The Heavyweight Boxing Federation - Page 14

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 07:20 PM

"TEAM STRIBLING" IMPROVES TO 2-0
HEADLINING HBF'S FIRST VISIT TO ARGENTINA

Monday 4 March 2002

17 year-old Georgia native Young Stribling was victorious in his second professional bout tonight, taking a hard-fought unanimous decision verdict (58-56, 59-55, 58-56) against the resilient U.S.-based German fighter Willi Besmanoff.

In front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Luna Park in Beunes Aires, Argentina, Stribling was impressive in a main event that brought an end to a night of tough, if unspectacular, contests. Indeed, there were no awesome one-punch knockouts on this night. In fact, only one knockdown occured in all the fights combined. But it was anything but boring. The event was, above all else, a perfect illustration of the incredible level of competitiveness that exists in the Heavyweight Boxing Federation. It is something that the federation's directors and its president Michael Vincennes had hoped for from the moment they announced the organisation's formation back in August 2001.

Ever since Young Stribling's convincing debut victory in late January, the media have been referring to the #7 seed - along with his father William and mother Lucilla - as "Team Stribling". The story of how Young's parents trained him from an early age in anticipation of a successful sporting career made headlines the nation over, bringing a lot of positive publicity for the Stribling family. It led to a situation where, during the past five weeks, family-orientated lobby groups have been holding the Stribling family up as an ideal for others to strive towards. Speaking for the family, William Stribling had stated that they were not comfortable being placed on such a pedestal.

"Two months ago, none of you people knew who we were," William said. "Now, you're saying we are the perfect family. That just seems pretty crazy."

The Striblings have been bombarded with requests for interviews, but have turned down every one of them.

"We don't know these people at all," William Stribling said. "We do know that they all have an agenda, and that's something we don't want to become accidentally associated with."

And so the family has simply concentrated on what is really important. Their disciplined, single-minded effort in training Young for his second bout paid off big time.

The #7 seed's strategy of feinting with both hands was not as prevalent tonight as it had been on debut. Standing two inches taller than his opponent, Stribling simply wore Besmanoff down, and was close to finishing him off for good during a punishing fifth round. The German was cut badly over his right eye early in the sixth, but it wasn't serious enough to stop the fight.

Having been totally outclassed by Roland LaStarza on debut, Besmanoff didn't fair much better against Stribling. The 17 year-old Georgia native landed 157 punches to 95 in a performance that left no doubt about his claim as one of the top contenders in the World Championship tournament...

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 07:23 PM

UNDERCARD ACTION

Opening Bout

The night got off to a promising start when Dick Richardson of Wales took a split decision victory against Sweden's Olle Tandberg. It was an arm-wrestle from the outset, with the two combatants spending long periods of the bout fighting from in close, exchanging short, hard shots.

Neither man could seem to get the upper hand for more than one round, with both of them showing tremendous resilience and determination. Tandberg, the #26 seed in the 1st Defense tournament, was cut on two separate occasions: above the left eye in the second round, and on his right eyelid in the final round.

Considering the great effort the two fighters put in, it was a shame that there had to be a loser. But there was, and Richardson (42nd seed in the 1D tournament) took the verdict, 58-57, 57-59, 59-56.

Tandberg collapsed to the canvas in his corner after the announcement. He had been confident after the final bell that he would win the decision. The punch totals seemed to support his belief, as he landed 174 punches to 143. Much of that difference was due to the way in which he dominated the first and third rounds. But there were no knockdowns, so both of those rounds were only scored 10-9. Richardson was, in the opinion of most, slightly more dominant for the rest of the bout.

Tandberg's debut against California's Tom Kennedy had been a war, with the judges scoring it a draw. And so, the Swedish fighter was overwhelmed with frustration. He had fought hard in his opening two bouts, both against fighters seeded lower than him, and had come out on the other side without a victory.

Richardson, who lost by unanimous decision on debut against England's Don Cockell, is now 1-1.

Preliminary 1

Compared to the first, the second bout of the evening was more of a strategic battle. The 18th seed in the 1st Defense tournament, England's Don Cockell upped his record to 2-0 with a majority decision victory against Tom Kennedy of Woodland Hills, California.

Indeed, in quite a contrast to the opening bout, Cockell and Kennedy spent much of the six rounds at a distance, sniping at each other from long range.

As in his debut (a draw against Olle Tandberg) Tom Kennedy gave a good account of himself. The #34 seed could have been victorious if only he had shown more aggression during the late stages of the bout. Going into the fifth round, he was leading by a point on one card, with the other two judges having it even. But Cockell was the one who stepped up in the final two rounds, and as a result he took the verdict 58-56, 58-57, 57-57.

Kennedy now finds himself in the same position as Sweden's Olle Tandberg. After two competitive performances, he is 0-1-1.

Perhaps the only consolation for both Kennedy and Tandberg is that their next two bouts are against the lowest seeds in the group, Chicago's Bob Satterfield and England's Manny Burgo. It will be crucial for them to win both of those bouts if they are to have any chance of posing a threat to the group's top seeds, Doug Jones and Natie Brown...

Preliminary 2

Canada's Jack Renault was fuming in the minutes after his debut bout against England's Frank Bruno. Renault believed that he had done more than enough to win, yet found himself on the wrong side of a unanimous decision verdict. He had told both his opponent Bruno and the judges what he felt of the decision before leaving the ring in disgust. In the days that followed, he had presented a more humble visage. The Canadian said that after viewing the bout a number of times, he could understand why the judges scored the fight as they did. This was despite the fact that many watching in the arena had felt the same as he did. One ESPN analyst had gone as far as calling it "the worst decision given so far" in these HBF tournaments. Even so, Renault offered an apology to both Bruno and the judges for his behaviour.

Well, tonight Renault was once again on the losing end of a unanimous decision. But in this instance, it was a clear cut verdict. Against fellow Canadian Earl Walls (58th seed in the World Championship tournament), Renault started impressively. He led by a point on two of the judges cards through three rounds, and appeared to have his opponent's measure. But a poor showing in the fourth round, followed by a fierce assault by Walls in the second half of the fifth round literally lost the fight for him.

Walls sent Renault to the canvas with a single thunderous left hook thirty seconds from the end of the fifth (the only knockdown of the six bouts featured on the night). So in the space of two rounds, Renault had gone from leading by one point to being behind by two points. He went for the knockout in the final round, but his body simply could not do what his brain was demanding of it.

Each judge gave the same verdict: Walls, 58-55.

Following his debut victory against the Californian fighter Mac Foster, Walls is now 2-0. Renault (the 90th seed in the WC tournament) falls to 0-2. The tournament will not get any easier for him, with his next two bouts against the top seeds in the group, Young Stribling and Roland LaStarza.

Support Bout

21 year-old Englishman Frank Bruno didn't make the greatest start to his professional boxing career. Against Canada's Jack Renault he was, in the eyes of many, lucky to score a unanimous decision victory. Considered to be one of the five strongest fighters in the entire HBF, Bruno nonetheless struggled in that bout, and looked towards his second fight as a way of restoring some lost confidence.

Indeed, some wondered what Bruno's second bout would show ... Did he just have a bad night against Renault? Or was that performance a true indication of his abilities?

Well, unfortunately for Bruno, it appears that the answer is the latter.

Tonight, Bruno put on another ordinary display as he was held to a draw by the #74 seed in the World Championship tournament, Mac Foster of Fresno, California. Honestly, Bruno was lucky that he went the distance. In just the second round, Foster had the Englishman out on his feet after a three minute barrage. If that round had lasted for perhaps another thirty seconds, Bruno would have found himself on the canvas. To his credit, the 42nd seed was able to claw his way back into the fight, bullying the smaller Foster during the next three rounds and landing some damaging shots in the fifth. But Foster would not go away, and he actually finished the fight stronger, with all three judges giving him the final round.

