 2024

Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser

Pete Rose was inappropriately named. His bulky torso blended into a thick neck at one end and heavy bulging thighs at the other. He had heavy eyebrows, dark piercing eyes, and a granite-like jutting jaw. “Pete Bulldog” would have been better nomenclature. He was not evocative of a rose.

Rose played baseball in an era when fans wanted their sports heroes to be good guys.

He wasn’t.

Rose was married twice and was an unrepentant philanderer throughout both marriages. When he was in his thirties – he later admitted – he had sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl. In 1990, he pled guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns and was sentenced to five months in prison.

A report compiled for Major League Baseball by John Dowd in 1989 concluded that Rose made at least 412 wagers on baseball games in 1985, 1986, and 1987. Fifty-two of those wagers were on teams that Rose played on and/or managed. As a result, he was banned for life from Major League baseball – a ban that precluded his being employed by any major league team and also from being considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The only thing Rose seemed sorry about was that he had been caught and punished. But as a baseball player, he was a legend.

Rose was born in 1941 – the year that Ted Williams batted .406 and Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 consecutive games. He played in the major leagues from 1963 through 1986. Baseball was more than a job to him. It was his way of life. Rose, it was said, was a baseball player first and a person second.

“Everybody wants a base hit when he goes up to bat,” Mickey Mantle observed. “But with Pete, you always had the feeling that he wanted it more.”

Rose was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1963 and its Most Valuable Player ten years later. With a lifetime batting baverage of .303, he was far from being baseball’s greatest hitter. But he was its most persistent and durable good one.

On September 11, 1985, Rose lined a single to centerfield off San Diego pitcher Eric Show for the 4,192nd base hit of his remarkable career. In so doing, he surpassed the “unbreakable” record emblazoned in baseball’s record book by Ty Cobb.

“Millions of Americans have fantasized about breaking Ty Cobb’s record,” Rose said. “But I’m the one who’s doing it.”

He finished his career with 4,256 base hits. Other MLB records that he holds to this day include most games played (3,562), most plate appearances (15,890), most career singles (3,215) and, less laudably, most career outs (10,328). He ranks second in career doubles (746), sixth in runs scored (2,165), and ninth in total bases (5,752).

“Statistics,” Rose once said, “are what let you look at a player who died before you were born and make him your hero.”

There was a time when Rose also tried his hand at boxing. When he was six years old, his father gave him a pair of boxing gloves and taught him the rudiments of self-defense. Later, Pete had two amateur fights and lost both of them.

“Just before my sixteenth birthday,” Rose reminisced years later, “Dad arranged for my first amateur match at the Finley Street neighborhood club. I fought Virgil Coles, an experienced boxer from the inner city who pretty much used me as his punching bag. But I took everything Coles dished out and on occasion landed a few wild punches myself. I was getting my brains beat out. Dad knew it but didn’t want me to see that he was concerned. I stood on my feet for the full three rounds and never once hit the canvas.”

And Rose’s second fight?

“The second one was against a guy who had five kids at ringside watching. I didn’t get knocked out. But I did say to myself, ‘I better go play ball.’”

Rose died from cardiovascular illness on September 30 at age 83. When I heard the news, my mind wandered back to two conversations that I had long ago.

The first conversation was with Rose shortly before he broke Ty Cobb’s record.

“I’ve won more games than any professional athlete ever,” Rose told me over lunch. “Baseball, football, basketball, you name it. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? I’ve walked off the field a winner more than nineteen hundred times. I’ve won more baseball games than forty-five Hall of Famers played in. I’m the winningest professional athlete ever.”

“What about Willie Shoemaker?” I queried. “He won more than six thousand races.”

That earned me a dirty look and the rejoinder, “Yeah; but jockeys have eight or nine shots at winning every day.”

The second conversation was with Tim McCarver fourteen years later. McCarver was an all-star catcher and World Series champion before becoming one of baseball’s great television commentators.

“Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?” I asked.

“That’s a difficult question,” McCarver answered. “It would be very awkward for Pete to be in the Hall of Fame until he’s reinstated by Major League Baseball. So here we are in a society that’s very forgiving, but the powers that be have yet to forgive Pete Rose.”

