Saturday, October 29, 2016
Gerald McClellan still in the fight of his life
Former Milwaukee boxer Gerald McClellan still in the fight of his life
On
March 28, family members and friends of former middleweight WBC
champion Gerald McClellan came together in Freeport, Ill., to celebrate
the 20th anniversary of McClellan’s fight against Nigel Benn. McClellan
was being helped by his niece, Tyesha Carr (left) and his sister Lisa
McClellan, who is his caregiver. Credit: James E. Causey
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| In My Opinion |
Gerald McClellan gets his gloves laced up in 1991.Family photo
You would have had a hard time convincing any of those in attendance that Gerald McClellan would just become a footnote to boxing.
"I wouldn't have missed this for anything in the world. Gerald was changing the fight game, and he was just that good. There will never be another G-Man," said former Milwaukee middleweight Marnix Stamps.
Stamps wished that the turnout would have been bigger but he understood. "It's hard for some fighters to see him like this but there is still some Gerald McClellan in there," he said.
Some people came in order to get close enough to the former World Boxing Council middleweight champion to get a picture. A few just wanted to touch him. Others just wanted to see if they could talk to him to spark a memory from one of his fights.
McClellan, 47, was severely injured during a brutal fight with super-middleweight champion Nigel Benn in London on Feb. 25, 1995. He underwent an emergency three-hour procedure to remove a massive blood clot from his brain. The surgery saved his life but after two months in a coma, he was blind, hearing-impaired, brain-damaged and unable to walk on his own.
Over the past 20 years, he has received 24-hour care from his sisters Lisa and Sandra McClellan. The dinner was a celebration of McClellan's life but also a way for people to honor his caregivers.
For the most part, McClellan looks like he could still box. His handshake remains strong, and he still expresses his love for the sport that nearly ended his life by repeating some fighters' names and big fight moments.
While he looks the part, he's not the Gerald who won 29 of his 31 bouts by knockout. That's still a hard pill to swallow.
One man was seen holding McClellan's left hand and repeating this in his ear: "Show me your moneymaking hand champ! Come on champion show me your moneymaking hand... And the winner and new middleweight champion of the world Gerald McClellan," Lamar Williams said.
McClellan balled up his right fist.
"There you go champ. That's your moneymaker," Williams said.
"Tell me again. Who did I beat?" McClellan asked.
"You beat them all champ. Every single one of them. You were the champion of the world," Williams said. "Remember how we used to run every morning champion? I'm Lamar. We were best friends growing up. I'm your cousin," Williams said.
The more Williams talked, the more McClellan grew frustrated. He nervously played with his bow tie before reaching for Lisa McClellan's hand.
"Lisa. Lisa." McClellan said. "I'm ready to go."
Lisa McClellan, who organized the dinner, told her brother that they couldn't leave because people had come a long way to see him.
I was one of them.
I've known Gerald most of my life. I first met him at the Al Moreland Boxing Club in Milwaukee when we were teenagers. I never met a more gifted boxer.
He had long, strong arms, strong legs, a wide back and a thick neck. He attacked like a pit bull in the ring with unbelievable punching power.
I was at Gerald's first professional fight at the Milwaukee Eagle's Club, a first-round knockout of Roy Hundley on Aug. 12, 1988. I also watched doctors fight to save his life in the ring after he collapsed in his corner during the Benn fight.
The fight was on a time delay so I actually received a call from London from his cousin telling me that Gerald was hurt. I didn't believe it because I was watching the fight at home and he looked dominant, knocking Benn out of the ring and through the ropes in the first round.
Later I saw my friend struggle to keep his mouthpiece in his mouth. He went down to one knee after taking a light uppercut in the 10th round. After he was counted out by the referee, he walked over to his corner and collapsed.
When I saw Gerald at the dinner, I waited my turn to approach him. I took him by the hand and told him that I was James Causey and that I loved him. He asked me if I still fought. I told him no, and he asked me who I was again and I repeated it.
