TALKIN BOXIN
 June 15, 2003
by Howie Reed

"THERE are times that try men’s souls". Then there are times when’s it’s like pulling teeth to come up with a way to get pumped up for a fight that should be
capturing the worlds spotlight but is barely making
waves. That’s about where I sit on next Saturday
nights Lennox Lewis (40-2-1)-Vitali Klitschko WBC/IBO
Heavyweight Championship fight. Lennox Lewis has done less with the various heavyweight Crown’s he so
proudly wears, and sometimes sells to Don King, than
any fighter in history. He has talked the talk but
more often then not the walk is some kind of a
Imperial Prance. He’s a champion who seems to be
saying, "I don’t like this fighting business but only
do so my loyal subjects you will be happy. I owe it
to my loyal fans." Those are my thoughts based only
on perception. Boxing, for better or worse, has become
perception. The sport has become more political than
the US Senate. Deeds now take a back seat to "words".

The fact does remain that there is a heavyweight championship on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Better yet is that it will be on "somewhat" free TV. HBO at 10PM Eastern and 7PM here on the left coast. With all the machinations that have gone on there’ll be no semi-main, which Jimmy Lennon stared calling special attraction. Get a cigar, a supply of beer and "let her rip Newt".

"So what do you think of Lewis -- klitschko fight" "I
have never been a fan of the klitchko’s they never
seem to show much heart. as a matter of fact I was
never a big Lewis fan. I knew him as an amateur
although he has matured huge as he got older as a
young guy I never questioned his ability but he was a
bit of a chicken "stuff". real tuff fights he would
find ways of being injured or something was not right
anyway all that is in the past and if he was an
American he might have been known as one of the best." The gentleman from Scotland/Canada might be correct about "if he was an American he might have been known as one of the best." Like Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis is one Lucky SOB to be around when the heavyweight division is almost as barren as the Gobi Desert. He’s said to be the "face of the modern heavyweight". Division needs a face lift.

I can’t speak nor would I want to speak for the
typical American. After all I have so little in common
with them as I can read, write and at least most of
the time think with a modicum of logic. That aside
the American sporting public doesn’t take to those
that they perceive as "phony". To many that describes
Lennox Lewis. He fought for Canada in the Olympics yet claims to be English. He claims to be the best fighter on the Planet but loses to Oliver "The Lights Are on But No One’s Home" McCall and Hashim Rahman. For year’s he "whined" about not getting a title shot. Of
course the reason he never got one was he took step
aside money to let someone else go first. (Allow me to
digress for one minute. Saw a headline in the local
fish wrap last week. "Sammy, Put a Cork In Your Whine Bottle…Shut Up") Lewis got his first title when
Riddick Bowe tossed his belt in the rubbish bin in
England. That’s the title Lewis sold to Don King so
Chris Byrd could be a world champion.

American sporting fans only go "over the moon" for
athletics that can actually do something. Before those
three or four readers start jumping on the fact that
Lewis is Black, don’t go there. The two biggest sports
stars in the last 30 years in America are Tiger Woods
and Michael Jordan. Also the charge might be leveled
that "Yanks" don’t like Lewis cause he’s a foreigner.
If you’re good that doesn’t make a great deal of
difference. Greg "The White Shark" Norman was very
popular until the American sporting public found out
what a horse’s ass he really is. No, I would disagree
with the gentleman from the Land where "Men are men
and sheep are nervous ". If Lewis was a Yank I think
he’d still be ignored by the general sporting public.

SO here we have 6-foot-5 inch Lennox Lewis against
6-foot-8 inch Vatali Klitschko. "Two really big guys,"
says Scott LaDoux (33-13-4)of ESPN Tuesday Night
Fights. "This is the fight we’ve been waiting to see".
One can excuse Mr. LaDoux’s excitement as maybe some of his loses in the ring effected his judgment. In
fairness Scott met and lost to some really good
fighters. Like who ? Frank Bruno ( TKO 3) Gerrie
Coetzee ( KO 8),Greg Page ( KO 4) Larry Holmes ( TKO 7) ,Mike Weaver (PTS 12) ,Ron Lyle (PTS 10), Duane Bobick ( KO 8 & PTS 10) and George Foreman (TKO 3). Sure he even had moral victories when he drew with  Ken Norton and Leon Spinks. There’s also a loss to a fighters that was 18-19-2 at the time name "Cookie" that I omitted.

