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(AUG 27)
The Friday night fight card at the Westchester County Center in White
Plains N. Y. provided a time honored mosaic of boxers, a traditional
presentation of fighters that probably dates back to the first boxing
promotion. There was the "name" fighter, the "hometown favorite", the
"future star" and the "opponent". The difference, as is becoming
increasingly frequent in the sport, is that all four fighters were
female. Additionally, the female fighters, who were part of a seven bout
program put together by Sycuan Ringside Promotions, were competing in a
venue that dates back to the days of "Sugar Ray", the "Sugar Ray."
However, as with every boxing card, it was all about the fighters.
Belinda Laracuente was the "name" on this card. She has been in with
every top fighter in the very competitive lightweight division.
Befitting her status and ring ability, Laracuente came to the ring with
the flashiest outfit of the night, leopard skin trunks; but her major
flash comes in the ring. She glides around the square with almost liquid
grace, constantly flashing left jabs and then setting herself for
powerful combinations. Laracuente was in against Ann Marie Saccurato,
an unbeaten fighter, who had yet to face anyone with Laracuente's
ability and experience. The demarcation line of skill between the two
fighters was close, but clear. The official decision was a split one,
Laracuente at 59-55 and 58-56 and Saccurato at 58-56, but the Saccurato
vote was more a geographical aberration than a true reflection of the
fight. As is usually the case, the "name" came away with the "W".
Ann Marie Saccurato was fighting in her hometown and in the beginning,
that was very evident from the crowd reaction. Unfortunately, by the
middle of the bout, the crowd was "out of the fight", but Ann Marie
Saccurato was still very much in it. Saccurato is not flash, she's a
no-frills fighter who comes up the aisle towards the ring with a
deliberate and determined stride, eyes straight ahead. Her outfit, this
night, was one of muted colors and you think of someone going towards a
tough job and knowing exactly what needs to be done. Saccurato pressed
the action for the entire six rounds, but couldn't quite position
Laracuente where she needed to, Laracuente being simply too quick. But
Saccurato didn't stop pressing, not until the final bell. She is what is
known, admiringly, in boxing circles, as an "honest" fighter. She gives
a day's work for a day's pay, every round of every fight. After the
bout, Laracuente praised Saccurato as "really tough, she kept coming all
night." Saccurato talked about a "return bout", which is the equivalent
of getting up the next day and going back towards the same tough job.
Ann Marie Saccurato has a lot of spotlight time left in the sport.
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Maureen Shea is somewhat used to the spotlight. Thus, she
seemed to fit comfortably into to the "future star" role on
Friday. Shea has gotten a lot "ink", from mainstream media
sources, for her role in training Hillary Swank for the movie,
"Million Dollar Baby". Shea has also gotten plenty of positive
reaction from boxing insiders for her performance in the New
York Golden Gloves. The four round bout at the County Center was
her professional debut. |
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Appropriately, she had the brightest outfit of the night, her Irish
tricolors gleaming in the ring lights. Her entrance and introduction
lasted longer than her first bout, which ended thirty nine seconds after
the opening bell. Shea later described the punch combinations that she
landed at will, "left hook, uppercut, she was right there, and right
hand." She noted that she wasn't particularly trying for a quick
stoppage, but rather following instructions and that "knockouts come."
Shea, a college student, surely knows that things get harder from here
on. In fact, she laughed through a post fight question about whether she
had gotten any advice from her "showbiz friends". Shea's laugh seemed to
say, "I know this is a whole new show."
Camille Casson was the low fighter on the totem pole Friday
night, that's the lot of an "opponent." Casson had lost all four of her
fights before Friday night and Maureen Shea, the most recent loss coming
the previous week in New Jersey. Casson came to the ring in Westchester
in a gray outfit, seeming to reflect her immediate future. She threw a
tentative left jab at Shea following the opening bell and slightly more
than a half a minute later, the referee stepped between the two fighters
as Shea pummeled Casson against the ropes. So, if there was a headline,
and there seldom is about "opponents", it would be "Camille Casson drops
to 0-5", but, as often is the case in sports, the story is just a bit
more than that. Let's start with Camille Casson deserving, as everyone
who climbs into a boxing ring does, plaudits for the courage it takes to
walk up those steps, particularly when fully aware of the overwhelming
odds that await. But, more importantly, Casson's "back story" also
includes a big win over cancer, which is a tougher opponent than she'll
ever face in any ring, in any venue, at any time. That wasn't included
in Camille Casson's ring introduction on Friday night, but it should be
entered in the record, somewhere.
The final piece of the boxing mosaic on Friday was the Westchester
County Center. In the 1950's it was a hotbed of the sport, hosting
regular shows and rivaling the major venues in New York City. And,
today, unlike the old Madison Square Garden on 49 nth Street, Eastern
Parkway Arena in Brooklyn, St Nicks Arena in New York City and Sunnyside
Garden in Queens, the County Center is still around and on fight nights
it still smells and sounds like a great boxing "joint." Before and
between the bouts, you still see the congregation of boxing "lifers",
gathered in small groups, talking the sport, talking the fighters; and
doing it better than most everything you hear on TV or sports talk
radio. During the fights, it's the same old lines coming from the
corners and the crowd: "Be First", "Touch Him" "Go Downstairs", "Get Off
the ***** Ropes"! And if you close your eyes and let your mind wander
just a bit, you're back in the front lobby of that old Garden and Dwight
Eisenhower is the President and you feel like you've landed in the
middle of a Damon Runyon short story. Today, of course, there are
differences. The conversation is more bi-lingual and there seems to be a
lot more hugging and "cool" handshakes, but that's hardly a shortcoming.
Like the fifties, though, it's still the Irish fighter from one of the
boroughs that's the big crowd pleaser, except now that Irish fighter is
just as likely to be a Kathleen as a Kevin. And that, surely, is not a
bad thing.
Sycuan Ringside Promotions used a classic venue and a mosaic of female
fighters as part of a very good boxing card on Friday. It was proof
positive, once again, that like politics, the best of boxing is local.
But it all comes down to the fighters, they make the sport and they made
Friday Night at the Westchester County Center. Belinda Laracuente, Ann
Marie Saccurato, Maureen Shea and Camille Casson combined, in different
ways, to advance the sport of Women's boxing in the oldest and best way
possible, they climbed into the ring and put on a good show. |
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