No one finds this interesting? There are lots of Hollywood, sports, and music business stars that will be coming to St. Louis for this fight, which is a big deal in the boxing world. This could especially be a good time for all of the new restaurants downtown, and more exposure for St. Louis' downtown renaissance.



Plus, this is on the heels of NCAA's ? Final Four (April) and Division I wrestling championships (March).



Link:

St. Louis Sports Commission

Xing, I hear you, but I wouldn't worry.



St. Louis may not look like a New York or Las Vegas at this time, but it looks a lot better than it did one or two years ago. I read a snippet where the NCAA people recently came back to St. Louis after visiting six months ago and was impressed with the changes that occurred downtown since then.



Things are not perfect, but doable, and improving.



Besides that, St. Louis always hosts events that bring celebrities and Hollywood types to St. Louis ? ex. Joe Torry's Giving Back The Love Back To School event, Nelly's Birthday Bashes, Marshall Faulk's annual shindig, and I'm sure there are others; so celebs are always in town.



It's going to be interesting to see who it will bring to St. Louis.

Getting' my Don King on

Delores Shante

St. Louis American

01/06/05



Don't you think it's time for St. Louis to step it up and make a statement to the world about our boxing, when our homeboy Cory Spinks takes on Zab Judah for no-doubt welterweight bragging rights on Feb. 5 at the Savvis Center?



Lee Johnson and his Lee J clothier should get a concession to help St. Louis' sorry sportswriters and broadcasters get their fashion together, though. This ain't a black-white thing, this is a let's-not-look-like-some-hick-town when the bright lights hit us on 2/5.



Leave them damn jeans at home, y'all. Also, if you wear a suit, remember you're going to the extravaganza that is a Don King fight card, not a funeral. How we gonna be world-class, if even the media has no class?



So, was anybody stylin' at the press conference at Savvis on Tuesday?



KFNS' Mike Claiborne and former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., looked sharp in their biz suits, and Spinks' main man Kevin Cunningham looked locked and loaded in a burgundy blazer, black turtleneck and black slacks.



Spinks wore his sunglasses indoors, but it didn't take away from his cool black corduroy sport jacket and blood-red shirt, and the challenger went with the New York Yankees cap and more gold in his mouth than Fort Knox.



Spinks' muscle Anthony Shahid was tight with the black suit with thick pinstripes, while American City Editor Alvin A. Reid had a John Henry oversized black shirt with matching black pants and a kickin' pair of David Taylor lace-up shoes. Greater Kirkwood was representing, word.



Oh, and don't you know they served up a feast for Don King and company. "Scrimp" bisque (that's soup, y'all), grilled veggies, Caesar salad, roast tenderloin, grilled chicken and Rueben sandwiches on hard rolls. Something about the thought of grown men so skillfully beating on each other makes me hungry.



Source: St. Louis American

Another one..........



Hip-hop boxing

Delores Shante

St. Louis American

01/06/05



Bad Hair Himself hopes to have a battle of hip-hop heavyweights during a week of haps before the Spinks-Judah jabs. Big Don said that Nelly is penning a new song just for Spinks when he leads his fellow St. Louisan into the ring on Feb. 5. No word who will be rappin' for Zudah, but bet your bottom Powerball ticket that it will be a big-time spitter.



King said he wants to bring in P-Diddy, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and others to "take on the best St. Louis has with Nelly at the helm."



That would mean that Nelly and Chingy would have to put their silly static on hold 'til after the fight. Or maybe they could fight on the undercard? Throw a Jay-Z vs. R Kelly match on the bill, and that place would sell out, sho nuff.

Is St. Louis The Best Sports City or what?



St. Louis provides record support of Spinks fight

By Bernie Miklasz

Of the Post-Dispatch

01/26/2005



Those who pushed for Cory Spinks to be given a chance to defend his welterweight boxing title on his home turf were guardedly optimistic about his box office appeal.



Spinks is loyal to St. Louis. He has a famous name, and earnest ambitions. He built his career here, punch by punch, earning modest paydays in small St. Louis venues. He took no shortcuts; Spinks reached the top by proving himself at every career turn. Cory Spinks is old school, all the way. And St. Louis sports fans respect that.



