The glory days of televised boxing in America have gone, never to return. But there was a reminder of the past when the National Broadcasting Corporation announced a series of three shows on Saturday afternoons in May.
The NBC network has a relationship with Main Events of New Jersey for the shows. Main Events isn’t expecting to make a lot of money but gets rising stars such as Rocky Juarez, Juan Diaz, Panchito Bojado, Kermit Cintron and Nate Campbell (if you can call a 31-year-old a prospect) exposed to a wider viewing audience.
For NBC, it is an opportunity to test the boxing waters again after a long absence and without huge expenditure.
Kathy Duva, the CEO of Main Events, says there is a gulf between what the Americans call “basic cable” (where networks such as ESPN2 and Fox Sports come as part of a programming package) and what she calls the “major leagues”, which would be the big pay-per-view shows. I would include Home Box Office’s World Championship Boxing series as major league.
Duva sees the NBC series as filling the gap. “We want to revisit boxing on network TV like it was in the old days,” she said when announcing the series.
Even with such a modest schedule it is indeed good to see boxing back on network TV, which is also called free TV in that it is supported by commercials, not by subscription, and can be seen anywhere in the U.S. (Some basic cable networks are not universally available; the Spanish-language Telefutura network with its weekly boxing shows is not part of the programming package everywhere).
However, the great days for the so-called armchair fan are gone forever.
Those were the days of the famous Friday Night Fights (plus at least two other TV fight nights) in the 1950s and the plethora of boxing dates on the three U.S. networks, NBC, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the late 1970s and into the ’80s.
TV boxing drifted to the cable sector, essentially, when the three free networks found that boxing was becoming less attractive to mainstream advertisers.
ABC experimented with a summer series of Saturday afternoon fights in the late 1990s but the interest was not sustained. Now comes the latest venture, after more than a decade. The last show on NBC I can remember seeing was Michael Carbajal winning by knockout in a junior flyweight title bout on 8 December 1990. I was in Atlantic City for Mike Tyson’s blowout of Alex Stewart that night and was able to watch the Carbajal fight in my hotel room in the afternoon before tramping down the Boardwalk to the Convention Center to watch the Tyson show.
These days, it isn’t so easy to watch TV boxing when on a road trip. For instance, there are only three hotels in the Las Vegas strip vicinity, to my knowledge, that carry ESPN2 (with its Friday Night Fights series) as part of the programming
package. So, here we go again with boxing on a major network. Whether it extends beyond three dates remains to be seen. Fans can only wait and hope.
American TV boxing has a special affection for me. I have to admit it sustained me when I moved from Britain more than 20 years ago. I missed the British boxing scene. But the upside was getting to see fighters such as Roberto Duran, Victor Galindez, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Danny “Little Red” Lopez and Alexis Arguello and so many more live on TV.
And this was when British fans were not getting to see any of these fighters on television. For me, it became one those tradeoffs that many of us experience in life. And, frankly, a bit of nostalgia for the old network-TV boxing days resurfaced when NBC’s deal with Main Events was announced. Time for a look back through the files to the way it was. I chose May 1980. Here’s what the American TV fight fan was able to enjoy on the three free networks 23 years ago:
Saturday, 3 May: Thomas Hearns, undefeated and gunning for a shot at Pipino Cuevas for the welter title, appears in his Detroit hometown and blows out Nicaraguan Eddie Gazo in the first round at the Cobo Arena. Gazo, a former WBA light-middle champ, flails crudely and gets drilled. Two knockdowns, the second of which sees the 30-year-old Gazo sent through the ropes. Afterwards Hearns is told that his estranged father died the day before.
Also on 3 May: Leon Spinks, former heavyweight champ pursuing another shot at the title, overwhelms journeyman Kevin Isaacs in the eighth but isn’t impressive against a cagey opponent.
Sunday, 4 May: Olympic gold medallist Leo Randolph hammers much more experienced Colombian Ricardo Cardona in the 15th and last round at Seattle, Washington, to capture the WBA title in the 8st 10lbs (122lbs) division.
Randolph, from neighbouring Tacoma, Washington, outpunches the taller champion, who suffers a swollen right eye. The end comes with Cardona on the ropes, exhausted, as Randolph bangs away. Randolph gives a career-best performance on a show promoted by big spender Harold “Ross Fields” Smith and his Muhammad Ali Professional Sports (MAPS) outfit. I was at the show but had the VCR timer set for two other shows that day.
