Part Two of a multi-part series
THESE BARNEYS ARE DINOSAURS TOO

In the May 15 edition of the Philadelphia Daily News’ website, the sports editors heralded the latest wins their writers scored in the “Barney Awards,” a writing “competition” administered by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Highlighted were stories by the likes of Mark Kram (Feature under 1500 words), Bernard Fernandez (News story), and Stan Hochman (Column), with a link to each of the stories as they appeared on the website.

On the surface, it would seem a sterling accomplishment on the part of the Daily News. That is until one discovers, upon closer examination, that in a roundabout way, the whole thing, from A to Z, was more like a contrivance; an exercise in self-aggrandizement.

Well, sort of. We’ll get back to that.

The Barney Awards are named for Barney Nagler, the longtime sports writer for the Daily Racing Form, New York Morning Telegraph and others, who served as president of the BWAA from 1984 to 1989, and was given the Nat Fleischer Award for “Excellence in Boxing Journalism” in 1972. Nagler, an accomplished wordsmith and, from what I hear, a very straight guy, passed away in 1990. Unfortunately, the way the awards named for him have been handled, it might have him turning in his grave.

Get the rest at Boxing Insider

Part One of a multi-part series
SOMEONE HAS TO MIND THE STORE

Covering the sport of boxing is not like covering most of the other sports, certainly not the team sports. There is no “league” per se to enforce uniform standards, regulate transactions, or unify the vendors (i.e., the promoters) into one powerful entity for the purpose of negotiating television rights. The employees (i.e., the fighters) are not salaried, and are not part of any substantive union to speak of.

Things are scattered, as they might indeed be with something that is freelance in nature. Most of the transactions fall well under the radar, unlike the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, etc. Aside from maybe 8-10 state and tribal commissions, regulation is inadequate, incompetent and in some cases, irrelevant. Self-regulation, as in the aforementioned team sports, golf, tennis, bowling, etc. doesn’t work all that well, because no one seems to believe there is a common interest, and besides, none of the “players” trusts the others. And there are virtually no barriers to entry.

Get the rest at Boxing Insider

For what it’s worth, here are some workout quotes from Sultan Ibragimov in preparation for his fight against Shannon Briggs on Saturday:

“Liakhovich was scared when he fought Briggs. When I get in the ring on Saturday night, it will be to fight. Briggs talks too much and I don’t like that. If people ask me questions, I will answer them. I don’t like to talk about other people, like Briggs. But I like to talk about fighting. Briggs, he likes to listen to himself and he can’t help himself, but he won’t have much to talk about after the fight.”

Once we get in the ring, I will try anything to win the fight. If I have to knock him out to do it - that is fine. I will try to knock him out if I have the chance, or I will take the decision. I am I great shape and prepared for a good fight.”

And here’s the word from Ibragimov’s trainer, Roger Mayweather…

“That was a good shot Sultan hit me with. Luckily he didn’t hit me with his best shot, and I slipped it. Briggs won’t be slipping it on Saturday night.”

“I came into this camp for two reasons. I needed to get Sultan locked in on “D” and to teach him head movement. Power and speed he already had, but he is a small heavyweight and for that he needs to have a different mindset than ‘I’ll knock you out or you’ll knock me out.”

Following the unforgettable mixed martial arts events in Vancouver, Canada and St. Petersburg, Russia, Bodog Fight is pleased to announce its American debut.

On Saturday, July 14th, Bodog Fighters will become “Garden State” warriors when they visit the Sovereign Bank Arena on the shores of the Delaware River in Trenton, New Jersey for Bodog Fight: Eddie Alvarez vs.
Matt Lee.

After losing his Bodog Fight welterweight championship belt last April to Nick “The Goat” Thompson in Russia, Philadelphia’s Eddie Alvarez (9-1) is looking to get back to his winning ways. The explosive striker will face Boston’s Matt Lee (9-5-1) at this special event, which is scheduled to air in more than 90 million U.S. homes on ION Television at a later date.

After winning a decision over Alvarez’s Fight Factory trainer, Stephen Haigh, last year, Lee is confident he can overcome Haigh’s disciple. “I beat the teacher, now I’m going to beat up on the student,” warns the
Team Elite fighter.

Of course, Alvarez has other ideas.

“This fight is going to accomplish three things on my list,” declares Eddie. “First, I’m going to even the score on behalf of my coach. Second, I’m going to put on a show for all my fans up from Philly. Last, but not least, beating Matt is going to put me a step closer to winning back my championship belt.”

Alvarez and Lee are not the only ones looking forward to their fight. “I expect these two will provide us with some fireworks, which will be a great way to mark our first ever American event,” says Bodog Entertainment Founder Calvin Ayre.

Also featured will be a middleweight title fight between rising star Trevor Prangley and MMA legend Yuki Kondo.

Fighting out of Niigata, Japan, Kondo (46-19-6) has faced a who’s who of the sport, including Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Phil Baroni, Josh Barnett, and Dan Henderson. Now, the 31-year-old Pancrase veteran is
confident he can whip Prangley.

