back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
The "Border Explosion" slated for the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center on April 27 represents the next step--albeit a big one--in Joe Mesi's carefully planned climb up the heavyweight rankings.
For Niagara Falls, the biggest promotion in the city's boxing history marks a full-fledged leap. If the fight card--featuring Mesi's scheduled 10-round bout with former contender Jorge Luis Gonzalez--sells well, Niagara Falls could become a regular fight destination.
Most of the biggest fights land in Las Vegas or New York City, but more remote venues, like Savona and Biloxi, Miss., draw several mid-level cards per year, due to fan support and proximity to a casino. But if the "Explosion" fizzles, television again will be the only place to see the sport in the city.
While Mesi still calls the Town of Tonawanda home, the inspiration and financing for the card come from north of the border. Allen Trombley, president of Orion Sports Management of Brampton, Ont., promoted Mesi's second-round knockout of Joey Guy at Skylon Tower in November. He said Niagara Falls, N.Y., provides a better spot for a Mesi fight for several reasons--the primary fan base and international fighters (including Gonzalez, a Cuban defector) don't have to cross the border, but Casino Niagara, a draw for out-of-town fight fans, is close by.
"We're auditioning the venue," explained Trombley, who said negotiations with Casino Niagara to sponsor the event are ongoing. "The fan support is there for Joe, and we've given it the optimum chance to succeed. If it does, we'll be back. If it doesn't, we won't."
The promotion wasn't announced until April 5, but Trombley said he expects most of the 5,400 available seats to go in the last two weeks before the fight and has planned a multi-media advertising blitz.
Jack Mesi, Joe's father and manager, called the card a "thank you to Niagara Falls." He said the city PAL, headed by Art Eberhart, provided sponsorship during his son's amateur career. "We promised Niagara Falls when they supported us in the amateurs and the National Golden Gloves that we'd pay it back," he said. "This is Mesi keeping his promise."
The success of the promotion doesn't rest solely on Mesi's drawing ability, which helped sell more than 2,000 tickets for the Guy fight. Razor Ruddock, best known for two epic fights with Mike Tyson in the early 1990s, is expected to draw a decent contingent from Canada, where the Jamaican native held the heavyweight title before meeting Tyson. Ruddock is scheduled to fight Harold Sconiers in a supporting 10-rounder, with the winners of the two heavyweight bouts tentatively slated to meet in July.
The scheduled undercard includes five other bouts, including Niagara Falls native Tommy Huff's debut in a four-round middleweight fight against fellow rookie Ian Gardner of New Brunswick.
Ringside seats go for $150 each, with the rest of the house ranging from $25 to $50.
Mesi, an alternate on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, has fought twice at the much smaller Burt Flickinger Center in downtown Buffalo. Those fights were against Mike McGrady and Anthony Green, names that don't compare to Gonzalez, a former world amateur champion. Mesi, who won the New York State championship with an eighth-round knockout of Green, sees the bout as a chance to squeeze into the local sporting consciousness dominated by the Buffalo Bills and Sabres.
"You can't become national and international until first you become something at home," said Jack Mesi, Joe's father and manager.
Mesi won his first 18 fights, 16 by knockout. While his opponents lack the resume of Gonzalez or Ruddock, he said he's fought the toughest opponents at each level of his progress.
"I've been in big fights before, just against names that aren't recognizable," he said. "We were just taking our time and taking a slow ride climbing the ladder. Now, let's do it."
Jack Mesi said negotiations with major promoters who hold the rights to most contenders made the ride even slower. He said several promoters made entreaties for multi-fight deals, but refused to negotiate beyond the initial offer.
"But now we have a regional promoter who is a good man and an honest man," Jack Mesi said of Trombley. "He's given us a fair shake and hey, we appreciate it to the nth degree. He's bringing in the big names."
In a sport where the tactics and legal troubles of promoters like Don King and Bob Arum often make bigger news than the fights themselves, Trombley sees himself as something of a reformer.
"We're trying to bring a business ethic to what has been kind of a scuzzy sport," Trombley said. "Joe's such a nice fit for what our ideals are. We're obviously hoping he goes all the way, and that we go with him."
Mesi, ranked 30th by the World Boxing Council, plans to travel to Italy after the Gonzalez fight for a late-May bout, possibly for a lesser title like the WBC's Intercontinental belt. Wins in those two bouts and the proposed Ruddock match should propel Mesi's climb in the rankings, possibly near the top 10.
But before any of those plans can become reality, he has to get by Gonzalez.
The press release announcing the fight says Gonzalez "represents a huge and dangerous step up in class." That's not just hype.
The Cuban's amateur brilliance--including wins over future pro champions Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe, as well as legendary Cuban heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson--and a 23-0 start as a pro launched him into the division's top 10 rankings by 1995. He got a shot at the World Boxing Organization title, but Riddick Bowe knocked him out in the sixth round and sent Gonzalez's career plummeting.
Gonzalez lost four out of his next six fights, including three knockout defeats and an eight-round decision against someone named Paea Wolfgramm. Six straight wins followed against less-than-stellar opposition, the most notable victims being former contender Alex Stewart, who retired after suffering a sixth-round knockout, and 41-year-old Greg Page, a former two-time titlist.
Despite his recent struggles, Gonzalez poses a variety of problems for Mesi.
First, he's 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds with an 82-inch reach. The 6-1, 230-pound Mesi said he plans to overcome those obstacles by taking the fight to Gonzalez inside.
"I have to be aggressive," said Mesi, who has been sparring with a stable of tall fighters like 6-5 Lou Savarese. "I can't let him fight his fight. With that much of a height difference, it could get ugly."
With 27 knockouts among his 31 wins, Gonzalez also carries more power than Mesi has faced in the pro ranks.
"if I stick to my game plan, slipping punches and knocking punches down, I don't think it will be a problem," Mesi said. "He'd better be more concerned about my power."
Gonzalez has been criticized for maintaining a leisurely pace in several fights and doesn't figure to get a lot more active at age 36.
"He's kind of a lazy fighter," Mesi said. "I know I'm in better shape and I can out-hustle him. He tends to sit on the ropes as a fight goes on and if he does that, he's in trouble."
Gonzalez, who arrived in Buffalo on Friday, said back problems hampered him for several years, contributing to his 8-6 record since the loss to Bowe.
"It's 100 percent better now," said Gonzalez, who looked in shape and limber during Saturday's workout at the West Side Community Center in Buffalo. "When my back was bad, I couldn't move. It affects your legs, you can't move your upper body. You can't move."
Mesi made his annual trip to Houston to train for the fight and returned to Western New York on Monday.
"(Buffalo) gets a little frigid for training," he said. "It's too cold to run at 6 a.m."
But he has no plans to leave the area permanently, as some potential promoters have urged.
"We're not going to the championship," Jack Mesi said. "It's coming to us, and the heavyweight champion of the world will be walking around Niagara Falls and Buffalo. That's been our focus and that's been our plan from day one."
Joe Mesi isn't thinking that far in the future, instead focusing on the next four months.
"I love the whole idea," he said. "I'd love to fight Ruddock. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, but I think that would be another great fight."
If that happens at all, and if it takes place in Niagara Falls, depends largely on what happens April 27.
"We've underpriced it and we're putting on a top-flight card, with a local hero and a hometown fighter making his pro debut," Trombley said. " If it doesn't sell then it will have spoken for itself."
Tickets can be purchased at the Convention Center box office by calling 286-4769 or through Ticketmaster at 852-5000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.