Robert Carmody fought for his country in the boxing ring and on the battlefield

By TWI Staff

Our very own Matt Ward teamed up with We Are The Mighty to bring you a great article about American hero Robert Carmody! 

Robert Carmody fought for his country in the boxing ring and on the battlefield

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Gravesite of Robert Carmody.

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Boxing at the Red Bank Armory

By Matt Ward

The Red Bank Armory is located at 76 Chestnut Street in Red Bank. The historic building dates back to 1914, and was the home of the New Jersey Army National Guard’s Troop B of the Cavalry. A major feature of the armory was the 100x144-foot equestrian riding hall. By the 1950s, the armory was used as a storage space for old tanks. In 1998, the armory was purchased from the state and converted into an ice rink. The rink is home to a number of local hockey teams including the Red Bank Generals of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League and the nearby Red Bank Catholic High School Casey’s hockey team. The facility’s rinks are also used for ice skating lessons. I had the opportunity to tour the building in May of 2017, and was amazed by how wonderfully preserved the building is. It is a standing testament to the value of repurposing historic buildings for the sake of preservation!

Red Bank Armory in Modern Times

Other than for military and ice hockey purposes, the building has also hosted a series of professional and amateur boxing matches. The most notable professional bouts occurred in 1925 and 1948.

A charity card for disabled children was put on by the Asbury Park and Long Branch Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at the Red Bank Armory on August 7, 1925. The card was arranged by John Leon, a matchmaker for Coney Island Stadium in Brooklyn. This event attracted over 4,000 fans that enjoyed an evening of thrilling fights. The main event of the card featured flyweight boxing champion Frankie Genaro and bantamweight pugilist George Marks, who agreed to fight at bantamweight.

George Marks

Frankie Genaro was a boxer from New York City who fought professionally from 1920 to 1934. Prior to turning professional, the five foot and one inch boxer captured a gold medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games as a flyweight boxer representing the United States of America. Over the course of his long career, he fought over 100 times and captured titles in the flyweight division. Following his long boxing career, Genaro pursued a career as a horse jockey in France. He died in 1966 at the age of 65. Genaro was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998.

Frankie Genaro (front) with Primo Carnera

His opponent that summer night in Red Bank was an English born fighter billed out of Los Angeles, George Marks. Marks was a contender in the bantamweight division who captured the Pacific Coast Bantamweight title during his nine year professional career that lasted from 1917 to 1926. In 1933, Marks was tragically killed at the young age of 32 in an automobile accident in Azusa, California. 

This was the second encounter between the two men in the squared circle. Genaro had defeated Marks in June of 1925 at Coney Island Stadium in Brooklyn. The actual events of the contest, that was billed as “one of the most stirring boxing events ever carded in the state of New Jersey”, differed based on what local newspaper you read. According to The Red Bank Register, Genaro took five rounds and Marks won two. The two fighters split the other three rounds. Reporters from the Asbury Park Press were also in the press section that evening. They reported that Marks won every round with the exception of possibly the ninth “when Genaro probably conscious that Marks was getting the better of the breaks attempted to make a desperate try to even things up.” 

Because reporters from both papers saw the fight differently, the fight was ruled a newspaper decision draw. A newspaper decision was utilized in the early 20th century after a fight ended with no decision from the judges and referee. In this scenario, reporters from a local newspaper(s) would decide who won the fight. As you can imagine, these decisions were, at times, heavily lopsided in favor of a hometown fighter. This method of scoring is no longer utilized in modern boxing. 

The evening also had three other boxing matches featuring Tommy Jordan versus George Levine, Rene De Vos versus Lew Ferry, and Willie Dillon versus Erwin Bige. Belgian middleweight champion Rene De Vos, who is often listed as one of the greatest boxers not in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, took on Lew Ferry of Newark, New Jersey. Ferry was a veteran of the Jersey Shore fight scene, having fought there on numerous occasions. De Vos walked away the winner via newspaper decision after both The Red Bank Register and the Asbury Park Press scored the bout in favor of the Belgian.

