Missouri Boxing News

St Louis American: " Local
Fighting Words: Tar Baby and Sarge
By: Thomas Crone For the St. Louis American August 26, 2004
James 'Sarge' Ivory coaches his daughter Chanel 'Tar Baby' Ivory.
There's no tighter bond in the boxing world than the bond between fighter and trainer. Unless, of course, they also happen to be related.

That's the deal between James 'Sarge' Ivory, a coach at the South Broadway Athletic Club, and his daughter, Chanel.

Nicknamed 'Tar Baby,' Chanel Ivory is one of the rising young female fighters on the local amateur circuit. Lithe, fit and active in the ring, Tar Baby is becoming a local favorite, with just a handful of fights to her credit but a year of rigorous training under her belt.
This summer, she worked out (under the watchful eye of her father) four or five days a week. Now back in high school at Cleveland NJROTC, she's trimming back the schedule to two or three days of gym work weekly, while still eyeing the fall fight season.

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Since female sparring partners are at a premium, she regularly works against teens of the opposite sex, holding her own and then some.

Though a young lady of few words, her father has plenty to say about her short career.

'She is doing as well as I expected her to do, in that short period of time,' Sarge Ivory said.

'We mostly have worked on conditioning. Now, we're starting to work on technique. She's learning the six punches of boxing. She pretty much knows how to set an opponent up to work toward winning.'

The 5-foot-11-inch Ivory works on conditioning religiously, as seen at marathon training sessions at the SBAC, where her father gave only the barest of instructions. A year of hard training and the sixth sense shared between family members keep the need for conversation minimal.

In fact, Chanel's a third-generation boxer.

'My father was a boxer,' said Sarge. 'That's how I got involved with it, through him. We used to sit down and watch fights in the 1950s and '60s.

'I got involved as I grew older. I kept asking him to get into a technical boxing gym, and I finally did it. I boxed Golden Gloves in Chicago. I went into the military and boxed in there the whole time, for 14 and a half years.

'I got out and Chanel came along. As she grew older, I asked if she wanted to try it out. She was undecided about it, and I said, 'It may not be what you think it is.' She decided to give it a try and, ever since then, she's done pretty well.'

Last week, Chanel Ivory fought in the Ringside Tournament in Kansas City, losing to a local fighter in the semi-finals, on what her dad/trainer considered a foolishly early stoppage. She'll get a chance to use that experience as motivation in her next bout, as the IBSS will toss an outdoor show next weekend.

As for the nickname, Sarge said that 'during the 1800s, a few fighters used that, 'Tar Baby,' before Jack Johnson did. We reached back into history and picked it. She's the first female to carry the name.'

Chanel Ivory will be among the feature attractions on a Sunday, Sept. 5 show at 5249 Pattison, just alongside I-44 in the Hill neighborhood. Between five and eight amateur bouts will be slated for the card. Tickets (at $8) are available through Metrotix. For more info, call 481-7476."

Fighting Words: 'Big Hands' has big plans



By: Thomas Crone For the St. Louis American August 19, 2004




Anthony Willis
For the first six of his dozen years as a prizefighter, Anthony "Big Hands" Willis labored as light-heavyweight, working in the 180s and 190s, dropping as low as 177. Along the way, he secured a few regional titles and rang up an impressive record, going 13-1 to start his career, with a couple of Missouri and Illinois titles to his credit.
But the offers to jump up in weight-class proved tempting. Willis transitioned to the heavyweight ranks, first by simply eating junk food. He supersized himself.

Later, he would figure out the right method for staying at weight and building strength. He developed a look and style that matched him successfully against many of the top heavys of the 1990s. By the time his career ended in 2002, he had faced a who's-who of that era, from comeback legends to rising 'comers: Larry Holmes, Razor Ruddock, Alexander Zolkin, Danell Nicholson, Vitali Klitschko and Michael Grant, among them.

"Yeah, I fought all them guys, man," said a talkative Willis. "I never turned down a fight. I'm fighting guys that are 6'9", thinking 'What am I looking at?'"

Then, two years ago, he felt a spiritual awakening that, he said, solved "a pain in my heart."

God, he said, told him not to fight anymore. But God didn't tell him to get out of the sport.

These days, Willis works the fax machine, rather than the medicine ball. He rocks the cell phone and not the heavy bag. With his new company, Big Hands Promotions, he is putting together fight cards, a pro-style gym in Wellston, an amateur team and a new approach to life after boxing.

After working a pair of cards with business partners, neither experience to his satisfaction, he's on his own. His first card as a solo promoter will be at the Downtown Marriott on Monday, Sept. 20.

"This time, I want fighters to get paid, the bills to get paid," Willis said.

"I'm not looking for money on this show. The biggest thing is getting my name out there. I might make a dollar on this show. But the next show, I'm going to walk out with a million. You can print that."

For the upcoming card, he's lined up a variety of local pros, like Leon Bobo (2-0, lightweight), Phillip "Bring the" Payne (14-11-1, super bantamweight), Kelly Wright (3-1, light welterweight) and debuting, 110-pound Karoz Norman. In the future, Willis hopes to line up some St. Louis vs. Kansas City showdowns and regional title fights.

