Mike Marley

Remembered By His Friend 

Frank Dell’Apa

By Bobby Franklin

The Harvard and Commonwealth Avenue Section of the Allston neighborhood of Boston was a very interesting place back in the 1950s and early 60s. Comprised mostly of apartment buildings along with some two family homes, it had a very New York feel to it. With a combination of nice restaurants and dive bars it attracted all types. The variety of immigrants that had settled there differentiated it from other parts of the city which tended to be defined by one group or another.

 Among the people who lived there over the years were Wrestler Maurice Tillet; also known as the French Angel, Killer Kowalski, and Wallis Warfield Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor. Add the name of Michael Marley to that eclectic crowd.

From an early age Mike was a natural in front of a camera. He was quick on his feet, had a great sense of humor, and was never afraid to speak his mind. He grew up in Boston, but in many ways he was an old time New York City guy. He easily fit in with the crowd at Jimmy Glenn’s Corner Bar on West 44th Street while also being welcomed by a redneck crowd in Reno. Mike was comfortable in almost any setting.

Mike Marley passed away on March 2 at his home in Falmouth, MA. The cause of death was Parkinson’s Disease. He was 71.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mike’s longtime friend, Boston Globe journalist Frank Dell’Apa. The two attended the University of Nevada at Reno and it was Mike who encouraged Frank in becoming a newspaper writer. I already knew quite a bit about Mike, but in talking with Frank I really have gotten to know what a truly remarkable guy he was. 

I’d like to share some what Frank Dell’Apa told me about Mike:

Friendship With Ali

 “It was the Ali relationship that defined Mike’s life. He was 12-year-old when Herb Ralby gave him a ticket to B’Nai B’rith Sports Lodge dinner at Sheraton – Mike was there to get Stan Musial’s autograph, he was a baseball fan at the time. But 20-year-old Cassius Clay stole the show, according to Ralby’s story in the Globe. That was it, Mike became an Ali fan and he started the Cassius Clay Fan Club, which became the Muhammad Ali Fan Club – Mike got business cards that billed him as “The World’s Youngest Boxing Writer” (also Ted Whitfield Fan Club) and became a Ring Magazine correspondent.

“Two years later, Ali came to Boston for the Liston fight and Mike called him at his hotel: Mike fired off an Ali-like rhyme and Ali recognized him as “you’re that kid that’s following me …” and asked Mike if he was “a black boy or white boy,” and Mike replied: “I’m a white boy, should I hang up?” Ali said no and invited him up to his room.

“Then Ali had the hernia operation and the fight was postponed; Mike went to the press conference at Boston City Hospital and Ali put him on the dais as “this little boy from Boston, My No. 1 fan”/ that’s when Mike praised Ali for his boxing prowess, etc. … and also his “humility,” which brought a smile to Ali’s face and also was Ali’s cue to get Mike off the podium since he was starting to actually take the limelight somewhat … they stayed in touch.

“Mike went to Lewiston and almost every Ali fight after that … he got to the training camp in Chicopee,  met everyone, including Diamond Jim Riley, Rudolph Valentino “Rahman” (Ali’s Brother). Angelo Dundee didn’t want to be responsible for Mike and prevented him from boarding the bus to Lewiston. (Mike ended up getting a ride with Diamond Jim Riley). Malcolm X had been assassinated Feb. 21, 1965; Ali-Liston 1 Feb. 25, 1965; Ali-Liston II May 25, 1965 – some thought Ali could be a target of assassins, etc.

“At that time, Mike met another Bostonian — Louis X, who became Farrakhan, they made a connection and met a couple times later – both went to Boston English. … Drew “Bundini” Brown, Wali Muhammad … Mike got on the bus with all of them post-fight (he was only white person on bus) and was part of the family from then on.  Mike’s mother, Dorothy, raised him and he loved her (a photo of her greeted you at his Falmouth home) and his brother Joe (Chip), but father figures/male role models were the boxing guys.”

As  Journalist

“Mike’s roots were in journalism and newspaper writing, old school Boston –  totally influenced by the sports writers of the Globe, Herald, Traveler, Post, Record-American, etc. he grew up with. … it was a competitive business and they were clever writers, wise cracking, sense of humor – Bud Collins took a liking to Mike when Mike was abut 12 – Mike always talked about Col. Dave Egan, John Gillooly, etc

“Then came the sports talk shows, they were naturals. Mike was a Glick Nick, he was up late with Larry Glick. To the end, he went to sleep listening to late-night radio talk, now on an Alexa. 