Rene De Vos

Brooklyn based boxer Tommy Jordan and California’s George Levine squared off in a welterweight contest. The fight was described by the local media as having “all the earmarks of a championship bout from the start.” Levine won the bout via newspaper decision after The Red Bank Register scored the contest a draw, and the Asbury Park Press scored the fight for Levine. 

The opening bout of the evening featured Omaha’s Erwin Bige, who weighed in at 121 pounds, and New York’s Willie Dillon, who weighed seven pounds heavier than his opponent. The weight advantage had no impact on the fight’s outcome, as Bige cruised to a newspaper decision over his opponent after ten rounds of boxing. Both The Red Bank Register and Asbury Park Press scored the fight in favor of the Nebraskan. 

Professional boxing returned to the Red Bank Armory on October 12, 1948. This card had far less star power than the show 13 years earlier, and featured a card loaded with fighters from the tristate area such as Philadelphia’s Danny McCall, Newark’s Jimmy Stamford, and Asbury Park’s Don Layton. The main event featured middleweights Milton Lattimore and Billy Ellison. Lattimore, a New York City fighter, was originally supposed to face Tony Rose. Rose was replaced prior to the bout by Billy Ellison of Newark. The six round main event ended in favor of the replacement fighter, Ellison, who won by points. Before retiring in 1949, Ellison fought three of his final four bouts in Atlantic City. Lattimore retired in 1951 with an even professional record of 26-26.   

This venue was also the site of numerous amateur boxing shows from the 1930s to 1970s. These cards often pitted local Police Athletic League (PAL) chapters against one another, including the Red Bank and Middletown PALs. The rich sports history of this building coupled with the building’s current position in the world of hockey will ensure that the Red Bank Armory will be an important part of the Red Bank community for many years to come. 



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Snips and Snipes with Eric Armit

Difficult decision this week on who to vote for as my favourite man/people. The candidates are UFC President Dana White and the Board of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Difficult choice. White has to be a strong candidate for saying that if the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov fight does come off it should be a UFC fight and not a boxing match. He is a candidate for making that statement and will do boxing a big favor if he sticks to that. Of course he can’t force it to be a UFC fight but hopefully his resistance to another boxing match will prove enough to end the speculation that this fight could take place. Mayweather is a genius inside the ring but hopefully, whilst no genius out of the ring still mart enough to realise he could be seriously injured in the cage and we will have dodged another farce. Go for it Dana.

The CAS has given Olympic boxing a lifeline by ordering the AIBA to allow Serik Konakbayev to be a candidate in this week’s presidential election. If interim president Gafur Rahimov had been the sole candidate there is every chance that the Olympic Committee would banish boxing from the Olympics. It is ridiculous that without this court action Rahimov, who is on the US  Department of the Treasury’s sanctions list “for providing material support “ to a criminal organisation would have lead such a high profile sports body.  You only have to look at the list of current world champions to see the important part Olympic competition has played. Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Oleg Usyk, Artur Beterbiev, Demetrius Andrade, Gary Russell, Errol Spence, Vasyl Lomachenko, Isaac Dogboe, Khalid Yafai and Jose Pedraza were all Olympians. Of course there will still be amateur boxing even if the sport is not an Olympic sport but there must be a huge question over government support to boxing where the return in Olympic medals is a big factor in the support and sponsorship money given to the sport. My fear is that having been pig-headed enough to try to push Rahimov through as a sole candidate many AIBA delegates will react badly to having their plan foiled and vote Rahimov in just to thumb their noses at the CAS and the US Department of Treasury.

It is the next round of the WBSS super lights and bantams this weekend. The competition is already producing some great action and the Josh Taylor vs. Ryan Martin and Ryan Burnett vs. Nonito Donaire fights have the potential to be every bit as entertaining. The WBSS really is making a big impact and they are proving that the fights are more important than any title. With the WBSS in control of the various matches it is taking much of the decision making on who fights for what title and against whom out of the control of the sanctioning bodies but they all want to be associated with it so are playing along and basking in whatever glory comes out. All our own work? No none of your work Mr Sanctioning Body.

