By Jim Amato
Take Time To Read More Tales
In reading "More Tales From Ringside" I realized that it was not your conventional book. I felt more like I was sitting in on a group discussion. It was not your typical this is the story, here's the facts and stats read. The authors Tom Donelson and Frank Lotierzo make you feel like you're at the local tavern sipping a few brews and talking boxing.
Tom and Frank bring a refreshing twist to an age old sport. There are several chapters so you don't become bored with the material. The format shifts from current fights to historical essays to opinionated commentary.
I very much enjoyed the chapters on forgotten middleweight claimant Billy Soose and the uncrowned middleweight champion Charley Burley.
I believe what I liked the most about this book was that ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years from now a new generation of boxing fans will have a little piece of boxing history. They will be able to read about the real impact of fighters of this era like Lewis, Holyfield, Roy Jones, DeLaHoya, Hopkins and Trinidad. They will read about just how great the Gatti-Ward trilogy really was.
Tom and Frank bring up intelligent options for scoring fights. They give their expert opinion on why some fighters made it and break down why others with the potential did not. One case in point was David Tua.
All and all, a fine piece of work. I liked it so much I went and got a copy of their first book "Tales From Ringside".
Hats off to Tom and Frank. I hope their future work lives up to the high standards they have set for themselves. I'm sure it will.
Mark May 14th on your calender as The Boxing Ministry has their annual awards banquet. This year the Ministry will honor the great former W.B.C. lightheavyweight champion, Hall Of Famer Matthew Saad Muhammad.
Also tenetively slated to be on hand is W.B.A. welterweight champion Jose Rivera. This talented champion sports an impressive 37-3-1 record with 24 big KO's. Rivera hopes to soon meet and defeat unbeaten mandatory challenger Thomas Damgaard. If successful Jose will find himself in middle of a very interesting mix at 147 pounds. Now that Oscar DeLaHoya and Shane Mosley are coming back down to welterweight. Rivera hopes to land a huge money fight with one or the other.
As in past Ministry banquets hopefully the local group of great Youngstown area boxers will be in attendance. That would be former I.B.F. lightweight champion Harry Arroyo, former I.B.F. cruiserweight champion Jeff Lampkin and former W.B.C. bantamweight champion Greg Richardson. It is also possible that former Olympian Jerry Page and former middleweight contender Rusty Rosenberger will attend.
At past Ministry banquets I have had the pleasure of meeting such notables as Earnie Shavers, Emile Griffith, Howard Davis Jr., Pete Rademacher and Doyle Baird.
The banquet will be held at The Old North Church in Canfield, Ohio. Tickets are $20.00 in advance.For tickets please send a SASE to The Boxing Ministry-3675 Polley Drive, Austintown, Ohio, 44515. For more information log onto ; www.boxingministry.org
I just got word from my contact in Youngstown that Durrell Richardson is in Florida working as a sparring partner for Zab Judah.Durrell is from Youngstown and is the nephew of former world bantamweight champion Greg Richardson.Durrell is a former national amateur champion and is 6-0 as a professional.
Judah meets undisputed welterweight champion Cory Spinks on February 5th in St.Louis. This is a rematch. They met on April 10th of 2004 with Spinks winning a very close decision. Spinks sports a 34-2 record with 10 KO's. Judah's record stand at 32-2 with 23 knockouts.
Durrell was brought in to work with Zab because he, like Spinks is a southpaw.
I like Cory Spinks in his upcoming rematch with Zab Judah. It was razor close last time. I think this time Cory will solve the Zab puzzle.
Judah may be the slightly harder hitter but I think Cory has the better chin. Judah's a flashy type of fighter. I just think Cory is the better all around technical boxer. I feel he learned some of Zab's weaknesses in their intitial battle and he will exploit them in the return match.
I really don't anticipate a knockout even though they both hit the deck in their first encounter. I'll go with Spinks on a unanimous decision with a few points to spare.
