Norm Frauenheim seemed destined to be a boxing writer from the start.
There were two important factors that led the 75-year-old clerk to take up the clerk's profession.
“I've been interested in boxing since I was a kid,” said Frauenheim, who worked for The Arizona Republic for 31 years, beginning in 1977. “I was an Army kid. I was born at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in January 1949. I never really saw much of the city until I came to cover the NBA road trips. [Phoenix] He played for the Suns for over 10 years from 1979 to 1980.
Long-time correspondent in Frauenheim ring Magazine editor John McClellan, who writes for various boxing sites including boxingscene.com and 15rounds.com, provided some more background: “One of the places I lived was Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, from 1962 to 1966,” he continued. “My father and I delivered American flags to soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division heading to Vietnam.
“Anyway, boxing and Schofield have long been linked, thanks to the novel and film 'From Here to Eternity' (based on the James Jones novel and starring Frank Sinatra). At the barracks along my newspaper route, soldiers used to box outdoors. I was between the ages of 13 and 17. I used to stop and watch and get interested, and I've been interested ever since.”
Frauenheim added, “From there, my father and family were deployed to Fort Sheridan, then a base north of Chicago, where I spent a year and graduated from high school. He then returned to Vietnam, and I went on to Vanderbilt University in Nashville (1967-1971), graduating with a degree in history. I was also a competitive swimmer before Title IX was enacted.
“Swimming is also where my career as a sportswriter began. I was frustrated that the Vanderbilt student newspaper wasn't covering us. I offered to cover them and they agreed. I don't swim as well as I used to. When I look at a surfboard and see the waves I used to tackle, I wonder what on earth I'm doing. It's much safer to be ringside.”
Frauenheim has covered boxing for more than 50 years and is pleased to see the manly sport still thrive, even with an increasing number of outside competitors.
“That is certainly [Muhammad] “This is not Ali's time. It's not the golden '80s. It's a fragmented business in a world where there are more and more choices for sports fans. MMA is just one example of this,” he said. “Boxing is not dying. It has been declared dead ad nauseam. Reading the inevitable obituaries reminds me of the old saying that boxing has crawled out of more coffins than Count Dracula.
“And yet the sport has been relegated to the fringes of public attention. But it has been like that before. Resilience is one of the sport's strongest attributes. It will continue to be there, and it will always continue to reinvent itself.”
In some ways, boxing, like other sports, has always relied on rivalries like the NBA's Celtics vs. Lakers to drive interest and storylines.
“[Larry] Bird Magic [Johnson] It was a basketball ant.[Joe] “Frazier,” Frauenheim says, “changed the league and set the stage for Michael Jordan. It could happen again, in boxing or any other sport.”
Boxing is still the same, but there are tweaks here and there.
“When I started, championship fights had 15 rounds instead of 12,” says Frauenheim, who began his journalism career at the Tallahassee Democrat in 1970 and worked at the Jacksonville Journal before being lured to Phoenix. “There were morning weigh-ins instead of a day-before promotional show. There was a lot more media presence. A big fight in Las Vegas meant all the major media were there. The last time that happened was with Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015, which didn't live up to expectations and I think lost a lot of attention from the major media,” continues Frauenheim, whose bylines appear in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
Legendary Mexican boxer Saul Alvarez still receives a lot of attention, but there are boxers emerging who are poised to take his place and dethrone him, such as unbeaten super middleweight boxer David Benavidez.
“Canelo's career is ticking and I think he knows it. At this point, it's about risk versus reward. Benavidez, 27, is too much of a risk. I think Canelo looks at Benavidez and thinks he can win. I don't think so,” Frauenheim said. “Benavidez is too big, too nasty and has a rare gear. He's strong late in the rounds.
“Even if Canelo wins, there's a good chance that Benavidez will be able to hurt him. There's still a chance that the Canelo vs. Benavidez fight could happen, but I think it will require an effort from Saudi Arabia.” [Arabian] money.”
Although a boxer stands alone in the ring, both literally and figuratively, he has a small support crew.
This is what makes it unique compared to baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.
“Boxers are different from any other sports I've ever covered, and I think that's why they call it the writer's sport. There are a lot of NFL and NBA players who grew up in what they call 'rough towns,'” Frauenheim says, “but they have teammates. They don't make the long walk from the dressing room to the ring by themselves.”
According to Frauenheim, boxer shorts leave you completely exposed when you're naked.
“They can be hard to deal with during training and when they're cutting weight, but in my experience, no one is more open to talking than after a fight,” he said. “Win or lose, they've just taken a risk in front of people. In my experience, that's when they want to talk.”
Picking a career highlight wasn't easy for Frauenheim, but he was up for the challenge.
“There are so many. I went to see Sugar Ray Leonard beat Thomas Hearns in a great fight. [1981]”The great welterweight fights,” he recalls, “my personal favorite was when Michael Carvajal came back from two knockdowns to KO Humberto Gonzalez in 1993, probably the greatest fight in the history of the lightweight division. I also went to some crazy fights like the Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield 'Bite Fight' and 'Fun Man,' who landed in the ring like the 82nd Airborne Division during the Riddick Bowe vs. Holyfield fight behind Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.”
The three boxers shaped the atmosphere and context of Frauenheim's illustrious tenure as a writer.
“Roberto Duran is the greatest lightweight fighter of all time. His lifestyle sometimes got the better of him, as was evident in his infamous 'No Mass' welterweight loss to Sugar Ray Leonard in New Orleans,” he said of the November 1980 bout. “He told me he accepted the rematch on short notice for the money. 'Women, women, women, eat, eat, drink, drink,'” he said in an interview, describing what Leonard's entourage was doing before offering him an immediate rematch for his Montreal victory. But look at Duran's win in Montreal [June 1980]”Look again. There was no better fighter that night than Duran.”
Frauenheim added another giant to that short list. “Leonard is the last true Sugar,” he said, finishing with the only eight-division champion. “Manny Pacquiao is the incredible story of a hungry boy growing up in a slum in the Philippines. He was an incredible fighter, blessed with speed, power and instincts. Add to that a shyness that didn't change with the money and celebrity. He's an example of what can still happen in boxing. He's the face of boxing resilience.”
This is quite a trio, and the best Frauenheim has seen from ringside.
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