Good Matches Keep Lansing Boxers Busy
Posted: April 28, 2008
by Lindy Lindell
PHOTOS BY BOB RYDER

Pro-Am boxing is, more and more, looking like the way to go--at least in Michigan. The simple fact of the matter is that good fights involving boxers with good records is no longer doable in the Wolverine state.

Two attempts at matches make the point. A Michigan junior-middleweight, 2-0, refused to box an 0-3 welterweight because, as the junior-middleweight's handler told me, "I heard he [the 0-3 boxer] was an animal." In a match attempted for the present show, promoter Joe Bermudez told me that a 9-1 middleweight declined to fight a boxer with a 10-18 log. Because such matches can't be made, it isn't necessarily the fault of the boxers in question. It is the fault of the handlers who guide their careers; These handlers may not be able to spell "paranoia," but they follow its tenets as if it were scripture.

It is with these qualifications that I say that in structuring the pro side of Saturday night's card that promoter-matchmaker-trainer Joe Bermudez did a good job in putting together fights involving opponents with lousy records.

Until recent years, it was possible to put together non-televised cards in Michigan involving six or seven fights. With the now-common practice of having three or four pro bouts and a like number of amateur scraps (inevitably, the amateur fights are better than the pros), a promoter has to struggle mightily to put together even twelve rounds (the minimum allowable) required for the pros, down from 30 if only pros are fighting.

Bermudez' 2007 Lansing Center card was a financial and artistic bust. At halftime of that show (all pros), the fights were so bad that I went and got a beer, hoping I might see the second half of the card under a more pleasant light. One wag chimed, "The fights are so bad, Lindell has been driven to drink." The show was very poorly attended and is best forgotten.

But even for that show, I know that Bermudez was trying hard to make good fights. He was particularly concerned with making good fights for his charges, Cleveland boxers Willie Nelson and Prenice Brewer, both outstanding amateurs and both undefeated as pros. Nelson and Brewer are now living and training in Lansing. The simple fact of the matter is this: you can't bring in boxers with good records to fight undefeated local boxers without breaking the proverbial bank of promotions not subsidized by television. Thus, Bermudez did the next best thing: he brought in stand-up guys with horrid records who pressed Nelson and Brewer, and while neither boxer lost a single round on a single card in the twelve rounds between them, Bermudez matched them well and got good fights out of both.

The 6'3" Nelson (who the hell wants to fight him anyway) swept six from Randy Dodds of Cleveland, now 7-25, though announced as 8-4. There is no need to prevaricate about a boxer's record. The crowd doesn't give a shit anyway. They just want to see a good fight.

Dodds gave everything he had and chugged forward with determination throughout. One must say that while Nelson's performance was very good if not scintillating, he seems to lack the heavy artillery necessary to dispose of foes of any degree of toughness. He's 8-0
(4). He has a good work rate, but doesn't or can't throw jabs and body punches.

Lightweight Prenice Brewer, 7-0-1, has an excellent jab and easily thwarted the very familiar Ramon Guevera, only 8-15, but is an entertaining, aggressive Dominican who lacks skills and who has been kayoed at least three times in Michigan rings. Still, Guevera had no trouble going the six heats against Brewer. Brewer, too, seems to lack a big punch, but he is well-schooled and strikes this reporter as having very good ability.

I don't know what was done differently this time, but the turnout this go-round was bordering on near-capacity--a most encouraging sign for promoter Bermudez.

The pro results:

Prenice Brewer, 135.5, Lansing, W6 Ramon Guevera, 135, Grand Rapids.
Willie Nelson, 143.25, Lansing, W6 Randy Dodds, 146.75, Ft. Wayne, IN.
George Sanchez, 151.75, Lansing, KO1 (2:29) Paul Reyes, 148.5, Ft. Wayne, IN.
Jose Godines, 164, Lansing, W4 Jaime Castellano, 159.5, Lansing.