Carlos Ortiz, the Last of a Breed

By Gene Pantalone, NJBHOF (Class of 2022) Writer/Historian

For me, the death of Carlos Ortiz on June 13, 2022, represents the end of an era. An era when many boxers trained with other boxers in remote training camps. Carlos Ortiz was the last in a long line of champions that trained at a boxing camp in the small, idyllic town of Chatham Township, New Jersey. It was a camp that was started by a woman, Madame Bey, in 1923, and continued by Ehsan Karadag after her death in 1942. There is no telling how many champions passed through this camp; however, we do know that there were no fewer than 14 heavyweight champions and 80 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees that came to this camp from 1923 to 1969.

When Ortiz first came to the camp, he was following in the footsteps of a pantheon of great boxers. From the first to train here in 1923, middleweight world champion Johnny Wilson, to the last, Carlos Ortiz. Others in the forty-seven-year history that trained here were Gene Tunney, Max Schmeling, Mickey Walker, Henry Armstrong, Lou Ambers, Tony Canzoneri, Floyd Patterson (the last heavyweight champion to train here in 1959), and many other world champions. Other greats that had retired just came to the camp to watch their successors. Greats like Rocky Marciano, James J. Corbett, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Benny Leonard, James Braddock, were among them. Along with the fighters, many great trainers, managers, and promoters accompanied them, like Cus D’Amato, Ray Arcel, Whitey Bimstein, Chris Dundee, Joe Jacobs, Mike Jacobs, Jimmy Jacobs (Mike Tyson’s co-manager), etc.

In 1966 and 1967, the last world champion came to use Ehsan’s camp as a base for his training. Like Freddie Welsh, who had brought boxing to Chatham Township in 1917, he held the world lightweight championship. His name was Carlos Ortiz, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on September 9, 1936. He came to mainland America in 1947. Ortiz had eyes that lit his face, even white teeth, tightly curling brown hair, and thick eyebrows dominating his tiny features. His face remained unmarked after eighteen years of fighting as an amateur and professional. 

Ortiz held the world junior welterweight championship from 1959 to 1962, followed by two reigns as the world lightweight champion, from 1962 to 1965 and from 1965 to 1968. Most champions were training elsewhere. Some were in hotels like those in the Catskill Mountains. Muhammad Ali, world heavyweight champion, preferred to do his work in a midtown gymnasium, where the “people can come to see me,” thought later is his career he, too, would train in a remote camp in Pennsylvania.

“The Garden wanted to put me up there somewhere, too,” Ortiz said, “but there’s too many people there. I don’t like to be bothered when I’m training.” 

Ortiz was to defend his world lightweight title against Gabriel “Flash” Elorde from the Philippines at Madison Square Garden. It would be the first lightweight title bout at the Garden in almost thirteen years—since Paddy DeMarco, the Brooklyn Billy Goat, dethroned Jimmy Carter on March 5, 1954. 

The camp owner, Ehsan, was seventy-seven years old. He used to have many fighters training, sometimes over thirty, but now he was lucky to have three—Ortiz and two sparring partners. Ortiz also spent a few weeks at Ehsan’s earlier that year prior to his title bouts with Sugar Ramos and Johnny Bizzarro. Other than that, Ehsan’s Camp had been quiet.

The white, clapboard farmhouse at the camp that had housed a great many champions was weather-beaten. Inside, you could find Carlos Ortiz playing cards, which had been a tradition through the years. It was time to relax and forget about boxing for a while. Their game of choice that day was Hearts.

“Carlos is leading,” said Teddy Bentham, his trainer, looking up from the score pad.

“You've got to lead the spades to me,” Roger Gerson, a friend of Ortiz, said across the table to Willie Munoz, one of the sparring partners. “Then I can lead the spades to Carlos, and he can’t get off the hook.”

“I'm a good counter puncher,” Ortiz said, seriously, referring to the card game and not his boxing skills.

“Carlos wins a ten-dollar,” Bentham said, after the game concluded.

“Another big purse,” Carlos said, smiling.

At the conclusion of the game, Ortiz’s manager reminded him it was time to get back to work.

“I love this place,” Ortiz said. “I don’t want to train at those resorts. Too many people. That’s like going to Coney Island.”