The next round of the WBSS cruiser tournament takes place in Chicago on 10 November. It will see the tournament favorite Mairis Breidis face Noel Gevor, or Noel Mikaeljin as he now seems to prefer to be known, and Krzys Glowacki against Maksim Vlasov. They are both very good fights between highly rated fighters. Breidis is No 1 with the WBC, and Vlasov No 2, the WBO have Glowacki No 2 and Vlasov No 5 the WBA have Vlasov No 2 and Glowacki No 3. The No 1 spot with the IBF is vacant with Andrew Tabiti who is already through to the semi-finals at No 3 and Glowacki No 7. Gevor’s only rating is No 14 with the WBC but then he is promoted by Sauerland promotions which explains his inclusion. Of course Yuniel Dorticos is also through to the semi-finals.

The elephant in the room is that on the same night in Manchester Oleg Usyk defends all four titles against Tony Bellew. Whoever wins that fight it is likely that all four titles will become vacant during the life of this WBSS tournament but until after the Usyk vs. Bellew and thee 10 November quarter-finals are over it won’t be clear who will be fighting for three of the four titles. It is impossible to know what is happening with the WBA. In their September ratings they showed Usyk as super champion, Beibut Shumenov as their secondary champion, and Arsen Goulamirian as their interim champion and Denis Lebedev as “champion in recess”. Their October ratings do not show Goulamirian at all and show Dorticos at No 1. I am not sure why Goulamirian has disappeared totally and I am also not sure how Lebedev can be “in recess” as he had a fight in September. It seems likely he will be reinstated and his fight with Mike Wilson on 24 November on a show in Monaco will be a title defence-of some title. Leave it to the WBA to screw things up at least in that they are reliable.

Apart from their headaches in the cruisers the WBA are still struggling to sort out the position on their secondary heavyweight title. Manuel Charr was to have defended the title against Fres Oquendo on 29 September but of course Charr tested positive for a banned substance. That ruled out Charr and as Oquendo rightly turned down a $500,000 offer to fight Jarrell Miller the WBA are still on the hook from the court case where they were ordered to give Oquendo a title fight. Oquendo has not fought for four years and the way it is going I can see him fighting for the title against Anthony Joshua’s grandson. That would be more like Super 88 than Super 8. No WBA title fight for Miller Instead he will fight Romanian Bogdan Dinu in Mulvane, Kansas on 17 November.

It is only natural that Daniel Jacobs should be calling out Saul Alvarez but the IBF may put a spoke in that wheel. Before the Serhiy Derevyanchenko fight Jacobs was rated behind Jack Culcay at No 3 so they may insist he fight Culcay before anyone else.

The Jeff Horn vs. Anthony Mundine fight in Brisbane on 30 November will be a huge fight for Australia. I am amazed by Mundine. At 43 he is still a force but what amazes me is that he started out as a super middle, moved up to middle, went down to super welter, fought Danny Green at cruiser and is now going to fight welterweight Jeff Horn at catchweight. He is a very controversial figure in Australia due to his strong stance on racial matters and he has said that he will not stand during the national anthem in Brisbane.

Juan Francisco will have a keep busy fight as he waits for a return shot at Srisaket. Estrada will face former WBC flyweight champion Sonny Boy Jaro. The Filipino scored a major upset when he beat Pongsaklek for the WBC title in 2012 but then lost three fights in a row including dropping the WBC title. He has won 10 of his 11 fights since then but at 36 and past his best he should pose no threat to Estrada.

The planned fight for the secondary WBA super welter title between the champion Brian Castano and former champion Erislandy Lara has been postponed until sometime early next year.

Two of Poland’s leading heavyweights, Artur Szpilka and Mariusz Wach will battle it out in Gliwice on 10 November. I don’t like the term “Crossroads” but the loser will find it hard to stay relevant if he loses here.  At 29 it is not quite so critical for Szpilka but at 38 time is running out for Wach.

There will an IBF eliminator in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 5 January to find a challenger for Errol Spence. The IBF No 1 spot vacant, No 2 Yordenis Ugas is lined up to challenge Shawn Porter for the WBC title in February and No 3 Jesse Vargas declined to fight an eliminator. The outcome is that Kuala Lumpur-based Uzbek Kudratillo Abdukakhorov the No 4 and Japan’s Keita Obara No 6 will fight each other to fill the No 1 spot. It seems that the Porter vs. Ugas fight will be on the same show as Spence vs. Mikey Garcia.

