When I was growing up, “boxing” was in the news quite often, with news of World, National, State, and Local bouts being considered important. I watched the matches with Dad as a little boy and kept up later with television, radio, and newspaper reports. I knew “a little” a Golden Gloves boxer, who lived at Buckner Orphans Home (as folks called it then), and a few years later, I listened to one of our area Lutheran Church members give talks to youth groups—Champion Curtis Cokes.
I was entranced by the movie, Raging Bull, which chronicled the life of Jake LaMotta. I watched with rapt attention as Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston and then followed his exploits as Muhammed Ali. I was sad that Floyd Patterson was just a little too small to be a “real heavyweight!” And when I was in college and employed at summer jobs in factories, I worked my way up to 2nd on the line of plastic bag processing machines under the direction of Foreman, David Kuykendall, who was a professional fighter here in Dallas at the Sportatorium! (His hands were “deadly weapons!”)
I even heard stories from FHS Principal, Henry Sollers, about his Golden Gloves experiences and those of Dan Blocker (Hoss from Bonanza). And I know that “boxing” training took place at Booker T. Washington School, because the guys who later became parts of FHS sports teams could box better than any of my original buddies when the coaches allowed “bouts” in the gym after “offseason” was over.
BUT, I don’t hear nearly as much about boxing these days. Is it still important in the DFW area?
The answer seems to be a “YES!”
Around the middle of March, 2021, I read the following or heard it on the sports news. Errol Spence, native of DeSoto, is known as a “top welterweight boxer”—nationally and locally—and has two times fought at AT&T Stadium. His next scheduled bout is in May and will be available for us to watch on “pay-for-view” if not in person.
And there is another boxer, named Vergil Ortiz, who is also a welterweight and undefeated with mostly, if not all, knockouts, and who is being advertised as the next “great.”
Well, guess what? He knocked out Oak Cliff’s Maurice Hooker in the 7th round, and Hooker is considered to be “no slouch!” Ortiz’s 17th victory should prove that he is far enough along to stand against Spence or Terrence Crawford, considered to be an “elite” fighter!
Local experts maintain that having two local fighters, who are both highly regarded, as are Ortiz and Hooker, proves that the area has great talent and should be regarded as “the place to be!”
Talk is that Ortiz was just a little too strong for Hooker, who some think could drop to the next lower weight class and come on even stronger! Ortiz, though the winner by a knockout, did show signs that he had been “hit hard” before he took over and won!
Who can Ortiz fight next, or at least sometime soon? Although the names are not familiar to me yet, some suggested are, of course, Spence, and also Shawn Porter, Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia.
VERGIL ORTIZ says that “I will take any of those fights; I just want to be the best. I want to unify the belts in the welterweight division.” (Spence is the WBC/IBF Champion, and now Ortiz is the WBA International Welterweight Champ.)
Just for the record, some other up-and-coming area fighters are reported to be Amon Rashidi, welterweight out of DeSoto; Burley Brooks, super middleweight out of Dallas; Tristan Kalkreuth, cruiserweight out of Duncanville; Alex Rincon, super welterweight out of Carrollton. The most professional matches any of these have had is ten and the fewest is seven, but not one has lost more than once!
Get ready, DFW area; support “new guys,” if you want boxing to “grow.”
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