Louis was like: OK, I’ll buy you some boats and provision you. Here’s the deal … whatever you find is named after ME. Now get to work.
It was a great, missed institution - and Sean O’Grady was a top-notch commentator. His insight was subtle, but spot on (“Power rules boxing - but speed beats power”). He was also good for taking a few moments before the night and quickly demonstrating the tactics that might be used - still remember his advice in dealing with a Southpaw (keep your lead left foot outside of your opponent’s right foot). That Tuesday night ritual was a nice treat and helped ease into the week. Really miss network boxing, it was a special time
It’s odd how things go in cycles. When weekly TV fights became the norm (like the Gillette Friday Night Fights), there were decried as the ‘end of boxing’ because they had a hand in sending the fight clubs the way of the dinosaur … why would people go pay to see local pugs at the neighborhood hall when they can watch for free on TV. Then weekly TV fights in a later generation were the lifeblood of the sport. The networks had cut way back but USA and ESPN gave us a card every week (with occasional specials) and a whole generation of fighters came up through the ranks getting exposure and making fans by their appearances. Then that went away and … things started to dry up. I’m 90% sure this card was TNF and not ESPN, but does anyone remember a St. Patrick’s Day card where everyone wore either green trunks with white trim or white trunks with green trim and was introduced as “Irish (fill in the name)”??? It was pretty hilarious as fighters of all ethnicities were “Irish” for a night, haha.
I remember O'Grady and those guys would push certain mediocre prospects and club fighters like they were special. Rocky Gannon, Gary Bell and Omar Sheika were given the red carpet treatment. Tarver also beat the crap out some guys as a prospect on there, one of whom was Gannon. Oh yeah, can't forget Luis Monaco putting out Buster Douglas' lights with a late shot.
I can remember when a boxer was pushed to the canvas, O’Grady said “get him on the canvas & make him like it!” I mean …I guess that’s a good strategy. I miss free boxing period but I always enjoyed Tuesday Night Fights. Good mix of former champs, mid range contenders, & prospects. I remember the crazy fight when Elijah Tillary started kicking Riddick Bowe! One of the quickest fights I ever saw was Jorge Maysonet & Hugh “Buttons” Kearney. I’m typing from memory so I hope those names are right. Maysonet blasted Kearney out with maybe the 3rd punch he threw. Maybe 20 seconds total. I remember a lot Blue Horizon & Rocking Rodney Moore. Fun times. I’ve told this story several times here but I remember in one week watching Tuesday fights & Top Rank on ESPN. Then Saturday there were fights on ABC, NBC, & a Tyson fight on HBO. Sunday, there was a fight on CBS. That was a great time to get hooked on the sport. Such fond memories.
I went to Tyson-Spinks (all 91 seconds lol, but the undercard wasn’t bad) and we got there a few days early. Saw live and in person: Special edition of Tuesday Night Fights: Featuring George Foreman Special edition of Tuesday Night Fights: Featuring Hector Camacho CBS: Azumah Nelson vs. Lupe Suarez (WBC super featherweight title) The USA Network cards were fairly abbreviated, but Lindell Holmes won on the Foreman undercard, Felix Camacho’s debut on Hector’s undercard, Julian Jackson (KO1) on the Nelson undercard. And on the Tyson-Spinks undercard there was this guy named Buster Douglas who had a really good jab (vs. Mike Williams in a really good performance), Trevor Berbick vs. Carl Williams, not to mention Razor Ruddock and Maurice Blocker. Those were the days.
