Big George Foreman pounded the pulpit and preached Christianity to the congregation while we sat on the wooden pew. Thumping meaning into words, feelings of peace and love, the former champion hammered out points. Cleaned up, glorious George wooed the crowds with smiles and friendship. He chewed each word, as if steak-gravy
worked on mouthfuls in a meditative way. Almost hulking, as though burdened by heavy muscles, he gleamed from a face put in long years from the squared ring; an aggressive jaw smiled fresh-shaven, sprouted skin folding into a coffee grin. “Keep your chin up, but not too high. When life knocks you to the canvas, get back in there. No bell saves a chump. In 1977, after my fight with Jimmy Young, I became reborn again in the locker-room. The sleeper awakened. Reborn, and I retired from boxing.” George Foreman raised his heavy arms in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. George broadcast over the radio waves, counseled prisoners, and spent time in his youth and community center. Life of his arteries, veins stood up in the backs of his hands, large swollen knuckles, smashed and battered, a testament from the old days. Stretching the elasticity and pumping the blood flows, he pointed towards the stain-glass window of Christ. The big money, sharp glorious fighter, the 45,000 hours for the weary fifteen rounds, he heard nothing but his words boom, no yelling houses of whirlwind finishes. Brain and bones finished eloquent, helping the old guard see the light. More...
English lightweight champion Lee Meager has responded to Frank Maloney's recent comments about his highly controversial contest against Southend's Danny Hunt. Meager dominated Hunt on November 19th, only for referee Mark Green to score against him 96-94. Far from admitting, however, that his man Hunt was fortunate, Maloney preferred to support the decision and then hit out at Meager's corner men. "That's what I have come to expect from Frank Maloney," Meager said today. "In my opinion he can't help himself. He called his book 'No Baloney,' but if you ask me he should be done under the trade descriptions act. How he has got the front to criticise my corner for being inexperienced is beyond me. My trainer Robert McCracken - in my opinion the best in the country - won British and Commonwealth honours and challenged for a WBC title. Now that's what I call experience. You can't buy experience like that. Robert knows what it is like in between those ropes. He knows exactly what it takes. He also knows a robbery when he sees one." Maloney also scotched the possibility of a rematch, seemingly the best possible way to resolve matters.
"I don't know why Maloney doesn't just say he isn't interested in the rematch because he knows I will beat his man - again," Meager added. "Saying I have talked myself out of it because I slammed the original decision is ridiculous. Aren't I entitled to my opinion that the referee's decision was wrong? This is what I have a problem with, nothing else. I am straight talker, I speak my own mind - there is no-one pushing my buttons. What is wrong with that? He certainly had his say after the fight."
Nottingham’s British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion Carl Froch has got behind a gun amnesty in his hometown that follows the tragic shooting and death of local girl Danielle Beccan on October 9th. The amnesty – launched jointly by
the local police force and council - gives anyone looking to get out of gun crime the opportunity to hand in their weapons, without prejudice, between December 1st and 14th at police stations in the city. The campaign, that also features local DJ’s Jo and Twiggy and footballer Des Walker, will see posters displayed around the area bearing the slogan: “Not in Nottingham, Not in my City.” “It is a privilege to be asked to support this effort,” said Froch. “Nottingham has been fantastic to me, so if I can give anything back, however small, I will.” Froch hopes that putting his name behind the campaign may also encourage young people tempted to tread a criminal path into boxing. He added: “Boxing has a lot of detractors. People forget about the good it does. From a young age it teaches discipline and respect. If you go into your local amateur club you will see that. You will also see a whole bunch of kids who may have otherwise been out on the street and possibly even been led into a gun driven, criminal, culture.”
Former ABA champion Matthew Thirlwall has set his sights on a big 2005 following several recent, unjust, setbacks. The bad times started for the twenty-four-year-old in September when he lost a scandalous points decision to Walsall’s Jason Collins. He vowed bounce back with a win, only for his November comeback opponent Michael Monaghan to withdraw on the day of the fight. “I couldn’t believe it when Monaghan pulled out,” said Thirlwall. “A sprained ankle and on the day of the fight… what an absolute choker that was. It poured sickness on the misery! I was so up for that fight. So were the fans; many had reckoned it would be the fight of the night so they lost out as well.
For me it was the perfect opportunity to bounce back. Monaghan is a respected, tricky, operator. A lot of people were tipping him to win. So by beating him – which I would have done - I would have put myself right in to the title picture.” The Bermondsey boy has vowed to do just that, with or without Monaghan. “He had his chance and missed it,” added Thirlwall. “I will sit down with my promoter Mick Hennessy to work out whether he still figures in my plans. Either way I will be fighting for, and winning, a title next year. The path hasn’t been a smooth one for me, but that just means that when I do reach the top it will be all the sweeter.”