McClellan receives a disability check and a small WBC pension, but it's not nearly enough to cover his medical bills and care. Boxing needs an insurance and larger pension plan for fighters who are injured. Family members should not be forced to sell their loved one's belts and trophies just to make ends meet. Even if 5% was set aside from every fight for a fighter's pension, it would go a long way.
McClellan's family had to sell his belt to pay for some of his care, but during the dinner former World Boxing Organization light middleweight champion Bronco McKart presented McClellan with an honorary green WBC middleweight championship belt.
The belt looked perfect in McClellan's lap.
"This is where the belt belongs," said McKart, who trained out of the famed Kronk's Gym in Detroit with McClellan in the early 1990s.
Lisa McClellan expressed some disappointment with the small turnout. She wished that hundreds would have filled the ballroom, but only about 60 showed up.
Then when she looked around the room, she smiled and said that the size of the crowd didn't matter because she knew that everyone who was there truly loved her brother.
I second that.
James E. Causey is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email jcausey@journalsentinel.com. Facebook: fb.me/jamescausey.12 Twitter: jecausey
Source: http://archive.jsonline.com/news/opinion/former-milwaukee-boxer-gerald-mccellan-still-in-the-fight-of-his-life-b99471678z1-298604031.html
John Mugabi vs. Terry Norris KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR
I am going back to see Terry Norris fights because Abel Sanchez was his trainer... same as GGG Golovkin now...
1990-03-31 : Terry Norris 153¾ lbs beat John Mugabi 154 lbs by KO at 2:47 in round 1 of 12
Location: Sun Dome, Tampa, Florida, USA
Referee: Eddie Eckert
Judge: Ladislao Sanchez
Judge: Angel Luis Guzman
Judge: Alberto Perez
World Boxing Council Super Welterweight Title (1st defense by Mugabi)Norris was ranked #5 by the WBC at 154 pounds.
This was the first world title fight staged in Tampa since light heavyweight champion Bob Foster defeated Ray Anderson in 1971.
Norris
wobbled Mugabi with a left hook 45 seconds into the fight. Norris
followed up with a series of punches and Mugabi went down. He staggered
to his feet and was able to weather Norris' attack for the next minute
and a half. As the round neared its end, Norris put Mugabi down for the
count with a right to the chin.
The fight was named The Ring Knockout of the Year.
Location: Sun Dome, Tampa, Florida, USA
Referee: Eddie Eckert
Judge: Ladislao Sanchez
Judge: Angel Luis Guzman
Judge: Alberto Perez
World Boxing Council Super Welterweight Title (1st defense by Mugabi)Norris was ranked #5 by the WBC at 154 pounds.
This was the first world title fight staged in Tampa since light heavyweight champion Bob Foster defeated Ray Anderson in 1971.
Norris
wobbled Mugabi with a left hook 45 seconds into the fight. Norris
followed up with a series of punches and Mugabi went down. He staggered
to his feet and was able to weather Norris' attack for the next minute
and a half. As the round neared its end, Norris put Mugabi down for the
count with a right to the chin.
The fight was named The Ring Knockout of the Year.
Terry Norris vs Donald Curry
1991-06-01 WBC light middleweight title
Radisson Resort, Palm Springs, California, USA
Radisson Resort, Palm Springs, California, USA
Friday, October 28, 2016
Errol Spence Jr., the rising star
Errol Spence Jr., the rising star from Desoto, Texas, knocked out veteran Leonard Bundu at 2:06 of the sixth round…
Terry Norris vs Donald Curry
1991-06-01 WBC light middleweight title
Radisson Resort, Palm Springs, California, USA
Radisson Resort, Palm Springs, California, USA
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Monday, October 24, 2016
Dylan and Pacquiao: The day the Nobel Prize winner met the noble prize fighter
Bob Dylan Meets Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao, the first-term senator from the Philippines and legendary eight-division boxing champion, has not yet won a Nobel Prize.
And Bob Dylan, the legendary songwriter and newest winner of the Nobel Prize, has never knocked anybody out in the ring as far as we know.
