Analysis: Boxing And The Expanding Division

by Tom Donelson
Mar 27, 2007

IOWA CITY, Ia. — For those who have followed my writings for the past few years know that I love the cruiserweights.

With Jean-Marc Mormeck’s defeat of O’Neill Bell last week proved a point that I have made for years. The cruiserweights is one of boxing best and deepest division.

Any fight in this division is an evenly match affair between excellent fighters. This is not a case of mediocrity chasing mediocrity but excellent fighters competing with one another.

Every fighter ranked in the top ten is a championship caliber fighter and unlike other divisions, there isn’t enough championship belts to pass around.

If nothing else, the cruiserweights proves another point that I have been making over the years; that explosion of different and more division is actually good for boxing.

This is one area where most boxing pundits and historians disagree with me. If nothing else, the biggest complaints against boxing is that there are too many divisions. My point is that problem with boxing is not too many division but too many sanctioning bodies.

Take the cruiserweights for example. What boxing has figured out and the pundits or historians have not; athletes are bigger and stronger today than before.

With modern training methods, big money and occasional use of steroids, athletes have grown in stature. What was a heavyweight just a generation ago is now a cruiserweight.

Many of the cruiserweights today are just not strong enough or big enough to compete with the behemoths that populate the heavyweights.

Chris Byrd is considered a small heavyweight at 210 pounds but if he fought in the 60’s, 210 pounds would have been considered a big heavyweight!

So it is only logical that boxing recognize the changes that have occurred and the cruiserweights have shown that a new division can produced excellent fighters and competitive matches as good as any era.

There are two factors to consider. First, boxing draws from entire globe and there are more athletes to draw from. In the division from middleweights and beyond, European fighters are making impact and below the middleweights, Asian and Latin American fighters compete with the best of American fighters.

With the end of the cold war, there are entire classes of fighters that just two decades ago would be fighting amateurs for their communist masters. Now they box for pay. This has added to the depth of boxing worldwide and this can be seen just in the rankings alone.

The second factor is that multiple divisions have allowed for more sensible rise in weights. Boxers are not force to go from lightweight to welterweight in one move but can proceed gradually through the ranks.

A Diego Corrales or Jose Castillo can move from junior lightweight to lightweight to junior welterweight in steps and produce some excellent fights along the way.

And with boxing having the world at their disposals, they can populate any division with excellent fighters and each division has depth to produce great fights.

The cruiserweights are not the only division with depth throughout the top ten. Mormeck and O’Neill Bell would most likely face off in a third match to determine the best but below them are great fighters waiting their turn to face the winner.

Cruiserweights problem is not a lack of depth but a lack of recognition. And this division is proof that boxing does occasionally get things right, like adding division.

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Austin Displeased With Beatdown

Austin Displeased With Performance
By Joe Maxse
Monday, March 19, 2007

As Ray Austin saw it, it was just one of those things.

That’s how the Cleveland heavyweight assessed his second-round knockout loss to International Boxing Federation champ Wladimir Klitschko in Mannheim, Germany, on March 10.

“I’m definitely upset with my performance,” said Austin, who met with reporters last week. “On a better day, I could have done better. You take a step up, this is what happens to you.”

About the only good steps Austin (24-4-4, 16 KOs) took were the ones getting into the ring. Once inside, his lack of effort was embarrassing, to say the least.

Attempting to become the first local heavyweight to win a major world title, you could understand the loss if some firepower went with it. Intimidation was not a factor, said Austin.

“I wasn’t intimidated at all,” said Austin, who matched Klitschko in height and weight. “I came there to do a job and unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

Austin, 36, said he was unhappy “from day one” with new trainer Stacey McKinley, who was hand-picked by promoter Don King to work his corner. Austin said he preferred to have longtime Cleveland friend Romeo Conner in his corner.

“This is what they were paying me to have and I had to roll with it,” said Austin, whose purse was $1 million. “They wanted me to box and attack in the later rounds. I wanted to be more aggressive.”

Klitschko ended matters when he connected with a series of left hooks that put Austin on the canvas. According to Austin, it was the first punch that did all the damage.

“I only remember getting hit with one hook,” Austin said. “We were expecting the right hand from beginning to end. We thought we had the speed department handled, but he was tremendously speedy.”

Klitschko (48-3, 43 KOs) told the German press that Austin’s “lack of speed and coordination didn’t allow him to be a real threat.”