So when boxing promoter Don King and Savvis Center executives took a gamble on a Spinks vs. Zab Judah title bout here in St. Louis, the hope was for a decent sale. But no one really knew what to expect. Well, fewer than 10 days before the Spinks-Judah rematch on Feb. 5, any lingering doubts have been knocked out of the ring.



"This is the biggest boxing business story of 2005," Alan Hopper of King Promotions said. "It appears that Spinks vs. Judah II will rank among the top paid attendances in the history of indoor arenas."



And that's no hype. Ticket sales are just under 15,000, with a strong chance for a sellout of 20,435. To put that in perspective, the highest all-time attendance for an indoor arena title card in Las Vegas is 17,078 at the Thomas and Mack Center in 1999 for the second Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield fight. Promotions in domed football stadiums have attracted larger audiences, but few arena-boxing crowds will match the eventual gate for Spinks-Judah II.



And based on current sales, Spinks-Judah already ranks third on the list of top grossing events at Savvis Center, topped only by concerts from Billy Joel and Elton John in 2003 and Paul McCartney in 2002. But if this fight sells out, it will be the highest grossing event in Savvis Center history.



That's validation for Spinks and his manager-trainer, Kevin Cunningham.



"Cory's showing he can put butts in the seats and that he's getting people excited about this fight," Cunningham said.



Obviously, King is thrilled to see so much revenue rolling in. The fight will be broadcast on Showtime. Anheuser-Busch weighed in as a heavyweight sponsor. The fans endorsed the fight with their wallets and their hearts, and King is returning the affection. King just enhanced the Feb. 5 card by adding an attractive matchup between Owen Beck and Monte Barrett in the 12-round IBF/WBC heavyweight championship elimination bout that will open the televised portion of the event.



King has dived into the St. Louis community. He is scheduled to have breakfast with the St. Louis Sports Commission on Tuesday morning. Tuesday night, he will auction off a VIP fight experience to raise money for charity at the MS Sports Celebrity Dinner. Wednesday, King will appear at a Spinks pep rally at Beaumont High School. Thursday, he will accept a lifetime achievement award from the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP. And on Saturday, King will serve as The King of the St. Louis Mardi Gras celebration, riding in the parade through Soulard. King also will preside over a late-week press conference and the official weigh-in ceremony on Feb. 4.



The response in St. Louis is so impressive, King claims this experience will reshape his philosophy on staging fights - specifically, setting up star boxers with hometown bouts instead of automatically putting the fight in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or New York.



"The support in St. Louis is overwhelming," King said. "Hometown fans can root, boxing fans can root. ... This is what we are going to do when we can't go to the usual (places). I want to bring events to different places, like Chicago or St. Louis. This is the new model to demonstrate when the local people support a fighter it is tremendous and it contagious."



Spinks and Judah should put on an entertaining show come Feb. 5. But the promotion is already a knockout.

The St. Louis American is reporting the following Hollywood and entertainment types will be in town:



From the snippet



Okay, who else is skipping to the Lou? Too many rappers to name. Just to shout out a few celebs: Will Smith, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Shaq, Beyonce, Ashanti, Jazze Pha, Big Gipp of Goodie Mobb, Fabolous, P Diddy and homeboy Cedric the Entertainer. And, ladies, I know I didn't hear someone say Denzel. Yes, I did. He's a big sports fan, and I guess he's choosing boxing over football. (Remember, ladies, he's married.)



Source

St. Louis before the Spinks

By: Bernie Hayes For the St. Louis American

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 1:30 PM CST



St. Louis has a long and magnificent track record of presenting some of the finest boxing talent the world has known. But what many do not realize is the caliber of genius that at one time or another called St. Louis home. Some of the city's past champions and legends include Sonny Liston, Jack Armstrong and Archie Moore.



Before reviewing the historical contributions of these other almost mythical figures, let's briefly examine the Spinks dynasty.