The scorecards were 58-56 (Foster), 57-57, 57-57. The Californian couldn't hide his jubilation, while Bruno simply leaned on the ropes, shaking his head in dismay.

Being the 3rd seed in Group Seven of the WC tournament, Bruno's next two bouts will be against the lowest seeds in the group. That is perhaps the only positive thing for him to look forward to at the moment. Other fighters in this tournament have put in courageous performances and have nothing to show for it, performances that would put Bruno to shame. He has managed to stay undefeated while displaying little of the potential HBF officials saw in him back in October.

Defeated by Canada's Earl Walls on debut, Foster is now 0-1-1.

Co-Feature

Roland LaStarza remained undefeated as he took a unanimous decision victory over the stubborn Boston native Dan Flynn. The fight was closer than the 59-56, 60-55, 59-56 verdict indicated, with LaStarza landing 171 punches to 147. Flynn was able to cut the #26 seed midway through the second round, but LaStarza's corner was able to neutralise the problem during the intermission.

Flynn deserves some praise for his performance, especially during the even-numbered rounds where he really did hold his own. It was the aggression he showed in those rounds that led some to question why the verdict had not been closer.

Both of LaStarza's fights have featured controversy in regards to scoring. In his debut he was dominant, but the cards told otherwise. Tonight, it was a much more even affair, but again, the verdict did not reflect this. Regardless, no one would deny that LaStarza deserves to be 2-0.

LaStarza was animated and talkative after the bout.

"I just have to keep winning," LaStarza said. "This Stribling kid is only seventeen. He's the youngest of all the fighters in the World Championship top ten. That's gotta be pressure for him. He's the one who is expected to win the group, which is good for me. I've got the tools to defeat him and when we meet, I'll show him why it's not a good idea for kids to play adult games."

If that's not laying down the gauntlet, I don't know what is...

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 07:26 PM

SUMMARY OF RESULTS
HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING FEDERATION FIGHT CARD
MONDAY 4 MARCH 2002
LUNA PARK, BEUNES AIRES, ARGENTINA

OPENING BOUT

HBF 1st Defense Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
6(42) Dick Richardson SD6 4(26) Olle Tandberg

PRELIMINARY 1

HBF 1st Defense Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
3(18) Don Cockell MD6 5(34) Tom Kennedy

PRELIMINARY 2

HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
4(58) Earl Walls UD6 6(90) Jack Renault

SUPPORT BOUT

HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
3(42) Frank Bruno D6 5(74) Mac Foster

CO-FEATURE

HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
2(26) Roland LaStarza UD6 8(122) Dan Flynn

MAIN EVENT

HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven
1(7) Young Stribling UD6 7(106) Willi Besmanoff

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 07:30 PM

LISTON IS THE MAIN ATTRACTION IN LANARKSHIRE

Tuesday 5 March 2002

Since his arrival in Scotland on Friday, Sonny Liston has been the centre of attention.

The 21 year-old St. Louis, Missouri resident has displayed some awesome form during his training sessions, showing the type of punching power that has led many to refer to him as "The Missouri Monster".

The #2 seed in the Heavyweight Boxing Federation's World Championship tournament, Liston has been accomodating with the Scottish media, in stark contrast to his frustrations with American scribes during the past month. Their intrusions became so irritating that Liston left his St. Louis camp and was actually declared missing for almost two weeks.

Taking a break from his preparation for this Saturday's night bout against Chicago's Phil Scott, Liston sat down for a chat with the Glasgow Herald's Patrick Buchanan.

***

BUCHANAN: Firstly, Sonny, I'd like to welcome you to Lanarkshire and thank you for giving me this opportunity to chat with you.

LISTON: Well, thank you very much. We really feel welcome here. My trainer Red and I, it's just 'lot more comfortable here than back home, I guess.

BUCHANAN: There was a lot made of your recent "disappearance" back in America. Could you elaborate a little on how that came about?

LISTON: (sighing) There was just a lot of pressure bein' put on me. You see, what I just said before, about being comfortable here in Scotland. You fellas, you're all watching me train, but you don't interfere. That's a total contrast to back home, where it was just nuts. It made it very hard for me to train, to train effectively, I should say. There were so many requests for interviews, guys tryin' to interview me while I was sparring, even. It just got to be too much, so I split for a little while.

BUCHANAN: Did that help you with your training?

LISTON: Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. I was staying with a friend, someone I've known since I was young. They were really helpful. Helped me get some peace and quiet, helped me to concentrate on my goals for this upcoming bout.

BUCHANAN: I'd like to ask you about that fight, actually. Your opponent Phil Scott fought a hell of a fight on debut. A lot of people have said that he was robbed of a victory against Michael Dokes. They've said that you'll have to be careful, because he is one gutsy competitior.

LISTON: (nodding) I've watched that Dokes-Scott bout maybe half-a-dozen times. If I'd been scoring it, I'd have given it to Scott by two points. He's a competitor, for sure. But, you look through this whole tournament, through the 1D tournament aswell and even the feeder leagues. Everyone here is just busting their butt to compete, to succeed. There's no way I'm going to take this guy lightly.

BUCHANAN: There are a number of fighters in the federation who have garnered a lot of publicity, fighters who have become celebrities. Guys like Jack Johnson, Elmer Ray. Now, you have also become famous because of your status in the HBF. People are just fascinated by the staggering punching power you possess. But you have steered clear of the celebrity lifestyle. What do you think of these other fighters?

LISTON: (pauses for a time before answering) I got no problem with them. But that definitely ain't my thing, you know? I ain't got the desire to be like that, to be in the spotlight all the time. I'm not a movie star, I'm a fighter. This is what the life I've lived has brought me to.

BUCHANAN: It's interesting that you should say that, because I've heard that if you hadn't served time in prison, you might never have discovered boxing.

LISTON: (nodding) That's absolutely true.

BUCHANAN: Do you mind if I ask you a question about your younger years?

LISTON: No, not at all. You know, some of the things that happened, I ain't proud of. But they happened.

BUCHANAN: What kind of influence did your father have when you were growing up?

LISTON: (laughing) A negative one. Seriously, the only thing that man ever gave me was a whipping. That's the nicest thing I can say about him. He was a harsh man, not affectionate at all. We had a large family, but it seemed to me like he'd have been happier without us. He took out his anger on us.

BUCHANAN: Do you think that his treatment of you was at all responsible for your problems with the law?

LISTON: (shakes head "no") No. I don't wanna give that man the satisfaction of having anything to do with the path I went down. I made those choices myself. No one was responsible for it but me. But like you said before, it led me into boxing. So, it has turned out to be a ... how do you say it? A blessing in disguise.

BUCHANAN: Your trainer Willie Reddish recently said that you aren't in boxing for the money. Is that true?

LISTON: (laughing) No, it ain't true. I don't know where Willie got that from. I want to make money from this opportunity, just like everyone else. You know, I still have a good relationship with my mother. If I'm successful in boxing, I can provide for her for the rest of her life. That would be nice. But, you know, just besides the money aspect, I do have a desire to be the best. Some people in sports just look at it as a business. Now, obviously, part of it is. But I want more out of this than just money. I don't think there is another sport in the world that can test a man like boxing.

BUCHANAN: Well, Sonny, thank you so much for talking with me today. I really hope you are successful on saturday night, and for the rest of your career. I think everyone in Lanarkshire would agree with me on that.

LISTON: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Buchanan. I'm looking forward to the fight, and I really hope that the HBF can schedule another visit here in the future. Thanks.