“Also, not many fight writers actually ever got into the ring, at least the modern generation – you guys that did get in there bring an unequaled understanding of the sport to your writing. Bobby Townsend in Brockton was another, he went on to modest pro career. Mike decisioned Townsend in the amateurs. Mike got his start in boxing at New Garden gym where he was trained by Al Clemente and Johnny Dunn. He fought at Arena Annex, the Fargo Building, and in Lowell. He received a boxing scholarship to University of Nevada-Reno, which is where I met him – first time I saw him he was in the ring and he won by TKO against an opponent from Chico State – he was basically all footwork, jab and move. (Crazy having a collegiate boxing team; those were the most passionate college sporting events I’ve seen to this day – forget Final 4s, Beanpots, football Bowl Games – when your classmates are in the ring, it’s not just school pride on the line, it’s something else, as well). [btw – just happened we both went to UNR, lucky for me]

“He told me it was after he fought Johnny Coiley that he realized he wasn’t going to be a pro. Later when at NY Post Mike sparred with Tommy Hearns in Atlantic City.

“We worked together in Reno, Mike got me hired on the school newspaper, then part-time at the Nevada State Journal. I went to Las Vegas before Mike, because Mike actually had been fired three times (and hired back twice) in Reno; minor things, and he would’ve gotten hired back had he stayed – but he decided to come back to Boston and was driving for Ambassador Taxi in Cambridge. Las Vegas Sun hired him and two years later he was hired by sports editor Jerry Lisker at the  NY Post – he covered the Yankees for a couple years, then boxing. I’d say Mike was destined for NY – he loved coming back to Boston and North End was a must (Limoncello, Mare; coffee at Café Dello Sport, Paradiso) … but Boston couldn’t hold him, he needed to be in NY.

 “It was a competitive scene covering boxing in NY; NYT/Daily News/Post/Newsday, also SI and AP/UPI – regulars, experts – Phil Berger, Michael Katz, Marley, Wallace Matthews, Pat Putnam, Ed Schuyler, Dave Raffo – ringside seats and up front at press conferences. Mike was ahead of everybody in “scoops,” and sheer New York-brashness even though Bostonian. He  found Roberto Duran’s father working in a kitchen, I think; also found Tyson’s father; wrote about Tyson getting into a street fight, etc. Mike was close with Tyson, and of course Ali. He also knew Larry Holmes well. As much as Mike admired Ali, he thought Holmes would’ve defeated Ali.

 “Mike is the only person I know who worked for both Cosell and Don King … he passed the NY bar and could go toe to toe with Harvard Law grad Bob Arum and did so in press conferences. Won  6 Emmys (producer for SportsBeat / Cosell). He was in the room when Arum got involved in boxing for first time, Chuvalo v. Ali in Toronto – as Mike said, Arum had never seen a fight or been in one.”

Mike’s Character

“Mike had a heart of gold – he was a criminal defense lawyer, picked up a law degree from Fordham in his “spare time” while working for NY Post. He basically raised a young kid from Harlem via Big Brother, also sponsored young kids in Ghana. The essence of Mike was he never went after anyone that couldn’t defend themselves; he challenged the guys with the money and the frauds. He was a muckraking journalist and he defended those who needed help, whether in print or courtroom – and the rest of the time he just enjoyed life to the max.”

Thank you to Frank Dell’Apa for sharing his memories of Mike Marley. Mike will be sorely missed. I smiled when I learned Mike’s slogan for his law practice was “Reasonable doubt for a reasonable price.” It is tempting to call Mike a character, but that term isn’t fair. He was a truly interesting person who lived life to the fullest and did his best to help others. 

My deepest condolences to Mike’s brother and former grammar school classmate Joe Shadyac. 

Rest In Peace Mike Marley.

Rest In Peace Ron Stander

Trained In Boston For His

Shot At The Heavyweight Title 

Against Frazier

By Bobby Franklin

Ron Stander is best remembered for the courage he showed when he challenged Joe Frazier for the heavyweight title in 1972. The fight was stopped after the fourth round with Stander suffering multiple facial lacerations; however, he was never off his feet and had rocked Frazier in the first round. 

Stander, who was known as The Council Bluffs Butcher after one of two places he called home; Council Bluffs, Iowa. He also lived not far away in Omaha, Nebraska where the fight with Frazier took place.

Tom Lovgren was a boxing promoter in Omaha and he arranged for the fight to take place there. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of Stander who believed his local hero had a real chance at upsetting Frazier. Tom decided to bring Ron to Boston to train under the guidance of local fight guy Johnny Dunn. Mighty Joe Young a talented heavyweight from Brooklyn, NY was brought in as a sparring partner.

