Q & A for Randy Gordon

[Sharkey]

Thanks Randy... as I mentioned to you before, I always really liked Obermayer. I'd like to go on a diner tour with him someday. I bet that guy never gets lost.

I also tried to subscribe to Jeff Jowett's newsletter (I think before and after he changed the name of it) back in the day but I never received it.. still, nothing was cashed so oh well.
---

Any yarns about your possible run-ins with the crew of Putnam, Fast Eddie or any of them?

[Randy Gordon]

Shark: No run-ins with either the great Pat Putnam or "Fast" Ed Schuyler, as I was friendly with both of them. However, they were both a number of years older than me, and had formed a tight little group, along with venemous Michael Katz. To me, Putnam was the Michelangelo of boxing writing. He as just such a master. "Fast" Eddie had the fastest wit around. Up until the 2004 Olympics, I believe Eddie had attended every one of the Olympic Games since 1956, never missing a single bout. That takes in the prelims, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of every weight division. We're talking a few thousand Olympic bouts here.

Putnam and Schuyler. Two great, great writers!

-RG

[hawk5ins]

I'm pretty sure Sharks didn't mean run-ins as a negative.

The stories though that must have been told in those circles must have been priceless.

Another magazine I was just peeking at was Berts last one: FIght Game.

What a beautiful magazine that was. I still have all 18 issues and think they were all top of the line works. ANd the reprinting of Putnam's SI pieces were awesome.

Did you have your hand in any of this one Randy or did that overlap with your other hats you were wearing at the time?

Hawk

[Randy Gordon]

HAWK: I, too, thought Bert's "Fight Game" was a sensational magazine. While I didn't work on the mag in the same manner I did with Bert at The Ring, I did write a number of articles for "Fight Game." My favorite one and the one which really stands out in my mind is "ANgel On My Shoulder," the story of Duane Bobick, the horrific accident he suffered and his incredible recovery. See if you can find it, and, during a quiet moment up there in Vermont (isn't everything a quiet moment in Vermont?), read it. Have a tissue or two handy.

-RG

[Randy Gordon]

To All of You Whacky Fight Nuts From Another Whacky Fight Nut

I am amazed at the amount of "hits" my thread has gotten in just a few weeks on here and the amount of action that goes on throughout this entire board. Before I leave for the gym or studio, when I have a break from the gym or studio and when I get home from the gym or studio in the evening I find myself riveted to the CBZ.

I thought I couldn't smile any more than I do now. Wrong! My face actually hurts from smiling when I read your questions and comments to, not only me, but to the vast amount of threads all over this great site.

We've only started to have fun here. I look forward to a lot more.

Thanks.

-Randy G

[hawk5ins]

Where are They now: Duane Bobick, By Randy Gordon.

I have to be totally honest here Randy.

When I first read this issue, I never made it past the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph.

Why? Becuase that story of Duane getting his arm stuck in the "WInder" at the paper mill?

"His left arm was totally skinned."

Jesus Randy, I did that uncontrolllable "Stop it! Stop it Stop it" Dance that kids do when someone drags their nails accross the chalk board.

I'm glad you got me to FINALLY read it (The Issue date folks was November 1998!). It truly was an excellent piece on Duane and a very moving tale.

But MAN. You can't lead off a story like that to "squeamish little girls" like myself!

Hawk

[Randy Gordon]

Hawk: When I first heard about the accident, I called Bobick, who was already out of the hospital a few days. One of his daughters held the phone to his ear. I had to make it a quick conversation, because we were both breaking down on the phone. I told him I'd call him soon to continue the conversation.

We were on the phone for around 90 minutes. His story mesmerized me. I am not ashamed to say this, but tears were streaming down my cheeks as he told me his story. His arms were completely de-gloved...skin, muscle, nerves, everything. Only his bones remained attached to his body, and many of them were broken. As he was laying in shock on the floor, he could see the bones in his upper arms. Colleagues were passing out from the grotesque sight.

When I wrote the story, I threw myself into it, much in the same manner I threw myself into my Ring editorial in 1984: "Murder, Plain and Simple." It took me perhaps two hours to write it. When I was done, I read it over. Tears flowed again.

When the magazine came out, I sent a few copies to Bobick. He said he "cried and cried" upon reading it. As we talked, we both choked back tears. Then, he started to laugh at the fact we were both crying. Then I laughed. Suddenly, we were both roaring with laughter.

I would love nothing more than for Duane Bobick to be able to train a young fighter with world-class abilities and take him to a title.

