Amateur boxing action TODAY!

Just a reminder. Be sure to come to Schenectady High School today for some serious amateur boxing action!

TODAY!!  November 17, 2012 @ 5:00 p.m.

Schenectady High School
1445 The Plaza
Schenectady, NY 12308

See you there!! – MR

 

Imam and Bryan win big in Florida

No details on this yet, folks, but I wanted to pass on the good news that Albany’s Amir Imam (6-0, 5 KOs) and Trevor Bryan (5-0, 4 KOs) did it again at Miama Jai Alai Fronton in Miami, FL.

Light welterweight Imam defeated Cincinnati’s Tony Walker (5-2-1 3 KOs) in a 2nd round TKO, while heavyweight Bryan sent Philadelphia’s Lee Hassan (4-3) to the canvas in the 3rd round of their 6 round contest.

Congratulations to our two undefeated Albany stars!

Imam and Bryan: Lock and load

In case you’ve forgotten what two of Albany’s finest look like, here are some shots from the weigh-in for tonight’s bouts at the Miama Jai Alai Fronton in Miami, FL.

Albany’s own Amir Imam (5-0, 4 KOs) and Trevor Bryan (4-0, 3 KOs) are looking to continue their undefeated ways. Light welterweight Imam will face Cincinnati’s Tony Walker (5-1-1 3 KOs) and heavyweight Bryan will fight Philadelphia’s Lee Hassan (4-2).

Imam. 140-pounds nobody should mess with.

Trevor Bryan, slimmed down and ready at 224-pounds.

Trevor Bryan and Lee Hassan

Amir Imam and Tony Walker

The Team

Peaceful Warriors: boxing lessons are life lessons

Check out my Troy Record column today. Peaceful Warriors is a partnership between Schenectady Youth Boxing & Fitness and Schenectady High School. Every year a cadre of young students learn that what it takes to be in the ring can make you a success outside of it.

And come to the terrific amateur card at the High School THIS Saturday! “Boxing for Peace: Do it in the Ring” is a fundraiser for Peaceful Warriors and will bring together the finest amateurs in the Region and from as far away as Buffalo and Connecticut.

The bouts start at 5:00 p.m. at the School (The Plaza), Schenectady, NY 12308  ($10 in advance, $15 at the door, $5 student I.D.) For more information, call SYB at 377-1811.

Albany’s Amir Imam and Trevor Bryan in action TOMORROW

Amir Imam, Trevor Bryan and some guy in the middle:)

Albany’s own Amir Imam (5-0, 4 KOs) and Trevor Bryan (4-0, 3 KOs) will be looking to continue their undefeated ways tomorrow night when they return to action at the Miami Jai Alai Fronton in Miama, FL.

Light welterweight Imam will face Cincinnati’s Tony Walker (5-1-1 3 KOs) and heavyweight Bryan will fight Philadelphia’s Lee Hassan (4-2).

Amir was talked about in the online version of Ring Magazine recently. That makes the second time he’s been in the Bible of Boxing. Bryan has been there once. I know because I put them there.

 

 

Jude Killar is a winner

Kudos to CBS 6 news for doing a spot on one of the most remarkable kids I know. Jude Killar is 16, comes to Schott’s Gym regualarly, and let me tell you, I would not want to be on the receiving end of one of those right hands.

Learn about Jude here

Amateur boxing: schedule of events

USA Boxing Adirondack Region
Scheduled Events

Saturday , November 17, 2012
Match Bouts
Schenectady High School
1445 The Plaza
Schenectady, NY 12308
Weigh-in: 2:00 pm
Bout Time: 5:00 pm
Contact: Vince Kittle

Saturday , November 24, 2012
Match Bouts
Troy Boys & Girls Club
1700 7th Avenue
Troy, NY 12180
Weigh-in: 4:00 pm
Bout Time: 7:00 pm
Contact: Hector Bermudez/Billy Growick

Saturday, December 8, 2012
Senior LBC Box-Off
Whitehall Athletic Club
62 Poultney Street
Whitehall, NY 12871
Weigh-in: 4:00 pm
Bout Time: 7:00 pm
Contact: Bob Miller

December 1-2, 2012
NYS Silver Gloves Championships
Wilson Foundation Academy
200 Genesee St.
Rochester, NY 14611
Weigh-in: 9:30 am
Bout Time: 1:30 am
Contact: Jerrick Jones

January 5-6, 2013
Silver Gloves NE Regional Championships
Oneonta Boys and Girls Club
70 River St.
Oneonta, NY 13820

January 30-February 2, 2013
Silver Gloves National Championships Independence, MO

RIP Carmen Basilio

Basilio drops Tony DeMarco at Boston Garden in December 1955. (PHOTO: Bettman/Corbis)

Carmen Basilio (56-16-7, 27 KOs), one of the toughest fighters to ever lace up a pair of gloves, died yesterday at 85. He lived in Irondequoit, just outside of Rochester

Basilio was the welterweight and middleweight champ in the 1950s, long before people gave much thought to how frequently you fought, or with what kind of soreness from the last time. Even in those days, there was nobody quite as savagely rugged as this guy.