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 07:41 PM

PRESIDENT VINCENNES SPEAKS,
LIVE FROM PITTSBURGH

Wednesday 6 March 2002

HBF President Michael Vincennes was a guest tonight on ESPN's Wednesday Night Boxing, which was broadcast live from the site of this evening's federation's fight card, the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

President Vincennes, along with a number of federation officials and boxers, arrived back in the United States on Sunday morning following a two-and-a-half week stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, during which the HBF staged two fight cards. David Nunn, the host of Wednesday Night Boxing, had quite a lengthy discussion with Vincennes, covering a number of topics. These included, amongst other things:

* The level of competitiveness in the federation's tournaments and feeder leagues. Vincennes stated how happy he was that a number of lower seeded fighters, such as Frank Slavin, Bert Whitehurst and Ron Stander, had made such successful starts to their HBF careers.

"It just confirms what I said back in November," Vincennes said. "It's become obvious that on any night, upsets can happen. The guys at the top, they really have to keep their wits about them. There really is no such thing as a guaranteed victory."

* The success of the federation's South African visit, and future plans for the African Boxing League.

"It was beyond our greatest expectations," said the federation president. "We've set into action a sporting league that will lead to hundereds of young men striving for an opportunity to succeed in boxing. Now, as for the future fight cards in the ABL, I would say it's about 75% certain that Johannesburg will host the second card. We are more than happy with that, but we will be seeking to hold talks with officials in other African nations, such as Nigeria."

* The Sonny Liston interview.

"Yes, we just heard the news of that this morning, actually. I think it's a really positive thing that he has opened up a bit, revealed some of himself to the public. And I think that some of our media back here in the States really should take some of his words to heart. The fact that he felt more comfortable in Scotland than in his own homeland is unfortunate."

* James Reynolds and the expansion of boxing.

"To be perfectly honest, I've barely thought about that topic since you and I spoke two weeks ago," said Vincennes. "James Reynolds stated on SportsCenter that these businessmen that approached me had planned another meeting with me. He said that, what ... almost three weeks ago? I've heard nothing from them. I've put it out of my mind. I'm only concerned with the HBF and making it the finest sporting competition the world over."

"Some people have speculated about why you didn't accept the offer for the HBF to go into a partnership with these businessmen," said Nunn. "Can you confirm for us why?"

Vincennes smiled. "There's a very simple answer to that question, Dave," he said. "You just called what they were offering a partnership. Now, way back on the 13th of February, when Mr. Reynolds published his story, I stated that certain aspects of what these businessmen were proposing were unacceptable. Now that I think about it, I was probably being a bit too kind to them. What they proposed was not a partnership. It was a takeover."

"So there's absolutely no chance that the federation will enter into an agreement with these businessmen?"

Vincennes laughed. "Not while I'm in charge."

* The last topic they spoke on was the popularity of Florida boxer Terone Haynes.

"When I heard that tickets to the Melbourne fight card had sold out in three hours, that just stunned me," Vincennes said. "This young man Terone Haynes, he's going to be a bigger star than even I envisioned, probably even bigger than his cousin Elmer Ray, and that's saying something."

"You don't think that you're looking a bit too far ahead with those sentiments, Mr. Vincennes?" said Nunn.

"No, I don't. These two young men, along with a number of other federation boxers, have already shown me enough to have me convinced that their futures will be nothing but bright."

***

Soon after, Vincennes excused himself, making his way to his front row seat, joining his wife there, ready to enjoy a night of exciting boxing...

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 08:01 PM

Okay, I've just entered 35 posts into this thread in the last hour or so, which was all the lost posts I was able to retrieve from google. That's taken me up to the 6th of March 2002 in my universe. Before the crash, I was at the 20th of March, so I've lost two weeks of universe time. That's not too bad. Lost all the stuff about Elmer Ray and "The Florida Alliance", which in hindsight might be a blessing in disguise because I was never really comfortable with the angle of Mercer sounding off on Ray. It just seemed out of character for him.

This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rewrite everything from the point in the previous post onwards. Luckily, there's a week where there are only two "feeder league" cards, so it won't take too long to get through that. It'll give me a chance to maybe change some things that had been written before. I'm going to hold off on the idea of a "Florida Alliance" for now. I'll probably introduce it into the story in a month or so of "universe time". Now, the two weeks that have been lost were quite eventful, but I'd like to get through them quickly so I can get back to the point I was at before the crash. There might be some mention of the HBF expansion issue, but besides that I'm going to focus more or less on the fight cards until I get to the 20th of March.

The next thing I'm going to do as an ABSOLUTE PRIORITY is copy and save every post in this thread into Word or Notepad.

I hope you all continue to follow along with me.

kc

CONN CHRIS · 09-30-2005, 08:26 PM

Good save, I am glad to see that you are going to carry on with it.

kenyan_cheena · 09-30-2005, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Good save, I am glad to see that you are going to carry on with it.

Thanks, Chris. Like I said some time ago, I'm in this for the long haul.

Gunsmoke · 10-01-2005, 12:50 PM

Excellent kc good to see the HBF continuing.

kenyan_cheena · 10-02-2005, 08:10 PM

Thanks, Gunsmoke.

Well, I've just saved each individual post in this thread into Notepad. I think I'll burn a copy of it onto a CD, aswell.

What I'm going to do is read through the thread from the beginning, just so I can get a better feel of where to go with it from here. I've read different individual posts in it many times, but never really from the beginning to the end. Of course, I have a vision planned out in my head of where I want to take it, but seeing as all the "Florida Alliance / James Reynolds-Ray Mercer interview" posts are gone for good, it gives me a chance to immediately introduce a different storyline. Like I said in a previous post, "The Florida Alliance" will happen eventually, just not right away. I want to establish the key Florida fighters more before hand, maybe give Mercer more of a "reason" to harbor animosity towards Elmer Ray.

So, it might take a few days before I post any of the re-written posts. There are only write-ups of six fight cards that I lost in the crash, so it shouldn't take too long to get through them.

Just on another matter, OT...

Last night (Australian time), the team that I have supported in our National Rugby League for 26 years became Champions for the first time since 1969.

The Wests Tigers defeated the North Queensland Cowboys 30-16 in the Grand Final.

Just a little background ... the Wests Tigers are a "joint venture" of two clubs that merged into one club for financial reasons back in 2000, the Balmain Tigers and the Wests Magpies. The Tigers and Magpies were two of the league's "foundation" clubs from 1905. I was a Balmain Tigers fan before the merger.

Before they merged, the Tigers had not been in the playoffs since 1990 (losing successive Grand Finals in '88 and '89) and the Magpies not since '95. They were just about the two worst teams in the league.

The first three years of the merger were a disaster, as the club wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on formerly elite players who succumbed to injury or played below expectations. Then in 2003, the Tigers hired Tim Sheens to coach them. Sheens had been a Premiership winning coach with the Canberra Raiders in the early 90's, winning three Grand Finals. He had then gone to North Queensland and struggled through five terrible seasons, during which the Cowboys won 27 of 120 games. He was sacked, returned to Sydney and was unemployed before the Tigers called him up.

In 2003 the Tigers went 7-17, in 2004 they went 10-14, missing the playoffs by a single win (they lost their last three games, where a win in any of them would have seen them in the playoffs). But things looked good, because they knew that they had lost half of those 14 games by ten points or less and that it wouldn't take a huge improvement to see them in the playoffs in 2005.

This year, they caused a stir early, defeating last year's two Grand Finalists in successive weeks in the third and fourth weeks of the season. But soon after, they were struggling, and after 15 weeks of the season, they had a 6-8 record and were sitting in tenth place. That's when things turned around. They went on a devastating 8 game winning streak, including a 54-2 victory over the defending champions the Canterbury Bulldogs and another victory over the runners-up the Sydney Roosters (meaning they went 4-0 over last year's Grand Finalists). This win streak propelled them into 4th place. They lost their last two regular season games but maintained 4th place to qualify for the playoffs for the first time as a joint venture.