“If the powers that be asked you for a recommendation,” I pressed, “what would you say?”

“I’d say it’s time; that Pete has been punished enough.”

That conversation took place a quarter-century ago. My opinion at the time was that Rose should not be eligible for induction into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Now Rose exists only in memory and in baseball lore. To quote Tim McCarver, “It’s time. Pete has been punished enough.”

* * *

Lou DiBella promoted a club-fight card at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater on Wednesday night. The opening and closing bouts call for comment.

In the first fight of the evening, Jerry Forrest (27-6-2, 20 KOs, 2 KOs by) was matched against Earl Newman (10-3, 7 KOs, 1 KO by).

Forrest has had eight step-up fights in his career and failed to win any of them. Forty-four months ago, he survived three knockdowns to salvage a draw when a grossly-out-of-shape Zhilel Zhang all but collapsed under his own weight. That made Forrest a bit of a name. Then, two years ago, he was beaten so savagely by Jared Anderson that hardened ringside observers cringed at the carnage.

Newman was winless in his last four bouts dating back to 2016.

Forrest wasn’t in fighting shape. And Newman (who has fought at weights as low as 177 pounds) weighed in at 252 pounds.

Both men looked tired when the fight began and more tired as the eight-round contest dragged on. Boxing is hard. I understand that. And each fighter gave an honest effort. But it was a painfully slow, sluggish encounter with the fighters moving as though they were in waist-high water. Forrest won a unanimous decision and did a back-flip in the ring after the decision was announced. If only he’d been that active during the fight.

Forrest-Newman was sad. The closing fight of the evening featured the outrageous.

Women’s boxing is erratic. At one end of the spectrum, Madison Square Garden has hosted legitimate championship fights like Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano and Sandy Ryan vs. Mikaela Meyer that enobled the sport. But a study by John Sheppard of BoxRec.com several years ago noted that there were more available women’s “championship” belts than active women boxers.

Miyo Yoshida (17-4 with zero knockouts either way) had one of those belts – the IBF 118-pound strap. She won it last year by outboxing Ebanie Bridges (a paper champion whose greatest notoriety stemmed from having ample breast implants and appearing at weigh-ins dressed like a lingerie model). Yoshida was defending her belt at the Hulu Theater against 39-year-old Shurretta Metcalf (13-4-1, 2 KOs) who beat Mio by decision last year.

Yoshida-Metcalf looked like a club fight, not a “championship” bout. Metcalf had a huge advantage in height and reach, and Yoshida didn’t know how to bob and weave to get inside. Meanwhile, Shurretta threw wild punches from long range all night. When she landed, it seemed almost by accident.

The decision could have gone either way. I thought each fighter clearly won three rounds with four rounds up for grabs. Then the judges’ verdict was announced: 96-94, 97-93, and an abominable 99-91 for Metcalf.

97-93 was a stretch. 99-91 reeked of being an agenda-driven scorecard.

Matt Delaglio was recently named executive director of the New York State Athletic Commission and inherited a job that has long been marked by incompetence and neglect. Delagio is conscientious and well-qualified for the position. But he has a lot of work to do. One of the things on his “to-do list” should be an overhaul of ring judging in New York. Right now, the judging in New York is unacceptable.

* * *

Earlier this year, the IBF was in the spotlight for fragmenting the heavyweight title by virtue of its decision to strip Oleksansr Usyk of his belt and recognize Daniel Dubois as heavyweight champion of the world. On December 7, the WBA will outdo that absurdity by sanctioning a fight between Mahmood Charr and Kubrat Pulev for its “regular” heavyweight championship of the world.

Charr, age 40, has not fought since 2022 and is best known for being knocked out twelve years ago by Vitali Klitschko. He is the current WBA “champion” and, according to Wikipedia, underwent double hip replacement surgery in 2017.

Pulev, 43, has won two fights in the past three years (against Ihor Shevadzutskyi and Andrzaj Wawrzyk) and is best known for being knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua.

This is the environment boxing has created that turns off fans and drives them to other sports.

* * *

World in My Corner (1956) is one of those hokey, old, black-and-white boxing movies that’s fun if you like hokey, old, black-and-white boxing movies.

