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01/27/2004 Archived Entry: "New England Chatta"
New England Chatta
By J.D. Vena
Boxing has always been in the blood of New Bedford’s Scott Pemberton. His father and uncle were well regarded fighters of their time during the early 70’s and Scott’s look-a-like brother Joe was pretty good himself. Just ask my deviated, useless septum. But in all honesty, The Sandman's recipe for success isn't a family secret. Sure he tries to carry out game-plans and listens to his trusted trainer Shawn Raysor in between rounds like any other fighter, but the 37-year old attributes his victories to one major aspect of his game.
E-Double photo
"I just love to win," said Pemberton, the two-time NABF super-middleweight champ. "I have a tremendous will to win. I refuse to let myself get beat. I don't care what it is, boxing, football, you name it."
Pemberton's attitude is what helped him win an exciting 12-round decision over Omar Sheika last summer in what ESPN called its fight of the year. In that memorable bout, Pemberton rallied after being floored in the second round and survived hellacious moments with fire and determination.
There was plenty of fire in Pemberton's lean belly this past Friday night at Foxwoods during his rematch with Sheika. As he had in their first bout, Pemberton was decked in the second round and ruled down by the referee in the 6th, only to come back and halt Sheika with a vicious assault in the 10th round. It was the courage of both fighters that made this one a better fight than their battle and almost a shoe-in for this year's Fight of the Year. But Pemberton, as rough as the fight was for him, had a little more of everything in the rematch.
“Believe me,” Pemberton told the media. “I don’t like to get hit in there. I think my broke my ear drum again. This would be my fifth time that I’ve broke my eardrum. I’ve broken both of them twice and I think I broke my left again. I hope I don’t wind up going deaf. I use to like boxing but now I don’t. It’s just what I’m good at in life and what I hope earns me enough money so I can look back and know that I didn’t do this in vain.”
Flap photo
In all the hoopla from the Pemberton-Sheika rematch, it was almost easy to forget the impressive display of skill and power of young Peter Manfredo, Jr. Junior, from Providence, won his 20th bout and 10th by knockout when he chopped down formerly undefeated Sherwin Davis with a chopping right to the temple. What was impressive about Manfredo's knockout wasn't necessarily an overwhelming display of power or the suspect chin of Davis. It was the way Manfredo timed Davis's right hand with one of his own. Manfredo chopping right hand slammed into Davis' temple and created a double impact effect because of the fact that Davis was turning into the shot with his own right hand. Pemberton, who has known Manfredo since his pre-adolescent years, knew pretty much what Davis had gone through. Since Manfredo turned professional, he has sparred several rounds with Pemberton.
"Peter does not have world class knockout power," said Pemberton. "But believe me, he will make you pay whenever you make a mistake. He is a very tricky fighter and it's a good thing he doesn't have a bigger punch or else I'd be in trouble. He's just so good at placing and timing his shots."
Perhaps the best thing about Jimmy Burchfield’s show on Friday night was that it helped kill time for the big football game on Sunday. Yeah, that one. Well, this Friday night, boxing will help kill some more time when New Bedford’s other favorite son, “Sucra” Ray Oliveira returns to the ring at the Worcester National Guard Armory. Oliveira, another the two-time NABF champion will be facing Dominican transplant, Elias Cruz of Miami in an 8-round jr. middleweight bout. Though, Oliveira, 45-9-2 with 21 KO’s saw his best days as a lightweight and jr. welterweight, he’s no stranger to fighting bigger men. Oliveira has fought in the 150s before and even faced a man who scaled 165 (Ricardo Smith in 1996).
Cruz, 11-9 with 7 KO’s (according to boxrec.com), is also a fighter whose best days were in a lighter weight class. Cruz was a Dominican Republican Lightweight champion and he’s also been in the ring with some world beaters at welterweight. Cruz fought Worcester’s Jose Antonio Rivera, the WBA welterweight champion and two other welterweights who won’t fight Rivera, Ricardo Mayorga and Thomas Damgaard.
The Oliveira-Cruz bout headlines a 5-bout show promoted by Doug Pendarvis. The co-featured attraction is a women’s IWBF middleweight championship bout between its title-holder, Letitia “Baby Girl” Robinson (9-0 with 8 KO’s) of Chicago and Yvonne Reis (3-1-1 of Ft. Lauderdale. Technically, it’s the first world title fight in Worcester since St. Patty’s Day in 1995, when then WBA jr. heavyweight champion, Orlin Norris defended his title with a controversial decision over Adolpho Washington.
Also on the card is cruiserweight clash between Worcester’s, Roy “House of” Payne (15-12-4, 6 KO’s) and Robert Folley (27-8-2, 17 KO’s) of Mesa, AZ, the son of former world title challenger, Zora Folley. Three four-round bouts are also slated. Denise “Mighty” Moses of Lawrence, MA will square off with Anita Parker of Philadelphia, Alex Infante of Haverhill, Ma and Bilai Burns will duel it out and Worcester’s exciting Bobby McAndrews will battle debutant Ben Rosario of Leominster. For ticket information call 508-751-5131.
As mentioned earlier, WBA welterweight champion Jose Antonio Rivera can’t find a challenger to defend his title against. Rivera was originally obligated to meet #1 contender Thomas Damgaard of Denmark, but the Dane wouldn’t’ negotiate with Team Rivera. Then there was talk that recently dethroned Ricardo “The Matador” Mayorga would step up to the plate. According to Rivera, Mayorga didn’t show up in Florida last week to negotiate for a possible fight. I’ve met Steve “Tank” Tankanow, Rivera’s manager and Tony Cardinale, Rivera’s attorney & they don’t smell.
“I understand that Mayorga refused to fight Jose on the Spinks-Judah card because he’s too tired from his December 13th showdown against Spinks,” Tank said. “Real fighter’s fight; they have big hearts. I thought Mayorga was a warrior, but I guess he just wants to stay home and play with his cars, rather than fight Jose. I don’t understand how he could be so tired from such a poor demonstration against Spinks; Corey took him to school. Mayorga must be tired from all of his foolish talking before the Spinks fight. He’s still talking back in Nicaragua, which must explain why he’s too tired to fight in March. “Mayorga thinks he’s going to wait and get the Spinks-Judah winner, but Jose’s the WBA mandatory. After Jose beats the Spinks-Judah winner and becomes undisputed welterweight champion of the world, Mayorga will be begging us for a fight. Maybe, by then, Jose will be too tired to fight him?”
Pemberton photos by E-Double and Sean "Flappa" Flaherty