A number of boxing fans were asked for their take on
the fight. From the UK comes the opinion of a great
and knowledgeable fight fan (and the worlds greatest
dart player ever) Mr. John Lowe. Mr. Lowe was a great
fan of Ali he sees Lewis as the "quintessential"
modern heavyweight. Much the way Mr. Lewis sees
himself. "You know me and my pugilistic knowledge,
Lewis to win in 6, the most powerful and dedicated
boxer in the heavyweight division will I feel put on a
show of class, master class that is, he is now
reaching his prime and must show us he is the business before old man time forgets to remind him that soon may be the time to step aside and let the rest fight for the titles, will he? like most boxers he will
probably convince himself he is invincible and pay the
price, at the moment though he is top of the pile and
I see no reason or fighter that can change that in the
imminent future." I very seldom disagree with one of
my idol’s but I must. I would take issue with the use
of the word dedicated. Lewis is defending his title
for the first time in more than a year. He’s doing so
now for "his public". That aside I would pretty much
agree.

Benny "I Keep a Touchdown" Ricardo serves as fight
commentator for CSI, is a radio star (Planet FM) in
San Diego, a great standup comedian, a veteran of the
NFL, has lots of hair, a beautiful wife and played his
college ball at San Diego State. I see no reasons to
like him. "The Chances of someone getting away with a casino heist like they did on the movie Ocean's Eleven is the same chance I give Vitali Klitschko. To me Vitali is a straight up rock em sock robot with a
great body and not much movement. He will not be able to get away from Lennox's right or left hand and will get frustrated more and more as the fight continues. On the other side I have seen Lennox look pathetic against Rahman and so mortal against an aging past his prime fighter in Evandler Holyfield.. If not for Benny Hin curing Evander's heart problem, he would of been out of boxing watching his breath instead he's going 15 rounds with Lewis. Neither one is an example of a great heavyweight, but they are the new wave of the really heavy, heavyweights, men of large stature, but then men of tall stature have never been the greatest of fighters. Leverage is a tremendous problem as is the long arms that have to cock to deliver power.
Lewis by knockout in 7 rounds." By-the-by Benny did
not say "I keep a touchdown". That was Garo Yepremian  of the Miami Dolphins who also was a tie salesman.. But had Benny of said it he could do so in five languages. Over achieving Son-of-a-gun.

Phil Jones is a well know English TV personality.
(That accepts the fact that " English TV personality"
is not an oxymoron.) As a loyal British subject Phil
could be expected to be jumping on the Lewis Band
wagon "For what it is worth....Lewis will win in yet
another fiasco, farce, title devaluing, non-event.
Personally I prefer to watch my grass grow. Enuf said.
They have just starting advertising (every bloody
hour) live coverage of the upcoming Lewis v
Stalin-Hitler 'fight' (word used under advisement) on
SKY Box Office. Cost is about 25 bucks.... Alternatively, at the same time, on another
channel there is a short movie on house decorating,
and gardening, available for the special price of 50
bucks....Local retailers say there has been a sudden
and, as yet, unexplained boom in the sale of all
gardening and decorating products.."

Mr. Jones is a man of few words although when he
writes for a pence a word he becomes more expansive.
Betting pro, AJ of Las Vegas, agrees. "lennox by
decision in a very boring fight....aj said say so."
Good enough for me. One of the inducements I used in
collecting these predications was to promise stardom
as this column goes to all the continents of the
world. Nothing in boxing is official until it’s
reported in Talkin Boxin. "Dear mr Reed, I am already
a star ! And I think that mr Klitschko will get his
ass kicked !!…mr.lord". That would be Stepfan "The
Lord of Sweden" .