Austin said it was “back to the drawing board,” with his next bout in Cleveland on a June show promoted by King. However, a spokesman at King’s offices in Florida said a Cleveland show was not in the works.

Deal making:

A match close to being finalized has middleweight contenders Kelly Pavlik and Edison Miranda squaring off on July 28. Promoters and HBO are looking into both Quicken Loans Arena and Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center as possible sites, with Florida also in the running.

Youngstown’s Pavlik (30-0, 27 KOs) and Colombia’s Miranda (28-1, 24 KOs) would be about big punching, with the winner getting a title shot against Jermain Taylor in the fall.

Around the ring:

The Ohio Athletic Commission will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday at the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, 4800 E. 131 St., in Garfield Heights at 10 a.m. It is open to the public. . . . Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) decisioned WBC super featherweight champ Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs) on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Scores were 118-109 and two by 116-111. HBO has already penciled in a rematch for Sept. 16. . . . The Cleveland Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament will be held April 13-14 at the Erieview Galleria, with the finals at Cleveland Browns Stadium on April 21. Go to clevelandamateurgg.com or call 216-662-7445 for information.

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DON’T KO BOXING’S ETHNICITY

By GEORGE WILLIS
March 16, 2007

SOMEWHERE along the way, it became politically incorrect to root for your own. It’s OK to root for team, country and even borough, but root for your own color or ethnic brethren and you can be accused of being racist. That shouldn’t apply in boxing.

The sport became part of the American fabric because people rooted for their own – Irish for Irish, Jews for Jews, Italians for Italians, Puerto Ricans for Puerto Ricans, black Americans for black Americans. That’s the way it was in the ’30s through the ’60s. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be the same today.

Take tonight’s boxing card at the Garden Theater. Ireland’s John Duddy meets Anthony Bonsante in the main event of an Irish-themed lineup on St. Patrick’s Day Eve. The building is sold out, the norm for Duddy’s fights, which typically draw thousands of loyal Irish fans. Some are calling it the Duddy phenomenon.

“Every time I step into the ring, it’s getting bigger, it’s catching on,” Duddy said this week. “I think it’s up to me to match my standard of fighting with the magnitude with what we’re achieving with each fight.”

On Thursday, undefeated junior welterweight Dmitriy Salita headlines the latest Broadway Boxing card at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Salita is an observant Jew. At 26-0-1 with 15 KOs, he is ranked fourth by the WBA. And while he has generated a following from the Jewish community here, it doesn’t match the intensity Duddy enjoys from his Irish fans.

“It’s been OK, but it could be better,” Salita said yesterday, “especially with so many Jews in New York.”

Salita is only 24, but is aware of the time when he would have been the norm and not the exception. “There was a time when 2 percent of the whole Jewish population were professional boxers,” Salita said yesterday. “It’s like today when people say my son is a lawyer or a doctor. Back then they used to say my son is a professional boxer.”

Having a Duddy fight near St. Patrick’s Day is a natural, the same way having Miguel Cotto fight the week of the Puerto Rican Day parade makes sense. For Salita it may not be long before he’s a phenomenon, too.

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Three Cuban Boxers Defect To The USA

From Sports Jamaica
12 March 2007

Three top Cuban boxers, including reigning Olympic heavyweight champion Odlanier Solis, have defected and are about to start professional careers.

Solis, who won the heavyweight gold medal in Athens, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Yan Barthelemy, who also won Olympic gold in 2004, defected to the USA earlier this month.

They announced at a press conference at Miami’s David’s Cafe in South Beach, that they would pursue their professional boxing careers under the tutelage of Florida-based attorney and manager Tony Gonzalez and German promotional companies, Arena Box Promotion and First Artist.

Solis is also a two-time Pan American Games champion and three-time world amateur champion.

Super bantamweight Gamboa was World Cup gold medallist last year, and flyweight Barthelemy is a former world amateur champion.

The fighters agreed in unison that a defection was necessary to pursue their professional dreams.

It is the first time a Cuban Olympic gold medal heavyweight, considered a vital sportsman in his country, had made the decision to leave the national team and fight professionally.

“After winning every major amateur title, I knew that I only had one last challenge, and that was becoming (professional) heavyweight champion of the world,” said Solis.

“I feel a loss leaving my country but I am ready to turn professional and work towards obtaining that goal,” Solis declared.

Solis and Barthelemy are both natives from Havana, while Gamboa is originally from Guantanamo, Cuba.