"I've got a lot of people that respect me in the fight game," said Willis. "I had fans in a lot of places."

And he promises that he will run his cards "the right way." As someone who went into many a backyard, taking on fighters on short notice, he knows how decisions can be judged by the public.

"I'm not protecting (local) fighters," Willis said. "You lose, you lose. You win, you win. Everything I did, I did on my own."

As a boxer and, now, a businessman.

Harrah's Hotel and Casino, North Kansas City, Missouri
Thursday 02nd September 2004
Promoter - Titan Entertainment

MiddleweightIan Gardner v Kuvanych Toygonbayev10
MiddleweightGuadalupe Martinez v Francisco Diaz8
Light HeavyweightGalen Brown v Jason Scott Aaker6
Super MiddleweightIsaiah Henderson v Donnie McCrary6
Super MiddleweightJosh Luteran v Justice Brown4
Super BantamweightSharon Gaines v Leslie McNamara4

St Louis American: "Fighting Words: Bringing the Payne
By: Thomas Crone For the St. Louis American August 12, 2004"

On what's possibly the hottest and surely the most humid day of summer, Phillip "Bring The" Payne hustles through the North County Athletic Association gym, wearing a long undershirt and a look of purpose.

The club's walls are sweating. The floors are sweating. Not surprisingly, the fighters are sweating.

Chief among them is Payne, who's recently sampled from the alphabet soup of boxing titles, capturing the NABA Continental and IBA America's belts in the super bantamweight (122-lb.) division. He took the titles on May 29, defeating Al Seeger, then 19-0, in his hometown of Savannah, Ga.

His next outing - on a Sept. 20 card at the Marriott Downtown, promoted by former STL heavyweight Anthony "Big Hands" Willis - will be his first in the St. Louis area since 2000. Payne is slated to face mid-Missouri's Travis Gregory, a cagey pro looking to halt his own loss streak.

Rest of Story Here

ContraCostaTimes.com | 08/13/2004 | HP Pavilion is not sweet on Leonard's Fight Night: "The next Fight Night at the Tank show will be Sept. 23 and the main event matches welterweight Paul Williams (23-0) of Augusta, Ga., against Mexico's Arturo Reyes (20-12). The other bout already schedule is a 10-round IBA featherweight title bout between champion Kelsey Jeffries (27-8) and Jerry Sitzes (5-5-1). Jeffries is from Gilroy, while Sitzes boxes out of Springfield, Mo."

Fighting Words: He keeps the beat and the fights clean

By: Thomas Crone August 05, 2004

Jibes, catcalls, threats, unmannerly gestures: Kirk Grice has seen it all.

But in a way, he didn't see or hear a thing. Not at all. Nothing but the
bout. When he's inside the ring, he's locked in on his job and only that.
There is a lot to watch in there.
"Weird things can happen," he says. "Head butts. Slips. You gotta see it,
make a call, make a judgment."

An amateur boxing referee since 1978, Grice added pro fights to his ref's
resume in 1995. On an average night, he may call two or three bouts, but
when needed, he's available for more. On one memorable Black Expo card, he
was forced to call 18 bouts. That's a lot of judgment calls.

Amateurs and pros offer different challenges to the referee. The (usually)
younger amateurs might be raw, but "they have to obey your commands," says
Grice. "It's seldom in the amateur ranks that you have to touch a fighter."

The pros are a different story. "Unless you get between them, they don't
stop punching," he says. "I know what to expect. In particular, I try to
make sure that they know I'm there to protect both parties. I don't
tolerate any insane behavior."

His authority comes from his position in the ring, rather than his physical
presence. Built with a taut, 125-pound frame, Grice gives up some weight in
most bouts - and he's been in the middle of some real scrapes, including
evenings when two heavyweights decide to get extra physical.

But the wild moments are few. Grice maintains a strict sense of discipline
and decorum in his ring. Whether it's the fighters or the corners that need
a calming word, he doles it out quickly and efficiently.

Grice is not some grizzled fighter who demoted himself to referee when he
could no longer contend. His own boxing career was virtually nil. "I got
hit on the nose once," he recalls. "But I sure can work the speed bag."

He's also an experienced hand at a pair of drumsticks. Several nights a
week you'll find him behind the drum kit of the venerable Soulard Blues
Band, often at their unofficial homebase, the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Grice has been with the group since 1981, minus a couple-year gap when he
played "with everybody": Jimmy Smith, the Bosman Twins, Ptah Williams,
Willie Akins. He brings the same easy, fluid grace to both his gigs.
Keeping the beat, keeping order in the ring, keeping people out of trouble.

And, oh yeah, attending Fontbonne University, in the hopes of becoming a
psychotherapist. Kirk Grice is a man with a lot on his plate, a lot on his
mind.

But when he is inside the ring, he has eyes for nothing but two fighters,
who need to be kept in focus - and in check.

"The worst is when a man throws a lucky punch, then tries a cheap shot on
the man that's going down," Grice says. "I'm completely focused on the two
fighters. I don't stray anywhere."


©St Louis American 2004