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Arizona Boxing News & Notes with Don Smith: Rosinsky Returns, Fan Speaks, Iron Boy XVII By Don Smith PhilBoxing.com Fri, 21 Nov 2014 Boxing Fans, New York Super Middleweight William M. Rosinsky aka Will ?Power? Rosinsky spent a little vacation time in Phoenix (visiting his in-laws) recently and the fireman/boxer and former school teacher found time to spar with Top Rank light heavyweight prospect Trevor McCumby (17-0)at Central Boxing Gym in Phoenix. At the end of the session he earned a purple colored welt under his left eye, but when I asked if he was hurt, the youngest of three children smiled and replied ?fighters never admit to being hurt?. Will hasn?t fought in two years due to a NYC fireman work rule that ties his hands until a probation time period is served. The native New Yorker worked as an EMT for the New York Fire Department until he switched to fire fighting. He works 2-24 hour shifts per week and dedicates the rest of his time being a fighter and husband. His 17-2 record is impressive and he has never been knocked out and if you think he has fought all bums think again. His two ring losses were to Edwin Rodriguez and Kelly Pavlik. Rodriguez lost to Andre Ward in 2o013 and Pavlik became the WBO and WBC super-middleweight champion before retiring from boxing.. He admits being knocked down three times: once by Pavlik and he can?t remember the other two times. Rosinsky has won 7 times by knockout. The two year layoff has added 25 unwanted pounds and he promises to shed hem off in a New York month or two, sorry for the pun. Will says the family is aboard his decision to resume fighting and he still loves the sport, but its? nice to have the security of a solid city pension in his portfolio. Will was born in Queens, New York and attended Queens College where the 5? 10? boxer earned a bachelor?s degree in Physical Education. He loves New York and confided in me that he lived in the same house throughout his childhood and early years as an adult. Will?s loyalty to New York is obvious, all but two of his fights took place in New York and he talks about the state as if it is a sovereign nation not a state. Rosinsky was a decorated amateur, winning the New York Golden Gloves four times, as well as the 2005 United States Amateur Championship at light heavyweight. He turned professional in 2008 after deliberating for almost 4 months and doesn?t regret the decision. Boxing is the second love of his life behind love and dedication for his family. Will admitted collecting ring rust during his layoff, but said he felt good after his sparring session with the hard hitting McCumby (17-0 with 13 knockouts) who is in preparation to do battle with Milton Nunez (28-11 with 25 knockouts) on December 20 at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix as part of the Iron Boy/ Top Rank Boxing produced show. After Sparring six rounds with McCumby, Will admitted to being rusty, but said the experience felt good and he was happy to be back boxing. Our conversation was brief because he had to return to his in-laws, say goodbye and catch a red eye flight to New York with his wife. I talked to Keith Connolly his manager who also manages WBA World Middleweight Boxing Champion Daniel Jacobs dubbed the Miracle Man after his well-publicized successful battle with cancer. Connolly told me he is trying to get Will a a February bout in New York and he is very confident a fight in the near future will happen, but nothing has been signed. Will turns 30 on December 28th and if I am a good judge of character; father time and dousing fires won?t deter Rosinsky from his goal of competing for a championship. New Yorkers think bi; safe trip and good luck in both careers. Fight Noise: ?Sugar? Shane Mosley didn?t meet with Arizona Boxing/MMA Executive Director Matthew Valenzuela as reported. It was Jack Mosley, Uncle and promoter with Sugar Shane Mosley Promotions, who visited Phoenix to discuss the possibility of putting on a private MMA Show at the Phoenix Zoo on January 30 2015 as part of what promises to be a busy week of activities leading into Super Bowl week. I called Jack Mosley and left a message seeking more information about the tentative event. My NFL team won?t have to worry about booking a room during Super Bowl week. Ring Noise: After much consternation, promising Arizona light welterweight Luis Olivares is recovering nicely from a hand injury that took him out of ring action for a lengthy span of time. No word on when he can resume sparring, but the latest medical report is bringing smiles to team Olivares. MMA contests in Arizona could outnumber boxing contests held in the Cactus State by a margin of 5-1 in 2015 unless boxing promoters hit the accelerator and speed up the process. According to substantial rumors heard over the internet, Jack of all trades Ralph Velez will become an integral part of reorganizing the now defunct Ben Miranda Boxing Promotions. No word on who will handle PR duties for the promotion company and no firm dates for the reemergence of the once failed operation. Hopefully, the new venture will be