Ortiz dominated the fight against Elorde at the Garden on November 28, 1966. He scored a knockout at two minutes, one second in round fourteen of fifteen. All scorecards showed Ortiz ahead before the knockout. Referee Jimmy Devlin eleven to two, Judge Joe Armstrong thirteen to zero, and Judge Artie Aidala twelve to one. The unofficial Associated Press scorecard was twelve to one, and the unofficial United Press International scorecard was eleven to zero with two even.

Arriving back at Ehsan’s in 1967, Ortiz came to prepare for another lightweight title defense. He would defend against the tall Panamanian, Ismael Laguna, a future lightweight champion.

“When I was a kid,” Carlos Ortiz said, “I promised myself I would make this title worth more money than it ever was worth before.”

With this fight, Ortiz would be able to fulfill his promise to himself. He was to fight for a guarantee of $83,000. When added to his lifetime earnings, it would eclipse by $500 the record for money earned by a lightweight, still held by Lou Ambers, who frequently used the camp to train for his fights thirty years before.

“But the money hasn’t changed Ortiz, said journalist Dave Anderson who was at the camp. “He trains the way champions used to, in seclusion and in simplicity. Other champions like their luxury these days.”

When asked what he would do with his purse, Ortiz said he would buy Ehsan’s Camp, and appeared serious.

“… I got to like it. I enjoy walking around here and the little town down the road, New Providence, is a nice place.”

On August 16th, Ortiz won a unanimous fifteen-round decision over Laguna at Shea Stadium in New York City, retaining his world lightweight title.

Ortiz would lose his title in his next fight against Carlos Teo Cruz in a fifteen-round split decision. He did not train at Ehsan’s for it. It took place on June 28, 1968, in Estadio Quisqueya, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ortiz would go on to win his next ten fights after that loss. In 1972, he was scheduled to fight Roberto Duran, who was the lightweight champion, but Duran withdrew ten days before the fight. Ortiz fought Ken Buchanan instead.

“I had trained for a completely different fighter and was very frustrated. I felt I had nothing to gain and everything to lose,” Ortiz said.

On September 20, 1972, thirty-five-year-old Ortiz fought Buchanan at Madison Square Garden. Ortiz did not get up from his stool after the sixth round. He lost by a technical knockout. For the first time in his career, he did not finish a fight.

“I knew this was going to be my last fight,” Ortiz said. 

It would be his last fight. One month later, Ehsan Karadag died at the age of eighty-two. 

Carlos Ortiz finished his career with a record of 61-7-1 and one no contest. Ortiz is considered among the best Puerto Rican boxers of all time by sports journalists and analysts. He holds the record for the most wins in unified lightweight title bouts in boxing history at ten. In 1991, Ortiz was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2002, Ortiz was voted by The Ring magazine as the 60th greatest fighter of the last 80 years. He held 21st place in BoxRec ranking of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers of all time.

In 1969, Willie Ratner, the journalist who coaxed Madame Bey into assuming Freddie Welsh’s business forty-six years before, came to visit the camp. Where the sign that used to hang for a passerby to read “Training To-Day” was a new sign— “For Sale.” 

During its existence, the camp was the best known in the world. Time, economics, suburban sprawl, and a changed world of boxing took their toll. Its past popularity was undeniable. The once sparsely populated farmland was now surrounded by suburban homes and a large apartment complex down the street.

In 1972, the farmhouse on the grounds was razed, and the gymnasium was remodeled into a ranch-style house to blend with the surroundings. The extraordinary events that occurred at the camp live on because of fighters and sportswriters of the past, like Carlos Ortiz.

Gene Pantalone and his three brothers visited the historic camp in the mid-60s to see the likes of boxers Carlos Ortiz, Rubin Hurricane Carter, Jose Torres, Benny Kid Paret (he trained for his fatal fight there), Issac Logart, and Doug Jones. His books include Madame Bey’s: Home to Boxing Legends and From Boxing Ring to Battlefield: The Life off War Hero Lew Jenkins.

