BoxRec

Madison Square Garden retires original boxing ring

Thursday, September 20th 2007

One of New York's wonderful relics, known to millions, was retired yesterday.

Still looking sprightly and with some bounce left in it despite its 82 years, Madison Square Garden's original boxing ring was wrapped up neatly for shipment to the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.

Yesterday at the Garden, a gang of current and former champions, managers, cornermen, promoters and veteran newspapermen were there to bid the 18.6-foot squared circle goodbye.

The first two fighters to step on this mat were Paul Berlenbach and Jack Delaney on Dec. 11,1925. This was for the light heavyweight title and it marked the debut of boxing at the third Garden.

Madison Square Garden flourished through four buildings, with the legacy beginning in 1882. That's some history the ol' house has.

Every great champion climbed through these ropes. We can cite Jack Dempsey, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake LaMotta, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, Tony Canzoneri, Barney Ross and a gang of other worthy champs.

Among those who traded leather there in the past decade or so were: Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Felix Trinidad, Pernell Whitaker, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Vitali Klitschko, James Toney and Miguel Cotto.

Saying goodbye to this salty ring were some great champions who fought there.

Joe Frazier, the heavyweight champion who battled Muhammad Ali twice there, was remembering how he felt the first time he climbed through its ropes:

"It was against Oscar Bonavena, and as I entered the ring, I remember not even thinking about who I was fighting. All I did was look up and think, 'Gosh, I'm in the Garden, I'm in the Garden ... I got it made!'"

I went around the Garden restaurant asking other fighters how they felt the first time they stepped on that mat.

It went like this:

Jose Torres, former light-heavy champ: "Man, I was so proud because as a fighter I was in the best place in the world I could be at. It was so incredible that when I went back to Puerto Rico to tell everybody I fought in the Garden, they didn't even believe me."

Joey Giardello, former middleweight title holder: "I fought Billy Graham that night, and as I walked down the aisle into the ring, I thought I was on top of the world. And to make it even better, I won the decision."

Lou Duva, the great trainer: "I have the great distinction of walking into the ring and being carried out and I wasn't even fighting on the card. It was the night of the Andrew Golota-Riddick Bowe riot. I tried to step into the fracas and got hit on the head with a telephone."

. . .

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_ ... nal_b.html

All things end.

Sad though. So much history.

Is there a boxing museum about ? Or even at the MSG ?

Kym

She's gonna be worth a fortune.

The Bell Tolls 10 Times for the Ring at Madison Square Garden



Emile Griffith, standing, and Joe Frazier and his son Marvis were at Wednesday’s ceremony.

NY TIMES By FRANK LITSKY September 20, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/sport ... oxing.html

Fighters retire. Trainers and managers retire. But a boxing ring?

VideoMore Video » In a ceremony yesterday in Madison Square Garden’s lobby, the Garden retired its 82-year-old ring. It is headed for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota in upstate New York, and a new and slightly larger ring will replace it.

The ring made its debut in 1925 for a light-heavyweight title fight in which Paul Berlenbach outpointed Jack Delaney (a French-Canadian born Ovila Chapdelaine, whose last name, to American ears, sounded like Jack Delaney).

It was used for title fights at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. In promotional stunts, it was set up for exhibition bouts in Times Square, on 125th Street and in front of the Nathan’s hot dog stand in Coney Island. Joe Frazier said he boxed (but not hard) with his son Marvis in that ring on a street in Little Italy.

“It was the best ring ever built,” said Bobby Goodman, who promoted Garden fights for almost 10 years, “and we took care of it. We shined the posts, which were solid brass, and the television people yelled because there was too much glare.”

The ceremony yesterday attracted a who’s who of boxing greats and world champions: Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Bernard Hopkins, Mark Breland, Joey Giardello, Buddy McGirt, Carlos Ortiz, Virgil Hill and a score of others. At a luncheon that preceded the ceremony, they sat, six to a table, swapping stories of old.

Frazier, 63, walked with a cane because of a spinal injury he sustained in an auto accident five years ago. At the luncheon, he sat with his son Marvis, also a former heavyweight.

“When I first heard of the Garden,” Joe Frazier said in an interview, “I was a little boy living in Brooklyn and South Carolina. I saw Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles on TV. Then I fought in the Garden, and I have an affection for the ring. I had a big fight there, remember?”

The fight was in 1971, the so-called Fight of the Century and the first of three between Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Frazier won that fight.

Griffith is 69. He said his memory was fading, but he also said: “My best memory of the Garden is when you won a fight. You remember every one you won. Those are good memories.”

Breland is 44 and looks 24. His favorite moment at the Garden, he said, was winning his first Golden Gloves title.

“They’re all good,” he said. “When the houselights go out before the fight and you stand in your corner and the spotlight is on you, wow. You made it.”

McGirt, 43, fought 25 times at the Garden (Tony Canzoneri holds the record of 29).

“That ring was the foundation of my career,” McGirt said. “Most of my fights were here. The first time you’re coming through that tunnel, knowing you’re here in this arena with its history, you can’t describe it. And I had to love it because I never got knocked out in it.”

Ortiz, 71, said he treasured the Garden ring “because I made it there and the world knew.”

Arthur Mercante Sr., the 87-year-old retired referee, sat next to Gil Clancy, the 85-year-old retired trainer and boxing analyst. Mercante, who refereed 145 world championship fights, said his most vivid Garden memory was the Ali-Frazier fight in 1971.

“There were all the ramifications concerning political issues and sports issues,” he said. “It was simply the greatest, and I refereed it.”

Clancy remembered the 1966 title fight between Griffith and Dick Tiger.

“Griffith was the welterweight champion and Tiger the middleweight champion,” Clancy said. “I was training Griffith, and he gave away a lot of weight, but he showed a lot of heart.”

The retirement ceremony ended with 10 rings of the bell by Joe Frazier and, not coincidentally, Oleg Maskaev of Russia and Samuel Peter of Nigeria. The new ring will make its first appearance Oct. 6, when Maskaev defends his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Peter.

The only part of the old ring that will remain is the brass bell. Everything else will be gone.

Thanks for that article.

Good photo too.