Young was managed by Frank Gioseffi who had been a heavyweight boxer himself in the 1950s. Frank fought on the undercard of the Marciano/Moore fight. Gioseffi later changed his name to Frank Gio and became a successful actor playing in movies and television. He was in Moonstruck, Once Upon In America, King Of New York, and Analyze That among many others.

Frank wasn’t able to make it to Boston with his fighter so I was asked to handle Joe for the training sessions. That was quite an exciting assignment for a teenage kid; working in the camp for a boxer training to fight for the heavyweight championship. 

His quietness could be taken as brooding, but in reality he was a very nice guy; very easy going.

I got to know Ron Stander while he was in Boston during that time. At first he was a bit scary and intimidating. His quietness could be taken as brooding, but in reality he was a very nice guy; very easy going. 

The ring at the New Garden Gym was quite small, so the sparring sessions turned into spirited affairs. Joe Young was no soft touch and the two of them went at it pretty hard. In an early session Young caught Ron with a left hook that cracked his nose. Not wanting to postpone the bout and risk losing their title chance altogether, Stander and Lovgren opted to use a full face headgear for the rest of the sparring sessions. This protected his nose but limited Stander’s vision while boxing.

After the workouts Dunn and Stander would head downstairs to the Ninety-Nine Club for dinner and pitchers of beer. While a hard worker in the gym, Stander wouldn’t give up his beer.

Tom Lovgren told me he was convinced Stander had a great shot at winning against Frazier based on the time Ron kayoed Earnie Shavers. It was early in both men’s careers with Shavers having a record of 12 wins and 1 loss with 12 knockouts, and Stander being undefeated in 9 fights with 7 knockouts. 

Shavers gave Stander a real going over in the first two rounds but Ron withstood the battering. Lovgren told me Ron actually broke his arm during the exchanges. Stander came on in the next two rounds and put Earnie down for the count in round four. Lovgren figured Stander could have a similar performance against Frazier. He even put his money where his mouth was by betting $10,000 on Stander at ten to one odds.

The fight took place on May 25, 1972 in at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha. As expected, Ron came out swinging. In the first round he caught Joe with a right hand that shook the champion. Stander held his own and many gave him that round. The crowd was pumped.

Frazier went to work in the second round and by the third was starting to bust Stander up. By the end of the fourth round the referee intervened and put an end to the fight. Ron ended up with 32 stitches in his face, but he never went down and was swinging until the very end. 

For his efforts, Stander’s purse was $100,000 of which he took home about $40,000, the biggest payday of his career. Lovgren lost his bet but not his respect for Stander. He was proud of his fighter as were the fans at the Civic Center who turned out to cheer him on. Ron Stander had nothing to be ashamed of. 

Ron Stander passed away on March 8th from complications related to diabetes. He was 77.

Ron’s son Frank told Peter Huguenin of the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, “As a father, he was probably one of the greatest guys in the world. He never would spank me. He was very, very gentle and loving to me and my sister. He was kind of a gentle giant. He was a different person when he was in the ring obviously, but he was very loving and caring and just always wanted me to keep it real with my deal and make sure I didn’t ever do anybody wrong and he never did anybody wrong and just be a good, genuine person.” 

That’s the Ron Stander I remember from back in Boston in 1972. 

Stander would continue fighting after the loss to Frazier. He stepped in with the likes of Ken Norton, Scott LeDoux, James Tillis, Jeff Merritt, and Gerrie Coetzee. He was never able to pull out the big win, but always gave it his all. 

He retired in 1982 with a career record of 37 wins (28 by knockout), 21 losses, and 3 draws. After leaving the ring he worked as a machine operator at Vickers Inc. He made a decent living and was a good father and grandfather, well loved by his family and in his community of Council Bluffs where he lived until his death.

Ron Stander may not have been the most talented of fighters, but he was among the toughest. More importantly, he is remembered as a good man, something much more important than being a champion.

Jeanette Zacarias Zapata

Dies After Suffering Beating In Ring

18 Year Old Had Been Knocked Unconscious 

Just Three Months Earlier

By Bobby Franklin

Jeanette Zacarias Zapata took her last breath on September 2, three months, two weeks, and five days after having been brutally knocked out by Cynthia Lozano in a boxing match in Reynosa, Mexico. That fight held on May 14 was Zapata’s first bout since being stopped on November 9, 2018 at the Jose Sulaiman Arena in Monterrey, Mexico when she was only 15 years old and fighting as a professional.

When you read the news accounts of her death last week it will be reported that she died from blows received in a fight on Saturday night in Montreal, Canada. While it is true the right cross delivered by Marie Pier Houle was the final blow she would ever be hit with, her death was no accident. 