Rocky Marciano awoke slowly, the champ always slept before a fight. His eyelids kept falling shut again and again before they finally stayed open. He knew this was his last fight; the first thought crawled across his sleep-thickened mind. He wanted to stop this business, he’d probably tell his wife Barbara tomorrow. He slept on the gym bench, tumbled out of sleep, shivering in the fall air from the open windows. His last fight with Archie Moore loomed outside the steel doors. He needed to ready himself for the fight. His mouth tightened looking out into the bleak frosty night, making his blood run slow and deadening his reflexes. Lack of sunshine hurt his vision. Tonight, when his eyes must work perfectly, or lose, maybe die. Die. He pushed the thought away quickly. A groan rumbled in his chest. A full rest and still tired. He dropped his hands, sat staring at his veined hands, their backs almost bronze from the training camp. He flexed the blunt fingers, tried to work limberness into them, heard popping from hands to shoulders. The flesh felt stiff, something from his leather hide and bones. More...
Most fight fans never remember Kenny Norton as the real reason for the movie Rocky. We would never have had the great movie Rocky without his fight with Wepner in 1970, which created the spark for Stallone to make this fine film. Yes, Kenny Norton is the real Apollo Creed. Kenneth Howard Norton was born on August 9,
1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois. He fought at 210-pounds and was 6' 3" (1.91 m) in the ring. He become the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion in 1978, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in1992. His son worked as a linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers. He entered into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1989. He was an aggressive fighter who could move with a confusing fluidity and he commanded a dangerous repertoire of punches. Unlike many fighters, Norton did not grow up boxing or dreaming of becoming a fighter. He played football, basketball, and track in high school and received a scholarship to Northeast Missouri State, which he attended for two years. More...
Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero's highly anticipated return to the ring is a done deal. GoossenTutor Promotions announced that the boxing phenom hailing from Northern California will square off against Cesar Figueroa for the NABF featherweight championship title. The fight, on December, 9th 2004 at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, CA will be the Co-feature of the Vassiliy Jirov- Michael Moorer heavyweight bout. The Best Damm Sports Show Period will be televising the action, live, to millions around the world on FSN. The electrifying Robert Guerrero who is undefeated (13-0-1) 6 KO's looks to come out swinging. Since his last fight on SHOWTIME, June 3, 2004, a KO win against former world champion Enrique Sanchez (30-3-4), "The Ghost" has been training like a machine with new trainer John Bray. His opponent is as tough as they get in Figueroa (28-4-2) 20 KO's who is coming off an impressive KO win against Jorge Martinez (12-2) 2 KO's. Expect an explosive fight from both of these warriors. This bout will close out a successful year for Guerrero as he storms for a title in 2005. The time is now to show the world that Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero is the next superstar in boxing. 2005 will be THE YEAR OF THE GHOST!!!
Goossen Tutor Promotions once again brings you the best boxing has to offer.
WORCESTER, Mass. World Boxing Association welterweight champion 'El Gallo' Jose Antonio Rivera’s (37-3-1, 24 KOs) is optimistic about the news that the 'Golden Boy' – Oscar De La Hoya – will soon return to the 147-pound welterweight division. Oscar’s been a great champion and class act for many years,” Rivera said from training camp. “I welcome him back to the welterweight division. He can only bring added credibility to an already strong division that also includes (Cory) Spinks, (Zab) Judah, (Antonio) Margarito, (Vernon) Forrest and so many other top fighters. When Oscar’s ready to challenge for a title belt at 147, I’d be more than willing to renew the Puerto Rican-Mexican rivalry that’s been so popular in boxing.” ome of boxing’s most memorable fights featuring Puerto Rican versus Mexican boxers, in addition to Tito Trinidad-De La Hoya, have been Wilfredo Gomez-Salvador Sanchez, Juan LaPorte-Julia Cesar Chavez, and Wilfredo Benetiz-Carlos Palomino. Rivera-De La Hoya sounds good to me,” Rivera added. “But first I’ve got to get ready for my mandatory defense against Thomas Damgaard." The 31-year-old Rivera, who was married Nov. 20, has fully recovered from surgery to repair a tendon in his right thumb. He is in training for a return to the ring in early 2005.
It sounds like a second rate Cheech and Chong, but Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera are about as far removed from bumbling stoners as you can get. For in these two Mexican warriors, there burns a competitive fire the likes of
which can be found in only a handful of fighters in the world. Their three fights have been testament to that. In part one, wild back and forth trading punctuated the evening, when one fighter looked beaten, he called on all of his courage and strength to come back even harder. It seemed that being shaken by a shot just drove them to swing harder punches of their own. Most observers believed Barrera deserved the nod by a whisker, but instead Morales walked away with a razor thin split decision. This fight was, until Saturday night, the best fight I'd ever seen. More...
