TALKIN BOXIN 
by Howie Reed 
June 8, 2003

TALKIN BOXIN June 8, 2003 by Howie Reed

TOO any who view themselves as sports writers are
short on ability, knowledge and skill. Hemingway could
transform the reader from where ever he was to a bull
ring in Spain, drinking sangre and yelling "Ole’"
while planning his next move on assorted Seniority's.
Jim Murray could set a scene to tell a story better
than any sports writer in history. Red Smith and
Grant land Rice wrote the book. The first thing anyone
that wants to write should learn is their limitations.
If they don’t learn them their enemy’s will be more
than glad to provide the information/ Friends never
say a word. If you can’t write, "The azure sky
waffled overhead as the waves used the virgin like
white sand as a kettle drum in the 1812 Overture.
Memories of stolen moments floated through a half
conscience mind when our eyes met again for the first
time. The world had stropped and the universe was oursbas our loins entwined in the never ending struggle for dominance."

There are times in boxing when one needs a Danielle
Steele mentality to describe an event. Gatti-Ward III
was one of those events. The brutality practiced
over ten grueling was matched only by the bravery of
the two combatants. One, Gatti with a hand broken in
the third round, survived a knockdown to win a
decision that may have been unanimous but it wasn’t
easy. Irish Mickey Ward was in his final contest of a
20 years career. His next fight would be with a
steamroller on the streets of Lowell Mass. Wards
announcement prior to the fight that he was retiring
but unlike some he meant after not before. His
gallant effort didn’t go unnoticed.. In an age where
many try to do as little as possible to get by here
were two fighters that did their utmost in a battle
bigger than life. IT was on the Boardwalk of Atlantic
City in a Hall that use to stage the Ms. American
Pageant. There was no Bert Parks singing "There She
is, Ms. America.", no celebrity judges just a packed
house on their feet at the end saluting two beauties
that would put Ms. America to shame.

And finally, you’ll love this "prostrating one self
at the alter Gary Shaw. " Usually it’s Don King that
puts on a fight extravaganza so rich in talent that
you could make two-pay-per-views from the undercard
alone but this time around it is Gary Shaw and Lion
Promotions that has the mega-fight thrill-a-minute
lineup that promises to be worth every penny and then
some. If you go to this fight, don’t leave your seat
for long because you will miss some action." I should
have warned those with diabetes to read the above with
care as an over dose of sugar could be fatal. As the
Valley Girls of old like to say, "Gag me with a
spoon."

Between HBO fights on Saturday night the name of
Vitali Klitschko surfaced as a replacement. He is the
number one challenger and is available. Would this
turn the event in a "A super" event. No ? Lennox would
knock the Russian/German/Beverly Hills fraud
"catywhamous". One rumor is that the Staples Center
in LA was looking at a way out of the fight due to
poor ticket sales. Maybe. Lennox Lewis and his team
were to meet in Atlantic City Saturday night to decide
what to do. No announcement at press time.

LAST week when I dared to venture into the business of boxing, Athletic and Boxing Commissions there were some that e-mailed to provide further information. For instances? In the case of Nevada the budget for the Commission is $305,00 per year. Through their various regulations they take in $2,100,000 for the state.  Even a public school kid from East Oakland knows that’s about $ 1,800,000 profit for the state. With that fact in mind it’s obscene for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to require MRI testing without paying for the tests. The voter will come next Tuesday and will probably be 3-2. The State of Nevada has no problems pouring money down various ratholes but won’t invest is something that might actually do some good.  Just call Nevada, California light.

One of the obviously grotesque aspects of the sport
of boxing is in no other sports do you find political
hacks, usually with no knowledge, judging the work of
professionals. I would love to follow Commission
members around to comment on the way they do their
jobs. If I placed my soup coolers on enough backsides
maybe I could get appointed to the State Medical
Commission. Then after a doctor operates or sees a
patient I could critique his or her performance in
front of the patient. If the patient lived. If not
then I’d just march up to the front of the assembled
at the funeral to deliver my assessment of the doctors
work. .I would have three qualification. One I was
appointed, Two I am a fan. Three I stayed at a Holiday
Inn.

