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The Energizer Boxing Bunny holds up the vacant New York State Heavyweight Title belt with Patchogue native Derric Rossy and Queens’ Gary Bell, who will vie for the crown on Feb. 10 at the Huntington Hilton.
“They can’t touch it, it’s my belt right now,” Plainview fight promoter Sal Musumeci quips, then adds, “This thing is heavy.”
“So are you,” a voice bellows from the back of the press conference, held recently at Maxwell and Dunne’s Steakhouse in Plainview. Oyster Bay’s Rick Belyea, who handles PR for Musumeci, couldn’t help but deliver the wisecrack, even though neither would ever be confused for a flyweight contender.
But a few minutes later, Belyea compares Musumeci to that pink rabbit who bangs his drum without exhaustion to promote his product. Bringing regular pro boxing cards back to Long Island takes that kind of energy.
The sweet science isn’t a mystery to the Island, as Huntington native Gerry Cooney became America’s “Great White Hope,” and Brentwood’s Buddy McGirt was a world welterweight champion. But venues like Freeport Stadium and Commack Arena, hotbeds of shows in the ’60s and ’70s, gave way in the ’90s to casinos like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun—which offered promoters like Musumeci deals that they just couldn’t refuse.
“They basically buy your show,” Musumeci, the 47-year-old president of Final Forum Boxing, explains of the business arrangement. “They pay you a flat fee, take care of expenses and sell the tickets themselves. They want something for the high rollers to see, and they’re happy to pay for it.”
It’s hard for any businessman to argue with a guaranteed profit. So, what has changed that makes boxing viable again here?
L.I.’s Hope
Okay, Derric Rossy, first things first. What’s up with this resemblance to The Rock?
Rossy breaks out in laughter.
“Yeah, people have confused me for him a few times,” he says with a pleasant, understated tone that belies his chiseled, 6-foot-3, 238-pound frame. “But he’s a big movie star, and I’m not.”
Dressed in a plain olive T-shirt and jeans, the 25-year-old former Patchogue-Medford High School football star and Boston College defensive end is the antithesis of the loud voices and often louder clothes that you’ll see at a pre-fight press soiree.
Just over two years ago, he turned the two-car garage of his Medford home into a makeshift gym and—under the tutelage of his dad, former professional fighter Carlos Rossy—started training. Initially, it was just to stay in shape, as he still held dreams of playing in the NFL. Now, he’s 9-0 as a pro, a meteoric rise for someone so green.
“People thought I was crazy for taking him pro so early,” Musumeci admits. “I may keep moving him up fast, but he keeps stepping up to the challenge.”
The promoter was already wanting to bring cards back to LI, but Rossy and his band of supporters, the “Rossymaniacs,” convinced Musumeci more than ever that he could build the popularity of shows—thanks to a native son who has both the talent and temperament to appeal to Island sports fans. The promoter, who has been in the business for 10 years, insists that bringing press conference fistfights and ear-biting psychos here is a great way to go out of business.
“Long Island is an educated, sophisticated crowd,” Musumeci explains. “They’re not going to pay to watch a couple of thugs, and I don’t associate myself with those kind of fighters.”
Rossy and Bell (the latter was once Evander Holyfield’s main sparring partner) are friends who talked exactly zero smack at the press conference, which probably should prompt a call to Guinness to see if that’s ever happened before.
“I think [trash-talking and stunts] is a part of boxing that keeps people away; keeps away people who like golf and basketball and sports like that,” Rossy says. “Now, fight fans do like that there is violence, but Long Island is a different kind of crowd. So, with boxing here we need to be gentlemen and do our business in the ring.”
A Bout With Beauty
Just when one might question this promotion as so businesslike that it’s bland, a tall, exotic Asian beauty begins speaking at the front table. She’s 28-year-old Chika Nakamura, who leaves tongues scraping the floor in her leather pants and spiked boots, yet joins her hands and delivers an Old World bow to anyone who says farewell.
No, she’s not the ring girl. She’ll be on the undercard, fighting Ebony Clemet Bey.
With her stiff left jab and gentle features, she could someday grace the covers of both Ring magazine and FHM. Musumeci admits that female fighters weren’t in his professional agenda. But he saw something in Nakamura, a former basketball player in Japan who loves whisking a motorcycle across Manhattan’s streets and even considered a racing career.
“I think I like motorcycles because like boxing, there’s speed and it’s dangerous,” Nakamura says, and although she wants to be taken seriously as a boxer, plainly admits that “beauty is power.”
The Sky’s The Limit
Musumeci would like to do up to six shows on LI each year, and if things go well at the hotel cards, Nassau Coliseum could be next.
“People were telling us, ‘We don’t want to drive four hours [round trip] to see fighters,'” Belyea says. “They want to drive 20 minutes.”
Musumeci’s bet that LI will warm up to a ring resurgence is still a risk. But one guy he has in his corner is Rossy, who likes the idea of building his own career and LI’s image as a boxing-friendly area at the same time.
“I wouldn’t mind taking that on my shoulders,” Rossy says of that dual role with an eager look on his face. “I’m willing to be that person.”
Patchogue native Derric Rossy and battling beauty Chika Nakamura bring boxing to LI on Feb. 10.
What: Friday Night Fights
Where: Huntington Hilton, 598 Broadhollow Rd., Melville
When: Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7)
Tickets: $100, $60, $40, available at Huntington Hilton or Maxwell and Dunne’s between noon-8 p.m. (e-mail finalforum@aol.com for questions)
Also On The Card: Middleweight Ray Gonzalez, a Mastic-Shirley native, makes his pro debut as part of the seven-fight card.
Writer and Source: Josh Stewart – http://www.longislandpress.com/?cp=194&show=article&a_id=7292
