Singer-Songwriter Neil Diamond and Promoter Bob Arum Share a Common Bond

There’s something special about attending an important boxing match where one of the principals is a British fighter with a large fan base. The crowd will absolutely be more animated than if both fighters were of the same nativity. Whoever stereotyped the British as a reserved people who go through life with a stiff upper lip obviously never attended a sporting event where a British competitor is likely to get bruised.

As the time draws near to when the fighters’ make their ring walks, Neal Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” blares over the loudspeaker and the partisans of the British fighter raise the roof in a full-throttle sing-along. Karaoke isn’t my bag, but a mass karaoke at a big boxing event gives me goosebumps.

I was first exposed to this phenomenon when Carl Frampton opposed Leo Santa Cruz at the MGM Grand in their second of two meetings. Frampton, a featherweight from Belfast, Northern Ireland, brought a large and vociferous rooting section. It was a young crowd and they kept the bartenders busy, but if there were any incidents of hooliganism, I missed them.

It mystified me when a large tier of the audience burst into “Sweet Caroline,” and this without prompting from anyone involved in the promotion. I figured it must be a Frampton thing. But no, the situation would repeat itself at other shows where the Brits were well-represented and now the song came across the loudspeaker too, creating a larger roar and heightening the merriment.

Hands, touching hands

Reaching out, touching me, touching you

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good

I’d be inclined

To believe they never would.

Written by Neil Diamond, the song was released in 1969 when Diamond was 28 years old. He turns 80 next year. (My goodness, where did those years go?) According to Wikipedia, “Sweet Caroline” peaked at #4 on the U.S. charts and #8 in the U.K.

Decades would elapse before the song it found its way into boxing arenas. But where and when did it start?

It may have originated with Frampton, the 2016 TSS Fighter of the Year. A “Sweet Caroline” sing-along swelled up organically at some of Frampton’s fights in Belfast before he crossed the pond and had his first fight on American soil. Rival British promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren subsequently standardized its use. But its roots may go back deeper.

In an interview with Sky Sports writer Adam Smith, Mike Goodhall remembered hearing the song back around 2005 being played as a filler to keep the crowd from getting bored during the lull between bouts. A fixture on the U.K. boxing scene for more than three decades, Goodhall owns a company that builds and ships boxing rings and related paraphernalia and has worked as the MC at hundreds, perhaps thousands, of club fights.

Whatever the origin, “Sweet Caroline,” although the lyrics have no relation to boxing whatsoever, has become, in the words of the aforementioned Smith, “the soundtrack of the sport.”

The link between Neil Diamond and Bob Arum is that they attended the same high school, Erasmus Hall in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

I defy you to name another high school in the United States that produced as many high achievers, which isn’t meant to imply that they were all wonderful people. A very short list of Erasmus Hall alumni would include Diamond, Arum, Barbra Streisand, author Roger Kahn, the late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, and a fellow named Bob Olin who briefly held the New York version of the world light heavyweight title. Mae West also went there but it’s hard to imagine she stayed around long enough to graduate. Ms. West, who presumably entered puberty around the age of nine, began performing in vaudeville at the age of 14.

Erasmus Hall has other boxing-related threads. Barbra Streisand romances a prizefighter (played by Ryan O’Neal) in the 1979 film “The Main Event.” Her New Year’s Eve concert on Dec. 31, 1993, was the icebreaker event at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, a venue that would become identified with boxing. Roger Kahn’s masterwork was “The Boys of Summer,” an ode to the 1955 World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers, but he also authored a biography of Jack Dempsey. Mae West had a thing for prizefighters of a certain hue (we won’t go there).

By the way, Neil Diamond took to youtube this week with a slightly altered version of his 1969 classic.

Hands. Washing hands.

Reaching out, don’t touch me, I won’t touch you.

On the printed page, those bastardized lyrics engender melancholy, but watching Diamond perform the song while strumming his guitar in front of a fireplace with the family dog at his feet was actually uplifting. “I know we are going through a rough time right now,” says Diamond by way of introduction. “But I love ya and I think maybe if we sing together, well, we’d just feel a little bit better. Give it a try, okay?”

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxnETrhOIAE

Be safe. Be well.

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