The first week of the playoffs, they stunned everyone, defeating the Cowboys 50-6 in an absolutely barnstorming performance. The following week, they defeated another Queensland team, the Brisbane Broncos, 34-6. They were now one win from the Grand Final but would have to beat the competition favourites, the St George Illawarra Dragons, to get there. Half of the Dragons squad have represented Australia or our state New South Wales, but the Tigers defeated them 20-12 to qualify for the Grand Final, where they would clash with the Cowboys once more (the Cowboys had recovered from the whipping the Tigers gave them to defeat the Melbourne Storm and then the team that finished the regular season in 1st place, the Parramatta Eels 29-0 to qualify for the Grand Final).

Well, last night was the Grand Final and the Tigers won!!! I still can't quite believe that it happened. Yesterday morning, my wife and I drove out to the fish markets at Pyrmont (which is Balmain Tigers territory). You would not believe the amount of people we saw driving around with Tigers flags, with orangle, black and white streamers and balloons attached to their cars and houses, wearing Tigers jerseys. We drove past the Leagues club and the footpath out the front was just jam-packed with people, and we honked our car horns as we drove by. Seriously, Grand Final day, hell, Grand Final week is the best time of the year here, without a doubt (especially when your team is playing in the match). I spent the entire match sitting one metre from the TV screen clutching my Tigers jersey, and this morning, I still can't quite believe it happened. I feel like I'm in shock, I guess.

With the Bengals 4-0, things can't really get any better for me at the moment in regards to the teams I support. I guess a Braves World Series win would be nice, also.

Visit www.nrl.com to read more about the Tigers triumph.

CONN CHRIS · 10-02-2005, 08:36 PM

Thanks for the entertaining post KC, I enjoy hearing about other sports a great deal (I wish you Brits and Aussies would talk about cricket a bit more as I am trying to learn more about it. A group of Indian friends that I have are trying to bring an India - Pakistan test match to East Hartford in the next few years.)

I did not know that you were a Braves fan, kudos to them for another fine season. They keep changing parts and Booby Cox continues to pull the right strings. They are a far cry from the Braves team that I grew up with which spawned a line in an old Hank Williams tune:

"Last fall we elected the man from Plains,
and there was lots of talk about a great big change.
But the Atlanta Braves, they still loose too many games;
and the new South, thank God is still the same."

Cheers

kenyan_cheena · 10-02-2005, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Thanks for the entertaining post KC, I enjoy hearing about other sports a great deal (I wish you Brits and Aussies would talk about cricket a bit more as I am trying to learn more about it. A group of Indian friends that I have are trying to bring an India - Pakistan test match to East Hartford in the next few years.)

I did not know that you were a Braves fan, kudos to them for another fine season. They keep changing parts and Booby Cox continues to pull the right strings. They are a far cry from the Braves team that I grew up with which spawned a line in an old Hank Williams tune:

"Last fall we elected the man from Plains,
and there was lots of talk about a great big change.
But the Atlanta Braves, they still loose too many games;
and the new South, thank God is still the same."

Cheers

There is actually a very interesting and potentially exciting series of cricket games starting here next week.

Australia is taking on a World XI in a three match one day series (to be played in melbourne) plus a 6 day Test Match (to be played in Sydney) (tests are usually five days). Gonna be fascinating to see how the Aussies perform after losong the Ashes to the Pommies.

If you'd like to get more info on cricket, visit www.cricinfo.com. It's a great site.

As for my Tigers, I really wish there was some way for you guys over in the USA to see the match. I heard that it was going to be shown live on your Fox Soccer channel at four in the morning. The second try that the Tigers scored has been called one of the greatest Grand Final tries of all time.

The Tigers 20 year-old whizkid Benji Marshall started with the ball just five metres from the Tigers tryline (or "endzone"), saw a gap in the defense and turned on the afterburners, blowing past one defender and kicking out of another attempted tackle. He accelerated over the halfway line, and with the defense closing in on him, he called winger Pat Richards inside of him and delivered the most incredible pass you're likely to see, flicking the ball out the back with his right hand straight into the rampaging Richards' arms. Richards delivered a stiff-arm that sent one of the Cowboys defenders sprawling to the ground and charged the rest of the way to the tryline, breaking a 6-all deadlock just three minutes before halftime. Man, this team have scored some breathtaking tries during the season, but this one was extra special because of when and where it happened. The Cowboys really had been the better team in the first half before that point. This is just a season I'll never forget...

kenyan_cheena · 10-04-2005, 02:24 AM

Okay, as I said in General Discussions, I was able to find all but a handful of the posts that had disappeared from my thread as a result of the crash. I found all the Elmer Ray / Florida Alliance / James Reynolds / Ray Mercer stuff, plus almost all the posts relating to the six fight cards that had vanished. So, I'm going to post them all here and just keep going on as if the crash didn't happen.

The next post follows on directly from post #265. I'm leaving work in about 40 minutes, so I'll probably just re-post a few now and do the rest over the next couple of days.

kenyan_cheena · 10-04-2005, 02:27 AM

SCHMELING SURVIVES SERIOUS SCARE
IN PITTSBURGH SHOOTOUT!

Wednesday 6 March 2002

Germany's Max Schmeling got the fright of his life tonight when he clashed with Chicago's Floyd Cummings in the Main Event of the Heavyweight Boxing Federation's Pittsburgh fight card.

The #10 seed in the HBF's World Championship tournament, Schmeling was victorious via 4th round TKO, but not before being sent to the canvas twice in the first three rounds by the 103rd seed in the tournament.

In perhaps the craziest fight seen so far in these HBF tournaments, the two fighters traded knockdowns, with Schmeling tasting the canvas in rounds one and three and Cummings being floored in the second and fourth. The German fighter was able to drive home the advantage in the fourth, launching a two handed assault that left referee Richard Steele (perhaps with memories of the Gene Tunney-Jose Urtain debacle on his mind) no choice but to stop the bout at the 2:04 mark of the round with Cummings glassy-eyed and ready to go.

Fighting in the United States for the first time and in front of an enthusiastic crowd (including HBF President Michael Vincennes), the torrid contest would have been as far from Schmeling's plans for the night as possible. The #10 seed put on a fantastic show in his homeland debut back on January 30, when he dominated the unfortunate Oklahoma City fighter George Johnson. Meanwhile, earlier on the same fight card Floyd Cummings had been beaten to a pulp by Frank Moran before being stopped in the fifth round. Schmeling was probably entitled to expect a pretty easy night.

Well, it started out that way. The 19 year-old German was in control for most of the opening round, establishing a solid jab and landing a pair of punishing combinations. But all it took to turn this fight sideways was a single Cummings left hook. With just eleven seconds left in the round, the punch caught Schmeling flush on the jaw and the highest seeded European in the WC tournament was suddenly on the seat of his pants, staring up at the referee with an expression that was the definition of bemusement. The crowd came to their feet, many of them rooting for the Chicago underdog. Schmeling was up at four, but the eight count ticked off the last few seconds of the round.

Shaken up and probably embarassed by the knockdown, Schmeling came out for the kill in round two, landing a devastating uppercut 40 seconds into the round that dropped Cummings for a two count. The disappointment was plain to see on the Chicago fighter's face, as he realised that he had surrendered the great start he had made. Schmeling dominated the rest of the round, coming close to finishing Cummings off with a crushing right hook near the end.