If you watch footage of her loss to Cynthia Lozano from back in May you will see eerie similarities in the way the two fights ended. In both, Zapata is trapped in a corner and seems not to have the skills to defend herself. In the fight in Mexico she sinks to the canvas in a way that would be seen this past week in Montreal. The difference between the Montreal bout and the fight in Monterrey is that after some time passed, the fallen Zapata was able to be revived. Revived to be allowed to fight again, or rather be used again by promoters looking to build up the record of an up and coming “prospect”. 

Some questions that should be answered: Was she given a thorough examination after being kayoed in Mexico? Was a brain scan performed? Was medical information about her condition known by the promoters in Montreal? Had the promoters seen footage of that loss? If so, did they have any concerns about her fitness to fight? And most importantly, why did they allow someone so young who had suffered such a terrible beating so soon before to fight? 

Marie Pier Houle is an undefeated pro with a record of 4 wins, no losses, and one draw. At 31 years of age she is a fully matured adult woman who was facing a pudgy teenager. Houle, a native of Quebec, has been fighting since June of 2019. It is clear from watching the fight that Houle completely outclassed Zapata. The teenager from Mexico was clearly just an “opponent” for the local favorite Houle.

There’s no getting around what happened here. A poor teenage girl from Mexico is talked into turning pro at the age of 15. She has five fights, all in Mexico, winning only two. She is stopped twice, the second stoppage being the brutal knock out in Monterrey. A couple of months later she is brought up to Montreal to fight a hometown favorite on the undercard of a World Boxing Council sanctioned title fight. It is worth noting the WBC was founded by Jose Sulaiman. The same Jose Sulaiman whose name adorns the stadium in Mexico where Jeanette Zacarias Zapata once fought. The WBC is now run by Sulaiman’s son Mauricio Sulaiman. It is widely known that the WBC is a corrupt organization that uses its power to extort money from boxers in the form of sanctioning fees. These fees are taken out of the purses of the fighters. The safety of boxers has never been a priority for the people who run the organization. They have become quite wealthy off of the blood of fighters over the years.

Boxing has always been a seedy sport populated by thugs and lowlifes. This was accurately portrayed in the movie The Harder They Fall, starring Humphrey Bogart. As terrible as the characters in the movie are, they look like den mothers compared to what is going on today. The current crop of sleaze that control boxing have sunk to levels never before thought possible; they are now using poor adolescent girls as fodder for their for- profit entertainment business. What’s worse, the public is paying to watch this perversion. 

Last week Jeanette Zacarias Zapata should have been hanging out with friends and doing the things teenage girls do. Instead, she was being led into a boxing ring after suffering a traumatic brain injury. She was being led to her death. She, like so many others, was nothing but fodder to be used to build up a new prospect. 

We are told Zapata was cleared by a doctor to fight. What real doctor would clear a kid who was recently knocked out so badly that she lay on the floor for minutes without moving? That is the very definition of a brain injury. That is the very definition of neglect. 

The following statement was issued by the Mexico based WBC: 

“The president of the WBC, Mauricio Sulaiman and the entire boxing family affiliated with the WBC, as well as all boxing, mourns this irreparable loss. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jeanette. May she rest in peace.” 

How caring, “The entire boxing family”. More like the Manson Family. I can just feel the love. 

I don’t know a lot about the personal background of the young Zapata. I very much doubt she came from an upper middle-class family. Odds are she was poor. She most likely wanted to improve her lot in life and was sold a bill of goods about how boxing could be her way to a better life. Her parents, if they were still in the picture, probably bought into the narrative as well. 

Like drug dealers giving kids their first taste of drugs to get them hooked, boxing people looking for opponents sell them on the narcotic called boxing while sweet talking them into how they will one day achieve fame and fortune in the ring. To a fifteen year old this would sound great. The reality is quite different.

For those who say “Hey, these people know the risks they are taking. It’s their choice”, I would ask if they would let their adolescent son or daughter be used like this? Do you really think a young teenager is capable of weighing all the dangers involved in getting involved in such a profession? Would you really want your child being watched out for by the likes of the Sulaimans and others like them? Would you allow your child to step back into a boxing ring just less than three months after suffering a traumatic brain injury? Would you ever allow them to fight again?

Jeanette Zacarias Zapata will soon be forgotten. Boxing and the animals who run it will still prosper. Fans will still get their kicks out of watching kids suffering brain injuries for entertainment. Fighters will continue to die, but this rotten profession will live on. It’s sickening.