Gene Pantalone has compiled the following alphabetical list of known boxers, trainers, managers, promoters, and celebrities that attended the camp based on photograph and newspaper archival evidence. The following is an alphabetic list of people associated with boxing that were in Chatham Township, New Jersey, where Madame Bey's camp resided:

Georgie Abrams, Lou Ambers, Fred Apostoli, Red Applegate, Ray Arcel, Freddie Archer, Henry Armstrong, Buddy Baer, Max Baer, Joe Baksi, Sam Baroudi, Billy Beauhuld, Tommy Bell, Steve Belloise, Paul Berlenbach, Melio Bettina, Carmine Bilotti, Whitey Bimstein, Jimmy Bivins, James Braddock, Jorge Brescia, Jack Britton, Freddy Brown, Al Buck, Red Burman, Mushy Callahan, Victor Campolo, Tony Canzoneri, Primo Carnera, Georges Carpentier, Jimmy Carter, Rubin Carter, Ezzard Charles, Kid Chocolate, Gil Clancy, Freddie Cochrane, Jimmy Carrollo, James J. Corbett, Lulu Costantino, Cus D’Amato, Jack Delaney, Al Davis, Red Top Davis, James P. Dawson, Jack Dempsey, Gus Dorazio, Carl Duane, Chris Dundee, Johnny Dundee, Vince Dundee, Sixto Escobar, Tommy Farr, Abe Feldman, Freddie Fiducia, Jackie Fields, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Billy Fox, Humbert Fugazy, Charley Fusari , Tony Galento, Kid Gavilán, Frankie Genaro, Billy Gibson, Joey Giardello, George Godfrey, Arturo Godoy, Charley Goldman, Ruby Goldstein, Bud Gorman, Billy Graham, Frank Graham, Rocky Graziano, Abe Greene, Gus Greenlee, Emile Griffith, Babe Herman, Steve Hostak, Ace Hudkins, Herbert Hype Igoe, Beau Jack, Tommy Hurricane Jackson, Jimmy Jacobs, Joe Jacobs, Mike Jacobs, Joe Jeanette, Ben Jeby, Lew Jenkins, Jack Johnson, James Johnston, Doug Jones, Ralph Tiger Jones, Phil Kaplan, Jack Kearns, Frankie Klick, Johnny Kilbane, Solly Krieger, Jake LaMotta, Tippy Larkin, Benny Leonard, Gus Lesnevich, King Levinsky, John Henry Lewis, Isaac Logart, Tommy Loughran, Joe Louis, Joe Lynch, Eddie Mader, Nathan Mann, Rocky Marciano, Lloyd Marshall, Eddie Martin, Bat Masterson, Joey Maxim, Jimmy McLarnin, Mike McTigue, Jack Miley, Bob Montgomery, Archie Moore, Tod Morgan, Dan Morgan, Walter Neusel, Kid Norfolk, Lou Nova, Jack O’Brien, Bob Olin, Lee Oma, Carlos Ortiz, Ken Overlin, Benny Kid Paret, Floyd Patterson, Willie Pep, Billy Petrolle, Willie Ratner, Grantland Rice, Gilbert Rogin, Maxie Rosenbloom, Al Roth, Andre Routis, Irving Rudd, Bobby Ruffin, Damon Runyon, Sandy Saddler, Lou Salica, Johnny Saxton, Max Schmeling, Flashy Sebastian, Marty Servo, Jack Sharkey, Battling Siki, Eric Seelig, Freddie Steele, Allie Stolz, Young Stribling, Herman Taylor, Lew Tendler, Sid Terris, Young Terry, Jack Thompson, Jose Torres, Gene Tunney, Pancho Villa, Mickey Walker, Max Waxman, Al Weill, Charlie Weinert, Freddie Welsh, Harry Wills, Charley White, Johnny Wilson, Chalky Wright, Paulino Uzcudun, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ike Williams, Teddy Yarosz.

Sources:

Anderson, Dave. Ortiz Prefers Simple and Secluded Training. New York Times. November 27, 1966.

Hissner, Ken. Carlos Ortiz the Hall of Fame Junior Welterweight and Lightweight Champion! Doghouse Boxing. April 28, 2009.

Ratner, Willie. Ehsan’s Training Camp on the Ropes. Newark Evening News. April 23, 1969.

Norton, Mark. Letter to the Summit Historical Society. Summit: 2008.

Smith, Red. Carlos Comes High. Binghamton Press. August 11, 1967.