“Trevor is tough, but I’ve fought some of the best fighters in the world and I believe my experience will serve me well for this fight,” warned Kondo.

34-year-old Prangley is a native of South Africa who now trains at the Lion’s Den in Idaho. He has a pro record of 14-4 with notable wins over Travis Lutter and Kyacey “Ice Cold” Uscola. He also earned his second
unanimous decision over hard-hitting Andrei Semenov in Vancouver at Bodog Fight: USA vs. Russia, and is scheduled to appear on an upcoming episode of the television series Bodog Fight: Costa Rica Combat.

“I’m in fantastic shape, and I’m looking forward to putting on a show for the fans in New Jersey,” declared Prangley. “It’s every fighter’s goal to win a title belt and I won’t let Yuki Kondo stand in my way.”

A second title fight is also on the card, as New York’s Laura D’Auguste crosses the Hudson River for a shot at the Bodog Fight women’s 135-pound championship belt. She will face a hostile crowd, however, as she
squares off against New Jersey’s own Tara LaRosa.

“It’s going to be a huge thrill fighting for the title in front of my home fans, and I look forward to hearing them cheer when my arm is raised after the fight,” said a confident LaRosa.

Other bouts include:

Yves Edwards vs. Jorge Masvidal
Chael Sonnen vs. Amar Suloev
Yoshiki Takahashi vs. Josh Curran
Roman Zentsov vs. Mark Burch
Nick Agallar vs. TBA
David Love vs. Brad Pickett

For more information, visit www.BodogFight.com.

Roy Jones Jr. fights Anthony Hanshaw July 14 in Biloxi on a pay-per-view card. The two fighters recently had a press conference at Madison Square Garden and according to the press release, there didn’t seem to be too many quotes worthy of making it to the subsequent press release. Hanshaw did at least mention that Floyd Mayweather Sr. was going to be his trainer. This is what they provided:

JONES: “I love to do what I do and I am back to doing what I do. No one can dictate to me because, when I go in that ring, it is my life that is on the line. I take my hat off to Anthony Hanshaw. I can’t wait for July 14. I wanted a challenge. Why would I want to fight someone who is not a threat? I’m not here to fool myself. He is young, up and coming and he is hungry.”

HANSHAW: “July 14. That is my time. Roy Jones had his time. But, on July 14, that is my time to shine. Starting from today, my trainer is Floyd Mayweather Sr.”

Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Chicago’s 8 Count Productions are teaming up again for an outstanding evening of world class professional boxing on Friday, June 1st at Cicero Stadium, featuring some of the sports finest prospects and future world champions.

Said De La Hoya about the eight bout TEST OF COURAGE card, “Golden Boy Promotions always looks forward to bringing quality fights to Chicago because it is home to some of the best boxing fans in the world.”

The ten round main event of TEST OF COURAGE features Mexican welterweight prospect Freddy Hernandez, 21-1 (17KO’s) against the perennially world ranked Ben Tackie, 29-6-1 (17KO’s) of Accra, Ghana, now fighting out of the Bronx, New York.

The co-main event has highly regarded Puerto Rican super featherweight prospect Daniel Jimenez, 16-1-1 (10KO’s) against former world title challenger Angel Chacon, 30-7-2 (15KO’s).

Said Pesoli, President of 8 Count Productions, “Working with Golden Boy Promotions, we’ve put together a fantastic event for our fans. This is truly a chance for Chicago fight fans to see some terrific prospects, perhaps even future world champions in great fights.

A couple of our newer kids, Ivan Popoca and Victor Polyakov have really impressed our fans and we’re looking forward to great performances from both of them on June 1st. With eight bouts and 52 scheduled rounds of boxing, we’re set for an outstanding evening.”

TEST OF COURAGE is presented by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions, HOME OF THE BEST IN CHICAGO BOXING along with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and TCF Bank.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, or those who insist that boxing is the most brutal of sports, I would highly recommend you go to the “On Demand” section of your digital cable package (what, doesn’t everybody have one?) and pull up the latest edition of “Real Sports” on HBO. One of the segments involves head injuries in the NFL and the after-effects, many of which are seen years after a player’s retirement. It was revealed in this report that half of all players who sustain concussions in the NFL go back into the SAME GAME. Yet, the NFL doesn’t really consider it much of a health issue. A former Harvard football player and WWE wrestler named Christopher Nowinski is undertaking to spread the message that this is a major concern that the league needs to address promptly. From my perspective, I’d like to use it as an example of how much better the sport of boxing handles concussions than a seemingly more “socially acceptable” sport.

The story below was written by me way back in 1999, and I used it again in Operation Cleanup 2. It serves as evidence that in the intervening eight years, nothing much has happened.

NFL SHOULD KNOW WHEN TO CALL IT A TKO
By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com
Special to NFLTalk.com
November 11, 1999

Back in 1982, within a couple of days of each other, Deu-Koo Kim had died at the hands of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, and Alexis Arguello had taken a horrific 14th-round beating from Aaron Pryor. In the ensuing days, there was a great deal of deliberation as to how far to go in letting a fighter take punishing blows to the head, and the boxing world scrambled for answers.