guided by personnel that aren?t pictured high up on the post office wall. Draw your own conclusion! On the record, Nathan Hyland is President & CEO of Rage In The Cage. I knighted him Co-CEO in my last column, sorry! Nathan and his MMA crew will present Rage in the Cage style MMA fighting on January 31 at the spacious and comfortable Prescott Valley Event Center: MMA shows are everywhere; check Rage In The Cage website for further details. short term Arizona resident Derek Edwards (27-3-1) will do battle with Andre Dirrell (23-1) in what?s billed as a Super Middleweight title eliminator contest. The two will meet on December 19 in Quebec City, Quebec Canada. Edwards trained at Hard Knocks Gym in Phoenix for a small piece of time and then headed to New Jersey, but promised to return to Hard Knocks Gym and Phoenix; at least that?s what Gym owner Clement Vierra thought. He hasn?t seen Edwards since. I would imagine that if Derek ever needed a character reference, Clement wouldn?t be on his list??A special thank you to Iron Boy Publicist Emily Pandelakis for identifying Ryan O?Hara, James Myhre and Trevor McCumby as the trio who handled the live stream broadcast of Iron Boy 17 on November 15. I wasn?t able to pick up the broadcast, but Trevor told me he was going to use the experience to improve his speech and speaking ability. I told the 22 year old fighter to stay calm on the air and do research on his subjects (fighters) before reaching for the microphone. More Boxing News: Speaking of Publicist Emily Pandelakis, she wrote an essay that covered the gamut of her wanting to become a boxer until she took a career detour and decided to become a publicist and contributing member of the Arizona boxing community. Her detailed personal essay caught the attention of National Public Radio and they asked her to tape a segment which will air in the near future. Good thing about appearing on radio is you don?t have to dress up?.Iron Boy Gym, 4238 South 37th Street in Phoenix, will host the Arizona Silver Gloves Championships on December 6-8. Weigh-In is scheduled for 7-9 AM while the match up process will commence at 9:30 AM. First bout bell will chime at 2 PM, if we?re lucky. Call Mike Sanchez at 480-560-8114 with questions relating to the tournament. Special Salute: Rarely do I comment on fighter?s introduction songs, but I have to give it up to cruiserweights Keith Busch and David Demore for selecting a pair of Rock N Roll classic songs from the 1970?s to usher them into their respective corners when the two Arizona fighters met for a scheduled 4 round battle on the under card of the Iron Boy XVII show at the Cel3ebrity Theater on November 15 in Phoenix. Keith chose the 1971 Hollies classic hit ?Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress? and David entered the ring to the melodic 1977 golden oldie ?Black Betty? by Ram Jam. Unfortunately their bout ended in a technical draw after Demore received an accidental head butt from Mr. Busch. It is refreshing to note that both men refrained from selecting hip hop tunes with the F word and lyrics that could be interpreted as abusive to women. The draw gave Busch a boxing mark of 1-2-1 while Demore remains winless at 0-0-2. A rematch would be a fair way to decide the matter. Iron Boy XVII Recap: Iron Boy Promotions was kind enough to leave a press credential for me to cover their Iron Boy XVII pro/am boxing Show at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix on Saturday November 15. Due to a voluntary pledge to watch to watch a sick friend; I left the theatre after covering the six scheduled amateur bouts on the card. I planned to pick up the balance of the card (8 pro contests) off the live stream, but I never figured out the solution to the process. My ignorance doesn?t stop me from posting the results from the pro bouts; first, my take on the amateur contests. All of the bouts were very competitive except bout # 6 which pitted Alfredo Escarcega versus Antonio Rangel whom, I was told, was making a comeback from an a year layoff and there was a question about his size and weight. A boxing birdie told me that Rangel was ten lbs. lighter at the official weigh-in than the much taller Escarcega who at 6? 1? and 127 lb. should be considered a physical challenge for any amateur in his weight class. One ring observer guesstimated that Escarcega weighed around 135 at fight time while the smaller Rangel probably weighed less than 125 with combat boots, but he accepted the challenge. In retrospect, his corner was wise to halt the bout halfway through the second round. If only he had said no, but pride has its? privilege. The other 5 amateur fights were very entertaining. I winced occasionally when fighters weren?t admonished for rabbit punches and frequent holding, but refereeing amateur fights can be a difficult task. Edward Ceballos and Luis Espinoza were dominant in winning their bouts. Breenan Macias, Alejandro Payan and Luis Castaneda also captured victories. All of the scores were indicative of how close the contests were. Two of the contests were so close that the verdict could have been reversed and the boo birds