Audie Murphy plays Tommy Shea, a poor kid from New Jersey struggling to make it as a fighter. There’s a crooked promoter (the reprehensible Harry Cram), an honest trainer (the saintly Dave Bernstein), and a love interest (the beautiful Dorothy Mallinson, who suffers under the thumb of her wealthy controlling father). The real Jimmy Lennon Sr plays ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr. Chico Vejar (a veteran of 116 fights in the 1950s) plays welterweight champion Al Carelli.

More on Cram: You know a promoter is a bad guy when, almost always, he’s smoking a cigar.

Audie Murphy is unconvincing as a hard-luck tough from the wrong side of the river. Think Tom Cruise in a boxing ring. The love story is trite, but so is the rest of the film.

Dorothy: Can I ask you something?

Tommy: Sure

Dorothy: Why do you fight?

Tommy: You’re not asking me something. You’re asking me everything.

Tommy agrees to throw a fight against Carelli to get the money to marry Dorothy. Then he changes his mind.

Tommy: I’m not throwing the fight.

Cram: I don’t like your sense of humor.

If you’re a fan of old-time boxing movies, World in My Corner is fun.

Photo (c) Wojtek Urbanek

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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Avila Perspective, Chap. 317: Callum Walsh, Dana White and More

Published

13 hours ago

March 14, 2025

David A. Avila

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As Callum Walsh stood on the observation deck at the top of the Empire State Building with fists clenched, it harked back to actor Jimmy Cagney, an actor of Irish descent, yelling “Top of the world, ma,” in the 1949 motion picture White Heat.

The Irish-born Walsh brings that kind of attitude.

Once again Walsh (12-0, 10 KOs) returns to New York City and this time faces Scottish warrior Dean Sutherland (19-1, 7 KOs) in a super welterweight match set for 10 rounds on Sunday, March 16, at Madison Garden Theater.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions event.

Flanked by master trainer Freddie Roach and managed by Dana White it brings questions as to the direction that Walsh will be steered. It was just revealed that White will head a new boxing promotion outfit with big plans to make a more UFC type of organization.

Is Walsh part of the plans?

It’s a lot to digest as the hot prospect from Cork, Ireland proceeds toward world championship dreams. Can he cleanse his mind of this major distraction?

Walsh and Sutherland are both southpaws who are meeting at the crossroads in the heart of New York City. At this point of their careers a loss can mean rebooting and taking a few steps backward. The winner moves on to the next crucial step.

Sutherland, 26, hails from Aberdeen and has never fought outside of his native Scotland. It’s a lot to ask of someone whose country’s population of 5 million is dwarfed by New York City’s 8.2 million inhabitants all packed together.

Ireland’s population is also 5 million. So basically, both Walsh and Sutherland are on even terms when they enter the prize ring on Sunday.

Who knows what kind of competition Sutherland faced in Scotland. He beat two undefeated fighters and also conquered two foes who each had more than 100 losses on their resumes.

Meanwhile, Walsh has faced only one undefeated fighter but handled veterans like Benjamin Whitaker, Ismael Villareal and Carlos Ortiz Cervantes. But you never know until they meet face to face. Anything can happen in a prize ring.

Walsh has a three-fight knockout streak. Sutherland has slept two out of his last three foes. They will be joined by several Irish fighters on the card plus Cletus “The Hebrew Hammer” Seldin.

Dana, Turk and TKO

The announcement earlier in the week that Turki Alalshikh together with TKO Group Holdings that include Dana White and Nick Khan formed a new boxing promotion company.

White, who does not own UFC but guides the MMA ship, works for Endeavor, the parent company of UFC and WWE. Their events are all shown on ESPN, the powerful sports network (albeit WWE’s flagship weekly show “Raw” recently moved to Netflix). It seems Endeavor has decided to allow White to guide its boxing program too.

Where does that leave Top Rank?

It seems the partnership plans to rid boxing of the many sanctioning organizations and have only one champion per division. The champion will be given a Ring Magazine belt. Recently, Turki Alalshikh purchased The Ring magazine from Golden Boy Promotions. This seems to have been the plan all along.

Is this good for boxing?

