THIS NIGHT, ROY JONES LEFT US IN AWE!
San Francisco, CA- We were in Reno, NV, the late Lou Falcigno was the promoter as Greg Haugen was taking on one of the last media darlings from the world of boxing, Ray ?Boom-Boom? Mancini. Being the around the arena interviewer, meaning I was talking on camera with people in different locations, I was jazzed up about being in Reno, ?The Biggest Little City in The World, or if you heard the broadcast from the night before, ?Reno, where men are men, and so are most of the women.?
TOM BROWN HAD HIS CHALKBOARD OUT
We did successive cards two nights in a row, the first promoted by Dan Goossen was so full of chalk you would have thought matchmaker Tom Brown was a school teacher with a blackboard. After that card, where the Goossen stable prevailed sans much difficulty, we were 24 hours later at the Lawlor Events Center, the site of a number of good fights in the late 80s and early 90s.
INTERVIEW WITH DRUNK ACTOR JAMES CAAN
After interviewing an extremely drunk James Caan, he of the Godfather movie fame, and who by the way when I asked him for a prediction on the fight said, ?The world will come to an end in 2013,? Roy Jones Jr. stepped in with a guy I used to spar with a bit in former USBA 154 lb. champ Art Serwano.
1988 OLYMPIC ROBBERY VICTIM WAS STILL GREEN
With less than 15 fights, Roy knocked Art out in such a manner that Serwano?s eyes rolled back in his head, which caused me to believe that the ?Grim Reaper? was in the house and Art was dead. He would awaken shortly thereafter and retire a couple of fights later.
MOST INSECURE BOXING MAN ON TV IN THE HOUSE
Then came the main event, and seven rounds into it and Haugen is slapping Ray silly from bell to bell when the oh-so insecure Al Bernstein said to me on the telecast, ?What?s going to happen now Pedro?? My reply, ?Al, Ray should have listened to me and stayed retired, as he?s about to get knocked out.? Dismissing me like some school child, Mr. Bernstein said, ?Well, Pedro, I don?t know where that?s coming from, but I don?t think Ray?s about to get knocked out.?
RAY IS DRILLED IN NEXT ROUND
Less than two minutes later, Mancini was ?toast? and Haugen was the victor. Making Al look like a clown was something he never forgot, for five months later we were doing the Bobby Czyz-Donny Lalonde fight in Las Vegas and he threatened to walk off the set because I had out-analyzed him regarding a David Sample fight, talking about when a lefty faces an orthodox fighter, that the fighter with his lead foot on the outside essentially has his opponent looking down the barrel of a gun (or his power hand).
AL IS SUCH A GUTLESS PRICK!
After throwing a fit, Lou Falcigno comes to me and says, you can?t over analyze Al, or he will walk out on us and I can?t allow that to happen. From that point forward, I became the Harold Lederman of the broadcast and was only allowed to score the fight and speak ever so briefly between rounds.
FAST FORWARD ONE DECADE FROM 1992
This animosity between Bernstein and I began when San Diego promoter Bobby DePhillipis fired Al?s lazy, unprepared and out of shape ass and replaced him with yours truly. Al sued and got a $2,500 settlement from the San Diego king of pizza. Thirteen years later and we were working together for promoter Tony Holden with ex-referee and then TV star Mills Lane as our broadcast judge on a TV series entitled, ?Let?s Get It On Boxing.?
AL?S NOT ONLY A BITCH, HE?S A SNITCH
Settling into our hotel the day prior to the fight, I had done the weigh in interviews and was kicking back in my room, which was next to insecure Al?s. At that point and time in the late evening, this chick I was with fired up a joint and some incense on the patio outside my room. Low and behold the phone rang, it was promoter Holden calling from his home. ?Al said you?re smoking weed, I don?t give a fuc*, but he?s making a big deal out of it.?
AL CAME OH SO CLOSE TO AN ASS WHIPPING
I wanted to go next door and punch him in that paunch he calls a mid section, but Tony told me to not worry about it, he didn?t care, and besides the chick I was is what really irked Al as I had picked her up at the hotel bar, this after she shot down insecure Al like a dove with a shotgun.
YOU COULD SMELL AL?S FEAR IN THE OKLAHOMA AIR!
After the broadcast, I called Al out over the joint and the broad and told him if he was man, he would have said something to me, and not pulled a bitch-like move in calling the promoter. Knowing I full well had the ability to kick the snot out of him, he mumbled some lame ass apology and went on his way, all the while I was in his face!
THE CBS TV DEAL WAS ALL DONE!
Promoter Holden had been dangling ?Judge Mills Lane,? who had just completed his syndicated TV series run, myself and insecure Al in front of the CBS TV executives who were so impressed with our broadcasts that at this point and time, April 2002, they were preparing contracts for a once a month card. The CBS suits were with us post fight and they seemed thrilled. One week later, Mills Lane had a stroke and our CBS TV deal went up in smoke. This ends the story of myself and the insecure Al Bernstein!
Pedro Fernandez