One of the e-mail I received was from a veteran boxing
official. The individual was answering a fellow
official who after reading this column was
commiserating about common problems. " I was also
approached one night for something different but just
as ignorant.. What they did to me just attests to the
fact that they want to be in charge and exercise their
authority and really don't know. The present
commissioners (they change of course with each new
governor) instituted a new thing one night in which
they were going to evaluate each referee's work in
each of the bouts. Well, after one of the bouts I
worked on that initial night of evaluation, one of the
commissioners came to me with a filled out evaluation
form and asked me to sign it. I questioned what it was
and after telling me of this new program he said "It's
OK you did a good job, just sign it". To which I told
him........"No! Wait a minute....lets suppose I did
something wrong. To began with that would only be an
assumption on your part that might be considered
because the crowd was booing for something that didn't appeal to them. Or if there was something to be
corrected.........who would do the correcting.....to
criticize is one thing but if you do you have to be
constructively critical...and none of you are
qualified to do that" This official that wrote that
has been sent to the "sin bin" by his Commission. A
world class official now works four rounder’s if he
works at all.

Let’s take this a little farther. The good competent
referee’s, I exclude Nevada here as their stable is
pretty darn good, are sitting on the sidelines while
someone’s brother in law is given a big fight for
which neither talent or experience qualifies him. (In
Texas it’s the head of the commissions son. ) A
fighter dies in the ring. The fighters family gets a
shyster lawyer (like there’s another kind) and sues
the referee, the commission and the state. They sue
because an incompetent person was named to referee
which caused the death of their "beloved" family
member. Not only would the suit probably be won but it
would end the sport as liability insurance would go
through the roof. So next time someone wants to blame "promoters" for screwing up the boxing cast a vote for "the know nothing political hacks" that run the sport.
 
AT LEAST one promoter has waved the white flag of
surrender. Two days day shy of mid week , that would
be Monday for those that attended E. Morris Cox
Eliminatory School on the hard streets of East Oakland (and no I have no idea who E. Morris Cox was. I do know that we pronounced it as one word), Gary Shaw bid farewell to "Low priced boxing shows" in the State of Nevada. Shaw canceled four scheduled shows in Laughlin. (About 90 miles from Las Vegas on the Colorado River named for it’s founder Don Laughlin who can still be seen at his Riverside Hotel/Casino. A
real man ! How do I know ? Cause he’s fly’s his on
helicopter at 80 years old while his wife and mistress
reside on the same floor of his hotel. Talk about
brave.) Shaw is quoted as saying he was doing the
shows "pro bono" as a way of giving something back to
boxing. ""I believe I am the single biggest proponent
of making sure we care about the health, safety and
welfare of our boxers," Shaw said as quoted by Reviews Journals Kevin Iole. . "I'm probably the only promoter who uses those words when talking about boxers. But all I said is that this is being done too quickly without looking at the funding. It's not going to
affect me, because I do the big shows. But this is
going to kill the smaller shows. It won't be long
before you won't see any club shows in Nevada because of this."

While someone obviously wrote out Mr. Shaw’s comments and they are a bit serf serving the fact remains that he’s 100% correct. The Arum’s and King couldn’t give a rodents rear about who pays for testing. They’ll just add the cost on to HBO, Showtime or some stupid Casino. In the words of an old friend ( at this age I don’t have a lot of young friends) "They’d kiss a Granny if the money was right." (Remember the time
when you though if you kissed a wrinkled person your
face would get wrinkles ? I do. Doesn’t bother me now
as I would be the one doing the giving. Also had this
though while food shopping. Saw the cutest baby with a "three bagger’ mother". One for her, one for you and
one for your dog. You’d hate to scare a dog. If all
baby’s are cute, and they are, where do ugly people
come from? Got it figured out. You get They get ugly
people when baby’s look at them. . So when you baby’s young only let them look a good looking people.)

