By Brent Matteo Alderson
INTRODUCTION:
They call boxing the sweet science, but the term is a kind of oxymoron, because except for instances when the sport is practiced at the highest level, it’s rarely sweet, and more often than not it’s unmerciful and painfully brutal.
And even though it’s an honorable thing to be a fighter, the sport is dangerous and the rewards for participation in the professional ranks rarely counter-balance the commitment, sacrifices, and dangers that boxers have to endure.
In the late nineties, Former NFL player, and University of Miami business major Alonzo Highsmith put his best foot forward and committed himself to becoming a professional boxer. He trained full time for about two years before lacing them up for a professional bout, but was never able to crack the top 50 and was dejected by the realities of the sport and commented - “boxing is like a third world country, the people at the top are very wealthy and everybody else is starving.“
That’s how it is. A few years ago there was a statistical analysis of the purses paid through the calendar year, and it was reported that eleven boxers made over 90% of all the money paid to fighters that year. By contrast the annual minimum salary in the NBA is $442,000 dollars for guys that very rarely see playing time. And just last year Los Angeles Laker Luke Walton who’s just a little bit better than average basketball player received a six-year 30-million dollar contract. After playing in the NBA for a number of years, hoopsters may experience back pain and knee problems, but they don’t suffer from head injuries such as Parkinson’s syndrome or pugilistic dementia.
I’m not degrading professional boxing, pugilism is a noble art, but I’m not going to sugar coat it either. Boxers are modern day gladiators; they follow the warrior’s code and inflict pain and bodily harm upon one another during competition. Plain and simple professional boxing is tough and most fighters leave the sport in worse shape than when they came in.
Now for the few that make it big, its rewards are almost limitless. Fame, money, adoration, are all part of being a boxing superstar, but what are the chances of making it and what does the even most promising prospect have to go through to reach the sports upper echelon?
In a special series conducted with the cooperation of his management team, BoxingScene.com is going have unprecedented access to former amateur star Malcolm Franklin’s foray into professional boxing in order to give its readers a more intimate understanding of the trial and tribulations that fighters have to endure when they leave the amateur ranks.
In this special series, Welcome to the Pros, BoxingScene is going to cover the 2008 United States Olympic alternate’s journey utilizing video as well as traditional literary methods in order to provide fans with true multi-media coverage that symbolizes BoxingScene’s commitment to innovative cutting edge journalism.
PART ONE
Malcolm Franklin is a southern California native and a highly decorated amateur. He won three different National amateur titles and was the runner-up in the 2008 National Golden Gloves tournament and was the only member of the2008 United States Olympic team that had to fight six days in a row in order to secure a spot on the teams as its 112-pound alternate representative.
Malcolm grew up in Rialto, California and began boxing at the age of nine under the tutelage of his father, Ian, who started a boxing-based-outreach program in the economically depressed region of San Bernardino County, “The F.I.G.H.T.S. Program stands for faith in god heals troubles souls and we’re a program that believes in teaching the kids a little bit more than boxing. The purpose of our program is to stimulate spiritual, mental, and physical growth in our youth while teaching them the rewards of hard work and dedication. And were’ in the heart of San Bernardino in an area that really needs help and we’ve been doing a good job. There are limited resources, we are always in need of funding opportunities, but we’re changing lives,” noted Malcolm’s father.
And the program has been successful from a social perspective as well as from a boxing standpoint, having produced four different national amateur champions, but after Malcolm’s trip to Beijing, Team Franklin, which includes advisor Darryl Thompson (No relation to Thompson Boxing) made the decision to turn professional and elicited the training services of former Middleweight champion and Bernard Hopkins strategist John Davis Jackson in order to help Malcolm make a successful transition into pro-game. And for approximately six weeks the 19-year old Franklin trained with Jackson down in Florida in preparation for his professional debut.
And with one of the world’s top trainers, an abundance of natural athleticism, and an extensive amateur background, Malcolm delved into the world of professional boxing on November 28 on a Thompson Boxing card at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario, California, a local about 15 minutes away from where he grew up. And expectations were high on that cold November night, probably too high.
In the dressing room right before the fight his father commented, “I know he’s going to handle his business. We’ve been to some of the biggest events like the Olympic trials and major national tournaments and he rises to the occasion when the lights are on and to me it’s almost like a sense of satisfaction, that’s he’s has finally arrived at his goal of being a professional boxer and the next stop we feel is a world championship!”
After warming up and getting dressed in his custom-made ring attire, Malcolm walked from the dressing room towards the ring where he was applauded by a number of well-wishers which included a contingent of family and friends that numbered around thirty.
Malcolm entered the ring to face Alejandro Solorio, a young man also making his professional debut with a modest amateur background which only entailed seven fights.
During the first minute it looked as though Franklin was a little excited, but he the difference in speed was apparent and he landed a lightning-quick straight right to Solorio’s head in the first thirty seconds that dropped Alejandro for a short count.
Alejandro got up and Franklin began neglecting his jab and didn’t do any body punching and seemed intent on head hunting and scoring a first round knock out, but just as the 19-year old Franklin deviated from his game-plan, Solorio landed a counter right to the head that seriously shook Malcolm and knocked his mouth-piece out towards the end of the round.
From that point on, the fight was a war with Malcolm backpedalling and landing faster crisper punches while Solorio chased him and landed the harder punches.
Malcolm’s offensive output was solid, he threw crisp punches and his straight right was Roy Jones-esque. The problem was with his defensive ability. Malcolm threw his left hook with his chin up in the air and Solorio easily countered him with hard shots and Malcolm didn’t utilize any type of head movement to avoid the counters.
The fight-crowd which is usually very knowledgeable at Thompson cards sensed an upset. Franklin was a local kid, an Olympian and the crowd, which was predominantly made up of Latinos began cheering for Solorio and Malcolm’s homecoming quickly turned into four-round-nightmare.
