Safe Side Of The Ropes

‘It’s the name man, ‘The Italian Stallion’…’ Where have all of the great fight names gone? These days we have ‘The Golden Boy’, ‘Tito’, ‘Popo’, ‘Pretty Boy’, The Dream’, ‘The Magic Man’, and ‘Winky’, who sound more like a travelling male strip troupe than a list of some of the toughest proponents of hand to hand combat on the planet! I can remember when I was a nipper flicking through one of those huge A-Z of boxing books, the characters that were evoked seemingly leapt from the pages. There was ‘The Man of Steel’ (Tony Zale), ‘Homicide Hank’ (Henry Armstrong), ‘The Ghetto Wizard’ (Benny Leonard) and my personal all time favourite ‘The Michigan Assassin’  (Stanley Ketchel). We had ‘The Toy Bulldog’ (Mickey Walker, ‘The Brockton Blockbuster’ (Rocky Marciano), ‘Battling Battalino’ (Christopher Battaglia) and ‘The Boston Tar Baby’ (Sam Langford). As a kid I was drawn into this whole world of heroes and villains, the ring names conjuring up fantastic images, and which more importantly, just sounded so cool.  Boxing very often results in a battle of will or character. As fans, we want to recognize these characters more so than in other sports and this perhaps explains the labelling and the sense of identification, which nicknames can create. Nigel Benn was ‘The Dark Destroyer’ which sat well with his wrecking ball style; the fans knew what they were going to see when they coughed up their ticket money. Perhaps in part, this can explain the alienation experienced by Lennox Lewis from the boxing public. He was such an enigma as a fighter he couldn’t be pigeon holed into a particular style, which may have hindered his marketability.

In the familiar central premise to the film Rocky, a run down pug from Philadelphia was given a shot at the big one, due purely to the genius of his ring moniker. In the real world it has been rather cruelly whispered that James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith was given the same chance on the strength of his pugilistic soubriquet, as opposed to the fact he could actually fight! Boxers have been tagged with nicknames since the very origins of the sport. Ranging from the good, the bad, the colourful and the offensive to the often down right bizarre, a fighter’s nom de guerre has long been an integral part of the sweet science.

Often it is journalists who conjure up nicknames for fighters. Former Cruiserweight champion Dwight Qawi, who fought a memorable war with Evander Holyfield in their first battle, earned his wonderful fighting moniker of the ‘Camden Buzzsaw’ whilst being interviewed early in his career. Qawi’s father worked in a lumber mill, and this coupled with the fact he threw fast chopping combinations, sawing through the opposition, was enough for the imaginative hack to dream up his fighting epithet.

Of course promoters are often culpable for the nicknames of their boxers. Lead fisted welterweight from the depression era, Jimmy McLarnin was tagged the ‘Babyface Assassin’ early in his career due to his cherubic features. Once he moved to the east coast and fell under the promotional umbrella of the legendary Tex Rickard, he was bestowed with a host of new nom de plumes all designed to sell tickets. America at this time was a melting pot of Jewish, Black, Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants. Irishman McLarnin was now labelled with such offensive names as ‘The Jew Killer’ and ‘The Hebrew Scourge’. Rickard was appealing to the sense of patriarchal jingoism within the diverse populace, knowing that if sections of the community could identify with a fighter, bums on seats were almost guaranteed.

Up and coming lightweight prospect Almazbek Raiymkulov has wisely opted for the pseudonym ‘Kid Diamond’. Tipping the wink to such fighting legends as ‘Kid Gavilan’, (also known asthe ‘Cuban Hawk’) and ‘Kid Chocolate’ (Eligio Sardimas-Montalbos), Raimkulov and his advisors obviously understand the benefit of having a distinguishable and catchy ring handle.

Building the profile of a young prospect is like any type of advertising, it is all about exposure, getting a hook, and making sure that you leave your steed’s name reverberating in the ears of the paying public.

Nicknames can help to form a gimmick for fighters and their promotion team, in the hope of gaining more attention from the public. I can recall Frankie ‘The Surgeon’ Randall, who was the first man to defeat the great Julio Cesar Chavez, appearing in full surgeon’s attire, complete with face mask. Heavyweight contender from the 90’s Tommy Morrison billed himself as ‘The Duke’, claiming some tenuous relation to Hollywood star John Wayne, who was also known by this handle. Today the middleweight boss Bernard Hopkins strides to the ring in full executioner garb complete with resplendent mask. Stooges have also previously accompanied B Hop on his ring walk complete with axes and hoods for props, the gimmick meandering somewhat towards the realm of the preposterous WWF. 

At times the fighter’s own name lends itself handily to a catchy ring name. One of the better fight names of recent years has to be ‘Merciless’ Ray Mercer. Other names in this vein which spring to mind are Michael ‘Second to’ Nunn, Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho, Johnny ‘Bump City’ Bumphus and Nick ‘Supa Dupa’ Rupa.