After all he's given to boxing and all he's been through, he deserves nothing less.


-Randy G

[Mike DeLisa]

Yo, Randy -- when you get a chance email me at mike@cyberboxingzone.com

Mike DeLisa

[Petey]

Randy,

When Duane gives you a friendly jab to the shoulder, you can still feel what a powerful guy he is, despite the massive damage the accident did to his arms!

Bobick's a class guy who always takes the time to talk with and encourage the youngsters. It's nice to hear him telling kids about all the opportunities that he's had thru boxing.

Last year I brought a coupla young guys from the hood out to an amateur event because they'd expressed an interest in boxing. You should have seen how wide their eyes got when Duane came over and started talking to them...

[Obama fan]

Herb Goldman?


I don’t think so.

[Randy Gordon]

Oh, use your imagination a little. I'm tellin' ya'...take a look at a photo of Herb...he really does look like Greb.

-RG

[hawk5ins]

But the hiar messes up the visual for me at least!

BTW, while thumbing through a few of the other issues of FIGHT GAME, I was able to reread some of your other articles that graced the pages.

Man, 18 issues was simply not enough.

Great Mag.

Hawk

[Randy Gordon]

Hawk: Yeh, Bert's "Fight Game" was a great magazine. People have asked if I'd ever go back into the boxing magazine business. I've told them "Not unless it was with Bert!"

Back to HarryHerb GoldmanGreb for a second. I found a shot taken at the IBHOF last year of him...there is no question he looks like the late, great Greb. This June, during the IBHOF weekend, I'm gonna' take a few shots of Herb and then get them up online. You'll see what I mean.

Gotta' run to the studio...doing some spots for "Fight Club" that they need in today.

I'm sure you'll all be watching the Pacquiao-Marquez fight. Who you picking, Hawk? I'm going with Pac-Man in another tough, distance fight.

-RG

[hawk5ins]

I suck to high heavens on predictions.

I had a very good stretch in 2000-2001, but have since made up for that "genius-moment" in spades.

I'm going with Manny (Quick everyone, put your life savings on Juan Manuel!), based almost primarily on how each looked agianst Marco Antoinio Barrera. Obviously Manny won a clear cut decisive decision and Manny probably was not even close to 100% focused for the fight.

Marquez, on the other hand fought an excellent fight against Marco and Point deductions and no knockdown rulings factored in, I still had Marco winning the fight by a point. (Score the knockdown and I have Marco winning by 2 points. Marco doesn't hit Juan Manuel when he's down AND score the KD, I have Marco winning by THREE points. Bottom Line, I thought he won the fight.).

So based on this, My pick is Manny to win and win impressively in a war. Possibly by stoppage.

So Like I said, everyone now knows where to lay their bets.

Good Luck!

Hawk

[Obama fan]

HERB GOLDMAN?

LOL

[Sharkey]

I see it. Do we cancel each other out?

[hawk5ins]

Not that I agreed all that often with him, but Overhand is spot on.

Trip Trap. Trip Trap.

Hawk

[hawk5ins]

Don't know if you saw Mike Delisa's post of the Billy Collins court document that was recently put up in a seperate thread.

Obviously it was an extremely interesting piece of information. Is there anything that you can share regarding it from your position as commisioner with the NYSAC from that time period? Or Becuase it is a legal doc are you not permitted to talk about it?

I'm just curious if anything from it (the suit) had direct changes with prefight examinations of fighters WITH their gloves on or if those changes, if any, already went into effect immediately following the discovery of what Resto's corner did.

Hawk

[Randy Gordon]

Hawk: I have not seen Mike DeLisa's post re. Billy Collins, but I will check it out in the next day or so and give ya' my feedback.

I've been tied up both in the gym and in the studio, where I have been cutting spots for my show, which Sirius Radio is going to start promoting heavily on the Howard Stern Show.

On the personal fistic scene, a young man I've been training for a long time advanced to the quarter-finals of the NYGG last night with a decision in the 132-pound Novice class. He'll be fighting in the semi's on the 27th of this month. I told him if he wins the title, I'll put him on my show to talk about his experience.

I'll get back to ya' in a day or so.

Pac-Man by decision.

-RG

[Sharkey]

Randy,

Was the Bowe-Dokes fight something the NYSAC had reservations about allowing? I recall quite a bit of commentary about this and some criticism of the NYSAC. If Dokes passed his tests, I was curious to know if something else was going on regarding why many in the press (besides thinking it was a mismatch) were vocal about how this particular fight should not go forward. (And I don't mean those merely stating that Bowe needed or ought to fight someone better.)