Young pro fighter Dave Stewart is pretty good at this
predication deal. " Brief thoughts; Lewis will destroy
Klitschko inside 3 rounds. Like another Michael Grant.
Not saying that just because he's my promoter! (Lion
Promotions).Dave P.S. By the way, I'm now 9-0 as I
beat super journeyman Peter Buckley 2 weeks ago.
Again.." Heck Dave fight him once more and become
10-0. Works for me. J’Mo (aka J’Mo daughter of Archie
Moore) joins the Lewis chorus singing from the Book of
J’Mo. " Get to your seats early, this one won't take
as long as one might think. The plodding style of
Eastern Block fighters will be his down fall. Right
now Lennox Lewis appears to be on the top of his game and he is so much stronger than people actually give him credit for. Lennox will control the first round or
two with his jab peppering him with an occasional
right. Somewhere between rounds 3-5 this fight will
come to a sudden right handed end."

One of my favorite watering holes in the world is the
Silver Dollar on Washington Square in Bangkok. The guy in charge is Ned T Hughes. " Lennox Lewis will come out a little slow with Lewis making a few good tags to the head. Vitali will decide in the 4th round he had better going and do something before those head tags take their toll. That's what Lewis is waiting on. When Vitali moves in Lewis then nails him for the KO 4.".

IS there no one in the wide world that thinks
Klitschko will win? To a person the German nation
thinks he’ll win. Of course they were pretty sure
about World War’s I and II also. "If you took the
German’s an some serious fight fans that either have a dislike of Lewis or home team spirit think Klitachko will get the job done. Some know and even fewer care that "Himself" (I am of course referring to myself in the third
person as all stars do) is a pretty darn good ring
announcer. Besides having the inability to get "gigs"
is the fact that it’s been a long time between those
gigs. My last was December of "Ought 1" in Pattaya
Beach Thailand. The main event that evening featured
Patrick "The FlyingFrog". Flying Frog ? He’s called
that cause besides being a professional fighter he
also skydives. The Frog ? He’s from Belgium which I
really don’t understand as I though Frog’s were from
France. That aside he is a big supporter of Klitschko.
"Hey Howie, Here the Flying Frog, the Lewis-Klitschko
fight has come at last, after a lot of problems
Klitschko has succeed his goal, fighting the King of
Heavyweights Lewis, I hope Lewis takes Klitschko not
to lightly, cause he has a hammer right hand twice as
stronger then Rahman. I go for Klitschko he deserved
it, at last maybe the big mouth of King Lewis will be
closed forever pretending beiing the King of Heavy
weight Boxing which Joe Louis was for me! Patrick, aka Flying Frog." Patrick also runs a great restaurant off the Second Road in Pattaya. Agreeiong with him is "Vaia "Lil Darlin" Zaganas one of the better lady fighters around. "I'm going to predict an upset and go with Klitschko by knockout."

THERE are a lot of things about this fight that are
out of the ordinary. When was the last time you can
remember that an opponent was named 10 days before a
"real" heavyweight fight ? "Yes, never is an
expectable answer." WE also know that there is no
truth to the rumor, which I started and am doing my
best to fan the flames of, that Johnson’s injury could
have been cured with 10,000 more tickets sold. But
that’s just rumor. The promoters wanted to make
Lewis-Klitschko from the start but HBO didn’t want to
part with the fold’en green. Now HBO gets the fight
at a cheaper rate. Smart guys them. But what of
undefeated heavyweight Cedric Boswell who’s left out
in the cold ?

He talked to Boxingtalk.com last week. He is not a
happy camper. "First of all, I feel like I got raped
out of the biggest opportunity of my life, and then
they disrespected me after that because they said they couldn't find nobody. Then they took the co-main event off the card, then they took me completely off the
card, and nobody is really discussing anything with
me. I feel as though Lennox knew I was going to knock
him out, so now Lennox wants to knock him out because he doesn't want to miss his chance. And I really don't feel like I've been treated fairly. I was going to give Vitali more than he could handle and they knew
it, so they went for the for sure money." stated a
pissed off Cedric Boswell. "Not fighting Klitschko is
the most disappointing part of all this, because I
have been training so hard for this fight. And this
bout would have helped me get to the next level as a
boxer. The people didn't get a chance to see me
perform, but they will know what I am all about soon
enough!" Guess "Not a Happy Camper is about right."
He’s right if he can fight at all he would have KO’d
Klitschko and left Lennox out in the rain. "I want
Jones", said lewis. As Pappy use to say, "People in
hell want ice water too."