They called him the “Upstate Onion Farmer.” You know how boxing nicknames go. His father came from Italy and worked the onion farms around Syracuse, and that was enough.

Basilio was my introduction to boxing. I’ve been trying to remember which fight it was, I think Johnny Saxon in 1957 but I can’t be sure. All I remember is being curled up on the couch with my father, watching something I’d never be able to entirely separate from.

In 2008, while I was working on a piece for Ring Magazine on boxing and race, I had gotten hold of Angelo Dundee to get his thoughts, given his vantage point as Ali’s trainer in the turbulent 60s. Within a few minutes the conversation shifted to Carmen Basilio. He brought it up. “He was my first champion,” Dundee said, and then proceeded to talk affectionately and for the longest time about somebody he said was one of the toughest people he’d ever known. I don’t have the exact words, but I know the phrase “fight anybody, anywhere, anytime” was in there more than once.

Basilio is perhaps best known for two brutal bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson. He won his middleweight title from Ray on September 23, 1957, then lost it the following March. In the re-match his left eye was closed from the 7th round on. Both fights were given Ring Magazine Fight of the Year honors.

Basilio was one of the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s first inductees in 1990. The Hall was basically built in his honor.

Although he never finished high school, Basilio taught physical education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse when he retired from the ring. “As a physical education instructor,” the website says, “Carmen drew students to classes with the magnet of a worldwide reputation, and earned their respect as a hard taskmaster who could be counted on to insist they constantly demand more of themselves.” I was friends with a guy who went to LeMoyne back then. He used to verify that last part all the time.

Toward the end of his career, Basilio told Sports Illustrated: “I don’t enjoy getting hurt, waking up with a puffed eye and pain, stiff all over. But you have to take the bitter with the sweet. The sweet is when guys recognize you on the street, say, ‘Hello, champ,’ know who you are. It will always be sweet for me.”

Carmen Basilio. It’s hard to believe he’s gone, but what a legacy.

Amatuer boxing: next stop Schenectady on 11/17

I’ll be putting out a reminder on this as the date approaches, but here’s a heads-up on an event you won’t want to miss:

Adirondack Association of USA Boxing presents…

Amateur Boxing
Saturday , November 17, 2012
Schenectady High School
1445 The Plaza
Schenectady, NY 12308
Weigh-in: 2:00 pm
Bout Time: 5:00 pm

Dedication of Billy Costello statue TOMORROW!

If you’re a boxing fan, take a drive to Kingston tomorrow, Saturday (11/3). Come to the intersection of Broadway, Albany Avenue and Colonel Chandler Drive at 2:00 p.m. There you’ll see a bunch of us around a white granite statue on a large grass median. Kingston is going to honor Billy Costello in a manner usually reserved for 18th century politicians nobody’s heard of.

This is different.

Billy was a real champion, not some alphabet soup one. He was the WBC light welterweight champ – 40-2, 23 KOs. For many of us, he’ll always be that larger than life figure from the mid-1980s who would hold his big fights at Kingston’s Midtown Neighborhood Center. He could have held them anywhere, but no, he wanted to bring them home – to Kingston, NY.

He fought the biggest names of the decade in the welterweight division: Leroy Haley, Saoul Mamby, Ronnie Shields, Bruce Curry, Juan LaPorte, even the late great Alexis Arguello. Billy Costello will always be a star to those of us who remember;  and Kingston, hell, they’d forget 9/11 before they’d forget Billy.

His life story was told in Thomas Hauser’s Black Lights (McGraw-Hill, 1986). “Old champions are often cherished by men who were young when they were,” Hauser wrote. “They bring back memories of things past and simpler times, like the most beautiful girl at a long-ago high school prom. But boxing’s mythic figures offer more than memories: they raise their sport to a level of myth and artistry known in few endeavors.” He’s right.

See you in Kingston.