Thursday, March 31, 2011
Colleagues remember legendary trainer Clancy - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports
Colleagues remember legendary trainer Clancy - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Greg Goossen . . .
By Rick Farris
I know people always say this when somebody dies, but it really could be true . . .
If there is a bar in heaven, Greg is currently holding court with the likes of Don Drysdale (an old friend), as well as Mickey Mantle and the Babe.
I tipped a few with Greg back in the 80's, but I couldn't keep up, and I certainly didn't try.
I was closest with Joe Goossen, but actually had more fun with Greg, who was one baseball player who could really fight.
I remember one Sunday morning around 1987. Joe had invited me to join he and Greg who were going to drive their only two amateurs, 16-year-old Gabriel Ruelas and his 15-year-old brother, Rafael, to an amateur fight card in Ventura. I agreed to meet them at the family's boxing gym, which at the time was located in the backyard of Greg's North Hollywood home. When I pull up to the house I see Joe sitting in his car in front of the house, with the two boxers waiting in the back seat. I park and walk up to the car and Joe invites me to take a seat in the back with Gabe & Rafa. A few minutes later Greg emerges from the house and takes a seat next to Joe. Greg looked like he had the worst hangover in history. He was unshaven, his voice gravely, "Let's get a move on!" he barks.
When we get to the Ventura Fairgrounds, we park and enter the building where the boxing was to take place.
Of course, all of the amateur boxing officials are walking around in their white shirts and pants, their noses in the air for some reason.
"I hate these bastards," Greg said. He then looked at the two fighters and reminded them, "You guys fight like pros and these guys don't like that. You have to knock out your opponents or they will score against you."
The place was crowded and we were looking for the dressing area. Greg approaches one of the officials in a white uniform, "Hey pal, where is the fighter's dressing room?"
The official looked at Greg, scruffy and obviously hung over. He rolled his eyes and with a disapproving look he answered, "You mean the 'boxers' dressing room, we don't have fighters here."
Greg began to laugh and said, "Well I have two fighters here, and if their opponents today can't fight, they're going to get knocked out!"
The official looked horrified, and Joe and I started to laugh.
A little later in the afternoon, both Gabe and Rafael Ruelas scored first round knockouts.
I know people always say this when somebody dies, but it really could be true . . .
If there is a bar in heaven, Greg is currently holding court with the likes of Don Drysdale (an old friend), as well as Mickey Mantle and the Babe.
I tipped a few with Greg back in the 80's, but I couldn't keep up, and I certainly didn't try.
I was closest with Joe Goossen, but actually had more fun with Greg, who was one baseball player who could really fight.
I remember one Sunday morning around 1987. Joe had invited me to join he and Greg who were going to drive their only two amateurs, 16-year-old Gabriel Ruelas and his 15-year-old brother, Rafael, to an amateur fight card in Ventura. I agreed to meet them at the family's boxing gym, which at the time was located in the backyard of Greg's North Hollywood home. When I pull up to the house I see Joe sitting in his car in front of the house, with the two boxers waiting in the back seat. I park and walk up to the car and Joe invites me to take a seat in the back with Gabe & Rafa. A few minutes later Greg emerges from the house and takes a seat next to Joe. Greg looked like he had the worst hangover in history. He was unshaven, his voice gravely, "Let's get a move on!" he barks.
When we get to the Ventura Fairgrounds, we park and enter the building where the boxing was to take place.
Of course, all of the amateur boxing officials are walking around in their white shirts and pants, their noses in the air for some reason.
"I hate these bastards," Greg said. He then looked at the two fighters and reminded them, "You guys fight like pros and these guys don't like that. You have to knock out your opponents or they will score against you."
The place was crowded and we were looking for the dressing area. Greg approaches one of the officials in a white uniform, "Hey pal, where is the fighter's dressing room?"
The official looked at Greg, scruffy and obviously hung over. He rolled his eyes and with a disapproving look he answered, "You mean the 'boxers' dressing room, we don't have fighters here."
Greg began to laugh and said, "Well I have two fighters here, and if their opponents today can't fight, they're going to get knocked out!"
The official looked horrified, and Joe and I started to laugh.
A little later in the afternoon, both Gabe and Rafael Ruelas scored first round knockouts.
Greg Goosen's advice for Rafael Ruelas ...
By Rick Farris
Unbeaten Rafa is scheduled to face his biggest challenge to date, former world champ Jorge Paez.
Ruelas appears hesitant during a sparring session with an awkward sparring partner.
Greg tells him between rounds, "If you give Paez the upper hand, he will punch the sh*t out of you..."
Rafa floored his sparring partner twice in the next round.
