The ballot for the BWAA’s yearly awards arrived a couple of days ago and went back in the same day’s mail. Most of the choices for 2009 awards seemed so clear-cut and obvious that they didn’t require a great deal of deliberation, though we’ll have to wait a few weeks until the winners are announced to see how many of my colleagues agreed with that assessment.
As we’ve stated previously, Manny Pacquiao and Dedham’s Freddie Roach ought to be slam-dunks to repeat as Fighter of the Year and Trainer of the Year, respectively, though the guessing here is that Roach’s race could be closer: There will be some who would argue that beyond what he did in Shane Mosley’s corner, Nazim Richardson’s vigilance in demanding that Antonio Margarito’s hand-wraps be re-examined in the dressing room prior to last January’s Mosley-Margarito bout dramatically altered the complexion of the boxing landscape. Think about it. Had Margarito been able to use that brick-like plaster in his gloves to beat up two or three big-time opponents over the past 12 months, who knows what this year-end discussion might look like?
The voting for Fight of the Year will be closer, if only because what would seem a couple of obvious candidates – Miguel Cotto vs. Joshua Clottey and Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto – aren’t even on the ballot. Our pick among those that were – Bernard Dunne vs. Ricardo Cordova – is a longshot, if only because so few members of the electorate actually saw it.
Among the four nominees for Manager of the Year – Bernd Bonte, Mike Criscio, Al Haymon and no one – the latter should win in a runaway.
The candidates for Long and Meritorious Service Award produced several worthy nominations, but it’s hard to imagine one whose service has been longer or more meritorious than retired Newark Star-Ledger columnist Jerry Izenberg’s.
The closest race should be for Fighter of the Decade, in which there is a seven-man field of nominees, no heavyweight among them. There are good cases to be made for Joe Calzaghe (19-0 since 2000), Floyd Mayweather Jr. (17-0), and for Pacquiao (22-1-2). The trio of wins with which Calzaghe went out the door (Mikkel Kessler, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.) may give the edge to the now-retired Welshman. . . .
It appeared that Pacquiao and Mayweather were prepared to decide the issue in the ring, but events of the past week seem to indicate that if those two are ever going to meet, it isn’t going to be on the proposed March 13 date. Their next battle, in fact, could be in court: Three days ago, Pacquiao slapped Mayweather with a multimillion-dollar defamation suit in response to Floyd’s allegations that the WBO welterweight champion had benefitted from the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Roxy rings in year
The new year of boxing kicks off locally on Jan. 22 with a Jimmy Burchfield card at the Roxy in Boston. Headlined by Framingham welterweight Danny O’Connor (10-0), the show will include a co-feature matching a pair of onetime New England amateur standouts, Peabody’s Simeon Dunwell and Josh Beeman of Providence. The “Boston Pops” card will also showcase a trio of prospects – Quincy lightweight Ryan Kielczewski, Stoughton light heavyweight Mical Weisberg and Lawrence cruiserweight Alexis Santos. For more information, phone 401-724-2253. . . .
The Connecticut casinos’ first card of 2010 is set for Jan. 29 at the Mohegan Sun, where Chet Koerner’s TKO Productions, having purloined Providence middleweight Peter Manfredo Jr. and Connecticut featherweight Matt Remillard, brings them back in a pair of NABF title bouts. Manfredo, who demolished former John Duddy foe Walid Smichet in ’09, goes up against another in Matt Vanda, while the unbeaten Remillard takes on Dominican Rafael Lora. Tickets are available through the Mohegan Sun box office and Ticketmaster or by phoning 1-800-745-3000. . . .
Having already fallen into the “opponent” category at 29, Providence heavyweight Jason Estrada (16-2) faces what is either the most dangerous fight or the biggest opportunity of his career when he steps in against former WBC light heavyweight and IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Feb. 6 in what will be the second installment of the Polish favorite’s heavyweight phase. Adamek (37-1) stopped countryman Andrew Golota in Lodz, Poland, last October.
Old foe a friend
Emile Griffith and Nino Benvenuti fought three times between April of 1967 and March of the following year, an 11-month span that saw Griffith lose, regain and then again relinquish the world middleweight title. All three bouts – Benvenuti’s wins were at Madison Square Garden, Griffith’s at Shea Stadium – went the 15-round distance, and at the conclusion of their trilogy there still wasn’t a lot to separate the two warriors: Griffith’s redemption had come via a close majority decision, and while Benvenuti’s win in the final installment was unanimous, two judges scored it 8-6 and the third 7-7. The latter scorecard fell into Benvenuti’s column after the implementation of a supplementary points system.
A few weeks ago Griffith confirmed to New York Daily News cartoonist and columnist emeritus Bill Gallo, two things pride had heretofore kept him from revealing: One was that he is suffering from pugilstica dementia. The other was that he is flat broke, and could barely make ends meet on his sole means of income – a monthly Social Security check.
Gallo’s column struck a chord on both sides of the Atlantic. A few days before Christmas, Benvenuti flew over from Italy and met with Griffith in Gallo’s office at the newspaper. There he presented him with his Christmas gift – a Western Union money transfer bag containing $10,000. Benvenuti also announced plans to help set up a retirement plan for his old foe.
“I am doing well, but (Griffith) is less lucky,” Benvenuti told Daily News sportswriter Mitch Abramson, who witnessed the heartwarming reunion. “I want to help him. This is our fourth fight together – and this time, he will win.”
The final bell tolls
For two decades the four-man consortium of Mickey Duff, Jarvis Astaire, Mike Barrett and Terry Lawless maintained such a stranglehold on British boxing that they were ultimately charged by the authorities with operating an “illegal monopoly.” There can be little doubt that it was a monopoly, and probably an illegal one at that, but the guys you rarely heard complain about this arrangement were the boxers. Indeed, they seem to have gotten a fairer shake out of the deal than their American counterparts.
Lawless, who died at 76 in Marbella, Spain, on Christmas Eve, was the manager of record for Jim Watt, Maurice Hope, John H. Stracey and Charlie Magri when each won world titles, and also managed Frank Bruno and Calzaghe earlier in their careers. In his autobiography, “Watt’s My Name,” Watts wrote of Lawless: “Terry is that rare breed of manager who treats his boxers like sons rather than fighters. He gives 100 percent and demand the same in return. If it were not for him, I would not have gotten near winning a world title. He revitalized my career.” . . .