The "commissions" has said that they understand the
situation. Which for those with their heads where the
sun don’t shine means, "I feel your pain" which was a
tern used by another all time liar. Right and he
didn’t care either. Although in this case the
Commission is handcuffed (as some of them maybe should be) by a state government that eats money like a glutton does 99 cent Whoppers. (Which are gone for the year. Bummer.) One solution proposed was to seek  donations from "someone" to pay for the tests. "yea right.("Let’s put on a play and save the school".) "
Commissioner Dr. Flip Homansky said one solution to
containing costs would be to schedule fewer bouts per
card." Great call Flip. The idea is to get as many
fighters fighting as possible and to provide the fan
with the most bang for the buck. Guess we know where his head is. At least one commissioner, Dr. Tony Alamo, asked Shaw, if he felt the test would be
worthwhile if one fighter was saved." What a stupid
question. That’s a "when did you stop beating your
"significant other" question." (Please notice that I
used the term "Significant other" to allow non gender
declared to enter into the beating game. Like FOX
News I’m always fair and balanced.) I would ask if
it’s so important and the State of Nevada is suppose
to look out for it’s citizens then why can’t they pay
for the tests ? One last comment. The State is in a
budget crisis. Why ? Cause the greedy bastards in
Carson City spend too dam much on "Horsedoodle"
projects.

The nonsense that has come out of the Nevada
Commission from some members and those associated with it caused the classy Chairman Luther Mack to send a memorandum to "All Nevada Athletic Commission members, Staff and Officials." IT arrived on Friday but not in time to stop Commissioners Flip and Tony Alamo jr. from speaking for the record to R-J columnist Royce Feour. .The subject of the Memo is "Speaking and Writing on Matters Involving Boxing and Other Forms of Unarmed Combat". After the usual "you are the best"  Dr. Mack cuts to the chase. "I request that you please let me know in advance if you are planning to speak by furnishing me with an outline or summery of your proposed speech. Likewise, if you are submitting an article about of the sports we regulate, please furnish me with an advanced copy for my information."


In Reed speak it’s "Shut to ***K Up." You are not the
Chairman of the Commission nor are you the spokesman for the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Some of you have your own agenda which is meant to further you and not the Commission. From now on your answers’ will be "I don’t know" or " Let me check on that." Good for Dr. Mack. He was firm and fair before Referee Joe Cortez stole the line from Judge Judy.

BOY sports and boxing fans talk about one of them
"cloister make love not war deals". We’ve got one
live and going on. Here’s the deal, he typed not being
smart enough to figure out how to get into this bit of
news. Mohamad Abdulaev, know known as Mo for this
story, was the 2000 Olympic champion. He signed out of the Olympics with Aussie Promoter Vlad Warton. After signing he came to Las Vegas and trained under Kenny "The King" Adams. At 11-0 Mo was on his way to stardom. This was especially true when Kostya Tzysu announce, also under promoter Warten, he was going to move up in weigh. Along came Lou DiBella with an offer that Abdulaev couldn’t turn down. It was a reported $250,000 signing bonus and a minimum of $50,000 per fight. IN addition Mo would replace Ricardo Williams on last Tuesday’s initial edition of Tuesday night fights.

Mr. Williams, coming off a loss, had the key to the
executive washroom taken away by DiBella. As in, "Bye now. Nice to know you. Write if you get work. Don’t call us (promoters always talk in the third person) we’ll call you." Tuesday night Fights with Abdulaev undefeated facing Emmanuel Clottey (now 20-5), who had been sparing with Micky Ward., a new contract everything was the best. Whoops. After winning the first nine rounds, big deal two judges had is 89-82 but that’s close to winning all 9, at the 2 minute mark of the 10 Abdulaev caught a couple of punches.    One of which opened a small cut in the corner of his  left eye and the other knocked him into the ropes. The referee stepped in as Mo looked to his corner for instruction from Trainer Kenny Adams. "Take a knee".  Which he did. Problem was he lost count, didn’t understand "8-9-10" or was discombobulated. Maybe all three. The result was that he went from 11-0 to 11-1.