With Zolani Tete tied up in the WBSS bantam tournament the WBO are already looking to crown an interim champion. Ghanaian Duke Micah is rated No 1 by the WBO with Mexican Ricardo Espinoza No 2. Micah is a certainty but as yet it is not clear if Espinoza will accept the opportunity. If Isaac Dogboe retains his WBO super bantam title against Emanuel Navarrete in New York on 8 December, then with Micha’s title fight and Richard Commey now to meet Russian Isa Chaniev for the IBF light title relinquished by Mikey Garcia Ghana could have three world champion in the first half of 2019.

Plenty of good fights to come for the EBU tiles. From the lighter to the heavier a date is awaited for Andrew Selby’s challenge to Vicente Legrand for the flyweight title. Jeremy Parodi and Luca Rigoldi contest the vacant super bantam title on 17 November, on 14 November Samir Ziani and Juli Giner fight for the vacant super feather title, Francesco Patera, fresh from his upset victory over Lewis Ritson, will defend the lightweight title against Marvin Petit with purse bids due 19 November The super light title is vacant and Joe Hughes and Andrea Scarpa will fight for that on 30 November in Italy, Kerman Lejarraga defends the welterweight title against Frankie Gavin in Bilbao on 17 November, at super welter Sergio Garcia will be allowed a voluntary defence and then has to fight Zakaria Attou, negotiations are ongoing for Kamil Szeremeta to defend his title against Martin Murray, Robin Krasniqi has a voluntary defence of his light heavyweight title against Stefan Haertel on 17 November and if he wins he then has to defend against Juergen Brahmer. 

Cruiserweight champion Yves Ngabu is defending against Micki Nielsen no date yet for that one and finally if no agreement is reached purse bids are due 13 November for Agit Kabayel’s defence of the heavyweight title against Otto Wallin. Quite a schedule and some high quality fights.

Marcos Maidana is still scoring victories but in the courts not in the ring. The former WBA super light and welter champion sued his former manager claiming that he had defrauded Maidana of over $600,000. The court ruled that his manager had adulterated contracts, forged Maidana’s signature and collected money in the name of Maidana including a $175,000 signing on fee that Maidana should have received as signing on bonus from Universum Media. Whether Maidana will be able to recover the money is a different matter.

On the South African scene it was good to learn that Gideon Buthelezi was finally paid in full for his IBO title defence against Lucas Fernandez. However there is a lesson there that when you bend the rules even with the best of intentions it can rebound on you. This time not insisting on the promoter having the money instead of a promise from a sponsor for the money has ended happily but that has not always been the case in the past.

There was some controversy over Tommy Oosthuizen’s win over Thabiso Mchunu in September so they will fight each other again on a Rodney Berman show on 6 December. On the same show unbeaten Thulani Mbenge will be defending his IBO welterweight title against experienced former IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez.

The Italian Boxing Hall of Fame was formally opened late last month. Nino Benvenuti, Patricio Oliva, Mauricio Stecca and the late Giovanni Parisi were the first inductees. They are unique in that they are the only Italian boxers to win both an Olympic gold medal and a world title. Parisi tragically died in an automobile accident in 2009 at the age of just 41. There have been so many great Italian boxers and boxers of Italian heritage it will interesting to see who else joins this famous four in the Hall.

Not such good news for Italians was the death last month of Piero Del Papa at the age of 80. Del Papa was Italian light heavyweight champion and twice held the European title. In his twelve year 62 fight career he fought Eddie Cotton, Mauro Mina, Carl Bobo Olsen, Giulio Rinaldi, Chic Calderwood, Tom Bogs, Gregorio Peralta, Rudi Lubbers and so many more. His only shot at a world title came in his 55^th fight when he was knocked out in one round by Vicente Rondon for the WBA light heavy title. RIP Piero.