LAS VEGAS. Vitali Klitschko apologizes because he believes his English is not that good. His four-year-old son, he laughs, speaks it better. It doesn't matter. What Klitschko has to say about the crisis in his native Ukraine comes across perfectly clear. That's because it comes straight from the heart. "I am not politician. I am sportsman," Klitschko says. " But it is very difficult for me, very painful, because of what is happening in my country." In just two weeks, Klitschko defends his heavyweight title in one of the biggest fights of his career against Mike Tyson conqueror Danny Williams. Right now, though, his mind is a world away from the boxing ring. His country is in turmoil, torn apart by an election many believe was fixed. He wants to be with his brother, Wladimir, on the streets in Kiev, leading rallies for Viktor Yushchenko, the man he believes will bring democracy to Ukraine. Wladimir, a heavyweight contender himself, flew to Ukraine last week to join the protests over the election. Vitali wanted badly to go himself, and had to be talked out of canceling his fight. More...
The highly anticipated rematch between WBA-IBF featherweight champion and Manny Pacquiao will take place on February 5th in the New Year. Marquez barely retained his titles in a highly disputed draw with Pacquiao in May of
this year and subsequently fought Orlando Salido in a marking time fight. Pacquiao returns to action shortly against Thailand's Fahsang 3K Battery. Once again, all eyes will turn to Las Vegas as the two battle it out for the unified featherweight championship of the world and the winner may well look forward to a match with newly crowned WBC-IBF super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera. Fresh from his sensational win over Erik Morales, Barrera is as yet undecided on whether he will return to the featherweight division or stay and defend his new titles in the super featherweight class. A Barrera-Marquez fight or a Barrera-Pacquiao rematch would certainly light up the second half of 2005.
Undisputed welterweight champion Cory Spinks will defend his titles once again in a rematch against former light welterweight champion Zab Judah on January 15th. Judah has already dropped a decision to Spinks in a fight he claims he was unfairly adjudged to have lost. Spinks has taken on all comers since gaining the IBF welterweight title and soon garnered the undisputed title in a fight with then unified champion Ricardo Mayorga almost a year ago. Judah has spent his time since losing to Spinks by knocking out nondescript opposition. The first fight between the two came to boiling point in the final two rounds as Judah was put down in the eleventh round while champion Spinks suffered a knockdown in the final round. These two quality southpaws will go at it in the New Year but the site of the fight has yet to be determined. Stay tuned for more on this fight as it happens.
Heavyweight Clifford 'Black Rhino' Etienne saved the day at the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky by stepping in for injured former world champion Riddick Bowe against journeyman Kenny Craven. Craven was not as enthusiastic as the crowd on hand for the main event of the card though as Etienne, taking the fight on two days notice rolled over him in two rounds. The fight was stopped when Craven sustained a cut thanks to a punch rom Etienne and was ruled to be unable to continue to fight. This event seemed to be much ado about nothing and merely an unexpected payday for Etienne who has yet to make any serious attempts to step back into the heavyweight picture since being obliterated by Mike Tyson.
Sensationally, Marco Antonio Barrera performed another miracle in the ring tonight as he became a world champion of three weight classes by taking bitter rival Erik Morales' WBC and IBF super featherweight titles in a true classic of the ring.
In a fight that perhaps eclipses the excitement and intensity of their first meeting contested back in the year 2000, Barrera and Morales gave boxing another war and one so fitting to the marvellous careers of both men. Morales looked incredibly dejected as expected at the announcement of the decision but surely he will go on to compete in great fights as he showed the heart of a true warrior. Barrera though was almost unstoppable and once again, just as he did in his fight against Naseem Hamed, Barrera competes in his first fight at a new weight and defeats perhaps the best fighter at the weight. Barrera has now won two of the three fights with Morales and has proven that he still deserves to be reckoned as a great fighter. Read on for the round by round account of this classic fight.More...
It could have been Nedal Hussein's step into the bigtime, instead it was a hugely disappointing performance by the super bantamweight from Australia who dropped a twelve round decision to reigning WBC champion Oscar Larios. The arena was gaining in electricity
but Hussein could not find it inside of him to rise to occasion and continually found himself coming last in the exchanges between the two fighters. Truly, Larios has a very awkward style and one that has befuddled many very good fighters and some world champions. But you felt that it was Hussein's fight to lose, and lose it he did despite the passionate remonstrations of trainer Jeff Fenech. Read on for the story of the fight round by round.More...
