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07/15/2004 Archived Entry: "New England Chatta"
New England Chatta
By J.D. Vena
With the New England boxing schedule set for the remainder of the summer, all seem to be happy. Tomorrow night pits New England buzzsaws Jeff “The Hellraza” Fraza (15-2/ 8 KO’s) of Haverhill, MA with New Bedford, MA native Paul Delgado (10-3-1/ 2 KO’s) and Jason LeHoullier of Portland, ME against Thomas Wilt (13-4) of Altoona, PA in two of the featured attractions at S & L Boxing’s annual summer fight card at the Hamton Beach Casino.
On August 7th power-punching star Diego Corrales will attempt to derail unbeaten Brazilian demigod Acelino “Popo” Freitas in a titanic lightweight showdown at Foxwoods with a recently announced “Clash for Cash” at Fraser Field in Lynn, MA on the taking place previous day.
The latter event will showcase some of New England’s finest and more popular boxers, some against each other in five New England title fights. In one of the featured bouts, Providence hopeful, Joey “The KO Kid” Spina (12-0/ 9 KO’s) will face Brockton’s Danny Sheehan for the vacant New England light heavyweight title. Though this hasn’t caused an uproar of protests, despite Sheehan’s poor record of 10-29, the pairing has pissed off one local fighter – Derrick Whitley of Springfield,MA.
Speaking on behalf of Whitley, friend and boxer “Iceman” John Scully, of Windsor, CT discussed Whitley being left out a few days ago.
“In New England, among active 175-pounders, other than Eric Harding, there is nobody more deserving than Derrick to be in a fight for that title,” explains Scully. “No 175-pounder in NE right now can be considered before him. That's fact.”
Scully’s right. In fact, even if Sheehan were worthy of such an opportunity, Whitley deserved much more consideration. Whitley is a deceiving 22-22-2 with 11 KO’s, because many of his losses were in the backyards of his opponents and otherwise controversial. The sturdy trial horse has never been dropped or stopped and to make even a stronger case, Whitley easily defeated Sheehan in an 8-round contest in April of this year.
“If Spina is planning on being recognized as a N.E. Champion, then he certainly has to fight the best and most competitive opponent available.”
For the unheralded Whitley, you can only hope he one day gets his chance.
Popular ring announcer M.Mark Beiro of Tampa will be in town tomorrow night to handle the announcing duties at Hampton Beach Casino, but for the first time, one of his favorite fans and observers, his father Manuel, won’t be watching him on television. He’ll be watching him from up above.
In the early morning hours after watching his son announce a boxing event which aired June 25th on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, Beiro’s father suffered a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital. Beiro was to be picked up at the airport in Tampa by his father later that morning until hearing the tragic news from his sister.
It has been a difficult year for one of boxing’s more familiar and fun ring announcers. Last year, Beiro was considered legally blind as a result of diabetic-related retinal problems. On one occasion, Beiro had to walk to the arena with the assistance of friends and announce from outside of the ring. But over the past few months, his vision has improved as he was told by his doctors, enough so that his glasses work. Though Beiro’s father died suddenly, his passing was peaceful in some ways.
“The last few shows I’ve done, I hadn’t been wearing my glasses because they don’t help,” said Beiro. “I told my dad before I left that if he sees me wearing my glasses, that means, I can read the index cards,” said Beiro. “When my dad saw me wearing my glasses, he yelled out with joy to my mother.”
Beiro’s father was happy his son Mark made it a long way and so are we. On behalf of everyone at the CBZ, our condolences and sympathies are with the family of Manuel Beiro.
Tomorrow’s main event pairs Philadelphian lightweight prospect, Koba Gogoladze (14-0/ 7 KO’s) against former world title challenger, Lamar Murphy (29-7-1). Gogoladze has been featured on ShowBox and should be considered a good prospect should be beat late replacement, Murphy in impressive fashion.
Replies: 1 Comment made on this article
THE WINNER SHOULD FIGHT WHITLEY
Posted by ICEMAN @ 07/18/2004 06:43 PM EST
