Coach Freddie Roach, gretaest trainer of his generation, is looking at a huge 2012, above and beyond his continuing success with ring superstars Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and the rest of a roster which seems to grow daily.
It will get even bigger, of course, if there happens to be a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Pacman super bout but there’s no need to worry about Roach if there is not.
The TV reality show, simply titled “On Freddie Roach,” begins in an HBO slot come January with a super time slot on the prime cable nrtwork, immediately following the popular “Boardwalk Empire” drama series. (Jim Lampley is one of the producers on the follow Roach everywhere show.)
Now comes word out of Canastota, New York, from the hallowed halls of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame, that Dedham, Mass., native Roach is a “Non Participant” candidate for induction with the 2012 class.
Voters, including myself, are allowed to check off up to five “Non Participant” category candidates for enshrinement but only three will be elected. Advertisement
My first, cursory glance at the list in this category tells me that Roach is likely to be elected in a landslide.
A quick glance in the “Moderns” category (last bout from 1943 on) shows my second favorite childhood fighter (behind Cassius Clay who changed his own name), New Yorker Irish Joey Archer, as a candidate.
As a skinny, 12 year old I used to stand in front of a mirror at the New Garden Gym in Boston with trainer Johnny Dunn telling me to work only on the left jab over and over. In my mind, I was copying the fluid motions of Archer.
Topping the “Moderns” category, in which three are elected, is Motown Hitman Thomas Hearns, surely a lock to make the grade.
Hearns, Puerto Rico’s Smooth Sammy Serrano and colorful UK idol, Prince Naseem Hamed, might be my final selections in this category.
I know there will be widespread debate about Hamed and I’ll delve into that later as well. I also think ring announcer Michael Buffer, who made “let’s get ready to rumble” a worldwide call to combat, will be elected in that group.
I wonder if he will introduce himself as only he can.
(More to come on who belongs and who doesn’t in a full review of the 2012 candidates in all categories.)
Speaking of Lampley, “Lamps” is nominated in the “Observers” category and he surely deserves many votes.
Ditto for Al Bernstein, Puerto Rican scribe Mario Rivera Martino, Australian writer Ray Mitchell and ex-NY Daily News scribe Michael “Wolfman” Katz.
Another “Observer” who deserves to get in, IMHO, is my pal and photographer extraordinaire Neil Leifer.
Unfortunately, the rules permit only two “Observers” to be elected in any given year.
Leifer captured the most iconic shot of all time ring icon, Muhammad Ali, the one with “The Greatest standing cross-armed and menacing above a floored Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine.
I could’ve taken that shot also, I guess, since I was at ringside in 1965, but I left my Kodak Brownie Instamatic at the Holiday Inn, lol.
Leifer, who spent decades at Sports Illustrated, has taken thousands of boxing photos but that one is his personal classic.