Cory Spinks, the current undisputed world welterweight champion, has a legacy in the fight game few can equal. He is the son of former heavyweight champ Leon Spinks and nephew of light heavyweight notable Michael Spinks. Both Leon and Michael won Gold Medals in the 1976 Olympic Boxing Games.



Leon Spinks, who became the world's lightest heavyweight champion, was born on July 11, 1953 in St. Louis and was the first heavyweight boxer to beat Muhammad Ali on February 15, 1978.



Michael Spinks began his professional career in 1977 and in 1981 won the World Boxing Association light-heavyweight crown. He won a 15-round decision over Larry Holmes for the International Boxing Federation title but, in June 1988, lost a title fight to Mike Tyson.



Now, for the deeper history:



Henry Armstrong



Henry Armstrong became the first (and still the only) fighter to ever hold three world championships n the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight n simultaneously. Bert Sugar in his 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time rated Henry Armstrong as the second-greatest fighter in history behind "Sugar" Ray Robinson. "The 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years" in the 2002 Ring Annual (Vol. 2) also rated Armstrong second only to Robinson.



Armstrong, whose real name was Henry Jackson, moved to St. Louis from Mississippi when he was four. He had several nicknames n "Perpetual Motion," "Homicide Hank," the "Human Buzz Saw," and "Hurricane Henry."



Armstrong pressured his opponents from the gong of the first bell, because his plan of attack was designed to force his opponents into mistakes while he banged away with both hands to the head and body with a torrent of blows. After his retirement from the ring, he lived and worked here in St. Louis and later became an ordained Baptist minister.



Sonny Liston



A colorful, controversial figure who will forever be remembered in St. Louis is Charles "Sonny" Liston.



Liston was born in rural Arkansas. At about the age of thirteen, he moved to St. Louis to join his mother. In 1952, he became an amateur fighter, and in 1953 he won the National Golden Gloves title. Liston turned professional later in 1953 and won fourteen of his first fifteen fights.



Believed to be the victim of police harassment, he got into a fight with a St. Louis policeman and was sent to prison, where he groomed his pugilistic skills.



In 1962, Liston knocked out Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson in the first round in Comiskey Park in Chicago and repeated the feat against Patterson less than a year later. In February 1964, Muhammad Ali defeated Liston for the championship. Liston's rematch with Ali in Lewiston, Maine the next year resulted in the same results, with Ali defeating Liston decisively.



Liston continued to fight for another six years. His seventeen-year career ended in 1970, when he died in his home in Las Vegas under suspicious circumstances. Officially, the cause of death was listed as lung congestion and heart failure. Unofficially, the death appeared to be the result of a heroin overdose. Some police officials and Liston associates believed that Liston was murdered.



Archie Moore



Nicknamed "The Old Mongoose," Archie Moore fought for an incredible 27 years and knocked out 141 opponents. That is more than anyone else in the history of boxing. He became the light heavyweight champion at the age of 39 and is the only man to have fought both Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.



Moore, who turned pro in 1936, debuted in the world rankings as a middleweight in the early 1940s. In 1952, at the age of 39, Moore became the light heavyweight champion by defeating Joey Maxim in St. Louis. He held the title for eleven years.



In 1955, he fought and lost to Rocky Marciano. The next year, he met Floyd Patterson for the vacant heavyweight crown but was stopped in five rounds. He knocked out former Olympic heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher in 1961 and in 1962 fought and lost a bout with Muhammad Ali. He later lost a series of bouts against Ezzard Charles.



Moore went Hollywood to play the role of Jim, the runaway slave, in the 1960 movie The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the era, extending into the mid-'80s, Moore was a Hollywood regular, acting in movies and television.



Moore retired in 1963 with a record of 194 wins with 26 defeats and eight draws. He later helped train George Forman before his "Rumble in the Jungle" fight with Muhammad Ali in 1974 and was assistant coach of the Nigerian boxing team at the 1976 Olympics. In 1985, he was elected to the St. Louis Boxing Hall of Fame organized by the Gateway Classic Sports Foundation.



