BERNSTEIN ON BOXING A LITTLE RESPECT By Al Bernstein
Rodney, as it would happen, was a big boxing fan. I met him at the Olympic Lounge in Caesars Palace the night before the Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns fight, which I called the next day. This was the same lounge where, two years later, before the Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight, Rodney would come to see me sing and perform. In that time, we had struck up a friendship. My favorite Rodney story is the ultimate in life imitating art. In the 1980s, I was doing a pay-per-view and we were only about five minutes from going on the air. I was on my mark ringside, ready to go on camera for the top of the show, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a commotion to my left. It was Rodney, who I was slated to have a drink with after the show, talking to a slightly ruffled pair of ushers. It was not hard to figure out from the gestures and body language that they were indicating that his seat was taken and they didn’t have another one for him. I knew immediately what was happening. Rodney had a “promoter’s” ticket that gives you a seat in the front row, but without an assigned seat. If there is a mistake and too many are given out and/or you are too late (as he was), you can have a problem. So, this big star was being told he did not have a seat, and in this packed house there were no other ones available ringside. This could have been a Saturday Night Live parody of Rodney getting “no respect.” It was just about to be a major embarrassment when I took my earpiece out and started over to where the ruckus was as the stage manager loudly implored me to get back to my mark because we were about two minutes from going on the air. I grabbed Rodney and took him to our ringside table, where I asked the stage manager to give his chair to Rodney. I jumped back to my spot, got wired up for the show and put my
T he fight I am most looking forward to in the remainder of this year is the November 22 junior bantamweight title unification match between Ring/ WBC/WBO champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Fernando Martinez, the WBA titleholder. Part of the upcoming Ring IV fight card in Riyadh, this is as close to a can’t-miss match as we are likely to get. Barring a clash of heads or
some other bizarre event, it should be round after round of exciting, well- fought action. While Rodriguez is on most pound-for-pound lists, and many (including
me) are suggesting he is almost a future Hall of Famer already, the 34-year-old Martinez has a different place in the sport. He is undefeated at 18-0, has held a world title at 115 pounds since 2022 and has participated in four of the most exciting matches his division has seen in recent years. With all that, he’s a fighter who somehow remains in the shadows. Elsewhere in this magazine you can see a richly deserved story about him, but in general he has not gotten the attention he deserves. Thus, he will be among the first boxers to receive my newly created “Rodney” award, named after the great comedian Rodney Dangerfield for fighters who can honestly say, “I don’t get no respect.” I feel qualified to create these awards because I was friends with Rodney. Before handing out these awards, I will digress with this backstory.
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 23
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker