Boxing shorts from Foxwoods
On Friday night at Foxwood's Resort in Connecticut, Emanuel Augustus stopped Jamie Rangel in the tenth round of a junior welterweight bout to improve his checkered career record to 32-25-6. Asked about his awkward style of fighting (although it was toned down for Rangel), Augustus said he picked up many a move from playing various versions of Tekken, martial arts video game series. “My favorite character is Steve Fox,” said Augustus, who added he also draws a lot of inspiration from the character Eddy Guerrero, a capoeira expert. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that employs a lot of fancy footwork. Many of Guerrero’s moves in the Tekken game can be mistaken for break dancing. Whatever his source of inspiration, Augustus has impressed his promoter. He’s the best fighter with a bad record. That’s why I promote him,” said Lou DiBella following the bout.
DiBella no longer has an ownership stake in the Norwich Navigators, a minor league baseball team a few miles away from both Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino but that's only because the Norwich Navigators recently changed its name to the Connecticut Defenders. DiBella is the president and managing partner of the Defenders. The team’s new mascot, an American Bald Eagle, made an appearance at the Foxwoods card.
DiBella, who has been spotted in casual dress at numerous “Broadway Boxing” shows in New York bopping his head to Hip-Hop fighter entrance music, was back in suit and tie Friday night at Foxwoods. Asked about the former HBO executive’s switch from casual back to dressy, one of DiBella’s staff noted that DiBella has an image to uphold. “He’s a movie star now,” said the DiBella
Entertainment staff member, referring to the role DiBella has in the upcoming Rocky 6 (he plays the promoter of the big fight, hardly a stretch). A number of scenes for Rocky 6 were shot in Las Vegas the week of the December rematch between Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins. Taylor, promoted by DiBella, is the world middleweight champion and holds two wins over Hopkins.
Proving that boxers are the most fan-friendly athletes in all of sports, the popular Micky Ward autographed photos of himself for attendees of the post-fight after party for Paul Malignaggi at Foxwoods’ Hard Rock café. Malignaggi won a regional junior welterweight title after putting on a boxing clinic for ten rounds against Donald Camarena, who was 16-1 (9 KOs) going in his bout with “The Magic Man.”
Joe Antonacci is a fine ring announcer and also a fine gentleman. But does he have to say, “Maribel [or any other round card girls’ name] is here to tell us it’s [so-and-so] round,” every single round? The fight fans see the cards the girls are holding up and don’t need to be told Maribel or Karla is here to tell us it’s the third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh and so on and so on round. Other ringside reporters have expressed annoyance with Antonacci’s so-and-so “is here to tell us” line and I’m sure much of the crowd gets pretty annoyed as well. However, Antonacci deserves a great deal of respect, as he donates what he makes as a ring announcer to charity.
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