Joe Cortez was born on October 13, 1945 in Harlem, New York. He had a successful amateur boxing career that included several Golden Gloves titles. In 1963, he turned pro and compiled a record of 10-1 before retiring. He spent many years as a hotel executive before starting to referee fights in 1977. He quickly […]

When I sat down to watch Lennox Lewis fight Tommy Morrison on October 7, 1995, HBO called the fight a tossup in the opening promos. I laughed out loud because quite frankly I thought it would be a blowout in favor of Lennox. Tommy had a history of a subject chin and when he was

Ray Leonard had signed to fight contender Kevin Howard on February 25, 1984, but the fight was postponed until May. An exam  by Massachusetts doctors discovered that the retina in Ray’s eye was loose and needed surgery. His originally injured left eye passed the examination with flying colors, and the bout was set for May

After announcing his retirement from boxing in November of 1982, Sugar Ray Leonard faded from the boxing scene. He still was a color man for CBS and HBO so he was still involved in the sport, but no longer the star attraction. In his absence, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns tried to fill the void,

Not longer after his fight with Roger Stafford in May was cancelled, Sugar Ray revealed that he had first hurt his eye in training for Thomas Hearns in September of 1981. No symptoms prevented him from fighting however, and he knocked out Bruce Finch in February of 1982 rather easily.  In training for Stafford however,

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

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