At the conclusion of the bout, Team Franklin was obviously worried about the outcome because Malcolm had been seriously shook numerous times throughout the bout, but the knock-down in the first round probably won it for the young Olympian and all three judges scored it for him by scores of 39-36. The decision was unpopular and the crowd whole heartedly booed the verdict.
That’s professional boxing. Franklin came in to the cheers of family and friends expecting another win to add to his many amateur victories and at the end of the night he was lucky to have escaped with the decision.
Those are the realities of the sport. Every opponent is dangerous and anybody can knock out anybody at any moment and fighters need to be focused and ready to fight the best when they step into the squared circle each and every time. 1988 Olympian Anthony Hembrick made that mistake and underestimated one of his opponents early in his career. In his 15th pro-fight, Hembrick came out dancing and celebrating on a USA Tuesday night fight telecast and right before the fight he performed a choreographed dance routine and then was unceremoniously knocked out in the first round.
Malcolm also may have underestimated his opponent. His advisor Darryl Thompson commented, “We didn’t know they were going to match him so tough. It was Malcom’s first professional fight.”
In fighting on Thompson boxing cards, Team Franklin shouldn’t expect anything different in the future because competitive match-making is one of the strengths of Thompson Promotions and their matchmaker Hervi Estrada and director of operations, Alex Camponovo, don’t pamper fighters and rarely schedule set-ups and regularly make competitive matches that often times end in blood baths.
After the fight, Malcolm, who seems to be a really nice young man was positive about his performance,”The pro-game is way different, way harder, but I still did my thing. The kid was tough, real tough. It was my first pro-fight, I still did my thing, but I got a lot of stuff to work on. John David Jackson, my trainer is going to teach me everything I need to know, he’s going to take me to school, gladiator school. I’m going to come back way better in my next fight. An ugly win is better than a pretty loss. “
And his trainer John David Jackson, one of the most knowledgeable trainers in the sport gave an honest appraisal of Malcolm’s performance, “It was a good win for him in his pro-debut. There are a lot of things we still need to work on. We are going back to the drawing board and see if we can make him a better fighter all around. Sometimes scoring a first round knockout in your pro-debut creates a false sense of confidence and going a tough four rounds builds a certain type of character.”
In all fairness to Malcolm, he got the “W” and is now 1-0 as a pro and he’s only nineteen years old. You never know, maybe Solorio will end up doing something in the pro-game. After the 1988 Olympics, Silver Medalist Michael Carbajal turned professional against Will Grigsby who was 1-0 and they went to war and Carbajal’s performance wasn’t well-received by the critics, but years later Grisby ended up winning two world titles and Michael became the first fighter under the featherweight limit to earn a million dollar payday.
Considering the fact that Solorio was also making his debut and only had seven amateur fights, Malcom’s performance was disappointing. The fact that the bout was considerably more demanding than anything Franklin experienced as an amateur was validated in the fight’s aftermath when Malcolm’s father, Ian Franklin, informed BoxingScene a couple of weeks after the fight that Malcolm had suffered a hair-line fracture of the jaw. At the time of the discussion they were contemplating having Malcom’s jaw wired shut, but a week later Darryl Thompson stated that a physician believed the injury would heal on its own.
So even though Malcolm is a talented young pugilist, there’s a long hard road ahead. First of all, Malcolm weighed in at 110 ten pounds which means he will probably end up fighting between the Flyweight and Bantamweight divisions when he matures.
That’s significant for two reasons. First off, the majority of those fighters are Mexican nationals and are tough as hell because they have to struggle and endure poverty on a daily basis. You could take a Mexican flyweight that’s 10-10 and he might be able to go ten hard rounds with the one of the world’s top contenders. Plus the small guys are always in shape because they have to make an almost un-natural weight.
Secondly, its near impossible to make money fighting below the 122 pound limit and only a handful of American fighters (Danny Romero & Johnny Tapia) have done it and that was partly because they used their regional appeal to create a special rivalry.
Regardless of what happens in Malcom Franklin’s career, BoxingScene.com is going to be there to follow it in order to illuminate the transitional process that accomplished amateur boxers go through when they become prize fighters.
Notes:
Please Click on this link, https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/view.php?pg=boxing_video , in order to view the video that accompanies this article.
FAVORITE QUOTES: After knocking out a 38-year Ron Lyle in one round in 1980, Magazines such as the Ring, KO, and International Boxing ranked Gerry Cooney as one of the Heavyweight divisions top three contenders and Larry Holmes was quick to verbally attack Cooney position as a possible threat, “Cooney is nothing. If he fights me he’ll get hurt. He is just a white hope for the white dopes. Bring me 8 million dollars and I will sign the contract for December before Christmas and I will give him a present, a good ass-whipping!”
Dwight Muhammad Qawi never had an amateur fight and learned to fight while he was doing time in Rahway State prison.
Gentleman Jim Corbett’s parents both committed suicide.
I used to dog on Wladimir Klitschko for not attempting to avenge all of his losses, but since his re-invention following the loss to Brewster, he has been phenomenal and deserves to be mentioned in the history books as a legitimate heavyweight champion of the world. I just don’t know if he’s going to be able to make a legitimate claim to the lineage if his brother continues to dabble in the sport.
Check out Ring Magazine this month, I did an extensive interview with Juan Manuel Marquez.
Talking about Marquez, I like Juan Diaz in their February fight. I just think he’s younger and fresher and is going to out-hustle Marquez and I actually picked Nate Campbell to upset Diaz.
Hit this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTTXSJiYiss , to watch the clip of Anthony Hembrick’s in the ring dance routine and his subsequent knock out loss.
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?” Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com