Also on 4 May: Up-and-coming light-heavy Michael Spinks wins his 12th consecutive pro fight with a unanimous 10-round decision over veteran Murray Sutherland at Kiamesha Lake, New York, but the Scots-born Canadian, down in the eighth and swollen under the left eye, grittily fights back in the last two rounds.
Also on 4 May: Unbeaten Philadelphia middleweight Curtis Parker retains his United States Boxing Association title with a unanimous 12-round decision over crafty Mike Colbert, from Portland, Oregon, in Atlantic City. The 21-year-old Parker makes it 17 wins in a row; too strong for the veteran. Two of the judges are former middleweights of the 1950s, Ernie Durando and Milo Savage.
Sunday, 11 May: Matthew Saad Muhammad turns up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a defence of his WBC light-heavyweight title against Louis Pergaud, a southpaw from Cameroon who boxes out of Germany. It’s a typical Saad Muhammad fight. The always-exciting Philadelphia warrior, once known as Matthew Franklin, gets hit by left-handers but shrugs them off and hurts the lanky challenger to the body. All over in the fifth when Pergaud gets up unsteadily from a knockdown.
Saturday, 16 May: Marvin Hagler, the number one middleweight contender and closing in on a title fight with Britain’s Alan Minter, is given a stubborn argument by durable, lanky Mexican Marcos Geraldo but wins a unanimous 10-round decision at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. Geraldo gives and takes to make this a competitive fight. Hagler switches from the southpaw stance to an orthodox style several times. He misses a bit wildly with right hooks but his right jab slams Geraldo’s head back.
No knockdowns, but Hagler comes on strong in the last three rounds. Each of the three judges has Geraldo winning three rounds, so the Mexican was in the fight until Hagler overpowered him down the stretch.
Sunday, 25 May: Heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney pounds out his 23rd win in a row (18 inside the limit) with a bloody four-rounds stoppage over veteran former world title challenger Jimmy Young at Convention Hall in Atlantic City. Big left hooks hurt the 31-year-old Young, who is cut severely over the right eye in round three, seemingly from a left uppercut, and blood flows. By the fourth the white trunks of the 23-year-old Cooney have turned crimson and his body punches have Young bending from the waist. Young’s corner pulls him out at the end of the round. CBS TV analyst Gil Clancy says: “It may sound sacrilegious, but Cooney hits as hard as Joe Louis.”
Also on 25 May: The cameras of the NBC network go behind prison walls at the Rahway penitentiary in New Jersey, where life-sentence inmate James Scott, a light-heavyweight who has won a series of fights while incarcerated, meets a straight-ahead Philadelphia contender, Jerry “The Bull” Martin. Scott has 19 wins in a row and with his shaven skull and mean manner is almost as intimidating as the bleak penitentiary surroundings.
But Martin steams right into him, drops Scott in the opening round and blasts him down with a right-hander in the second for another mandatory eight count. But Scott is game and fights back in a fiercely contested, give and take battle, even rocking The Bull in the sixth. But Martin is too strong, pinning Scott on the ropes and digging to the body. The unanimous win for Martin after 10 rounds is beyond dispute. The unlikely journey of Scott that he hoped would lead him to the first world title fight to be held in a prison is over. But he takes it well and bears no hard feelings towards his conqueror, saying afterwards: “He’s a damned good fighter and God bless him.”
Sunday, 31 May: Marty Monroe, a stylish heavyweight from Los Angeles with one loss in 23 bouts and considered a prospect, knocks out the 16lbs heavier Lynn Ball in the fifth round in El Paso, Texas. Ball, an erratic banger who had knocked out former contender Ron Lyle in two rounds five months earlier, goes down twice in the first round but is fighting back when drilled with a big right in the fifth.
Not bad, was it? The chance to see fighters such as Hearns, Hagler, Cooney, the Spinks brothers and Matthew Saad Muhammad all in the same month, plus the prison fight between James Scott and Jerry “The Bull” Martin and the Leo Randolph-Ricardo Cardona title bout — and other shows.
Great days. Gone, but definitely not forgotten.
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