The trio should be making their pro debuts on April 13 in Miami against opponents to be decided.

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Cuban Gold Medalists Ready To Turn Pro

By Dan Rafael
Thursday, March 8, 2007

Leaving behind families, friends and homes, three 2004 Olympic gold medalists from Cuba have defected to the United States to launch professional boxing careers: heavyweight Odlanier Solis, 26; junior bantamweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, 25; and flyweight Yan Barthelemy, 27.

The fighters, who were introduced to media in Miami this week, snuck away from a hotel in Venezuela, where they were training for the Pan American Games, and made their way into neighboring Colombia. Eventually, they made their way to the United States with the help of Miami-based attorney and manager Tony Gonzalez.

They’re expected to turn pro in mid-April, according to Gonzalez, who also has represented former welterweight champ Ricardo Mayorga.

Although Gonzalez said he spoke to American promoters Golden Boy and DiBella Entertainment about signing the trio, they signed seven-figure, three-year deals with German promoters Arena Box Promotion and First Artist.

“I am delighted it all worked out. The fighters arrived in the United States safely and see the beginning of their professional careers on the horizon,” Gonzalez said.

The fighters plan to fight in the United States and Germany. Gonzalez said they will establish residency in Germany but have obtained visas to work in the United States.

Their pro debuts will take place in heavily Cuban Miami in a joint promotion with Tutico Zabala’s Miami-based All-Star Boxing.

Solis, a decorated amateur from Havana, said he had nothing left to accomplish as an amateur and that he yearned for the challenge of professional boxing.

“After winning every major amateur title, I knew that I only had one last challenge, and that was becoming heavyweight champion of the world,” said Solis, a three-time world amateur champion and two-time Pan American Games champion. “I feel a loss leaving my country but I am ready to turn professional and work toward obtaining that goal.”

All three were favorites to repeat their gold medal victories at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Solis, like Gamboa, left behind children. Gamboa, of Guantanamo, told the media that financial hardships in Cuba forced him to sell his Olympic gold medal last year to help him pay for his 2-year-old daughter’s first birthday party.

“We are extremely excited about finally beginning our professional careers. It has always been a dream of mine to become a world champion and now I have a strong chance to make that happen,” said Barthelemy, of Havana.

Cuban defectors have been hit or miss as pros. The most successful fighters from a group of Cubans who defected in the 1990s are Joel Casamayor, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist who won junior lightweight and lightweight titles, and Juan Carlos Gomez, who had a 1998 to 2001 reign as a cruiserweight world champion before moving up to heavyweight.

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SPECIAL DELIVERY: In This Garage Corner . . .

Boxer Smith helps wife give birth at home
By KEVIN IOLE
March 07, 2007

As a professional boxer, Ishe Smith is used to planning for all eventualities. So, when he learned his wife, LaToya, was pregnant with the couple’s third child, the Las Vegas resident began to prepare to make the delivery the easiest of the three.

The Smiths’ first daughter, 7-pound, 3-ounce Noelani, was born Friday, but neither Ishe nor LaToya is prepared to say the delivery was the simplest of the three.

The most memorable? Without question.

Noelani Smith, you see, was delivered by her father on the floor of the couple’s garage at their Summerlin home.

As Ishe Smith was dressing his sons, Ishe Jr., 5, and Ajani, 1, and preparing them for the ride to University Medical Center, he was blissfully unaware that LaToya was on the verge of giving birth.

“Ishe messed with the camcorder the night before to make sure the battery was charged and he was getting that to bring with us,” LaToya Smith said Tuesday. “I told him, ‘Let’s hurry.’ And then he was getting our younger son a glass of juice. I said, ‘I’m not sure you understand. We have to hurry.’ The craziest things seem to happen to us, but I never thought this would happen.”

After Ishe had strapped his sons into their seats in the back seat of the family’s 2006 Dodge Magnum a little before 6 a.m. Friday, he saw his wife standing next to the car. He urged her to get in.

She stared at him, saying nothing. He urged her a second time.

“I had everything taken care of and all was perfect in my eyes,” Ishe Smith said. “All she had to do was get into the car. But she was just looking at me.”

LaToya Smith thought she had answered, but by that point, things were not perfect. She wasn’t pushing but looked down and saw her daughter’s head appear.

She desperately pleaded with Ishe to help.

