ANALYSIS/OPINION:
When Fred Sternburg began working for Charlie Brotman?s public relations firm, he got a taste of the boxing world when he helped out with the publicity for Sugar Ray Leonard?s historic bout against Marvin Hagler and Leonard?s rematch with Tommy Hearns.
But it was working with Riddick Bowe where Sternburg got a full helping of the insanity of being in and out of the ring in boxing.
He had the assignment of working with Bowe for the Brotman team on his fight against Elijah Tillery at the Washington Convention Center in 1991 ? a brawl that ended with the two fighters kicking each other in the ring, Bowe?s manager, Rock Newman, climbing on the ring apron and pulling Tillery over the ropes, and a riot that spread out into the streets.
?I am in the ring trying to get in between these guys, thinking, ?Bowe can?t get disqualified, it will derail his shot at the title,?? Sternburg said. ?People said, ?What did you think you were going to do in there? They could have crushed you.? A few days later, we took Bowe on the mea culpa tour, apologizing for what happened because he didn?t want to get suspended or anything. He looked at me, laughed, and said, ?That is what we needed in the ring, Fred Sternburg. Good move, Fred.?
Kelly Swanson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Swanson Public Relations) more >
You may see Sternburg, born and raised in Bethesda, in and out of the ring on May 2 for the much-anticipated Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, protecting Manny Pacquiao as his long-time public relations man who has helped create the Pacquiao story. With him right there in the middle of the action in Las Vegas will be Kelly Swanson, the imagemaker for Mayweather since 2005 and another former Washington public relations executive who also got her start working with Bowe.