Brief time out here before I do the Paul Harvey and
the "rest of the story." The announcer chirped about
the "stunning upset". Time flipping out. Mo wasn’t
KO’d, Mo wasn’t hurt nor was Mo beaten. He won the
fight. Period end. He doesn’t get the ‘W" and doesn’t
deserve it. That aside the Lose will mean nothing.
Nada, Zero. Zip. Nada. Like the Roy Jones "L". In the
end it don’t mean squat. Now for the rest of the
story. According to a story in the Boston Globe by Ron
Borgus, once the new contract for Mohammad had been agreed upon his manager disappeared. He turned into nothing. Gone. Lou DiBella "frantically" tried to find
the wayward manager thinking he had a deal. Lou’s
phone calls may have been such, "$%^$#UP *&^%#$% *&&^%^&% IT". DiBella does have a way with words. Unable to find Abdulaev’s manager he explained the situation, cut his purse and the fight went on.  Another version comes from Terry Price of the Hartford Courant. "Abdullaev was almost signed by DiBella Entertainment on Tuesday, but DiBella said he felt hewas getting squeezed and backed off the deal at the last minute. "I guess there is a God," DiBella said.." What he probably said was "I guess there is a $%^%$ God". Who do I believe? Mr. Price. Believe the Boston Globe? When pigs fly.

Audley Harrison may prove to be a pretty good
Prophet. Prior to his last fight at York Hall (That
would be the York Hall in Bernal Green) he said, "It
will be a good fight whilst it lasts- Mathew Ellis was
a top amateur and just missed a place on the 1996
Olympics and has shown promise in the professional
ranks. He needs to walk the talk and I am sure he will
put up a brave performance but I am extremely
confident Audley Harrison (Don’t you just love people
that talk about themselves in the third person ? )
will still be unbeaten and 110- Saturday night (London
Time)." Harrision was spot on.. Ellis (18-3) put up
such a good effort he won the 1st.

Round 2 would prove to be Ellis’s Waterloo. The place
not the train station. At the 30 second mark " a
crisp uppercut and left hook" dropped Ellis to the
canvas . After a partial standing 8, Harrision landed
a " excellent left hook " to drop Ellis once again.
Referee Terry O’Connor waved the fight to an end after
another left hook put Ellis down once more. After the
fight things really got interesting. Harrision (11-0)
took the mike to ask, "Who do you want me to fight
next ? Bruno or Hide ?" Bruno long a favorite of
British boxing fans won the ringside straw pool with
the fans who chanted Bruno’s name. When Hide’s name was mentioned the crowd responded with a loud chorus of Boo’s.. Hide was ringside. One source wrote, "ugly scenes ensued when former WBO Champion Herbie Huide became involved in a heated discussion at ringside.  During the scuffle a female fan was knocked to the ground . Hide was rushed by supporters of Harrison. No one was seriously injured but the British Boxing Board of Control promised to carry out a full inquiry to the fights post-match events and the fracas that ensured."


To get another view Talkin Boxin went to UK TV
Personality and Boxing Guru Phil Jones of the Welsh
Jones’s. No, I will not mentioned that the USA beat
the Welsh in a full International game of "footie".
Here’s Phil’s take on the "event" at the old York
Hall. " I did hear about the Fraudley Harrison,
Herbie Hide thingy..handbags at 10 paces....probably a
publicity stunt to try and get more than 10 people who
really care about the fight ever taking place for
real....Word on the grapevine is that Fraudley's
management team are lining up the following fights for
him.....Herbie Hide, Frank Bruno, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney with Fraudly admitting he would eventually like a crack at Jack Johnson's world title..cos the world dont need a darkie as a world champ." How about them apples?

AND finally. Kenny Mayne was the QB of the UNLV
football team many years ago. From there he ended up
at ESPN. He was the first of the "wise ass"
sportscasters that seem to be everywhere today. As the first he is by far the best. This year for the first
time Mayne (who grew up in Seattle around now gone
Longacres Race Track). teamed with Randy Moss doing Horse Racing On Saturday he did 3 hour’s as the lead up to the Belmont. No Triple Crown story would be complete without a in depth look at Funny Cide as he prepared for the third leg of the Triple Crown. Mayne began the video look with, "Now let’s take a look at Funny Cide. Besides being castrated he’s had a pretty good life so far." Yea me too. I’ll drink to that.

(Opinions and editorials of HotBoxingNews.com is the opinion of those writers and may not be the opinion of HotBoxingNews.com)

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