[hawk5ins]

I swear, at the time I saw it, Dokes' Post fight interview, I thought he was LITERALLY Drunk.

A buddy of mine flew into Boston from Chicago and we caught the bout in his hotel room before we hit the town. He and another friend of mine were there watching the fight with me and neither were big fight fans and they were very antsy to get going out to the bars.

I told them to relax, it was not going to last very long. Less than a round later, it was over. So before we headed out, we caught Dokes' talking with Merchant in the ring. I'll never forget the line one of my friends had after Dokes was complaining to Merch why the bout was stopped.

"Hawk, that's EXACTLY how you are going to sound come 12:30".

(As and aside...he was spot on.)

I REALLY thought Dokes was tanked.

That wasn't why I thought Bowe won so easily, but Dokes was so incoherent.

Drunk like Hawk, Incoherent.

Other than hearing about Duva and Benton admiting that Johnny Bumphus had alcohol on his breath prior to his fight with Loyd Honeyghan, I've never really heard of a fighter ever entering into the ring in such a condition (Jean Pierre Coopman vs Ali aside. Champagne isn't really booze.).

To this day I am convinced Dokes was such a condition.

Hawk

[PeteLeo]

Shoot, man, they had to POUR Lew Jenkins into the ring on a number of occasions. Ditto Mickey Walker. PeteLeo.

[Randy Gordon]

Funny, but many people over the years have asked me about the Riddick Bowe-Michael Dokes fight and if something was wrong with Dokes that night. Actually, there was something wrong--his chin landed on too many of Riddick Bowe's ramrod jabs.

Dokes was an enormous waste of talent. He also put much of the money he spent up his nose. I've known Dokes since the beginning of his pro career, and there was a rapid decline in his speech pattern in the early 1990's.

His fight against Riddick Bowe took place on February 6, 1993 at MSG. Many of the New York boxing writers, whom I called "The New York Negatives," couldn't find a positive thing to write about the sport. In this case, the 34-year-old Dokes--along with me and the NYSAC--were their targets.

I was asked why I would sanction a title match between the unbeaten Bowe and Dokes. First of all, I didn't sanction title matches. I sanctioned boxing matches. And I had no problem sanctioning a 12-round match between the 50-3 Dokes and the 32-0 Bowe.

Dokes was riding a nine-fight winning streak which spanned nearly three years. He had previously lost only to Razor Ruddock, Evander Holyfield and Gerrie Coetzee. Did I personally think Dokes had any chance of winning? No I didn't. But you tell me if there would have been any state commission which would have turned that fight down. The answer is NO!

Dokes was a strange man, to say the very least. In the weeks before the fight, he wouldn't bathe or shower. Instead, he wiped himself down with a towel or washcloth with alcohol on it. To say he smelled funky at the weigh-in (he weighed 244 to Bowe's 243) is an understatement. I actually remember holding my breath as I weighed him in!

Of course, the fight was over in something like 2:19 of the first round. At the post-fight press conference, Dokes sounded drunk. But that's the way he sounded at the weigh-in...and on so many occasions before. I have a tape of him wishing me good luck on being named commissioner in 1988, and he sounded drunk on that tape--five years before being crushed by Bowe.

I am sure a steady diet of drugs, along with some heavyweight whacks to the noggin,' turned Dokes into the drunk-sounding palooka he became. But on that date--February 6, 1993--he deserved the chance as much as anybody else, to get bombed out by a young, unbeaten Riddick Bowe.

Of course, on the Bowes-Dokes undercard was Jesse Ferguson W 10 Ray Mercer. That was the fight where Mercer allegedly offered Ferguson a bribe during the fight to go down, because Ferguson was upsetting Mercer's chances of becoming Bowe's next victim. But that fight is a whole other story!

--RG

[Randy Gordon]

No surprise in the Pacquiao-Marquez fight, not even the closeness of the bout. Man, these little guys just make ya' want to ban the heavyweight division! There was more action in a few of their "slower" rounds than in the entire Wlad Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov fight.

The two kept cracking heads early, and you just knew one or both of them would be cut before too long. And of course, it happened. The blood only seemed to inspire them and they stepped up the pace.

At the end the decision was a split one. Again, no surprise. Wonder if, like Vasquez-Marquez, they'll do it yet another time?

