From A-to-Z: ’s resilient culture stays in the fight

By Norm Frauenheim-

The Arizona boxing market is little bit like the mythic symbol for which the state’s capitol is named. It’s always climbing off the deck like that proverbial bird seen on the side of a Phoenix bus and in the city’s flag. It’s fighting to take flight.

Always fighting.

Appropriately, there’s been more fight than flight in the state’s boxing history. It’s been up-and down, poised somewhere between new heights and familiar depths.

Barring another COVID disruption, the old fight goes on, this time with a real chance to reach an unprecedented peak. Two major cards are scheduled within two weeks in late summer, the first featuring super-middleweight David Benavidez on Showtime on the Suns home floor in downtown Phoenix on August 28 and then junior-lightweight champion Oscar Valdez Jr. on ESPN at Casino del Sol in Tucson on Sept. 10.

It’s a powerful combo, a testament to a lively market that lives on without coverage from the state’s traditional media. Full disclosure: I covered boxing for The Arizona Republic for three-plus decades before the state’s biggest newspaper pulled the plug on me and the sport.

The sport is thriving. Me? I’m older than that ancient bird. I’ll let somebody else decide. But boxing’s resiliency in Arizona is no surprise. It’s deeply rooted in the state’s culture, unique for the number of mom-and-pop gyms throughout neighborhoods in Phoenix and Tucson. They’re next to convenience stores, in backyards and on the sidewalk in front of a barber shop.

It’s appropriate that David Benavidez and his brother, Jose, will be fighting at the newly-named Footprint Center. Boxing’s footprint is everywhere in Arizona.

It was there in the 1950s with Jimmy Martinez, a Phoenix middleweight and an undisputed world traveler whose passport nearly included as many stamps as his record included fights (142). It was there all over again, this time generating headlines when came out of his Phoenix backyard, won silver at the controversial 1988 Olympics and fought his way into the Hall of Fame.

In late August and early September, that indelible footprint re-appears, potentially in a way that it never has. Once, twice, it’s a speed bag of affirmation that AZ boxing will outlive just about anything, even newspapers.

“Phoenix, Arizona made me into the vicious puncher and entertaining fighter I am today,’’ David Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs), a former two-time champion at 168-pounds, said after his bout with Venezuelan Jose Uzcategui (31-4, 26 KOs) was formally announced Thursday. “I am grateful to have given up my childhood and be in the gym all day in phx to become something other than just ordinary.’’

Ordinary became extraordinary in the years after Benavidez left home. He hasn’t fought in Phoenix since a victory in May 2015 when he won a prelim on a card that featured brother Jose in a junior-welterweight title win, also in a ring on the Suns home floor at what was then US Airways Center. The arena’s name has changed. So, has David Benavidez. He looms as very real possibility for Canelo Alvarez, the biggest name in the sport.

It’s no coincidence that Canelo’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso will be in Tucson a couple of weeks later with Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs), a two-time Mexican Olympian who went to school in Tucson. Valdez’ strong ties to AZ are evident in his record. He has fought four times in the state, twice in Phoenix and twice in Tucson. His title defense against Brazilian Robson Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs) is intriguing on a couple of levels.

They have history. Conceicao, a 2106 Olympic gold medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Games, beat Valdez by a single point for a Pan American Games gold medal in 2009.

For Valdez, the fight is his first since his dramatic upset of Miguel Berchelt for the 130-pound title. Few gave Valdez a chance against Berchelt last February. Then again, few have ever given him much of chance against the best, first at featherweight and now at junior-lightweight.

Nevertheless, he fought his way through a broken jaw on a rainy night in an outdoor ring in Carson Calif. to beat a bigger Scott Quigg in Match, 2018

There were doubts he would be able to come back from that bloody triumph. Valdez, the winner, was put on a stretcher and rushed to the emergency room. Nearly three years later, he beat a feared, bigger Berchelt in a 10th-round stoppage.

It was stunning. From A-to-Z, It was a testament to resiliency, a stubborn streak that defines him and the state of the AZ game.