But just as it appeared that the balance in the fight had been restored, it was knocked off kilter once again. Just 24 seconds into the third round, Cummings unloaded with a wicked body shot that had Schmeling down on one knee, trying to catch his breath. The German was virtually useless for the rest of the round, but Cummings was unable to exploit this. And so, going into the fourth, Max Schmeling found himself in a completely unexpected situation. He spent the intermission sucking down oxygen, still feeling the effects of the body shot that Cummings connected with.

Coming out for the fourth, Schmeling looked angry. He charged at Cummings, clocking him with a thunderous uppercut and a sizzling straight right within the first minute. A follow up flurry had the Chicago native clinching, but soon after he gave Schmeling some space and the #10 seed sent him crashing to the canvas with a single right cross. Up by six and with half the round still to come, Cummings had a look of resignation on his face. He retreated into a neutral corner and Schmeling came in for the kill. Gamely, Cummings traded leather but a straight right scrambled his circuits. He stumbled forward into a right uppercut, followed by a trio of power shots, left-right-left, before referee Steele pulled Schmeling away, stopping the contest 2:04 into the fourth round.

Speaking through an interpreter, Schmeling described how he had "dodged a bullet", praising Cummings for his courageous fighting effort. He also thanked the Pittsburgh audience for showing such wonderful support, "even if most of it was for the other guy".

The #10 seed in the World Championship tournament departed the ring, hoping for a more convincing performance in his next bout...

THE PITTSBURGH UNDERCARD

Opening Bout

Washington, DC's Natie Brown continued on from his dominant debut performance against Bob Satterfield, scoring a unanimous decision victory over England's Manny Burgo, 58-56, 59-55, 59-56.

Brown is the #10 seed in the 1st Defense tournament and was never really troubled by his willing but overmatched opponent. Brown was very unhappy after his debut as he felt the judges had done a terrible job of scoring the fight, which he won by split decision. Most in attendance on that night felt he won it easily, saying the result should have been a unanimous decision. Well, there were no such problems with the judging tonight as Brown improved to 2-0.

Burgo, following a similar result on debut against New York's Doug Jones, is 0-2.

Preliminary 1

The #7 seed in the HBF's 1st Defense tournament, Doug Jones of New York received a bit of a surprise tonight in the shape of Chicago's Bob Satterfield.

After taking the opening round convincingly, Jones found himself on the backfoot in the second round and then also in the third, as Satterfield launched a stunning counter attack.

The Chicago fighter, a loser on debut against Natie Brown, was showing much more determination and resolve tonight as he looked to spring an upset.

Spurred into action, Jones hit back in the fourth, but the fifth and sixth rounds were close affairs that could have been scored either way. That was why Jones breathed such a sigh of relief when the verdict was announced: he had won a unanimous decision, 58-57, 58-56(x2).

Indeed, it was by no means a convincing victory. Although still undefeated, Jones will have to put in a much better performance in his next bout, which will be against the tough Welshman Dick Richardson.

Preliminary 2

In a bout between two men who suffered defeat on debut, Portland's Thad Spencer took a unanimous decision victory over Randall Cobb of Texas. The 55th seed in the World Championship tournament, Cobb put up another disappointing showing. Spencer owned him in the opening half of the bout, before Cobb showed a bit more spark in the fourth and fifth. But it wasn't enough and the 87th-seeded Portland native took the decision 58-56(x2), 59-55.

Support Bout

New Jersey's Steve Hamas and Philadelphia's Italian-born pugilist Joe Grim delighted the crowd in what was, without a doubt, the fight of the night.

Both men had scored victories on debut, though in hardly comprehensive fashion. Tonight, they thrilled the Pittsburgh audience with a six round slugfest that finished with both men cut and spent. They left everything they had in the ring, and it was Hamas who emerged the victor by unanimous decision, 58-56 on all three cards.

Grim started impressively and finished brilliantly. Unfortunately, Hamas was the better fighter during the middle rounds. Grim, the #71 seed, outlanded Hamas (#39 seed) 157-145, but as already stated, his best work came at the beginning and end of the bout.

At 2-0, Hamas is in a position to pounce if either of the top two seeds in the group should falter.

Co-Feature

Receiving easily the biggest ovation of the night, local favourite Frank Moran entered the ring and imp

09-30-2005, 07:20 PM	#261 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	"TEAM STRIBLING" IMPROVES TO 2-0 HEADLINING HBF'S FIRST VISIT TO ARGENTINA Monday 4 March 2002 17 year-old Georgia native Young Stribling was victorious in his second professional bout tonight, taking a hard-fought unanimous decision verdict (58-56, 59-55, 58-56) against the resilient U.S.-based German fighter Willi Besmanoff. In front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Luna Park in Beunes Aires, Argentina, Stribling was impressive in a main event that brought an end to a night of tough, if unspectacular, contests. Indeed, there were no awesome one-punch knockouts on this night. In fact, only one knockdown occured in all the fights combined. But it was anything but boring. The event was, above all else, a perfect illustration of the incredible level of competitiveness that exists in the Heavyweight Boxing Federation. It is something that the federation's directors and its president Michael Vincennes had hoped for from the moment they announced the organisation's formation back in August 2001. Ever since Young Stribling's convincing debut victory in late January, the media have been referring to the #7 seed - along with his father William and mother Lucilla - as "Team Stribling". The story of how Young's parents trained him from an early age in anticipation of a successful sporting career made headlines the nation over, bringing a lot of positive publicity for the Stribling family. It led to a situation where, during the past five weeks, family-orientated lobby groups have been holding the Stribling family up as an ideal for others to strive towards. Speaking for the family, William Stribling had stated that they were not comfortable being placed on such a pedestal. "Two months ago, none of you people knew who we were," William said. "Now, you're saying we are the perfect family. That just seems pretty crazy." The Striblings have been bombarded with requests for interviews, but have turned down every one of them. "We don't know these people at all," William Stribling said. "We do know that they all have an agenda, and that's something we don't want to become accidentally associated with." And so the family has simply concentrated on what is really important. Their disciplined, single-minded effort in training Young for his second bout paid off big time. The #7 seed's strategy of feinting with both hands was not as prevalent tonight as it had been on debut. Standing two inches taller than his opponent, Stribling simply wore Besmanoff down, and was close to finishing him off for good during a punishing fifth round. The German was cut badly over his right eye early in the sixth, but it wasn't serious enough to stop the fight. Having been totally outclassed by Roland LaStarza on debut, Besmanoff didn't fair much better against Stribling. The 17 year-old Georgia native landed 157 punches to 95 in a performance that left no doubt about his claim as one of the top contenders in the World Championship tournament... __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond... Last edited by kenyan_cheena : 10-11-2005 at 01:27 AM.