The MGM Grand began to buzz as IBF bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez and challenger Mauricio Pastrana made their way to the ring. The rematch of a fight in which Marquez took a decision over Pastrana came about because Marquez wanted
to see if he could stop Pastrana, something he had managed to do to all but three of his opponents to date. Many powerful exchanges between the two made for a competitive fight indeed as both fighters were hurt at varying times of the fight but Pastrana gradually became more and more broken and busted up by Marquez's sheer power. The win marks time in style for Marquez but hopes are that he will be involved in more meaningful fights in the future. Read on for the round by round report of this fight.More...
In the sparsely populated arena of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, USA, Puerto Rico's Ivan 'Iron Boy' Calderon retained his WBO minimumweight championship with a slick display of movement and accurate counter punching against Nicaraguan challenger Carlos Fajardo. The opening bout of HBO's quadruple fight pay-per-view attraction was a relative formality as Calderon won a virtual shoutout over Fajardo who became increasingly frustrated at not being able to land clean shots on the quick and varied moving champion who peppered him in return with fast and authoritative shots. Calderon has only four stoppages to his credit now in over twenty fights and if he was a puncher, he would have disposed of Fajardo much earlier. Read on for the round by round report of this fight.More...
Mexico City's Rafael Marquez may be the hardest puncher pound for pound in the game today. The list of opponents that the IBF bantamweight champion has stopped is impressive. Among others, two-time world champion flyweight and super flyweight terror Mark Johnson was knocked out for the only time up to that point in a top level, forty-three fight career. Now Marquez will again be facing another top opponent, Mauricio Pastrana, as he prepares to launch a campaign to unify the highly competitive bantamweight division. Marquez has fought Pastrana before and the Colombian was one of only three Marquez victims who have managed to hear the final bell. Despite his long list of achievements in the last four years, Marquez has a difficult test ahead tonight. In most eyes, Rafael Marquez, 32-3 (29), has proved himself the world's best bantamweight. After starting off his career in 1995 by getting knocked out in eight rounds by fifty-five fight veteran Victor Rabanales, Marquez went on a tear, winning his next twelve contests, eleven early, fighting everywhere from Mexico City to Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Misfortune again reared its ugly head as Marquez was gunned down in three by Francisco Mateos in 1998. Undaunted, the Mexican got back on the horse just one month later and ran off a string of nine straight stoppage victories before getting knocked out, again in three rounds, by Genaro Garcia, who remains to this day one of the top bantamweight contenders.
Read on for exclusive commentary from Rafael Marquez on this fight, his brother Juan Manuel Marquez and his own future in boxing.More...
We are fortunate enough to be able to look back through boxing history, study the careers, and marvel at the impact of the great Mexican fighters. Men such as Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez are but two of the many great champions
that make up the proud tradition of the Aztec Warrior. Whether many people realize it nor not, we are even luckier to be able to behold two Mexican legends still very much active in the fight game today. Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera are Mexican champions that have already sealed their place in boxing legend with their individual achievements not to mention the two stunning fights they engaged in together. In 2000, the two met in Las Vegas to contest the WBO/WBC unified super bantamweight championship and proceeded to write new pages in punishment before Morales left with a hotly disputed decision, so much so that in fact, Barrera was re-awarded his WBO title. With business unfinished and dislike growing between the two men, a rematch was scheduled for 2002. However, when it happened, the rematch saw a decision granted to Barrera and the opinion of fans swayed to Morales who was seen to have suffered his first defeat unnecessarily. Two years on, the rubber match will happen in an effort to clear up their outstanding business “once and for all.’
Read on for the saddoboxing.com team’s predictions for the final chapter of this epic trilogy.More...
Jack Dempsey, the movie from 1983 stars Treat Williams and Sally Kellerman. The “Manassa Mauler’ walks across the screen and shows the life of Jack Dempsey. With him in the movie, it represents the last picture show of him since he died that year. The film opens in Utah in 1911, where the teenage Dempsey works out in hopes of cracking the big time. Eight years later,
Dempsey enters into his famous bout with reigning champion Jess Willard. From 1919 through 1926, Dempsey keeps the heavyweight championship title; he also carries on a wild and profligate private life, including an expensive marriage and even more expensive divorce with silent film star Estelle Taylor, his second wife and played by Victoria Tennant. Deanna Piatelli stayed with him until his death and she was the most loyal of his four wives. He also married Hannah Williams. Maxine Gates, played by Sally Kellerman and first of his wives, married Dempsey from 1916 until 1919. Treat Williams trained with Al Silvani, who worked with Stallone on the earliest Rocky epics. An excellent movie to watch and gather the facts of Dempsey’s life. He appears in the movies as himself and archive footage. More...