wouldn?t have chirped too loudly. It was a good night for amateur boxing. I received reports from fans critiquing the professional portion of the program and the majority volunteer surrogate critics agreed that the headline bout between undefeated Victor Castro (13-0) and Robert Rodriguez was a war with Castro winning da split decision verdict. Once upon a time, Rodriguez was a member of famed manager Cameron Dunkin?s team, but fell out of favor and bounced around a bit until he landed with his present team. If Iron Boy is listening, boxing fans want a rematch. Castro was knocked down in the first round, but returned the favor by knocking down Rodriguez in a later round. In bout 7, Emmanuel Nieves (2-0) may have suffered a fracture of his left hand in his four round fight with Edgar Garcia (0-2), but the talented Phoenix fighter was strong enough to win a unanimous decision over Garcia. Nieves was placed on the suspended list due to injury: too bad. Sad to hear Edgar Brito (3-0-1) didn?t fight Manuel David Lopez (3-0) because Lopez was 6 pounds over at the official weigh-in; therefore neither man got a paycheck and how much would you bet that Lopez isn?t on Brito?s Christmas Card list. Here are the results of the other bouts: Emilio Garcia 8-1 was awarded a unanimous verdict over Juan Benavidez (4-5-1) in a 6 round bout. Garcia was placed on a 30 suspension for a cut (left eye) he suffered during the contest. In bout 1, Brian Riddell (2-1-1) defeated Aron Moreno (0-1). Carlos Castro (7-0) defeated John Herrera (4-9-2) in bout 8. Jair Quintero (1-2-1) upset Julio Sarinana (3-1-1) from Phoenix in a 4 round matchup. Brian Mendoza (3-0) continued his winning way with a decision over Lazaro Dominguez. The verdict was unanimous but Mendoza got rocked in the last round. The next Iron Boy show is in collaboration with Top Rank Boxing and the Celebrity Theater date is set for December 20 with a very interested card. Be sure and check out the Iron Boy website for tickets and other details. Trevor McCumby, Andy Ruiz Jr., Francisco C. De Vaca, Erick De Leon and Edgar Brito are expected to fight on the card. The attendance for Iron Boy XVII is unknown to me, but a friend reported it was near capacity. Fan Speaks: I asked super boxing fan Geoff Ronning to take time to jot down a few boxing wishes for 2015 and the big guy obliged me and filled my column stocking with the following boxing wishes for 2015. I couldn?t use the entire list due to length, but here (in my opinion) is the best from Geoff: (1) Schedule Cotto vs. Canelo (2) less of Floyd Mayweather (3) I want to get a picture and meet Mike Tyson (4) Find out if Deontay Wilder can be competitive with a top ranked opponent. (5) See Riddick Bowe inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame (6) Uncover the next Gatti vs. Ward like boxing rivalry. (7) Rematch Danny Garcia vs. Maricio Herrera; in a neutral venue. (8) Find top competition that will accept a fight with Gennady Golovkin. (9) Have Showtime put on more competitive fights. (10) See Phoenix continue to flourish as a boxing town. Thank you Geoff and your check isn?t in the mail! On The Mend: Michael Preston Green, Member of the Arizona Boxing Commission underwent heart surgery recently and I am happy to announce that he is doing well and back to work. Mr. Green was kind enough to answer questions submitted by me in a recent column and I wish him da speedy and healthy recovery. I look forward to seeing him at the commission meeting on December 8. We have to be careful with the heart. Goodwill Gesture: Good to hear Oscar De La Hoya, Founder and President of Golden Boy Promotions, and a group of his fighters passed out free Holiday Turkeys to members of the East Los Angeles Community on November 22. I hope everyone will follow his example and give to those who need a helping hand and please, don?t wait for the holiday season to help your neighbor in need. Salas Story: While I was hanging out at the Central Boxing Gym waiting for Will Rosinsky and Trevor McCumby to lace up their gloves and start their sparring session, I was introduced to 21 year old Julio Salas, a graduate of Central High School and a car salesman who told me a story worth repeating over and over. Julio told me boxing has changed his life. Almost a year ago, Julio weighed 338 pounds and he wasn?t thrilled with the appearance of his body so he took up boxing at Busted Knuckle Boxing Gym and now Julio Salas tips the scale at a much lighter 225 and he is ready to make his boxing debut next year in an amateur tournament after shedding some more pounds. I hope he remembers to go easy on the Pumpkin pie and whipped cream during the holidays. The kid is beaming with confidence as evidenced by his own personalized pair of boxing gloves and radiant smile. Congratulations, Julio Salas and good luck. I took the liberty to call a couple of local television stations to see if they might be interested in doing a story on Julio dand his dad who is very supportive of his son. Until Next Time Click here to view a list of other articles written by Don Smith.  |
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