1960 - The Champions

By Eric Armit

I occasionally get someone asking me about how I started to write about boxing and although I can’t recall when I first wrote I can recall approximately when I first began to compile records of current boxers and that was in the late 1950’s. That started me thinking about who were the champions in those days, what were their achievements, what was their quality and what was the level of their experience? There were no computers and no internet and no BoxRec. There is nothing that sucks you into following the career of a boxer like filling an index card by hand result by result week after week and year after year. I was my own BoxRec. Having started in the late 1950’s the 1960’s began a new decade of record compiling for me so I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and look at the world champions in the first year of the new decade and what happened to them later and hope you will join me. To some of my age-not too many of them now-it will hopefully bring back some fond memories. To some a good bit younger it might fill in some blanks about fighters heard of but not really known in detail and for younger fans of boxing offer some insight into those who are spoken of in reverence by oldies such as myself. 

One of the biggest differences was the absence of the WBC, IBF and WBO. The early forerunner of the WBA was there in the shape of the National Boxing Association (NBA) but no one paid much attention to them and the New York Commission (NYSAC) thought it was the major force in boxing so they occasionally had their own “world” champions. If anyone it was Ring Magazine under Nat Fleischer who ruled on who the world champion was and most of the world went along with Ring’s judgement.

Title fights were held over 15 rounds and how they were scored depended on where the fight was held. If it was in New York or California it was scored on rounds and not points i.e. 8-7, 10-5, 9-6 - Nevada it was on a 5 points per round system i.e. 75-74, 75-73 etc. and in Florida it was the 10 points per round system we use now. In Britain the referee was the sole arbiter and his score was rarely released.

There were the eight traditional divisions heavy, light heavy, middle, welter, light, feather, bantam and fly. There had been some flirting with other weight divisions such as super feather/junior lightweight and super lightweight/light welterweight in earlier years but generally speaking only the NBA and the New York Commission recognized them then and they had died out and were not given any real recognition. However, in 1959 the NBA and NYSAC reintroduced the super lightweight division and the NBA also brought in the super featherweight division.

Even including these two recently introduced divisions there were only a total of seventeen world title fights in 1960. These days there are sometimes almost that many in a month. Can you imagine the dog fights that we would have today if the various cable, streaming, terrestrial channels and the promoters were scrambling to get a share of just seventeen world title fights. When you hear any of these bodies complaining that the proliferation of titles is ruining the sport, try asking if they would like to turn the clock back to 1960 and then try to fill their schedules.

There was a mixture of champions in 1960. Ingemar Johansson was the heavyweight champion having scored a huge upset in 1959 flooring Floyd Patterson seven times and stopping him in three rounds. Maybe not as huge as Andy Ruiz vs. Anthony Joshua I but of that magnitude. In June 1960 Patterson became the first fighter to regain the title when he knocked out Johansson. If they were active today both fighters would be considered as cruiserweights. Patterson weighed 182lbs in their 1959 fight and was a then career highest of 190lbs for the return and Johansson was 196 and 194 ¾lbs respectively.

Patterson had won the heavyweight title in November 1956 at the age of 21, the youngest fighter to win the heavyweight title until 1986 when Mike Tyson beat his record. 

Patterson’s title winning fight back in 1956 was against Archie Moore when he knocked out “The Old Mongoose” in five rounds. It is difficult to think of two more disparate roads than these two had traveled in their careers. Patterson had won the heavyweight title at 21 in his thirty-second fight. Moore won the light heavyweight title at the age of 36 in fight No 104 in the seventeenth year of his career. He had his first pro fight before Patterson was one year old. Moore put his title in storage in 1960 making no defenses but having four non-title fights. The WBA stripped Moore of the title in October just before he lost on points to Giulio Rinaldi in Italy. Moore beat Rinaldi in New York in June 1961, a fight that was officially recognized as a title fight by the NYSAC and the EBU and most of the public before Moore gave up any claim to the title in May 1962. 

Paul Pender was a somewhat underwhelming middleweight champion having beaten Sugar Ray Robinson in January and he made a successful defense against Robinson in June. Robinson had won the title in 1958 in a historic battle against Carmen Basilio that was voted “Fight of the Year”. He had only one fight in 1959 and the NBA stripped him of the world title for inactivity. The NYSAC had continued to recognize Robinson as having the majority of boxing people, and he was in his fifth reign as middleweight champion. Again there was a contrast with Pender in fight No 43 of his career and a 38-year-old Robinson losing the title in fight No 152 in his twentieth year as a pro. Pender was unfortunate to be following guys such as Basilio and Robinson and was always going to suffer by comparison.