Mark Shapiro, the president of TKO Group Holdings, said:

“This is a strategic opportunity to re-imagine the sport of boxing globally. TKO has the deep expertise, promotional prowess, and longstanding relationships. HE Turki Alalshikh and Sela share our passion and vision for evolving the current model. Together, we can bring the sweet science back to its rightful place in the forefront of the global sports ecosystem.”

DAZN all day

Three boxing cards take place on Saturday beginning with WBA featherweight titlist Nick Ball (21-0-1) the human cannonball, defending against former champion TJ Doheny from Liverpool, England. The first bout begins around 9:30 a.m. (Pacific Coast Time). Ball likes to charge forward and punch. Doheny is no slouch and has experience.

Later, Matchroom Boxing presents a show from Florida that features Edgar Berlanga (22-1) fresh off a solid contest against Canelo Alvarez. He fights undefeated Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz (20-0-1) in a super middleweight match. Also, Ammo Williams (17-1) returns to face dangerous Patrice Volny (19-1) in a middleweight clash. The card starts at 3:30 p.m. (Pacific Coast Time.

Saturday evening MarvNation presents Amado Vargas (11-0) meeting Eduardo Hernandez (8-2) in a super lightweight contest at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California. Start time is set for 8 p.m. (Pacific Coast Time). The son of the great Fernando Vargas remains undefeated.

Fights to Watch

Sat. DAZN 11:30 a.m. Nick Ball (21-0-1) vs TJ Doheny (26-5).

Sat. DAZN 3:30 p.m. Edgar Berlanga (22-1) vs Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz (20-0-1) ; Ammo Williams (17-1) vs Patrice Volny (19-1).

Sat. DAZN 8 p.m. Amado Vargas (11-0) vs Eduardo Hernandez (8-2).

Sun. UFC Fight Pass 3 p.m. Callum Walsh (12-0) vs Dean Sutherland (19-1).

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A Fresh Face on the Boxing Scene, Bryce Mills Faces His Toughest Test on Friday

Published

1 day ago

March 13, 2025

Luis A. Cortes III

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“He wants to test himself and find out just how good he really is,” said International Boxing Hall of Fame promoter Russell Peltz regarding super lightweight Bryce Mills. Peltz, who has dealt with a wide range of fighters throughout his lifetime in boxing, recognized the fire that burned inside Mills at a local show in Philadelphia in early 2022. At the time Mills had less than ten professional fights under his belt.

Mills hails from Liverpool in upstate New York and trains in nearby Syracuse. Currently 17-1 (6 KOs), he’s undefeated in his last 11 since losing a split decision to a Puerto Rican fighter from the Bronx who had fought much stiffer competition.

The fight in question that caught Peltz’s eye was arranged by the well-known and respected matchmaker Nick Tiberi who paired Mills in an intriguing fight against Daiyaan Butt, a tough and skilled fighter from the Philadelphia area. They fought at LIVE Casino in South Philadelphia on Feb. 24, 2022.

Although the crowd on hand that night favored Butt, Mills, although then only 20 years old, wasn’t intimidated and was the clear-cut winner at the end of their exciting, back-and-forth battle. This showed Peltz that Mills was serious about seeing just how far his ability could take him.

That’s why Peltz decided to join forces with Mills. Despite being semi-retired, Peltz is still active enough to help guide fighters through the ever-changing wild west landscape that is boxing. Since their union after Mill’s victory over Butt, Mills has been on a nine-fight winning streak heading into what Peltz believes is the toughest test of his career this Friday against Alex Martin 18-6 (6 KOs) of Chicago.

“I didn’t want him to take this fight, it’s a dangerous fight for him. Martin is a southpaw and is tricky, he’s a veteran and is experienced. His father (Mills’s father) called me and said that Bryce wanted the fight, to his credit,” says Peltz. One look at Martin’s resume and it confirms what Peltz stated. All six of Martin’s losses came against fighters with outstanding records including a former world title challenger. Martin also holds some quality wins over undefeated prospects that were at similar points in their careers to where Mills currently is in his development.

