by David P. Greisman
On a Saturday night at the Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel and Casino, back in 2001 when the seaside resort town still regularly hosted boxing, the camera lights went on and two fighters stood across from each other in the ring.
Nothing typically is special about that happening. Nothing was special about those two boxers — an 18-1-1 welterweight named Johnny Molnar and his opponent, the 17-2-1 Victor Rosado, neither of whom would fight for much longer afterward. But they were there to whet the appetite, setting the table both for the main event and for the show that had premiered with their eight-round prizefight.
Molnar topped Rosado by technical decision. Then came Leonard Dorin and Martin O’Malley, both 17-0 lightweight prospects. After their fight, a ninth-round technical knockout, Dorin was no longer a prospect but rather a contender, while O’Malley was no longer undefeated.
That was the point of “ShoBox: The New Generation.” That still is the point of “ShoBox,” which airs its 219th episode this Friday, 15 years and one day after the first.
“I don’t care who wins or loses,” said Gordon Hall, the senior vice president of production at Showtime and executive producer of “ShoBox” from the outset. “I want to show the top prospects, match them tough in competitive fights, and raise the exposure of those fighters so that hopefully it increases their value in the sport.”
That agenda tends to be different than what promoters and managers want, which is to guide their fighters carefully, giving them different tests along the way, building them up while keeping an undefeated record intact until it is time to unleash him or cash out.
“ShoBox” spotlighted fighters earlier in their career than another show with a similar premise, HBO’s “Boxing After Dark.”
“There really hasn’t been a show dedicated entirely to prospects that I know of before ‘ShoBox,’ during ‘ShoBox’ or after ‘ShoBox,’ ”said Steve Farhood, the broadcast analyst who has worked every “ShoBox” episode. “On other shows, like ‘Friday Night Fights,’ you might get two 35 year olds one week and two prospects the next week. On HBO, on Showtime Championship Boxing, you’re watching fighters who are established.
“I’m proud to say that the word ‘ShoBox fighter’ has sort of become part of the boxing lexicon,” he said. “People know what you mean. They know you’re talking about a prospect who’s hopefully promising and is ready and willing to take the next step to prove himself.”
The show’s crew takes particular pride in the number of fighters who went on to win world titles. The first was, well, one of the first — Dorin, who edged Raul Balbi less than six months after his “ShoBox” appearance to win a world title at 135. There are 67 in total, with the most recent additions being junior middleweight Jermell Charlo and bantamweight Rau’shee Warren. Another 75 fighters went on to mount unsuccessful challenges for world titles.
“Every three and a half shows, you’re going to be seeing a future champion,” Hall said.
That’s not too surprising in an era where there are 17 weight classes and four major world titles in each. It’s also not a surprise that promoters want to get their better talent exposure on national television, even if that exposure us limited. Nobody gets big money from “ShoBox.” Its ratings on Friday nights tend to be dwarfed by those watching the flagship “Showtime Championship Boxing” broadcasts on Saturdays.
The network benefits nonetheless, building relationships with and a bit of an audience for those fighters. It serves as a developmental system, separating wheat from chaff and getting the fighters closer to being ready for the big leagues.
A tough outing or a loss can teach a fighter a lesson, Hall said.
“If a fighter is 15-0 and he’s fighting another fighter that’s 15-0 or 17-2, if he loses it’s not the end of the world,” Hall said. “Why not find out about your fighter, good and bad, stepping him up at a younger age rather than waiting until he’s 22-0, you’ve padded his record to get him to that one big fight where he gets beat badly? A loss on your record does not ruin your career.
“Maybe it made him run a mile longer,” he said. “Maybe it had him train or spar a minute more.”
A total of 150 boxers have suffered their first pro loss on “ShoBox.” Eleven fighters lost on “ShoBox” — not all of them their first loss — but went on to win world titles: Luis Collazo, Robert Guerrero, Eric Aiken, David Diaz, Isaac Hlatshwayo, Cornelius Bundrage, Rodrigo Guerrero, Ishe Smith, Gamaliel Diaz, Mickey Bey and Badou Jack.
Guerrero was 21 years old and 12-0-1 as a pro when he fought Enrique Sanchez on a June 2004 episode.
“ ‘ShoBox’ happened to be where all the prospects were coming up. I never cared about the matchup. I just wanted to fight, and show everyone I was the man to beat,” Guerrero said. “All those fights were tough and if you can get through those matches, you know you’re going to have a bright future.”
Sanchez was 30-2-4 at the time. He’d lost his world title at 122 pounds to Nestor Garza in 1998 and was stopped by Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001.
