Beltway Boxing 2008 -- The Year of Controversy!

Although the Beltway Boxing Scene saw great performances in 2008, The 2008 Beltway Boxing year may be best remembered for the number of controversial situations that took place. Four Beltway-area cards contained some sort of controversial bout and a fifth situation made world-wide news. BATB takes a chronological look back at the strange situations that took place.

January 31 – Michael’s Eighth Avenue, Glen Burnie, MD

This situation became known as “The Bout Before the Bout.” Heavyweights Askia Snyder of Baltimore and "The People's Champion" Jonathan Felton of Stafford, VA were slated to meet in a four-round contest. However, when Felton entered the ring, he began to move toward Snyder and began to taunt him. One of Snyder's cornermen tried to move Felton away with a little push. Felton pushed back, Snyder jumped in and a full-scale two-man brawl ensued with both men ending up on the mat. The bout never happened and was ruled a no contest.

A rematch was slated for May 29 in the Ballroom, but Snyder was injured in sparring against Tony Thompson. Felton was knocked out by Harvey Jolly in the first round. Snyder did not fight for the rest of the year.

April 3 – Michael’s Eighth Avenue, Glen Burnie, MD

If this were an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E, this situation would be known as “The Liniment Spray Affair.”

Two promising Beltway featherweights – Tyrell “Da Show Shock ‘A” Samuel of Baltimore, MD and Thomas “KO” Snow of Capitol Heights, MD – were scheduled to meet for the Maryland State Featherweight title. All was going according to plan during the card, until there was a longer than usual break between the co-feature bout and the main event.

Moments before the contest, Snow put on a spray that he says he has used before every bout without incident. In this case, however, Samuel’s trainer, former world champion Vincent “The Ambassador” Pettway, smelled the spray and said it smelled like liniment and was afraid that the spray could get into their boxers's eyes. Snow tried to wash the spray off, but there was some still on his body, enough to force Maryland State Athletic Commission members to cancel the bout.

There was a rematch planned for District Heights, MD on May 3 but Snow took ill, fainting after a training session. The bout has never taken place. Snow, who was undefeated in May, lost his first bout by second-round KO to Teon Kennedy in July. Samuel went on to win the Maryland State Super Featherweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Ron Boyd on November 20.


August 8 – Beijing, China

The Olympic Dream is dashed for Gary Russell, Jr. of Capital Heights, MD. Russell was considered one of the best American hopes for an Olympic gold medal. However, on the evening of August 8, Russell was disqualified for being one pound over the 119-pound bantamweight limit. Later, Russell was found unconscious and severely dehydrated by one of his teammates, Luis Yanez. According to NBC, medical personnel were able to rehydrate him after he made a final attempt to make weight.

"We became alarmed a couple of days ago when we saw he wasn't sweating like he should," now-former US Head Coach Dan Campbell told NBC after the Olympic draw. "When these kids try to make weight, sometimes they cut corners. What we believe is he did not increase his fluid intake after we told him to."

Russell weighed 121 pounds prior to the weigh-in and was trying to get to the required 119 before the weigh-in at 6 a.m. the next day. Russell went running to get the last two pounds off and collapsed after returning to the Olympic Village. His father, Gary Russell Sr., said that his son passed out after resting from the run. He was treated with fluids by doctors at his dormitory but was not hospitalized.

To his credit, Russell was very honest and forthright about what happened and talked freely about his disappointment in classy media interviews. Russell is slated to make his pro debut on January 16.

August 15 – Ibiza Nightclub, Washington, DC

The night an ESPN announcer does a Warner Wolf imitation and this reporter is accused of having a financial stake in a local boxer.

This was a nationally-televised bout for the vacant United States Boxing Organization Middleweight title featuring Baltimore’s Ishmail “The Arsenal” Arvin and Anthony “The Messenger” Thompson of Philadelphia. The card was promoted by a new promotional group (Heavy Hitter Promotions) in a new location and was the first card regulated by new DC Boxing and Wrestling Commission chair Jason Turner.

The controversy began in the third round when the heads of the two boxers collided unintentionally. Although Thompson suffered a nasty gash and lump over his left eye, he dropped Arvin twice in the same round.

To his credit, Arvin fought back bravely and managed to gain ground in the bout. Along the way, Thompson's eye got progressively worse. In the last two rounds of the bout, both ringside doctors Dawne Carroll and Greg Banks took close looks at Thompson's cut.
Finally after the sixth round, Doctor Banks decided that Thompson's cut had suffered enough and advised referee Malik Waleed to stop the contest.

