Sure, you thought Tacoma was just a AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, or a Toyota pick-up truck. But hang on. They're getting boxing fever this week in The City of Destiny (Tacoma's official nickname). On Saturday night Tacoma hosts the Vernon Forrest - Carlos Baldomir fight, which is for the WBC light middleweight belt that neither Floyd Mayweather nor Oscar De La Hoya has anymore. The Tacoma Weekly suggests it might be the biggest boxing match in Washington State history -- but that's what you get when you quote the promoter (in the headline!). A bit more even keeled is the Tacoma News Tribune, which asks whether boxing in Tacoma can return to its heyday. Tacoma, after all, was hometown to champions Leo Randolph, Johnny Bumphus (pictured), Rocky Lockridge and Freddie "The Tacoma Assassin" Steele. The state's last title fight was in 1988 at the Tacoma Dome. Greg Haugen beat Miguel Santana to keep the IBF lightweight belt. The guess here is that neither Tacoma nor any other U.S. city is likely to return to its boxing heyday.
Outside of Tacoma, people are just wondering if Forrest or Baldomir will return to any kind of heyday. Well, Tim Smith in the New York Daily News is.
In other news: Catching up on some missed stuff...my colleague Frank Fitzpatrick did a nice piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the painter Thomas Eakins' work depicting circa-1900 boxing in the city. Dan Rafael at ESPN.com says a Miguel Cotto - Shane Mosley match is in the works for November. Kieran Mulvaney writes for Reuters that De La Hoya is looking to fight Ricky Hatton, though Hatton also is eyeing Mayweather.
On the Web: Among the online scorekeepers at FightJudge.com, 63 percent had Bernard Hopkins beating Winky Wright, 13 percent had Winky winning, and 25 percent scored it a draw. Boxrec.com has a clean and modern new look and a new (or maybe I just noticed it) way to list chronoligically the fights for any specific title, by sanctioning organization and weight class.
Web site of pick the day: lsavarese.com. Everything you need to know about Lou Savarese, whom I bumped into at Portobello's Pizza in New York on Thursday. He said he isn't sure when his horror movie, Knock Knock, is coming out (it may go straight to DVD) but that he was proud of his acting roles in episodes of The Bronx is Burning, The Sopranos and Rescue Me. He said he's pretty sure he's done boxing, but didn't seem surprised that Evander Holyfield may earn himself another title shot. "With Evander you never know," Big Lou said.
1 comment:
Miguel Cotto is one of the most exciting fighters in boxing. If he continues to win, then boxing will regain some of the fans that have lost interest ion the game. A bout against Mosley would be great for boxing and the fans.
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