Sugar Ray Leonard was scheduled to make the second defense of his unified welterweight championship against Roger Stafford in Buffalo, New York on May 14th, 1982. I was worked for a Philadelphia airline at the time, and flew up to see Ray train at the Hilton hotel in Buffalo. Flying stand-by, I was required to […]
My First Training Camp Read More »
When the movie Rocky Balboa was released just before Christmas in 2006, I was one of the first to see it. It had been 16 long years since Rocky V was released, and most figured the series was over. Sylvester Stallone was admittedly never happen with the way the whole thing ended, and wanted to
When Rocky V opened on November 16, 1990, boxing was at that point a huge part of my life. I remember seeing it the opening weekend at a local movie theatre, and was kind of disappointed in it. It starred young heavyweight Tommy Morrison as Tommy Gunn, a young protege that Rocky takes under his
When Rocky IV was released into movie theatres on Thanksgiving Eve of 1985, I was amongst the first in line to see it. I had been a serious boxing fan for more than five years, and nothing was more exciting to see in the movies than a Rocky movie. While it was good and the
By the time Rocky 3 was released in May 28th, 1982, boxing was a huge part of my life. Unlike the first two pictures, when I was anything but. The original movie, released in late 1976, I found depressing, and when I saw it in early 1977, I was more interested in baseball. When Rocky
The first time I went to see a fight in person was on Saturday, August 7, 1982 at the Spectrum in south Philadelphia. I left my job early from the airline job I had, and made it in plenty of time to see the main event. I paid $25 to see the rematch between Matthew
My First Live Fight I Attended Read More »
The first time I ever watched professional boxing match was on February 16, 1970. It was on Wide World of Sports ,and it was Joe Frazier vs. Jimmy Ellis in Madison Square Garden. Joe had been champ since 1968, while Jimmy Ellis had outpointed Jerry Quarry to win the WBA belt Ali had relinquished. Nothing
The First Fight I Watched Read More »
Mills Lane was born in Savannah, Georgia on November 12, 1937. He grew up in Massachusetts, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1956 and after his discharge in 1959, enlisted in the University of Nevada, Reno. He graduated with a business degree in 1963, and pursued a law degree right after. Mills started boxing
Ray Leonard had signed to fight the WBC super-welterweight champ Terry Norris on February 9. 1991 at Madison Square Garden in New York. It would be Leonard’s first fight at the Garden, and it also meant he was fighting at 154 pounds, the first time at that weight in almost 10 years. I personally didn’t
After the less than scintillating win over Duran in December of 1989, Ray was put on the shelf for months. The huge gash caused by the Duran right needed plastic surgery to repair, and Leonard couldn’t make any decisions on a next opponent. Michael Nunn was the middleweight champion of the world at the time,