Well, it's off to the gym, then home at noon for a quick lunch, then off to the movies to see "Never Back Down."

-RG

[Sharkey]

Just to clarify, the question about Bowe-Dokes was not focused on why it went forward, but why it was met with such negative reporting, as if there had never been a more undeserving challenger. (I happen to believe personally, that Ruddock-Dokes, coupled with the press frustration of believing the sport was soooooo-close to ushering in a golden age if only Bowe would play ball with the other big names..and here he was fighting Dokes had something to do with it.)

I was curious if there was something else about Dokes particularly in that instance, that the press believed they knew. And as expected, there really wasn't.

It didn't stop the press from attacking the NYSAC for looking at Tracy Patterson following the Benevides fight... using the logic of: why bother Patterson, sheesh they allowed Dokes. Forgetting of course, Dokes did not walk into the Bowe fight immediately after sponging hundreds of shots an they complained... whereas Patterson was a spot of concern AFTER his bout. Bad analogies = something to complain about.

Not indicting you, Randy, the level of anti-Dokes prior to the bout was just odd to me given other alleged mismatches having gone forward.

[hawk5ins]

Clarification from me: I wasn't referring to "Still drunk from the night BEFORE!"

Ha.

Man I know Dokes' speech was rather thick to begin with, but MAN, I was convinced he was sauced up.

I'll take the word of someone who was there. Sad either way I guess.

Sharks, The Press's issues with the Dokes bout, is an interesting one.

I'd like to think there were noble intents behind thier chastising Bowe Dokes. IE :"This SHOULD be Bowe Lewis we are seeing tonight, and not Dokes".

I am of the school of thought that a champion is deserving of an easy defense of his crown and not every defense/fight HAS to be top flight every time out.

But if THIS is what the writers issues were, BECUASE Bowe backed out of a signed contract to face Lewis and dumped his WBC belt LITERALLY in the garbage can, to get out of that fight, then I could see their point to a degree.

But the reality of things are, that even with Lewis annihilating Rudduck, many in the press were not sold on Lewis.

I think it was an issue with Rock Newman and how he was handling himself more than anything else, that got under the Writers skin. ANd tearing down Bowe's defense agianst Dokes was an easy target to air their complaints.

But that's simply my viewpoint. Randy obviously is better equiped to answer the question given his role at the time.

Heck what do I know? I was convinced a fighter was drunk during a fight, partly becuase a firend of mine made a funny (at my expense) in the hotel room when I watched the aforementioned fight.

Hawk

[Randy Gordon]

ERIC DRATH--THE MAN BEHIND "CORNERED"--TO
APPEAR ON THE SIRIUS "FIGHT CLUB" TUESDAY

Eric Drath, the TV Producer/Journalist who is set to release his documentary, "Cornered," which delves into the Billy Collins Jr. Luis Resto tragedy, will appear on Randy Gordon's Sirius Satellite Radio program, "Fight Club," tomorrow, between 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Sirius Channel 123.

Drath, who spent a few years researching and interviewing every possible person involved in that fight, will be interviewed live by Gordon and his co-host, Chris Thomas, in what should prove to be a lively, informative segment of the popular show.

Also appearing on the show will be MMA legend Renzo Gracie and current MMA superstar Kimbo Slice.

-RG

[doomeddisciple]

G'day Mr Gordon from Australia,

I was wondering if there is any way I can subscribe or listen to your show out here? Do you do podcasts of older shows or any kind of download? I'd only really heard of Sirius from Howard Stern's much publicised move to the broadcaster a couple years back now.

[Randy Gordon]

G'day right back, Doomed: Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to get the show Down Under. However, I know they are close to a merger with XM Radio, and I have heard talk of podcasts beginning very soon. When I go in this morning to the studio, I will ask if there is any way to get you to hear it.

Thanks so much for writing and please stay in touch.

-Randy G.

[Randy Gordon]

Doomed: There are no podcasts yet for my show or any of the other Sirius sports shows, but it looks like soon there will be. Hang in there.

The interview with "Cornered" producer Eric Drath was tremendous. After the show, I received a cal from a fan in California, who told me, "I was totally caught up in the story. I sat in riveted in my car outside my office and refused to move until the interview was over. And when it was over, I had tears running down my cheeks."

Drath told us he has some breaking news on this story, and will be holding a press conference next Tuesday. He said he would call into the show right at 1:00 and break the story with "Fight Club." I wonder what the breaking news is.

Guess we'll find out next week at 1:00.

-RG