Here's where the controversy comes in. ESPN announcer Joe Tessitore did his best Warner Wolf impression by saying “Let’s Go to the Videotape” to referee Waleed, actually putting a monitor into the ring and showing him the replay. Replays clearly showed there was a headbutt, although Waleed, in real time, gave no signal that the cut was a result of a head butt, which means the cut came as the result of a punch. Since instant replays can't be used to officially overturn a decision in DC (or anywhere else for that matter, the scorecards did not come into play and Arvin won by technical knockout. The DC Commission denied a protest by the Thompson camp while the USBO acknowledged the Arvin victory, but stripped him of the title.

Months later, I discovered an interview where Anthony Thompson accused me of having a financial stake in Arvin’s career and that I somehow influenced the decision. For the record, that is untrue and I did not speak to any official during that evening. In fact, I watched that bout from the balcony area of the Ibiza Nightclub.

September 5 – Du Burns Arena, Baltimore, MD

A crazy Beltway Bout garners more hits on BATB than any other bout in four years.

It was supposed to be a quality bout between two rising middleweight prospects. The result became the most talked-about bout in recent Beltway Boxing history. Jessie “The Beast” Nicklow of Baltimore faced Charlottsville, VA’s George “War Time” Rivera in an eight-round contest.

Nicklow was in complete control of the contest early on in the bout, using very effective inside work to break Rivera down. Nicklow scored a knockdown in the fourth with a beautiful uppercut to the body. Nicklow's continued good work inside forced Rivera to grab and hold, which led to referee Kenny Chevalier taking a point away from Rivera in the sixth round.

As the eighth round began, Chevalier sent both men back to their corners to get a fair start. The bell rang but Rivera was still heading to his corner and had his back partially turned to Nicklow. Nicklow ran across and clocked Rivera, knocking him down. Chevalier did not rule an official knockdown, but the hit seemed to wake up Rivera and set off a small melee that caused arena security to rush in.

Once security cleared the ring, the bout resumed, but it was Rivera that did the charging, catching Nicklow with solid shots that dropped him to the canvas, not once but twice. After the second knockdown, Chevalier halted the action, and after a long period of time, found that Rivera's mouthpiece had been missing. The bout was stopped again later in the round because of a cut in the middle of Rivera's forehead. After the round resumed, Nicklow hung on for the victory.

The controversy surrounding the bout caused the most hits on any single post in the four-year history of BATB – 177 in a seven-day period.

A rematch was in order and it did take place on November 1 at the George Mason University Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA. Rivera won a clear-cut eight-round unanimous decision.

Now here are some 2008 Stats:

Beltway Boxers made 25 nationally-televised appearances in 2008. The won-loss record was 13-11, six KO's, one NC.

Nine of those appearances were on ESPN2, followed by:

Showtime: six times

Telefutura: two times

Versus: two times

PPV: two times

HBO: two times

NBC: one.

Fox Sports Net: one

Lamont Peterson made the most national TV appearances with three, followed by Fernando Guerrero, Anthony Peterson and Hasim Rahman each with two. The other Beltway Boxers on TV were:

Eric Aiken, DeMarcus Corley, Darnell Wilson (not counting his Contender appearance), George Rivera, Joshua Snyder, Horace Grant, Henry Buchanan, Tony Thompson, Gary Russell, Jr. (in a taped NBC appearance prior to the Olympics), Mike Paschall, Ishmail Arvin, Alexander Johnson, Emmanuel Nwodo, Daniel Attah, Bayan Jargal and Tim Coleman.

We should also mention that Mark Tucker and Ty Barnett made appearances on Yahoo Sports.com in undercard bouts prior to a pay-per-view card, as did Nwodo on ESPN 360 and Darrell Martin made two appearances on www,GoFightLive.tv. Also, Thomas Snow made a regional appearance on CN8.

As far as cards in the Beltway area, Maryland led the way once again with 17 cards, marking the fifth straight year that Maryland has had 17 or more cards in a calendar year. Among the 17 cards were new locations in District Heights and Millersville and a return to Salisbury for the first time in 12 years.

Virginia had 10 total cards, with six of thse being in the Beltway region. There were cards in Danville and Norfolk that used mostly Tidewater area boxers.

DC had three cards this year in the first full year under Jason Turner's leadership as commissioner. All three were very eventful cards.


That concludes BATB's look back at 2008. Coming up later this week: some of the top questions that we will take into 2009!