Piero Del Papa

Last month also saw the death of one of Kenya’s outstanding boxers in Richard Murunga. He put Kenya on the map when he came out of nowhere to win a bronze medal at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich where Kenya also won a silver and another bronze. He turned pro in 1974 and had a few fights in Europe for Mogen Palle. After he retired despite a spinal injury making him a paraplegic he played a big part in boxing in Kenyan as a trainer and later as a manager and founded the Kenyan Boxing Federation. RIP Richard.

Richard Murunga

Former world light heavy and cruiser champion Dariusz Michalczewski is entering the ranks of promoters. His first show will be a co-promotion with Erol Celan in Gdansk on 8 December. Michalczewski was 48-2 in his pro career winning his first 48 fights including 25 consecutive victories in WBO WBA and IBF title fights over two divisions.

Always expect the unexpected in boxing. After suffering his seventh loss in his last eight fights Georgian boxer Levan Shonia went back to his corner leaned over the ropes and punched his trainer. That was more than he had managed in six rounds against Spas Genov.

-Eric Armit

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Tonya "Bad Girl" Harding

Your friends at The Weigh-In don't just love combat sports... We are also casual women's figure skating fans! Our all-time favorite women's figure skater turned boxer is Tonya Harding.

Our very own Matt Ward came across this gem of an article today:

Tonya Harding Would Like Her Apology Now

This article makes us wish that Tonya Harding would get back into the ring and stop asking for apologies...

Celebrity Boxing Tonya Harding vs Paula Jones on YouTube

Tonya Harding's BoxRec Page

Come on Tonya... That 3-3 record would look a lot better with a four in the win column. Plus our favorite Tonya is the "Bad Girl"... Not the sad Tonya who orders fruity mixed drinks and steak appetizers.

(Teenage Dustin Johnson Loved this Photo!)

Love, 

TWI Dudes

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"NoMasChenko" Defeats Rigondeaux

For the first time in the history of boxing, two, two time Olympic Gold Medal champions stepped into the ring to fight. Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) and the Cuban national hero, Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) squared off for Lomachenko's WBO Super Featherweight Title in front of a capacity crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. The championship bout was televised by ESPN, which meant fans watching the bout at home to listen to Stephen A. Smith provide his "expert" boxing opinion on the bout and fighter's careers.

In the weeks leading up to the bout, hardcore fight fans knew before a punch was thrown that the fighters would put their strong defensive skills on display over the course of the contest. Many boxing analysts gave the younger Lomachenko the slight advantage over the aging Rigondeaux, who moved up two weight classes for this matchup.

When the opening bell rang, the sell out crowd was so loud that it was difficult to hear ESPN's mediocre commentators call the fight... Which was not a bad thing! (Sorry, not sorry, Tim Bradley) Lomachenko's size and weight advantage were evident from the outset. Lomachenko weighed in seven pounds heavier than his undefeated opponent. The first two rounds were marked with the men feeling one another out, and locking up in holds that referee Steve Willis did a poor job in breaking up.

In between the second and third rounds, Willis appeared to have a conversation with both fighters about the clinches, and punches thrown by both fighters after coming out of these clinches. In the third round, Lomachenko landed three hard right upper cuts that appeared to catch Rigondeaux's attention. In the fourth round, Lomachenko put his speed on display, as he outclassed and toyed with the veteran fighter.

The fifth round was full of clinches that the referee again failed to control. Lomachenko who noticed that the referee could not control the bout up to this point, proceeded to land a number of dirty and illegal punches during clinches, and after holds were broken up. Lomachenko's strategy began to frustrate Rigondeaux in the sixth round, who also started to show his age in this round. A point was deducted from Rigondeaux during this round by referee, Steve Willis.

Rigondeaux refused to come out of his corner for the seventh round. The exhausted and frustrated fighter refused to continue for what appeared to be an injured left hand. Some analysts believed that this was a cop out for the number seven ranked pound-for-pound fighter who was being dominated on the scorecards up to that point of the bout. Lomachenko, the victor by TKO, put on yet another show of force for a nationally televised audience. Lomachenko, whose dominance in the ring has forced four straight fighters to refuse to come out of their corners, told ESPN that he may change his name to "NoMasChenko." In the post-fight interview, Rigondeaux claimed that his injured left hand prevented him from continuing in the bout, a statement which drew loud boos from those in attendance.

MW

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