Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit May 11th 2007

Boxing often gets a bad press, particularly when any ex-boxer falls foul of the law. Never mind that the guy might be a painter, plumber or bricklayer, the press report will always call him an ex-boxer as if there is a connection between being a criminal and being a former boxer, as opposed to any other trade. With that in mind it is good to know that sometimes the sport does get a good press and makes a positive contribution to the community. The example I have in mind is an old and valued friend Beau Williford. Beau had a short career as a pro heavyweight and ruefully related to me his experience of his last fight when he was talked out of retirement for a good payday in California against Romanian ex-Olympian Mircea Simon. He finished up with a broken nose and spent the purse-plus in having it fixed. That pushed him into training and management and he spent a lot of time over here where he worked with both Dennis Andries and Glenn McCrory before moving his base back to Louisiana. He formed the “Rajin' Cajun Amateur Boxing Club” and had a small gym in the town of Lafayette where he trained pros such as Jason Papillion and the former WIBF featherweight champion from Ireland Deirdre Gogarty. However his most important work was being done with the youth of the town. As with Brendan Ingle, he was taking in problem kids and both teaching them how to box and at the same time giving them a purpose and a direction that was bringing improvements in their whole attitude to life. He was honoured by a citation from President Bush and by an address to the House of Congress for his work with the youngsters. Then disaster struck as his gym was burned down in a fire that destroyed part of the shopping mall in which it was situated. As it was uninsured Beau lost just about everything. That's when the community began to pay him back for the benefits that his work had brought to the local youth. One citizen, grateful for the impact that Beau had made on his son's life, donated some land, and a series of fund raising events enabled Beau to rebuild his gym. He has continued to build an amateur programme for youth development and his team, including his own sons, have shown themselves to be accomplished fighters with a string of local, regional and national titles to their names. The net result is that recently the town of Lafayette had a “Beau Williford Day” to honour Beau for all he has done for the community. In a modern society where many see only the violence in boxing and a life crammed with Health & Safety regulations you have to wonder if there is a place for boxing in any form, however, sometimes boxing, through dedicated and selfless people, can have a positive impact on a community and in a sport dominated by money and politics there can be an oasis where the outcome is not just a boxer but someone ready to play a more positive role in his community. Here endeth the lesson for today and it could not happen to a finer Southern Gentleman. It is not just the East that is breeding them big right now. South Carolina has a heavyweight Earnest Mazyck who is 7'0” tall and weighs just over 24 stones. He is 28 and has won all of his five fights and is nicknamed “Zeus”” due to his size. In one fight his opponent was giving away just under 10 stones! However don't bother writing the name down as I can't see him making it. One heavyweight who might have a chance is the Canadian champion David Cadieux. In Montreal on April 14 he halted Ray Lunsford in one round and he now has a 16-1 1 no contest record. The 6'6” 32-year-old won a silver medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games where he lost to David Dolan in the 91kg plus final. He started his pro career badly with a no contest and a split points loss, but has won 16 in a row since then. On the same show the Canadian light-welterweight champion Antonin Decarie beat Ivan Bustos on a second round disqualification and has 14 wins. He was a three-time national champion as an amateur. Still on the Canadian scene in Toronto on April 18, Larry Sharpe halted veteran Byron Mackie in ten rounds for the vacant WBA Intercontinental light-middleweight title. Sharpe lost to Mackie for the Canadian middleweight title last November and was halted in nine rounds by Scott Dann for the vacant Commonwealth title in February 2006. I can still recall seeing Mitsunori Seki losing to Howard Winstone for the vacant WBC featherweight title in 1968. Mitsunori is still involved in the sport and one of his fighters, Norio Kimura, continued his domination of the Japanese welterweight scene with a fourth round stoppage of useful Seishu Iida in Tokyo on April 14. The 29 year old southpaw, a former national lightweight champion, has a 31-5-2 record and this was his ninth title defence and his 14th win in a row. Winstone was one of my heroes and it was so good to see him finally win the title at his fourth attempt. Mitsunori was also having his fourth attempt having lost to Sugar Ramos and twice to Vicente Saldivar in previous title challenges, and the loss to Howard was his last fight and he went out with a very creditable 61-11-1 record. A flyweight fight in Friant, California, saw Isidro Garcia win the vacant IBA title with a points victory over Cesar Lopez. For “Chino” it was the second fight of a comeback having been out of the ring for almost four years and raised his record to 24-3-2. Chino was involved in one of those incidents which show just what a mockery the WBO are. On December 18, 1999 he went to a boxing show in Indio to watch a fight for the vacant WBO flyweight title strictly as a spectator only to find himself pulled out of the audience to fill in for a boxer who dropped out. Isidro beat Jose Lopez that night and went from spectator to WBO champion! The Ukraine is still a major force in amateur boxing and is rapidly developing into a big player bin the pro ranks. The Klitschko brothers are the obvious example but some of the smaller guys are going well. A show in Donetsk on April 17 saw Vyacheslav Senchenko retain his EBU-EE (don't ask what it stands for it would take too long to explain) welterweight title with a points win over Vladimir Khodokovski and Stas Kashtanov outpoint Mantas Tarvydas in defence of his WBC Youth super-middleweight title. A third bout saw Andrey Kudryavtsev decision Andre Devyatayan to retain his EBU-EE lightweight title. Senchenko is 22-0 with 15 inside the distance. Khodokovski had been beaten on points by Ajose Olusegun on March 9 and had won only one of his last seven prior to challenging for the title, so obviously the qualification standard is pretty low-or non-existent. Kashtanov has 19 wins. Kudryavtsev is 24-3 but is unbeaten in his last 23. To show how unpredictable boxing is Devyataykin beat Gary Hibbert in 2002, but has hardly won a fight since then. I guess it does not matter too much what Miguel Espino does with the rest of his career he will always be known as one of the fighters on “The Contenders” where he lost to Peter Manfredo. Just to show that there is life after “The Contenders” (other than in Newcastle) on April 21 in Salinas, middleweight Espino out pointed Russian Sergey Stepkin to go to 15-2-1. Stepkin is 17-2 having lost to Bradley Price here back in 2004. On the same show Shane Mosley's welterweight Jose Celaya out pointed Juan Pablo Montes. The lanky, flashy Celaya is 29-3 but has lost the big ones on stoppages. Prospects: Rayonta”” Stingray” Whitfield - American flyweight with 17 straight wins and NABO champion. Classy little fighter who fought at 106 lbs as an amateur and is a former National Golden Gloves champion. 25 years old. Selcuk Aydin - Turkish light-welterweight campaigning in Germany with 8 wins, 7 inside the distance. Nicknamed “Mini-Tyson”. World Junior bronze medal and European Junior gold medal 2000, European champion bronze medal 2002 and silver medal 2004. Competed in the 2004 Olympics. 23 years old. Chris ““The Nightmare” Arreola - Sleeper heavyweight who has made good progress without attracting too much attention. 20 wins 18 inside the distance. Has beaten experienced Manuel Lee Osie, Sedrick Fields, Damian Norris and Malcolm Tann. 26 year old and 6'4” tall. Won 2001 National Golden Gloves at 178lbs after only fighting as an amateur for three months.

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Thanks Eric Armit May 23rd 2007, 10:26:25 by beau williford Eric Armit has been my friend for many years and I always enjoy his articles. However, this latest article must be one of his all-time GREATS!! LOL! One mistake was made in the article and it was the spelling of Rajin which should be Ragin. All the boxers in our gym who read the article said that the Doctor who fixed my nose should be arrested. Thanks ERIC ARMIT!