Going into 1960 Don Jordan was welterweight champion having dodged the clutches of Frankie Carbo. Convincing wins in title defenses in 1959 against Virgil Akins and unbeaten Denny Moyer had boosted his stock but then it plummeted as he was knocked out by Luis Federico Thompson in December 1959 and then in June 1960 he was beaten on points by modest Candy McFarland who had lost three of his previous four fights. Benny “Kid” Paret took the title from Jordan with a unanimous points decision in May. The rest of the year was a switchback for Paret as he lost a split decision to Denny Moyer in a non-title match but retained the title with a win over Thompson in December. In 1961 Paret would go on to lose the title to Emile Griffith then beat Griffith in a return to close 1961 as welterweight champion but in December 1961 lost to Gene Fullmer in a challenge for the NBA middleweight title. On March 23 1962 in his third fight with Griffith Paret took a savage beating being stopped in the twelfth round and lost his title and his life. He was in a coma and never regained consciousness after the stoppage before dying on 3 April.

“Old Bones” Joe Brown held the lightweight title. The year started and ended badly for him. In non-title fights in January he did a “no mas” when body punches from Ray Portillo left him with two separated ribs and in December he was floored and outpointed by Giordano Campari. Brown showed his class when it counted as he retained the title in October with a comfortable decision over Cisco Andrade. Brown had won the title in May 1956 at the age of 30 and in fight No 108 of his career. Not being “connected” meant that it had taken him almost twenty years to get the title shot. 

Davey Moore “The Springfield Rifle” held the featherweight title. He had won the title and defended it in 1959 with inside the distance wins over Nigeria’s first ever world champion Hogan Bassey. Moore was very active in 1960 fitting in seven fights. He retained the title with a wide unanimous decision over Kazuo Takayama in Japan. Unlike today in 1960 champions regularly engaged in non-title fights and five of Moore’s six non-title fights were staged outside the USA. Moore won five of those non-title bouts but suffered his first inside the distance loss in March 1960 when big punching Venezuelan Carlos Hernandez reportedly fractured Moore’s jaw and the champion retired after seven rounds of their fight in Caracas.

The bantamweight title was held by Jose Becerra. The heavy puncher from Guadalajara entered the year on the back of a 19 bout winning streak with 16 of those wins by KO/TKO. He had won the title in July 1959 by knocking out Alphonse Halimi in eight rounds. He retained the title with a repeat win over Halimi in February when after being down in the second round and trailing on all three cards he knocked Halimi out in the ninth round. He made another defense in Japan in May when he won a split decision over Kenji Yonekura. Two judges had Becerra winning by six and four points and the Japanese judge saw Yonekura the winner by five points! Like Moore, Becerra also had some non-title fights. He won three but the fourth was a shocking kayo loss in August against unfancied Eloy Sanchez who had lost his previous three fights. Becerra was so disappointed with his loss that he retired and in November Brazilian Eder Jofre knocked out Sanchez to win recognition by the NBA taking his record to 35-0-3. Jofre went on to unify the titles winning the WBC belt and retaining the WBA title (the NBA had morphed into the WBA in 1962) and also won the WBC featherweight title on his way to eventual recognition as one of the greatest bantamweights of all time.

Going into 1960 Argentinian Pascual Perez was flyweight champion.  The little South American had won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in London in 1948 before turning pro in 1952 and when he beat Yoshio Shirai in November 1954 he became Argentina’s first world champion. As the year started he was 33 years old, had defended his title nine times and had a 54-1-1 record. His glorious reign came to an end in April 1960 when he dropped a split decision in Bangkok by Pone Kingpetch in a fight where Ring Magazine editor Nat Fleischer was a judge. Fleischer scored Kingpetch a clear winner. The size difference-Perez was 4’11” and Kingpetch 5’6 ½”- just proved too much for Perez to overcome. The Thai stopped Perez in eight rounds in a return fight in September 1960. Kingpetch eventually lost and then regained his title in fights against Fighting Harada before being recognized as the inaugural WBC flyweight champion in 1962. He lost both his WBA and WBC recognition when he was beaten by Hiroyuki Ebihara in 1963 but then regained them with a win over Ebihara in 1964 only to lose them to Salvatore Burruni in 1965.  