I went in person to a few, but sadly not as much as I wanted to. Mine were Wilfredo Gomez KO2 Jose Luis Soto (Telemundo Puerto Rico) Orlando Maldonado KO1 Juan Bruno (not televised, this fight is not on the boxrec database so I guess the Puerto Rican Commision did not record it as having taken place but I was there) Edwin Rosario W12 Jose Luis Ramirez (ABC and Televicentro Puerto Rico, with an appearance by a young and unknown Julio Cesar Chavez sr, I saw him fight in person and had no idea I was watching who in time would become #4 p4p of all time in my list!!!) Jose De Jesus KO2 Fernando Rivera (not televised) Azumah Nelson KO11 Gomez (ABC and Telemundo Puerto Rico) Alberto Mercado KO2 Luis Perez (not televised) Michael Carbajal W12 Josue Camacho (ESPN) Kostya Tszyu KO3 Sharmba Mitchell (the rematch, Showtime) Those are the fights I attended in oerson so far.
Damn! Those fights must have been awesome! I've never been to a Tyson fight...but I've been to a lot of Cali and Vegas fights, probably the best one was Mosely vs Margarito....had nearly ringside seats for about $100
Well you know, the early fights.... Puerto Rico in that era was something else! We had Delta, Air France and Pan Am at the airport, we (the younger ones like me specially) had Menudo's music and then Michael Jackson came over, KISS, Duran Duran, heck my parents took me at age 9 to a free concert Menudo offered in San Juan (it was free because their organizers figured, singing free would help their then recently released Quiero Ser album and it did; in weeks their single Subete a mi Moto was #1 on the airwaves and the album sold about 5 million copies, not bad considering it was a Spanish language album, 500,000 copies in the 3 million people Puerto Rico alone!) Disney was considering opening a resort in the island and Popeye's Taco Bell and another brand were also considering entering the island. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, it was a good time for the island economically, singers and musical acts, actors and movie producing companies and other industries knew this, and boxing promoters knew this as well. Me? I was ten in 1983, I loved Menudo, I loved boxing and airplanes too. Thats all my little girlie butt cared about lol )oh and a couple girls on the neighborhood that I thought were cute but thats another topic) I bugged my grandpa and my dad to take me to every fight there was. There were at least one hundred live boxing programs in Puerto Rico between 1981 and 1986, if not 200. The whole 1973 to 1989ish era is known in Puerto Rico as the golden era of live boxing there. Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran and Alexis Arguello all had main events there vs NON-Puerto Ricans, can you imagine that? San Juan actually competed with New York and Las Vegas for major fights! But I was a baby when Ali, Duran and Arguello came. Heck I was 5 when Gomez fought Carlos Zarate, the entire island knew and I was just happy to be playing with my Fisher Price Little People toys that night LOL! (Funny story, I actually knew Ali and Earnie Shavers already at the time, and I kid you not, the bald black man toy on the Fisher Price line, I actually called him Earnie Shavers! LOL) BUT, the era I am talking about, from when I was 10 on, I could have gone to so many fights, down from main events like Bernabe Concepcion vs whatever to probably the biggest fight, socially wise, of that era (1981-86) in San Juan, which was Gomez versus Rocky Lockridge. Every Friday or Saturday there was something, if not in San Juan, then in Caguas, or Guaynabo (which saw a few world title fights) or Bayamon or Aguadilla and Ponce. The latter two were so far away from where I live at by car, that I kid you not, there were commercial passenger flights between San Juan and them, an airline named Arrow Air actually had huge, 300 passenger DC-10 aircraft between San Juan and Aguadilla, and there were hotels in those cities, many of them filled with Puerto Rican tourists because as I said, driving back to San Juan at night during that era was not recommended (I should know, my family and me stayed at those hotels a few times during our trips to those areas of the island) so going there and then driving back in the middle of the obscure Puerto Rican mountains at night during that era? No-no. But there was always someone fighting somewhere in Puerto Rico then. Many of those bouts were made by a company named Salinas Sports Promotions, whose main manager and promoter was the not always likeable Pepe Cordero. Years later I met him by accident in Arizona and even though we said hi to each other and he did cordially answer my salute, I did not bother asking him for an autograph because he looked not in a good mood. But yeah I only went to see those, but like you said, I am honored to have seen those guys fight in person!!