Nonetheless, the two men are fans of each other, and Dylan apparently is a big fan of the sport that made Pacquiao famous. In fact, Dylan showed up at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., a few years ago as Pacquiao trained for his second fight against Timothy Bradley.
Dylan sat on a weight bench for nearly an hour and watched Pacquiao spar.
According to Pacquiao’s publicist and spokesman Fred Sternburg, who witnessed the meeting of the fighter and songwriter, Dylan has been boxing as a form of exercise for many years.
“I was told that he used to work with Bruce ‘The Mouse’* Strauss,” Sternburg told Rolling Stone magazine at the time. “He’s a huge boxing fan from what I hear.”
Sternburg said it was like “seeing one of the apostles” when he was introduced to Dylan and a friend, who showed up after calling ahead first.
“I’ve never seen the place take an aura like this, and I’ve been going to that gym for a long time,” Sternburg recalled by phone Friday. “It’s not that I’m a huge fan but just the influence he’s had on generations — forget my generation, many generations. This guy speaks for a lot of people, and for an era. I was in awe. he’s an icon, obviously.”
When Pacquiao came in to the gym, Sternburg told him Bob Dylan was there to watch him and they were introduced. Later as Pacquiao was in the dressing room getting his hands wrapped, he told Sternburg, “I can’t believe Bob Dylan is here!
“So we go out and take some photos, and there’s just this aura about the guy, without him even doing anything. We couldn’t hear everything he said because he speaks so low, but you could tell he’s just a boxing fan.”
Sternburg said that Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature this week, 31 months after the meeting, was very accommodating that day.
“Before and after the sparring, Dylan posed for pictures with anyone that asked and signed autographs,” Sternburg said. “Some of the other fighters took selfies with him. He accommodated everybody and smiled the whole time.
“I think he just liked being in the element of the gym with these guys who were happy to be with him but were not slobbering all over him.”
Pacquiao later tweeted, “After Bob Dylan watched me train today, Freddie Roach said, ‘I think a hard rain’s a-gonna fall on Timothy Bradley.’ ”
Which, of course, happened in a pugilistic sense when Pacquiao defeated Bradley by unanimous decision on April 12, 2014 at the MGM Grand to avenge his controversial loss two years earlier.
Dylan has written at least two songs about boxing. In 1963 he penned Who Killed Davey Moore?, a song about a boxer (there were two fighters named Davey Moore in the 20th century, both of whom died young) who lost his featherweight title when he was brutally knocked out by Sugar Ramos in 1963. Moore died four days later from whiplash after hitting the bottom rope of the ring as he went down.
In 1975, Dylan wrote Hurricane, one of his biggest hits, about the plight of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who Dylan believed was wrongly imprisoned for a triple murder in New Jersey and spent 19 years behind bars.
Rolling Stone writer Andy Greene wrote that during a 2008 tour stop in Mexico City, Dylan stopped by a boxing gym there and impressed trainer Rodolfo Rodriguez, who didn’t recognize Dylan, then around 67. But Rodriguez told the newspaper El Universal that “Dylan boxed with all his friends and he did well; you can tell he’s practiced for awhile because he landed some good shots and brought his own professional (equipment). He knows what pugilism is and enjoys it.”
So maybe Dylan has knocked somebody out in the ring after all during his spectacular music career, which has spanned more than 50 years.
Apparently Dylan himself got knocked down at least once — by a woman.
In his 2014 article, Greene revealed a 2000 conversation with Interview magazine in which actress Gina Gershon said she sparred with Dylan during the filming of her 1996 movie Bound.
“One time he gave me a little jab in the face, and since
I’d told him not to do that, of course I went insane and hit him really
hard,” Gershon said. “He did go down, and I almost started to cry,
thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m the jerk who broke Bob Dylan’s jaw.’ “
Dylan, however, assured her that he was uninjured and told her, “I need a good woman to kick my ass every now and then.”
“He’s a real boxer,” Gershon said. “We have the same trainer in Los Angeles.”
Pacquiao, 37, the first-term senator in the Philippines
who returns to the ring in a pay-per-view battle on Nov. 5 at the Thomas
& Mack Center in Las Vegas against WBO welterweight champion Jessie
Vargas, is currently training with Roach in his home country.