09-30-2005, 07:23 PM	#262 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	UNDERCARD ACTION *Opening Bout* The night got off to a promising start when Dick Richardson of Wales took a split decision victory against Sweden's Olle Tandberg. It was an arm-wrestle from the outset, with the two combatants spending long periods of the bout fighting from in close, exchanging short, hard shots. Neither man could seem to get the upper hand for more than one round, with both of them showing tremendous resilience and determination. Tandberg, the #26 seed in the 1st Defense tournament, was cut on two separate occasions: above the left eye in the second round, and on his right eyelid in the final round. Considering the great effort the two fighters put in, it was a shame that there had to be a loser. But there was, and Richardson (42nd seed in the 1D tournament) took the verdict, 58-57, 57-59, 59-56. Tandberg collapsed to the canvas in his corner after the announcement. He had been confident after the final bell that he would win the decision. The punch totals seemed to support his belief, as he landed 174 punches to 143. Much of that difference was due to the way in which he dominated the first and third rounds. But there were no knockdowns, so both of those rounds were only scored 10-9. Richardson was, in the opinion of most, slightly more dominant for the rest of the bout. Tandberg's debut against California's Tom Kennedy had been a war, with the judges scoring it a draw. And so, the Swedish fighter was overwhelmed with frustration. He had fought hard in his opening two bouts, both against fighters seeded lower than him, and had come out on the other side without a victory. Richardson, who lost by unanimous decision on debut against England's Don Cockell, is now 1-1. *Preliminary 1* Compared to the first, the second bout of the evening was more of a strategic battle. The 18th seed in the 1st Defense tournament, England's Don Cockell upped his record to 2-0 with a majority decision victory against Tom Kennedy of Woodland Hills, California. Indeed, in quite a contrast to the opening bout, Cockell and Kennedy spent much of the six rounds at a distance, sniping at each other from long range. As in his debut (a draw against Olle Tandberg) Tom Kennedy gave a good account of himself. The #34 seed could have been victorious if only he had shown more aggression during the late stages of the bout. Going into the fifth round, he was leading by a point on one card, with the other two judges having it even. But Cockell was the one who stepped up in the final two rounds, and as a result he took the verdict 58-56, 58-57, 57-57. Kennedy now finds himself in the same position as Sweden's Olle Tandberg. After two competitive performances, he is 0-1-1. Perhaps the only consolation for both Kennedy and Tandberg is that their next two bouts are against the lowest seeds in the group, Chicago's Bob Satterfield and England's Manny Burgo. It will be crucial for them to win both of those bouts if they are to have any chance of posing a threat to the group's top seeds, Doug Jones and Natie Brown... *Preliminary 2* Canada's Jack Renault was fuming in the minutes after his debut bout against England's Frank Bruno. Renault believed that he had done more than enough to win, yet found himself on the wrong side of a unanimous decision verdict. He had told both his opponent Bruno and the judges what he felt of the decision before leaving the ring in disgust. In the days that followed, he had presented a more humble visage. The Canadian said that after viewing the bout a number of times, he could understand why the judges scored the fight as they did. This was despite the fact that many watching in the arena had felt the same as he did. One ESPN analyst had gone as far as calling it "the worst decision given so far" in these HBF tournaments. Even so, Renault offered an apology to both Bruno and the judges for his behaviour. Well, tonight Renault was once again on the losing end of a unanimous decision. But in this instance, it was a clear cut verdict. Against fellow Canadian Earl Walls (58th seed in the World Championship tournament), Renault started impressively. He led by a point on two of the judges cards through three rounds, and appeared to have his opponent's measure. But a poor showing in the fourth round, followed by a fierce assault by Walls in the second half of the fifth round literally lost the fight for him. Walls sent Renault to the canvas with a single thunderous left hook thirty seconds from the end of the fifth (the only knockdown of the six bouts featured on the night). So in the space of two rounds, Renault had gone from leading by one point to being behind by two points. He went for the knockout in the final round, but his body simply could not do what his brain was demanding of it. Each judge gave the same verdict: Walls, 58-55. Following his debut victory against the Californian fighter Mac Foster, Walls is now 2-0. Renault (the 90th seed in the WC tournament) falls to 0-2. The tournament will not get any easier for him, with his next two bouts against the top seeds in the group, Young Stribling and Roland LaStarza. *Support Bout* 21 year-old Englishman Frank Bruno didn't make the greatest start to his professional boxing career. Against Canada's Jack Renault he was, in the eyes of many, lucky to score a unanimous decision victory. Considered to be one of the five strongest fighters in the entire HBF, Bruno nonetheless struggled in that bout, and looked towards his second fight as a way of restoring some lost confidence. Indeed, some wondered what Bruno's second bout would show ... Did he just have a bad night against Renault? Or was that performance a true indication of his abilities? Well, unfortunately for Bruno, it appears that the answer is the latter. Tonight, Bruno put on another ordinary display as he was held to a draw by the #74 seed in the World Championship tournament, Mac Foster of Fresno, California. Honestly, Bruno was lucky that he went the distance. In just the second round, Foster had the Englishman out on his feet after a three minute barrage. If that round had lasted for perhaps another thirty seconds, Bruno would have found himself on the canvas. To his credit, the 42nd seed was able to claw his way back into the fight, bullying the smaller Foster during the next three rounds and landing some damaging shots in the fifth. But Foster would not go away, and he actually finished the fight stronger, with all three judges giving him the final round. The scorecards were 58-56 (Foster), 57-57, 57-57. The Californian couldn't hide his jubilation, while Bruno simply leaned on the ropes, shaking his head in dismay. Being the 3rd seed in Group Seven of the WC tournament, Bruno's next two bouts will be against the lowest seeds in the group. That is perhaps the only positive thing for him to look forward to at the moment. Other fighters in this tournament have put in courageous performances and have nothing to show for it, performances that would put Bruno to shame. He has managed to stay undefeated while displaying little of the potential HBF officials saw in him back in October. Defeated by Canada's Earl Walls on debut, Foster is now 0-1-1. *Co-Feature* Roland LaStarza remained undefeated as he took a unanimous decision victory over the stubborn Boston native Dan Flynn. The fight was closer than the 59-56, 60-55, 59-56 verdict indicated, with LaStarza landing 171 punches to 147. Flynn was able to cut the #26 seed midway through the second round, but LaStarza's corner was able to neutralise the problem during the intermission. Flynn deserves some praise for his performance, especially during the even-numbered rounds where he really did hold his own. It was the aggression he showed in those rounds that led some to question why the verdict had not been closer. Both of LaStarza's fights have featured controversy in regards to scoring. In his debut he was dominant, but the cards told otherwise. Tonight, it was a much more even affair, but again, the verdict did not reflect this. Regardless, no one would deny that LaStarza deserves to be 2-0. LaStarza was animated and talkative after the bout. "I just have to keep winning," LaStarza said. "This Stribling kid is only seventeen. He's the youngest of all the fighters in the World Championship top ten. That's gotta be pressure for him. He's the one who is expected to win the group, which is good for me. I've got the tools to defeat him and when we meet, I'll show him why it's not a good idea for kids to play adult games." If that's not laying down the gauntlet, I don't know what is... __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond... Last edited by kenyan_cheena : 02-09-2006 at 11:19 PM.

09-30-2005, 07:26 PM	#263 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	SUMMARY OF RESULTS HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING FEDERATION FIGHT CARD MONDAY 4 MARCH 2002 LUNA PARK, BEUNES AIRES, ARGENTINA OPENING BOUT HBF 1st Defense Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 6(42) Dick Richardson SD6 4(26) Olle Tandberg PRELIMINARY 1 HBF 1st Defense Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 3(18) Don Cockell MD6 5(34) Tom Kennedy PRELIMINARY 2 HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 4(58) Earl Walls UD6 6(90) Jack Renault SUPPORT BOUT HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 3(42) Frank Bruno D6 5(74) Mac Foster CO-FEATURE HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 2(26) Roland LaStarza UD6 8(122) Dan Flynn MAIN EVENT HBF World Championship Tournament - Stage One - Group Seven 1(7) Young Stribling UD6 7(106) Willi Besmanoff __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond...