Bryce Mills looks like a fighter (he’s always in shape), acts like a fighter (testing his craft against all comers), walks the walk of a fighter, and fights with a fan-friendly pedal-to-the-metal style. That is a winning combination that could be the breath of fresh air the boxing world could surely use and on Friday night at the Wind Creek Events Center in Bethlehem, PA, live on DAZN, Mills is going to have the opportunity to put the boxing world on notice.

***

DAZN will televise the Mills-Martin fight along with a main event that features undefeated middleweight Euri Cedeno (10-0-1, 9 KO’s) against Ulices Rivera (11-1, 7 KO’s). Knockout artist Joseph Adorno (20-4-1, 17 KOs) and undefeated Reading, PA super featherweight Julian Gonzalez (15-0-1, 11 KOs) appear in separate bouts on the undercard. Tickets for the Marshall Kauffman’s Kings Promotion show are still available through Ticketmaster. Lobby doors open at 5:00 pm. First bell is at 7:00.

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High Drama in Japan as ‘Amazing Boy’ Kenshiro Teraji Overcomes Seigo Yuri Akui

Published

2 days ago

March 13, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Overshadowed by countrymen Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani, Kenshiro Teraji embossed his Hall of Fame credentials in Tokyo tonight with a dramatic 12^th-round stoppage of Seigo Yuri Akui. At stake were two pieces of the world flyweight title. A two-time world title-holder a division below (108), Teraji (25-1, 16 KOs) was appearing in his 16^th world title fight.

This Japan vs. Japan matchup will go down in Japanese boxing lore as one of the best title fights ever on Japanese soil. Through the 11 completed rounds, Akui was up 105-104 on two of the cards with Teraji up 106-103 on the third. However, judging by his appearance, Akui was more damaged. The stoppage by Japanese referee Katsuhiko Nakamura, which came at the 1:31 mark of the final round with Akui still standing, struck some as premature but the gallant Akui was well-beaten.

A second-generation prizefighter, Kenshiro Teraji, 33, came bearing the WBC 112-pound belt which he acquired this past October with an 11^th round TKO of Nicaraguan veteran Cristofer Rosales. The 29-year-old Akui (21-3-1) was making the second defense of the WBA strap he won with a wide decision over previously undefeated Artem Dalakian.

Although Teraji keeps on rolling – this was his seventh straight win which began with a third-round blast-out of Masamichi Yabuki, avenging his lone defeat – things aren’t getting any easier for the so-called “Amazing Boy.” In his last three fights, which include a hard-earned majority decision over Carlos Canizales, he answered the bell for 35 rounds.

By and large, fighters in his weight class don’t age well. While Teraji is starting to slip, he has no intention of retiring any time soon. His goal, he says is to unify the title and eventually move up a notch to pursue a world title in a third weight class. The other pieces of the 112-pound title are currently the property of Mexico’s Angel Ayala who defends his IBF diadem against Yabuki later this month and LA’s Anthony Olascuaga who was in action on tonight’s undercard.

Other Bouts of Note

Olascuaga, a stablemate of Junto Nakatani, trained by 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year Rudy Hernandez, advanced to 9-1 (6) with a hard-earned unanimous decision over Hiroto Kyoguchi. The judges had it 118-110 and 117-111 (scores condemned as too wide) with the third judge having it 6-6 in rounds but scoring it 114-113 in acknowledgement of the knockdown credited to Olascuaga in round 11, the result of a short left that produced a delayed reaction.

Olascuaga was making the second defense of his WBO belt in his fifth straight trip to Japan. In his lone defeat, he was thrust against the formidable Teraji as a late sub, acquitting himself well in defeat (L TKO 9) despite having only five pro fights under his belt and having only 10 days to prepare. Kyoguchi (19-3) had previously held titles in the sport’s two smallest weight classes.

In a big upset, Puerto Rico’s Rene Santiago, thought to be well past his prime at age 32, wrested the WBO light flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Shokichi Iwata who was making the first defense of the title he won with a third-round stoppage of Spain’s previously undefeated Jairo Noriega. Tokyo’s Iwata was a consensus 9/1 favorite.

Santiago, who advanced to 14-4 (9), won by scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112. It was the second loss for Iwata who had knocked out 11 of his first 15 opponents.

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