Shortly afterwards, he knocked out Jorge Paez.
Unbeaten Rafa is scheduled to face his biggest challenge to date, former world champ Jorge Paez.
Ruelas appears hesitant during a sparring session with an awkward sparring partner.
Greg tells him between rounds, "If you give Paez the upper hand, he will punch the sh*t out of you..."
Rafa floored his sparring partner twice in the next round.
Shortly afterwards, he knocked out Jorge Paez.
"Whos' fighting?"
By Bennie
"Whos' fighting?" Enzo Maccarinelli once asked me in the bowels of the Newport Leisure Centre, as two men duked it out in the ring early in the evening. "Nathan Cleverly," to which Enzo immediately dashed to the seating area to watch his novice of a stablemate outscoring Armenia's Varuzhan Davtyan in a four-rounder.
It was clear that Enzo held great affection for young Nathan but things have changed since that dark November night in 2006 as Maccarinelli, a Welsh fighing hero back then, finds himself desperately clinging on to the sport as Cleverly, the new Welsh hope, challenges for the WBO light-heavyweight title at Wembley Arena on May 21, although both fighters are still friends and stablemates, if trained by different men.
Maccarinelli suffered a brutal seven-round knockout at the hands of Germany's Alexander Frenkel in his last outing, after which there were inevitable calls for his retirement. The 30-year-old Swansea man, a pro since 1999, had already survived an early career knockout to unlikely Lincoln southpaw Lee Swaby to prove himself a world class cruiserweight and a world class puncher, and even after three losses in close proximity - many years later - to Denis Lebedev, Ola Afolabi and David Haye, big Enzo came back to win the European cruiserweight style with a stunning first-round knockout in Russia. However, the Frenkel knockout looked 'career over'.
Instead, after talks with his promoter F rank Warren, Maccarinelli drops down to light-heavyweight in a third attempt to resurrect his career after and already there is talk of him challenging the unbeaten 24-year-old Cleverly, if Cleverly comes through against Germany's dangerous Juergen Braehmer in that WBO title encounter in May, and there is no guarantee of that.
Of course, how strong will Maccarinelli be at his new weight? He was a giant of a cruiserweight at 6ft 4ins, a bit fleshy perhaps, yes, but to drop all the way down from 14st 4lbs to 12st 7lbs without weakening himself, without taking away his noted power, remain the moot questions and the crux of his future aspirations.
I like Maccarinelli: he comes to fight and, win or lose, he is fun to watch at 32-5 (25), your classic big puncher with a classic big puncher's chin. You know, for a moment there I remembered such men as Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson. What's not to like?
"Whos' fighting?" Enzo Maccarinelli once asked me in the bowels of the Newport Leisure Centre, as two men duked it out in the ring early in the evening. "Nathan Cleverly," to which Enzo immediately dashed to the seating area to watch his novice of a stablemate outscoring Armenia's Varuzhan Davtyan in a four-rounder.
It was clear that Enzo held great affection for young Nathan but things have changed since that dark November night in 2006 as Maccarinelli, a Welsh fighing hero back then, finds himself desperately clinging on to the sport as Cleverly, the new Welsh hope, challenges for the WBO light-heavyweight title at Wembley Arena on May 21, although both fighters are still friends and stablemates, if trained by different men.
Maccarinelli suffered a brutal seven-round knockout at the hands of Germany's Alexander Frenkel in his last outing, after which there were inevitable calls for his retirement. The 30-year-old Swansea man, a pro since 1999, had already survived an early career knockout to unlikely Lincoln southpaw Lee Swaby to prove himself a world class cruiserweight and a world class puncher, and even after three losses in close proximity - many years later - to Denis Lebedev, Ola Afolabi and David Haye, big Enzo came back to win the European cruiserweight style with a stunning first-round knockout in Russia. However, the Frenkel knockout looked 'career over'.
Instead, after talks with his promoter F rank Warren, Maccarinelli drops down to light-heavyweight in a third attempt to resurrect his career after and already there is talk of him challenging the unbeaten 24-year-old Cleverly, if Cleverly comes through against Germany's dangerous Juergen Braehmer in that WBO title encounter in May, and there is no guarantee of that.
Of course, how strong will Maccarinelli be at his new weight? He was a giant of a cruiserweight at 6ft 4ins, a bit fleshy perhaps, yes, but to drop all the way down from 14st 4lbs to 12st 7lbs without weakening himself, without taking away his noted power, remain the moot questions and the crux of his future aspirations.
I like Maccarinelli: he comes to fight and, win or lose, he is fun to watch at 32-5 (25), your classic big puncher with a classic big puncher's chin. You know, for a moment there I remembered such men as Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson. What's not to like?
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