Naturally not everyone is so fortunate and that is where a rude sense of imagination can come into play. Perhaps the most amusing of monikers at the moment belongs to lightweight contender Juan Lazcano, who bills himself as ‘The Hispanic causing panic’. Light welterweight kingpin Kostya Tszyu was always going to be struggling for material to match his surname (what about ‘Choo Choo’ Tszyu? you know like a steam train. no? thought not!). He has gone down a similar cringe worthy route as Lazcano with his title, ‘The Thunder from Down Under’.

How about a bit of alliteration? At present we have light welter titlist ‘Vicious’ Vivian Harris, welterweight contender ‘Killer’ Kermit Cintron and from the past ‘Rockabye’ Ruben Olivares and the ‘Terrible’ Terrys, light middleweight titlist Terry Norris and knockout artist Terry McGovern.

Boxer’s nicknames can have a habit of sticking, see: ‘Buster’ Douglas, ‘Razor’ Ruddock, ‘Jesse’ James Leija’, ‘Bones’ Adams and ‘Buddy’ McGirt. Recent featherweight champion Naseem Hamed is almost always referred to as ‘Prince’ Naseem, the same goes for ‘Prince’ Charles Williams. The great middleweight champ Marvin Hagler liked his tag of ‘Marvelous’ so much he had his name changed by law.I remember following ‘Marvelous’ Marv’s rampage through the middleweight ranks through the 80’s and he seemed to tackle a slew of magnificently named foes. There was ‘Animal’ Fletcher, ‘Caveman’ Lee, John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi, Willie ‘The Worm’ Monroe and Bobby ‘Boogaloo’ Watts. They were proper fight names, making Hagler’s reign of terror on the division seem so much more colourful.

Regrettably there have been some lamentable attempts at ring names. I think the worst, due mainly to the drabness and lack of imagination has to be Michael Moorer being introduced as ‘Double M’. Well that must have taken oodles of hours deciding that particular headline grabber!! In this case however the sheer dreariness of the name reflects the insipid style of Moorer as a heavyweight (he wasn’t as dull as dishwater as a light heavyweight banger, when incidentally I’m sure he was labelled ‘The Kronk Crusher’). Notable runners up are Scott ‘The Pink Panther’ Walker, ‘The Orchid Man’ Georges Carpentier, Al ‘Bummy’ Davis and the most unthreatening one of all, British heavyweight from days of yore, ‘Phainting’ Phil Scott. As an afterthought, Roger Mayweather’s unfortunate soubriquet of ‘The Black Mamba’ sounds more like something you’d find in a sex shop in Soho, than the name of a prize fighter!!

As the younger members of society and myself are aware (from being constantly informed by our elders), with most things in life, as the cliché states, they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. You just don’t get the same calibre of ring names anymore. When the immortal Jack Dempsey and rugged Argentinean Luis Firpo collided in one of the division’s best ever dust ups in the 20’s, we had ‘The Manassa Mauler’ squaring off against ‘The Wild Bull of the Pampas’. That just grabs you, the fighters sound larger than life, which is what participants for the heavyweight championship need to be for the sport to flourish. You just wouldn’t get people yakking about ‘The Quiet Man’. (“Have you seen that Ruiz guy? man his fights are real quiet, nice and boring just how I like it, I think that’s why they call him the quiet man dontcha know”!!).

The manufacturing of nicknames perhaps is a device that will become more and more a thing of the past. This idea was great for rendering an image of a fighter prior to TV coverage. A great name helped to conjure up an air of mystery and excitement for the punters. A nickname helped make good news copy and sell newspapers. Boxing has seen a regression of media coverage, especially in newsprint. Boxer’s careers are now built on television and not in a local boxing venue. There are less and less local fighters, a good prospect will sign a lucrative contract upon turning pro and travel the country, perhaps the world, whilst rising through the ratings. In essence the fighters don’t have a community behind them who will take the boxer as their own and bestow a fistic moniker upon them. 

Doubtless the lack of good nicknames is not symptomatic of the current derth of superstars in the sport, the fighters need to be able to fight and therefore it is the boxer who makes the nickname and not vice versa. However Roy Jones was by consensus, one of the most skilled boxers of all time, yet he was never bestowed with a pseudonym and never received the adulation his talents merited.

If as I believe, the standard of boxers is as good as it ever was, perhaps there are just not the dazzling personalities throughout the sport there used to be? It is questionable whether today’s top fighters give enough of themselves in the ring and are as committed as years gone by. Only when a boxer is pushed to the limit do we see what they are really made of, their character if you like, which may explain the popularity of an Evander ‘Real Deal’ Holyfield, Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini or an Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti.

My wish therefore, along with the extermination of all alphabet organisations and a return to one champ per division, is for mandatory brilliant nicknames from all boxers!! I want to see names as good as ‘The Livermore Larruper’ (Max Baer), ‘The Bodysnatcher’ (Mike McCallum), ‘The Cincinatti Flash’ (Ezzard Charles), ‘The Boston Strong Boy’, (John L Sullivan) and the ‘Harkimer Hurricane’ (Lou Ambers).  I just couldn’t imagine Apollo Creed’s pulse racing when searching for a patsy with great ring name upon hearing ‘The Quiet Man’, or ‘Big Time’ could you?