DOWN memory lane. With special thanks to John Beyrooty now boxing flak but at one time he covered boxing for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Yes he did. The last time a true world heavyweight title fight took place in Los Angeles ( 44 years, 10 months and 13 days ago (as of June 21) for those counting ) roughly 4,940 fight cards have taken place in California. If each show averaged five-plus bouts, that would make it approximately 25,000 fights between the time Floyd
Patterson retained his crown with a 13th-round TKO
over Roy Harris on Aug. 18, 1958, at Wrigley Field,
and Lennox Lewis defends his world heavyweight belts
against Vitali Klitschko on June 21 at STAPLES
Center." Now come back to the way it was.

The way it was in 1958, the last time a true
heavyweight champion of the world defended his title
in Los Angeles: " Dwight Eisenhower was the President of the United States and Richard Nixon was Vice President.. " Norris Poulson was the L.A. Mayor. Who? " William H. Parker was halfway through a tenure in which he would become the longest serving police chief in L.A. City history (1950-1966). The building that house’s the LAPD now is called the Parker Center.  " The city's population was approximately 2,400,000 (it is now more than 3,750,000). In 1958 at least half of them spoke English as a first language and Cinco deMayo took place on Olivera Street.  " Earl Sheib would paint any car for $29.99; four premium whitewall tires went for $100; a half-pound of barbecue chicken or ribs sold for $1.10, gum cost a nickel, I hit 386 at Diablo Valley College and the Kingston Trio were singing about " Scotch and Soda" as I drank it.." The Rams, who sent quarterback Norm Van Brocklin (they kept Ben Wade) to the Eagles during the preseason, dominated the local pro sports scene; USC and UCLA the colleges not univeristies. At UCLA John Wooden was yet to win his first NCAA basketball title.." A ticket to a Rams-Redskins preseason game sold for $3.90 (reserved), $2.50 (general admission). The annual 49er-Rams preseason game drew 103,000 to the LA
Coliseum.

" A Haspel wash 'n wear suit sold for $39.75, a 100
percent silk coat jacket for $29.95, Gaberdine slacks
for $9.95.  " The Dodgers were in the fifth month of their first year in L.A and played at the LA Coliseum. The
following year they would win the National League
Pennant facing the Chicago White Sox’s in the World
Series. I attended games 3-4-5, 21 first birthday
present from my parents. The attendance was over
93,000 per game a record that will never be broken.

" The Angels were still minor-league; there were no
NBA or NHL teams in L.A. The Angeles played in Wrigley Field where the Patterson-Harris fight was held. Roy Harris’s nickname was ‘Cut "N Shoot" for his hometown in Texas.  "The Sports Arena was exactly 11 months away from hosting its first event. Even then there was no parking. " Popular L.A. places to visit included the Coca-Cola Building (1334 S. Central Ave.), Helms Hall (8760 Venice Blvd.) and Holiday Bowl (3730 Crenshaw Ave.)  " The remnants of the Pacific Electric Railway (including the Red Cars) were placed under the control of the newly created Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.  " KTLA introduced the first TV news helicopter in the
nation. The station was owned by Gene Autry. When the American League granted a baseball team to LA, Autry got the franchise. He called the team the Angeles and they played the first year at Dodger Stadium.  "The average price for a gallon of gas was about $.20; it cost around $.50 to go to a movie; a set of five golf irons went for $31.95. Coffee went up to
$2.00 a pound. An enterprising real estate Company
advertised, "A pound of coffee with every home sold."
" Elvis got inducted into the Army " "The Bridge On the River Kwai'' took the Oscar for Best Picture.  " There were no less than four L.A. daily newspapers.
"Bob Hope was 55. How about them apples?
 
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