So there?s this dinner Friday night in New York City. If you?re a boxing fan, you might want to check out GoFightLive.TV?s webcast of the event. If you?re a boxing writer, you?ll probably be there. And if you?re a sports writer of any other stripe, you might be surprised what you can learn from tuning in.
It?s the Boxing Writers Association of America?s 84th annual awards dinner. It will feature everyone from Manny Pacquiao to Genaro Hernandez. If you happen to be watching online from Arizona, it will also feature a name you?ll recognize as synonymous with boxing writing in the southwest.
Our own Norm Frauenheim ? 30 year veteran of The Arizona Republic ? will accept the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism. On Friday Norm joins a fraternity of master craftsmen like Red Smith, Michael Katz and Hugh McIlvaney, taking his overdue place in the pantheon of men celebrated for using the written word to lend humanity to a brutal craft.
Norm?s career has been defined in part by his coverage of Michael Carbajal. Much of what the world knows about Carbajal it learned from Frauenheim. Norm?s dedication to the sport has also gone well beyond professional interest. A lot of what went into his Republic columns was done on his own time, especially in the end.
The nature of today?s newspaper business ? about which, a little birdie told me, Norm?s acceptance speech could include a comment or two ? is such that reporting, as a profession, has lost its promise. Cell phone cameras and Twitter have joined our shortening attention spans to eliminate the profitability of 3,000-word reports. So be it. But know this: Ours is a better society when talented people dedicate their careers to ?reporting the hell out of? stories ? as Norm might put it.
Let?s have an anecdote, then.
Two years ago, former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison made the second fight of his abortive comeback while waiving a pound of photocopied emails and doctors? notes claiming he was HIV-negative. But the day before Morrison?s cage-fighting debut in Camp Verde, Ariz., Norm got Morrison?s former agent on the record, saying what others would not: ?Tommy has tested positive for HIV anti-bodies, and he always has.?
Saturday afternoon came and Norm joined the rest of us at octagon-side for an interminable card that would not unveil Morrison till its fourth hour. Thirty minutes in, though, a security guard approached Norm, confirmed his identity and told him he was not welcome. Norm was sent to the cheap seats.
The Associated Press writer assigned to the Morrison debacle, Andy Bagnato, tried to find out who?d banished the dean of Arizona fight writers. The promoters suddenly went scarce. After a few minutes of watching cage fighting and deciding it wasn?t for us, Andy and I joined Norm on an aluminum bench far from the action. And there we found him dutifully recording the announced winners of each match.
Three hundred feet away and keeping scrupulous notes about the results of fights he wasn?t assigned to cover, in a sport he couldn?t stand, at an event whose promoters had banned him ? there was Norm. That still strikes me as the picture of professionalism.
There was a happy ending, too. Eventually Bagnato prevailed upon the unscrupulous promoters, Norm?s credential was restored and all was forgiven. The evening?s only disappointment came when 15rounds.com scrapped the original title of my fight report: ?Morrison in the cage; Frauenheim in the bleachers.?
Which brings us to the aforementioned bit of this Friday?s dinner from which non-boxing sports writers can benefit. There?s a camaraderie on press row at boxing events you rarely find elsewhere. Sit in a Major League Baseball press box, and you?re lucky if anyone beside your stringer makes eye contact. The media area at ringside, meanwhile ? especially at small shows ? is akin to a family reunion. At least that?s how we do it in the west.
We?ll see how it?s done in the east on Saturday at Madison Square Garden when Miguel Cotto battles Joshua Clottey for the WBO welterweight belt. It?s a card timed to correspond with Sunday?s National Puerto Rican Day Parade ? of which Caguas? Cotto will be a part.
This fight will address questions concerning Cotto?s fragility. Ever since Antonio Margarito ? who may well have been wearing loaded hand wraps ? beat up Cotto 11 months ago, Cotto has been acting, well, funny. First came the body art. If he were a foot taller, Cotto could take all his new tattoos and exchange chest-bumps in the NBA Finals.
Then there was the recent episode with his uncle and former trainer. Something about a brick, a car windshield and respecting the family?s privacy.
Clottey, meanwhile, figures to be the same tough African he always has been. Since losing a decision to Margarito in 2006 ? again, you wonder about those wraps ? Clottey has gone 5-0, including victories over Zab Judah and the late Diego Corrales. But Clottey, who does have fans, by the way, has not yet managed to break through as a marquee attraction.
Saturday?s spectacle showcases Clottey as a stern test hoping to become a superstar, and Cotto as a superstar hoping to pass a stern test.
Another interesting spectacle? Madison Square Garden. It should be filled to the rafters with Puerto Rican fans cheering Cotto. They will also be supporting the co-main event?s Ivan Calderon, an all-time underappreciated technician who will defend his WBO light flyweight title.
No promoter knows how to use ethnicity like Top Rank. Other promoters know how to exploit it, of course. But only Top Rank does ethnicity-themed celebrations.
National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Sunday; Cotto-Clottey, Saturday; Frauenheim on Friday. A celebratory weekend indeed.
Bart Barry can be reached at [email protected]