Despite all the preparation, despite all the tough-guy mentality he developed as a fighter, Ishe Smith knew he was in trouble. He called 911 and a dispatcher walked him through the birth.

The Smiths had had their carpets cleaned a day earlier and Ishe had brought an area rug into the garage to dry. It was a blessing, both said, because LaToya wasn’t forced to give birth on a dirty garage floor.

“I got over to her and the baby literally just came shooting out,” Ishe Smith said. “I called 911 and the (dispatcher) was a little surprised, but she was so good. She was calm and she kept me calm. She just told me step by step what I needed to do. She made me step up my game.”

Smith had his oldest son grab some towels to help. Following orders from the dispatcher, Smith neatly tied a shoestring around the umbilical cord.

“I wasn’t sure how tight to tie it and where to tie it, and the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt her,” Ishe Smith said.

But it turned out he tied it into a perfect little bow — “It was like he was tying a piece of ribbon on the top of a present,” LaToya Smith said — and remained unusually calm throughout.

Until, that is, the dispatcher told him to grab the placenta. Then, all of a sudden he was very squeamish.

“Ishe’s got a really weak stomach,” LaToya Smith said, chuckling.

“She told me to grab it and I was like, ‘Well, do I have to? It’s slimy!’ ” Smith said to the dispatcher.

By the time the paramedics arrived, Noelani was in her mother’s arms.

“Ishe Jr. keeps telling everyone that his baby sister was hatched in the garage,” Ishe Smith said. “I have to keep reminding him that she wasn’t hatched, she was born. But it was something none of us will ever forget. … Someone definitely was looking out for us.”

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Group Home Named After Norman “Chuck” Jennings

The Man of the House
Elmira home named in honor of local boxer and champion of youths.
By Ray Finger
February 16, 2007

Boxer Norman “Chuck” Jennings had big fists but an even bigger heart, those who knew him said Thursday as 510 W. Church St. in Elmira was named in his honor as the founder of Glove House.

Since the original group home opened its doors on April 4, 1970, to seven young men, it has grown to aid more than 9,000 young boys and girls with 10 homes, said John Treahy, president and chief executive officer of Glove House Inc. It now serves 12 counties in the Finger Lakes/Southern Tier area, he said.

“Chuck has been described as a man of vision, a man of courage and conviction, who didn’t fear any obstacles that he faced. His conviction was to give young men the assistance they needed for a successful future,” Treahy told the crowd that attended the dedication.

“As Chuck said back then, ‘With a little love and kindness, you can change a boy’s life.’ “

After an illustrious career as a Golden Gloves amateur boxer and as a professional boxer who faced Joe Louis and Max Baer, Jennings returned to Elmira in the 1950s and set his sights on helping young men in the community, Treahy said.

“Chuck was a man of many talents and gifts, and he gave those gifts very freely back to the community that he loved,” he said.

Georgia Verdier, president of the Elmira-Corning branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she did not have the pleasure of knowing Jennings personally but felt blessed by his legacy. His life reflected the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” she said.

“He was all about changing the future one child at a time,” Verdier said. “It is very appropriate that this facility is being named in his honor, especially during Black History Month.”

One of those original seven boys was Col. Lawrence Krause, now a retired Army chaplain. Krause was unable to attend but wrote a letter to be read at Thursday’s ceremony. Krause called Jennings a good and decent man whose life and legacy continue to make a huge difference in the lives of countless people, both young and old.

“His idea was that all young people needed was a stable family-like environment. And youths on the wrong track, if given that environment, would do better. The idea has stood the test of time and grown well beyond anything I remember Chuck talking about.”

Krause, who has already earned a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees and a doctorate, said he is going back to school to gain skill as a community Spanish interpreter so he can help the migrant worker community in North Carolina, Treahy said.

“Every kid wants to do good. He or she just makes the wrong choices,” said Nellie Jennings, the boxer’s widow. She was accompanied by other family members at Thursday’s event. “Chuck would have just loved this,” she said.

Son Charles Jennings said he was not quite 7 years old when Glove House opened. He has a lot of memories of his mother and father sitting at the dining room table with papers spread all over the place talking about it, he said.

“The greatest way to honor my father aside from this — which I think is wonderful, and we’re delighted to have it — is to continue the wonderful work that’s being done here at Glove House and the innovation and service that’s delivered to the community,” he said.

“We’re very pleased and proud to see that it has been continued and will continue in the future.”

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