Read the rest of this entry »

KING ARTHUR READY TO RETURN TO RING, HOMETOWN

IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham is thrilled to finally return to action on Saturday night when he takes on Sebastien Demers in his hometown of Bamberg, Germany. The unbeaten 27-year-old has been out of the ring ever since his legendary battle with Edison Miranda who dropped a unanimous points verdict even though Abraham had his jaw broken twice. King Arthur (22-0, 17 KOs) is confident that neither the injury nor the two titanium plates inside his jaw will hinder him in the ring. “I am back in great shape,” he said. “I´ve been training for five months now and can´t wait to fight again. Demers probably hopes that the jaw will bother me. First of all, I have already forgotten that it was broken, and secondly, he won´t even hit me.”

It will be a special homecoming for the IBF champion who grew up in Bamberg. “The support of my hometown fans will give me another boost,” he stated. “I want to show them my talent. I won´t disappoint them.”

Abraham´s coach Ulli Wegner has been full of praise for his fighter. “He is in the best shape of his life,” said the 65-year-old. “I have never seen him box so well in practice. But he has to be on alert because Demers is a strong opponent.”

The Canadian (20-0, 9 KOs) hopes to make the most out of his title shot. “I haven´t come all the long way from Canada to lose,” he stated. “I know Abraham is a good champion. But I have worked hard and prepared well. It will be a tough and difficult fight.”

On the undercard, Marco “Captain” Huck and Vadim Tokarev will battle out an IBF cruiserweight eliminator. “This is my ticket to a world title fight,” unbeaten Huck (18-0, 14 KOs) vowed. “I have been dreaming about being a world champion all my life. That´s why I will beat him. No matter how strong he is on Saturday night, I will defeat him.”

35-year-old Tokarev, unbeaten in 24 fights, remained tight-lipped during the press conference. “My only thought is to win,” he stated.

Also in action will be 2004 Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Povetkin (11-0, 9 KOs), who takes on Canada´s Patrice L´Heureux (20-3, 12 KOs).

Watching the middleweight championship fight between Jermain Taylor and Cory Spinks this past weekend, I was struck by some of the commentary about the style and tactics the left-handed Spinks was employing to keep his distance from the middleweight champ and avoid being hit with the big shot. Former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis and, I think, Jim Lampley were remarking that Spinks was moving to his right in the bout and thus was avoiding “Taylor’s power” in the right hand. Well, Spinks was actually doing a pretty good job, at least for a while, in moving in both directions, which served to confuse Taylor, and which adding to his effectiveness, not on the offensive end, mind you (since he really had no offense), but defensively. But that’s another story.

The commentators were reflecting what has always been the conventional wisdom in boxing, which is that whenever a right-handed fighter faces a southpaw, it is the straight right hand that is the most effective and dangerous weapon to throw, and therefore, moving away from that punch (which means, in this case, to the right) is the best way for the southpaw to go.

I would beg to differ. If the orthodox fighter has any kind of an educated left hook, it can afford him the ability to control a fight when encountering a southpaw. Therefore, the lefty would be moving into a potential power zone when going to his right. The left hook has a shorter distance to land, and furthermore, it can land from the blind side more readily than the straight right hand. And if the right-hander has a reach advantage, there’s a real shot he can counter the right jab with a left hook and do so effectively.

It is more of a natural move for a southpaw to move to his right when an opponent advances to punch. Therefore, that does indeed present the opportunity for the savvy righty to uncork a good left hook, whether it is to the head or to the body. Unfortunately for Taylor, he is, as Larry Merchant pointed out, a “work in progress,” so he wasn’t able to catch on to that quickly enough, if at all, and so we didn’t get the stoppage victory that might have had writers talking positively about Taylor’s performance.

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If you happen to be in the Tampa Bay area tomorrow……….

FORMER CHAMPION ANTONIO TARVER OPEN MEDIA WORKOUT

In Tampa, Friday, May 25, At 1:30 p.m. ET

At Extreme Fitness, Tampa, Florida

WHO: Former Undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion Antonio “Magic Man’’ Tarver

WHAT: Tarver will participate in an open media workout as he continues to prepare for his upcoming big fight against Elvir Muriqi on Saturday, June 9, at The Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn. Tarver (24-4, 18 KOs) will face Elvir Muriqi (34-3, 21 KOs) for the vacant IBO World Championship. In another world title fight, Chad Dawson (23-0, 15 KOs) makes the first defense of his WBC crown against Jesus Ruiz (19-4, 17 KOs)

The media day will last two-and-a-half hours and will include photo opportunities, a question and answer session and the opportunity for one-on-one interviews. Lunch will be provided.

Tickets for the exciting June 9 event promoted by Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing are priced at $35, $50, $100, $200 and $500. They are on sale at TicketMaster outlets by calling (860) 525-4500 and at TicketMaster.com. They also may be purchased at The Connecticut Convention Center by calling (860) 249-6000.

WHERE: Extreme Fitness — 936 South Howard Ave. — Tampa, Fla., 33606
WHEN: Friday, May 25, 2007 — 1:30 -4 p.m. ET
CONTACT: Gary Lewis (813) 299-8656