As I said at the beginning of 1960 the super lightweight and super featherweight titles were reintroduced by the NBA. The super lightweight/light welterweight title had died out in 1947 with Tippy Larkin the last title holder. On its resurrection in June 1959, Carlos Ortiz won NBA and NYSAC recognition with a second round cuts stoppage of Kenny Lane. In 1960 Ortiz retained the title with a tenth round kayo of 31-0 Mexican Battling Torres in February and a split decision over Italian Dulio Loi in June which was only Loi’s second defeat in 111 fights. Loi had his revenge taking the title from Ortiz on a majority decision in September 1960. These two would meet again in May 1961 with Loi flooring Ortiz and winning a wide unanimous verdict. The NBA morphed into the WBA and Loi lost the WBA title to Eddie Perkins who floored Loi twice on the way to a points win in September 1962 but Loi rebounded and regained the title in December before retiring as still champion in January 1963 with a 115-3-8 record.

The super featherweight/junior lightweight title had fallen into disuse when Sandy Sadler was champion back in 1951 and when the title was again contested in 1959 Harold Gomes climbed off the floor four times and outpointed Paul Jorgenson for the NBA belt. He lost the title to Filipino great Flash Elorde in March 1960. Elorde had lost on a cut against Sandy Saddler for the featherweight title in 1956 but in front of 36,000 wildly ecstatic fans at the inauguration of the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City Metro Manila Elorde destroyed Gomes flooring him six times before being knocking him out in the seventh round. They met again in August with Elorde putting Gomes down twice and the fight was over in 80 seconds. When the WBC came into being they recognized Elorde as their champion on 14 February 1963 and just two days later he outpointed Johnny Bizzarro in defense of the WBA and WBC titles. In an achievement that could not happen today at the same time as winning and losing in world title fights at super featherweight Elorde had three terms as OPBF lightweight champion going 17-2 in OPBF title fights. A forerunner and inspiration to budding Filipino boxers who would strive to follow in his footsteps.

With so many sanctioning bodies and so many weight divisions it would not be impossible to have had fifty fighters holding a version of a world title in any year. In 1960 in the 10 division only 17 fighters held a world title: Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Ray Robinson, Paul Pender, Don Jordan, Benny Paret, Joe Brown, Davey Moore, Jose Becerra, Eder Jofre, Pascual Perez, Pone Kingpetch, Carlos Ortiz, Dulio Loi, Harold Gomes and Flash Elorde. In 1960 four champions Archie Moore, Robinson, Loi and Brown all had more than 100 fights to their name, something we will never see again. Something we are more familiar with is that in the list of champions there were two former Olympic gold medal winners, Patterson at middleweight, Perez at flyweight. Davey Moore and Ingemar Johansson  represented the USA and Sweden respectively at the 1952 Olympics and Eder Jofre boxed for Brazil at the 1956 Olympics. Tragically within the next three years two champions Paret and Davey Moore would go on to lose their lives when defending their titles.

Of those title holders in 1960, Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Brown, Eder Jofre, Pascual Perez, Carlos Ortiz and Flash Elorde would go on the be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 1960-A year of champions.

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Blair Cobbs: Boxing is his Sanctuary

By Luis A. Cortes III

Saturday night’s mega fight card live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas is indeed being headlined by the historic showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev.  While this matchup between the reigning middleweight king and the current WBO light heavyweight champion has brought members of the boxing media to Sin City from all over the country, Blair “The Flair” Cobbs (12-0-1) (8 KO’s) is aware that this is his moment to establish himself, make believers out of everyone watching, and prove he is the future of boxing. Tomorrow night, Cobbs will meet Carlos Ortiz (11-4) (11 KO's) in a 10-round fight for the NABF welterweight title. 

This is the type of opportunity (being in the opening fight of the main portion of the televised card) that Cobbs has been working towards as a professional fighter for the past six years.  Not only will a victory for Cobbs announce his presence to the sport, as he makes the transition from welterweight prospect to championship contender (this fight will be for the vacant NABF title), it’s the first step that he needs to take in trying to do what all fighters crave to ultimately do... Become a bankable transcendent star.

As he stands inside of the MGM Casino with his team at his side just outside of a casino bar moments after finishing an open workout for fans and media, this version of Blair Cobbs is a much more subdue man than the one who was just entertaining the crowd and shouting that he “is the baddest, most exciting man in boxing today.”