Dylan is scheduled to perform in Roanoke, Va., that night
on his current U.S. tour, so he obviously won’t be attending the fight.
But the Nobel Prize winner and the noble prize fighter will be doing their thing nearly 3,000 miles apart. And somewhere, a hard rain’s-a gonna fall. (Photo of Dylan and Pacquiao by Chris Farina)
Link: http://boxingjunkie.usatoday.com/2016/10/14/dylan-and-pacquiao-the-day-the-nobel-prize-winner-met-the-noble-prize-fighter/
*Bruce ‘The Mouse’ Strauss, was Boxing';s greatest Canvas Back... he even took a dive on the under card to a Gord Racette fight....in Nanaimo, B.C.
Bruce 'The Mouse' Strauss is an actor, known for The Mouse (1996), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982).
last 6 L by KO
Bruce 'The Mouse' Strauss is an actor, known for The Mouse (1996), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982).
Bruce Strauss is a retired boxer who is more known for his losses than for his wins. His nickname is The Mouse or simply Mouse. Wikipedia
*Bruce Strauss
| W | L | D | ||
| 77 | 53 | 6 | ||
| 55 KOs | 28 KOs |
Bruce "the Mouse" Strauss is proud to hold the
unofficial record for getting knocked out in boxing rings on every
continent except Antarctica. He is a lousy boxer; but he knows it, and
is happy to amuse audiences.
Writer: Daniel Adams
Dave Letterman: Bruce "The Mouse" Strauss [1986]
This is one of THE greatest interviews on Late Night with David Letterman of all-time. Professional opponent Bruce "The Mouse" Strauss discusses his illustrious boxing career with Dave.Sunday, October 23, 2016
Heavyweight champion Jack Johnson squaring off with robot called "Boilerplate" at a 1910 training camp
Boxing And The Mafia History Crime Documentary
Boxing
is a combat sport in which two people engage in a contest of strength,
speed, reflexes, endurance and will, by throwing punches at each other,
usually with gloved hands. Historically, the goals have been to weaken
and knock down the opponent.
Amateur boxing is both an Olympic
and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most international
games—it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a
referee over a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds.
The result is decided when an opponent is deemed incapable to continue
by a referee, is disqualified for breaking a rule, resigns by throwing
in a towel, or is pronounced the winner or loser based on the judges'
scorecards at the end of the contest. In the event that both fighters
gain equal scores from the judges, the fight is considered a draw.
While
people have fought in hand-to-hand combat since before the dawn of
history, the origin of boxing as an organized sport may be its
acceptance by the ancient Greeks as an Olympic game in BC 688. Boxing
evolved from 16th- and 18th-century prizefights, largely in Great
Britain, to the forerunner of modern boxing in the mid-19th century,
again initially in Great Britain and later in the United States.
Category
People and Blogs
License
Standard YouTube License
Created using
YouTube Video Editor
Source videos
View attributions
is a combat sport in which two people engage in a contest of strength,
speed, reflexes, endurance and will, by throwing punches at each other,
usually with gloved hands. Historically, the goals have been to weaken
and knock down the opponent.
Amateur boxing is both an Olympic
and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most international
games—it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a
referee over a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds.
The result is decided when an opponent is deemed incapable to continue
by a referee, is disqualified for breaking a rule, resigns by throwing
in a towel, or is pronounced the winner or loser based on the judges'
scorecards at the end of the contest. In the event that both fighters
gain equal scores from the judges, the fight is considered a draw.
While
people have fought in hand-to-hand combat since before the dawn of
history, the origin of boxing as an organized sport may be its
acceptance by the ancient Greeks as an Olympic game in BC 688. Boxing
evolved from 16th- and 18th-century prizefights, largely in Great
Britain, to the forerunner of modern boxing in the mid-19th century,
again initially in Great Britain and later in the United States.
Category
People and Blogs
License
Standard YouTube License
Created using
YouTube Video Editor
Source videos
View attributions
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
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