09-30-2005, 07:30 PM	#264 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	LISTON IS THE MAIN ATTRACTION IN LANARKSHIRE Tuesday 5 March 2002 Since his arrival in Scotland on Friday, Sonny Liston has been the centre of attention. The 21 year-old St. Louis, Missouri resident has displayed some awesome form during his training sessions, showing the type of punching power that has led many to refer to him as "The Missouri Monster". The #2 seed in the Heavyweight Boxing Federation's World Championship tournament, Liston has been accomodating with the Scottish media, in stark contrast to his frustrations with American scribes during the past month. Their intrusions became so irritating that Liston left his St. Louis camp and was actually declared missing for almost two weeks. Taking a break from his preparation for this Saturday's night bout against Chicago's Phil Scott, Liston sat down for a chat with the Glasgow Herald's Patrick Buchanan. * BUCHANAN: Firstly, Sonny, I'd like to welcome you to Lanarkshire and thank you for giving me this opportunity to chat with you. LISTON: Well, thank you very much. We really feel welcome here. My trainer Red and I, it's just 'lot more comfortable here than back home, I guess. BUCHANAN: There was a lot made of your recent "disappearance" back in America. Could you elaborate a little on how that came about? LISTON: (sighing) There was just a lot of pressure bein' put on me. You see, what I just said before, about being comfortable here in Scotland. You fellas, you're all watching me train, but you don't interfere. That's a total contrast to back home, where it was just nuts. It made it very hard for me to train, to train effectively, I should say. There were so many requests for interviews, guys tryin' to interview me while I was sparring, even. It just got to be too much, so I split for a little while. BUCHANAN: Did that help you with your training? LISTON: Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. I was staying with a friend, someone I've known since I was young. They were really helpful. Helped me get some peace and quiet, helped me to concentrate on my goals for this upcoming bout. BUCHANAN: I'd like to ask you about that fight, actually. Your opponent Phil Scott fought a hell of a fight on debut. A lot of people have said that he was robbed of a victory against Michael Dokes. They've said that you'll have to be careful, because he is one gutsy competitior. LISTON: (nodding) I've watched that Dokes-Scott bout maybe half-a-dozen times. If I'd been scoring it, I'd have given it to Scott by two points. He's a competitor, for sure. But, you look through this whole tournament, through the 1D tournament aswell and even the feeder leagues. Everyone here is just busting their butt to compete, to succeed. There's no way I'm going to take this guy lightly. BUCHANAN: There are a number of fighters in the federation who have garnered a lot of publicity, fighters who have become celebrities. Guys like Jack Johnson, Elmer Ray. Now, you have also become famous because of your status in the HBF. People are just fascinated by the staggering punching power you possess. But you have steered clear of the celebrity lifestyle. What do you think of these other fighters? LISTON: (pauses for a time before answering) I got no problem with them. But that definitely ain't my thing, you know? I ain't got the desire to be like that, to be in the spotlight all the time. I'm not a movie star, I'm a fighter. This is what the life I've lived has brought me to. BUCHANAN: It's interesting that you should say that, because I've heard that if you hadn't served time in prison, you might never have discovered boxing. LISTON: (nodding) That's absolutely true. BUCHANAN: Do you mind if I ask you a question about your younger years? LISTON: No, not at all. You know, some of the things that happened, I ain't proud of. But they happened. BUCHANAN: What kind of influence did your father have when you were growing up? LISTON: (laughing) A negative one. Seriously, the only thing that man ever gave me was a whipping. That's the nicest thing I can say about him. He was a harsh man, not affectionate at all. We had a large family, but it seemed to me like he'd have been happier without us. He took out his anger on us. BUCHANAN: Do you think that his treatment of you was at all responsible for your problems with the law? LISTON: (shakes head "no") No. I don't wanna give that man the satisfaction of having anything to do with the path I went down. I made those choices myself. No one was responsible for it but me. But like you said before, it led me into boxing. So, it has turned out to be a ... how do you say it? A blessing in disguise. BUCHANAN: Your trainer Willie Reddish recently said that you aren't in boxing for the money. Is that true? LISTON: (laughing) No, it ain't true. I don't know where Willie got that from. I want to make money from this opportunity, just like everyone else. You know, I still have a good relationship with my mother. If I'm successful in boxing, I can provide for her for the rest of her life. That would be nice. But, you know, just besides the money aspect, I do have a desire to be the best. Some people in sports just look at it as a business. Now, obviously, part of it is. But I want more out of this than just money. I don't think there is another sport in the world that can test a man like boxing. BUCHANAN: Well, Sonny, thank you so much for talking with me today. I really hope you are successful on saturday night, and for the rest of your career. I think everyone in Lanarkshire would agree with me on that. LISTON: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Buchanan. I'm looking forward to the fight, and I really hope that the HBF can schedule another visit here in the future. Thanks. __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond...** Last edited by kenyan_cheena : 09-30-2005 at 07:32 PM.

09-30-2005, 07:41 PM	#265 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	PRESIDENT VINCENNES SPEAKS, LIVE FROM PITTSBURGH Wednesday 6 March 2002 HBF President Michael Vincennes was a guest tonight on ESPN's Wednesday Night Boxing, which was broadcast live from the site of this evening's federation's fight card, the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Vincennes, along with a number of federation officials and boxers, arrived back in the United States on Sunday morning following a two-and-a-half week stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, during which the HBF staged two fight cards. David Nunn, the host of Wednesday Night Boxing, had quite a lengthy discussion with Vincennes, covering a number of topics. These included, amongst other things: * The level of competitiveness in the federation's tournaments and feeder leagues. Vincennes stated how happy he was that a number of lower seeded fighters, such as Frank Slavin, Bert Whitehurst and Ron Stander, had made such successful starts to their HBF careers. "It just confirms what I said back in November," Vincennes said. "It's become obvious that on any night, upsets can happen. The guys at the top, they really have to keep their wits about them. There really is no such thing as a guaranteed victory." * The success of the federation's South African visit, and future plans for the African Boxing League. "It was beyond our greatest expectations," said the federation president. "We've set into action a sporting league that will lead to hundereds of young men striving for an opportunity to succeed in boxing. Now, as for the future fight cards in the ABL, I would say it's about 75% certain that Johannesburg will host the second card. We are more than happy with that, but we will be seeking to hold talks with officials in other African nations, such as Nigeria." * The Sonny Liston interview. "Yes, we just heard the news of that this morning, actually. I think it's a really positive thing that he has opened up a bit, revealed some of himself to the public. And I think that some of our media back here in the States really should take some of his words to heart. The fact that he felt more comfortable in Scotland than in his own homeland is unfortunate." * James Reynolds and the expansion of boxing. "To be perfectly honest, I've barely thought about that topic since you and I spoke two weeks ago," said Vincennes. "James Reynolds stated on SportsCenter that these businessmen that approached me had planned another meeting with me. He said that, what ... almost three weeks ago? I've heard nothing from them. I've put it out of my mind. I'm only concerned with the HBF and making it the finest sporting competition the world over." "Some people have speculated about why you didn't accept the offer for the HBF to go into a partnership with these businessmen," said Nunn. "Can you confirm for us why?" Vincennes smiled. "There's a very simple answer to that question, Dave," he said. "You just called what they were offering a partnership. Now, way back on the 13th of February, when Mr. Reynolds published his story, I stated that certain aspects of what these businessmen were proposing were unacceptable. Now that I think about it, I was probably being a bit too kind to them. What they proposed was not a partnership. It was a takeover." "So there's absolutely no chance that the federation will enter into an agreement with these businessmen?" Vincennes laughed. "Not while I'm in charge." * The last topic they spoke on was the popularity of Florida boxer Terone Haynes. "When I heard that tickets to the Melbourne fight card had sold out in three hours, that just stunned me," Vincennes said. "This young man Terone Haynes, he's going to be a bigger star than even I envisioned, probably even bigger than his cousin Elmer Ray, and that's saying something." "You don't think that you're looking a bit too far ahead with those sentiments, Mr. Vincennes?" said Nunn. "No, I don't. These two young men, along with a number of other federation boxers, have already shown me enough to have me convinced that their futures will be nothing but bright." * Soon after, Vincennes excused himself, making his way to his front row seat, joining his wife there, ready to enjoy a night of exciting boxing... __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond...** Last edited by kenyan_cheena : 01-04-2006 at 06:55 PM.