“One thing I remember was that he was very skilled, more than any other fighter I’ve faced before,” Guerrero said. “He used his jab really well.”
Guerrero stopped him in eight. Sanchez never fought again. Guerrero returned to the show for two of his next four fights, including his first pro defeat, a split decision loss to Gamaliel Diaz. Guerrero had been confident from sparring with top fighters in Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor. Diaz gave him a reality check.
“I learned so much from that fight,” Guerrero said. “I learned to never take any fight lightly, which I did in the first Diaz fight. When you suffer your first loss, it’s an eye-opener. The fight was close, but it shouldn’t have been. In the rematch, I wanted to come out hard and go for the knockout, which I accomplished.”
Jack, meanwhile, debuted on “ShoBox” in May 2012 against Alexander Brand. Jack was a bit older than most prospects at 28, but he was just 10-0 as a pro. Brand was a 17-0 super middleweight.
“That was my first step-up fight. I hadn’t really fought tough competition. I was more skillful, but he had a lot of experience,” Jack said. “I asked for a tougher fight. That was the first one. I learned a lot from it. Some guys, they might look like you can beat them, but a guy like that who is very strong and very awkward, that’s a bad combination. You got to learn how to just stick to the basics with guys like that.”
That was one learning experience, something he says fighters don’t get from taking easier outings. Jack appeared on the show three more times, outpointing Farah Ennis in July 2013, stopping Rogelio Medina in December 2013, and then suffering a stunning one-minute technical knockout loss to Derek Edwards in February 2004.
“I learned more from that than all my other wins before then,” Jack said. “You got to respect every opponent. You got to be focused the whole fight. One second, one punch, even if the guy is 10 times less skillful than you. I made a little mistake and that was it. That was a blessing. People overlooked me like I was the underdog. They went off that loss.”
Jack thinks he wouldn’t have gotten his world title fight against Anthony Dirrell last year were it not for the loss on his ledger. He’s gone from the Edwards defeat to being one of the best super middleweights in the world.
This Friday’s episode features junior featherweight Adam Lopez (15-0) against Roman Ruben Reynoso, who is 18-1-1 and hasn’t lost since his fourth pro fight. The card also includes Julius Jackson (19-1) against late replacement Jerry Odom (13-2-1) and O’Shaquie Foster (10-1) against Rolando Chinea (12-1-1). There’s no pairing of undefeated fighters, but that has actually only happened 96 times out of 484 bouts. The zero isn’t always the most important thing.
But the co-feature in August will have a co-feature with unbeaten bantamweights Nikolay Potapov (14-0-1) and Antonio Nieves (16-0-1) facing each other. The show doesn’t always follow its initial mission of matching two prospects against each other. There are A-sides at times, guys who are there to be spotlighted and win and move on. The undercard has undefeated welterweight Bakhtiyar Eyubov (10-0) against measuring stick Karim Mayfield (19-3-1) while the main event has Jarrell Miller (17-0-1) taking on a tough journeyman heavyweight in Fred Kassi.
“We use this as a platform to develop fighters,” Hall said. “If there is a fighter we’re interested in graduating from ShoBox, we definitely try to nurture and develop them and get them to championship level.”
Sometimes it’s because of a promoter or manager who’s not as eager to match a fighter tough that the network still wants to feature. At other times, it’s because a division isn’t as deep and an experienced opponent will at least present a good challenge and an interesting pairing.
“There are those cases where we’ll take prospects and put them against a veteran,” Hall said. “You might have to editorially focus more on that one fighter, but in that case that one fighter is worth it. There are a lot of heavyweights who have fought and lost or are retreads or are names that aren’t going to be going anywhere. And there’s a handful that might or might not have potential. Jarrell Miller is one of them. We’ve shown him before. We have an opportunity to showcase him again and we were able to get a reasonable opponent.”
And so the show goes on, 15 years later, with Steve Farhood still donning the headsets. He began with the late Nick Charles, a colleague and best friend who succumbed to cancer in 2011. Farhood has a list of memorable moments on the show, from the crazy first-round knockouts to the stunning last-round Hail Mary victories. But the most emotional was the night in 2010 when Charles said goodbye to the show.
“He left such a mark on you if you were lucky enough to know him,” Farhood said. “I was so lucky to go across the country with Nick and spend so much time with him. I learned a lot from him.”
Farhood feels fans form a bond with a show when they like the people they’re watching. He says he’s enjoying working these days alongside Barry Tompkins. And behind the scenes are many faces who have been with the show from its premiere.
“It seems like where I belong,” Farhood said. “I feel we do it well. I feel we do it honestly. I could see it being around for a long time because there’s a need for it, an appeal to it that’s sort of unique in boxing.”
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com