With a frenzy taking place and fans screaming for free promotional gifts as other undercard fighters shadow boxed and skipped ropes to help promote Saturday night's event, Team Cobbs arrived for their turn. The polite, soft spoken, and thoughtful twenty-nine-year-old flipped a switch as he stepped through the ropes.  By the time his feet landed inside of the ring he had transformed into the “The Flair,” and started shouting into the cameras and towards the fans.  Instantly understanding and showing the world that inside of the ring is not only his sanctuary, but also his stage.

Cobbs even showed off one of his unique training techniques to the crowd.  After spinning around in a circle to off-set his balance, Cobb was tossed three balls that he started to juggle.  The thought process being that he can train his body and mind to successfully juggle three balls while dizzy.  This form of training will lead to an improved ability to fight and maintain coordination if he is ever hurt and dazed from a punch.  Once his time inside of the ring ended, Cobbs left the ring and the public workout area.  Minutes later, he had internally flipped the switch back off and was once again, Blair.

The road for Cobbs arrival to fight week has been nothing but unorthodox, even for the often-crazy unpredictable world of boxing.  His backstory and road to the sport is something the best screenwriters and producers in Hollywood couldn’t even come up with.  “There are many chapters that explain my life.  I was born in Philadelphia and lived in Beverly Hills where I went to high school.  Another chapter was having to move with my father and sister to Guadalarja, Mexico.  That’s where I learned to box.  Boxing and that ring became my sanctuary,” stated Cobbs.

It was back in 2004 that Cobbs and his sister were suddenly moved to Mexico by their father.  Eugene Cobbs was a prime target of the FBI who were searching for him in connection with an air plane crash in West Virginia.  Eugene had allegedly crashed a private plane and fled the scene because inside of the plane was 525 pounds of cocaine.  With the U.S. Marshals closing in on him and his family, Mexico became home for the Cobbs family.

Once in Mexico, Cobbs tried his best to adapt to his new surroundings by picking up the language, which he speaks fluently.  He wandered into a boxing gym and took to the sport like a fish to water.  Cobbs would keep a low profile to keep his family together everywhere except for inside of the gym.  “I was fighting like every weekend and it was great.  I was in some real knockdown drag out fights,” recalled Cobbs.  In 2007, Eugene was captured and Blair was set free as he was able to return to his home country.  He found himself back in Philadelphia after a stint in New York, but with no money and no prospects for financial gain.  Cobbs once again found sanctuary behind the walls of a boxing gym.

“I was unprepared for the streets of Philadelphia.  I was all over the city, West, North, Germantown.  Surviving those city streets is hard.”  Through boxing Cobbs was able to make his name in the city in the same fashion that he did while fighting and trying to survive in Mexico.  After turning professional in 2013 he found some success in and out of the boxing ring.  Cobbs still had no financial stability but was training locals at the Joe Hand Boxing Gym and using whatever money he could put together to eat properly and train.  While living out of his car, he finally received a break when he was noticed by former associates of Bernard Hopkins.

Once again, Cobbs decided that it would be best to try and establish himself in a new environment to continue his path in boxing, so he moved to Las Vegas.  This move occurred because, despite knowing associates of a legend, he couldn’t get a fight on the grounds that no one wanted to face him.  His career was at a turning point, thus the move out west.  Former WBA bantamweight champion Clarence “Bones” Adams was serving time and met Cobbs' cousin.  They spoke about Blair and Adams agreed to meet with the young talent upon his release.

They immediately connected not just through boxing, but through their shared experiences and similar backgrounds.  Adams was so convinced that Cobbs was a special talent that he got Brandon Woods, his former trainer, to return to Las Vegas to help with training and Cobbs' development.  Finally having a steady home in Las Vegas and a stable team to support his growth as a fighter and man, Cobbs won several fights in a row. He reconnected with the former associate of Bernard Hopkins in Vegas, and after a few more wins, signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions.

With boxing being Blair Cobbs' sanctuary in Mexico, New York, Philadelphia, back to Mexico wining professional fights, and now in Las Vegas, at 29, Cobbs needs to make a splash before his physical prime runs its course.  After all, father time waits for no man, not even the Flair.  He is aware of this and along with his back story, his ability to speak fluent Spanish (which opens him up to the Latino market), his fan friendly fighting style, and his willingness to interact with fans, Cobbs has finally reached the moment for his career to start taking off towards bigger fights, which also means bigger pay days.  The first step for Cobbs to take towards his ultimate goals starts tomorrow night when he steps through the ropes and into the ring, which after all, is the place he also calls his “sanctuary."

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