09-30-2005, 08:01 PM	#266 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	Okay, I've just entered 35 posts into this thread in the last hour or so, which was all the lost posts I was able to retrieve from google. That's taken me up to the 6th of March 2002 in my universe. Before the crash, I was at the 20th of March, so I've lost two weeks of universe time. That's not too bad. Lost all the stuff about Elmer Ray and "The Florida Alliance", which in hindsight might be a blessing in disguise because I was never really comfortable with the angle of Mercer sounding off on Ray. It just seemed out of character for him. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rewrite everything from the point in the previous post onwards. Luckily, there's a week where there are only two "feeder league" cards, so it won't take too long to get through that. It'll give me a chance to maybe change some things that had been written before. I'm going to hold off on the idea of a "Florida Alliance" for now. I'll probably introduce it into the story in a month or so of "universe time". Now, the two weeks that have been lost were quite eventful, but I'd like to get through them quickly so I can get back to the point I was at before the crash. There might be some mention of the HBF expansion issue, but besides that I'm going to focus more or less on the fight cards until I get to the 20th of March. The next thing I'm going to do as an ABSOLUTE PRIORITY is copy and save every post in this thread into Word or Notepad. I hope you all continue to follow along with me. kc __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond... Last edited by kenyan_cheena : 09-30-2005 at 08:02 PM.

09-30-2005, 08:26 PM	#267 (permalink)
CONN CHRIS Moderator* Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 20,878	Good save, I am glad to see that you are going to carry on with it. __________________ REC World Prizefighter Rankings

10-01-2005, 12:50 PM	#269 (permalink)
Gunsmoke All Star Reserve Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 942	Excellent kc good to see the HBF continuing. __________________ Cornerwork the Title Bout Championship Boxing fansite!

10-02-2005, 08:10 PM	#270 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	Thanks, Gunsmoke. Well, I've just saved each individual post in this thread into Notepad. I think I'll burn a copy of it onto a CD, aswell. What I'm going to do is read through the thread from the beginning, just so I can get a better feel of where to go with it from here. I've read different individual posts in it many times, but never really from the beginning to the end. Of course, I have a vision planned out in my head of where I want to take it, but seeing as all the "Florida Alliance / James Reynolds-Ray Mercer interview" posts are gone for good, it gives me a chance to immediately introduce a different storyline. Like I said in a previous post, "The Florida Alliance" will happen eventually, just not right away. I want to establish the key Florida fighters more before hand, maybe give Mercer more of a "reason" to harbor animosity towards Elmer Ray. So, it might take a few days before I post any of the re-written posts. There are only write-ups of six fight cards that I lost in the crash, so it shouldn't take too long to get through them. Just on another matter, OT... Last night (Australian time), the team that I have supported in our National Rugby League for 26 years became Champions for the first time since 1969. The Wests Tigers defeated the North Queensland Cowboys 30-16 in the Grand Final. Just a little background ... the Wests Tigers are a "joint venture" of two clubs that merged into one club for financial reasons back in 2000, the Balmain Tigers and the Wests Magpies. The Tigers and Magpies were two of the league's "foundation" clubs from 1905. I was a Balmain Tigers fan before the merger. Before they merged, the Tigers had not been in the playoffs since 1990 (losing successive Grand Finals in '88 and '89) and the Magpies not since '95. They were just about the two worst teams in the league. The first three years of the merger were a disaster, as the club wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on formerly elite players who succumbed to injury or played below expectations. Then in 2003, the Tigers hired Tim Sheens to coach them. Sheens had been a Premiership winning coach with the Canberra Raiders in the early 90's, winning three Grand Finals. He had then gone to North Queensland and struggled through five terrible seasons, during which the Cowboys won 27 of 120 games. He was sacked, returned to Sydney and was unemployed before the Tigers called him up. In 2003 the Tigers went 7-17, in 2004 they went 10-14, missing the playoffs by a single win (they lost their last three games, where a win in any of them would have seen them in the playoffs). But things looked good, because they knew that they had lost half of those 14 games by ten points or less and that it wouldn't take a huge improvement to see them in the playoffs in 2005. This year, they caused a stir early, defeating last year's two Grand Finalists in successive weeks in the third and fourth weeks of the season. But soon after, they were struggling, and after 15 weeks of the season, they had a 6-8 record and were sitting in tenth place. That's when things turned around. They went on a devastating 8 game winning streak, including a 54-2 victory over the defending champions the Canterbury Bulldogs and another victory over the runners-up the Sydney Roosters (meaning they went 4-0 over last year's Grand Finalists). This win streak propelled them into 4th place. They lost their last two regular season games but maintained 4th place to qualify for the playoffs for the first time as a joint venture. The first week of the playoffs, they stunned everyone, defeating the Cowboys 50-6 in an absolutely barnstorming performance. The following week, they defeated another Queensland team, the Brisbane Broncos, 34-6. They were now one win from the Grand Final but would have to beat the competition favourites, the St George Illawarra Dragons, to get there. Half of the Dragons squad have represented Australia or our state New South Wales, but the Tigers defeated them 20-12 to qualify for the Grand Final, where they would clash with the Cowboys once more (the Cowboys had recovered from the whipping the Tigers gave them to defeat the Melbourne Storm and then the team that finished the regular season in 1st place, the Parramatta Eels 29-0 to qualify for the Grand Final). Well, last night was the Grand Final and the Tigers won!!! I still can't quite believe that it happened. Yesterday morning, my wife and I drove out to the fish markets at Pyrmont (which is Balmain Tigers territory). You would not believe the amount of people we saw driving around with Tigers flags, with orangle, black and white streamers and balloons attached to their cars and houses, wearing Tigers jerseys. We drove past the Leagues club and the footpath out the front was just jam-packed with people, and we honked our car horns as we drove by. Seriously, Grand Final day, hell, Grand Final week is the best time of the year here, without a doubt (especially when your team is playing in the match). I spent the entire match sitting one metre from the TV screen clutching my Tigers jersey, and this morning, I still can't quite believe it happened. I feel like I'm in shock, I guess. With the Bengals 4-0, things can't really get any better for me at the moment in regards to the teams I support. I guess a Braves World Series win would be nice, also. Visit www.nrl.com to read more about the Tigers triumph. __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond...

10-02-2005, 08:36 PM	#271 (permalink)
CONN CHRIS Moderator* Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 20,878	Thanks for the entertaining post KC, I enjoy hearing about other sports a great deal (I wish you Brits and Aussies would talk about cricket a bit more as I am trying to learn more about it. A group of Indian friends that I have are trying to bring an India - Pakistan test match to East Hartford in the next few years.) I did not know that you were a Braves fan, kudos to them for another fine season. They keep changing parts and Booby Cox continues to pull the right strings. They are a far cry from the Braves team that I grew up with which spawned a line in an old Hank Williams tune: "Last fall we elected the man from Plains, and there was lots of talk about a great big change. But the Atlanta Braves, they still loose too many games; and the new South, thank God is still the same." Cheers __________________ REC World Prizefighter Rankings

10-04-2005, 02:24 AM	#273 (permalink)
kenyan_cheena Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia Posts: 4,137	Okay, as I said in General Discussions, I was able to find all but a handful of the posts that had disappeared from my thread as a result of the crash. I found all the Elmer Ray / Florida Alliance / James Reynolds / Ray Mercer stuff, plus almost all the posts relating to the six fight cards that had vanished. So, I'm going to post them all here and just keep going on as if the crash didn't happen. The next post follows on directly from post #265. I'm leaving work in about 40 minutes, so I'll probably just re-post a few now and do the rest over the next couple of days. __________________ The Heavyweight Boxing Federation The Heavyweight Boxing Federation: Tournament Group Standings The International Boxing League MLB: 1958 and Beyond...