After departing from his life of fisticuffs, during the early and mid-'60s Moore spent many of his remaining years commuting between St. Louis and Hollywood, working as an actor and trainer and serving underprivileged children. He died on Dec. 9, 1998, at a hospice in San Diego after a lengthy illness.



Knowledge of the past supplies context, perspective and clarity in a diverse and changing world, and St. Louis has a very illustrious and important past. Perhaps a reminder of these heroes will make Black History Month in St. Louis a little brighter.

With fight and Mardi Gras, city is party central this weekend

By Deb Peterson

Of the Post-Dispatch

02/04/2005







ARE WE IN VEGAS? With the BIG FIGHT coming to town, the Lou's party scene is in full, heat-generating mode. Cory Spinks and Cedric the Entertainer, along with their managers, Kevin Cunningham and Eric Rhone, kicked off the weekend on Thursday night when they hosted a "Welcome To St. Louis" party at Club Seven. More celebs are expected to arrive today for Mardi Gras and fight festivities before ending their weekend partying at Saturday night afterparties, such as those hosted by Nelly (at Joe Edwards' Pageant in the Delmar Loop), Cory Spinks (at Club Candela), Zab Judah (at Club Isis) and the Trackboyz (at Plush Nightclub).

Here's a funny piece from Delores Shante.



Last weekend was a knockout

By: Delores Shante

St. Louis American

Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:33 AM CST



Well, it looks like people are going to be talking about the butt whipping Zab Judah put on our homie Cory Spinks until the tiebreaker, which I'm anticipating in about 10 months. Zab whipped Cory so badly that for a second there I thought Cory was throwing the fight. Zab chased Cory like Gov. Matt Blunt went after human services programs.



Some people are blaming Cory's loss on his showboating entrance with Nelly, who had the Savvis Center fight fans on their feet. Give me a break. A lot of fighters have showy entrances to hype themselves and entertain the crowd, just like when they talk stuff. It's all part of the hype. Some fighters even showboat in the ring: Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Pernell "Sweet Pea" Witaker, Roy Jones Jr. I'm not saying it's the thing to do, especially in the ring, but that isn't why Cory lost.



Anyway that fight is over. Cory's out of the hospital and still has all his teeth. I just hope the rest of the fights that kicked off during and after the ring battles are over. Well, I'm sure one isn't. That's the one between Eddie Hasan's daughter and Yaphett El-Amin's younger sister and her so-called husband. During a private afterparty for Zab in a loft above Club Isis, girlfriend's boo shattered her windows, slashed her tires, scratched paint off her car and, worst of all, physically assaulted her.



I wish Zab would have seen him, ran out there and hit him with some of those bolos he knocked Cory silly with. Her (former, I'm sure) boo is obviously quick to strike a woman, but he'd probably rather crawl through a lion's den wearing porkchop panties than fight a man, let alone a champion. Well, they got stricter laws for that kind of unmanly animalistic nonsense. Something tells me that one isn't over.



There were also fights outside of the ring between fight fans. A woman who could probably whip Cory dropped another lady after she hit her with a flurry of blows. Then people from both sides joined in, and it was on like Batman and Robin against the Joker, Penguin and the Riddler (boom! zamm!, splat! Kaboom!) for at least 5 minutes. This throwdown happened right after Cory's fight was over. And these had to be at least $200 seats, because they were near the ring. And that wasn't the only one inside Savvis. There were at least two more.



Then, when I rolled up in Club Plush, security had to mace the place because fools were tripping in there. That place is too plush for all that. Anyway, I got a call that Nelly's party was the place to be, so I hopped on out to the Pageant. And, no doubt, it was the hot spot. I didn't see many celebs there, but I didn't see any at the fight, either. What's up with that Don King?



Don't lose any hair over it. Some of our St. Louis celebs represented, like: Ozzie Smith, Cedric The Entertainer, Nelly, St. Lunatics, papa Leon Spinks and Jackie Joyner Kersee. Now, there could have been more celebs at Nelly's party, but they must have been onstage, which was the real VIP. My VIP tickets must have really been IP tickets, because all of the big wigs were onstage, so I couldn't see if celebs were in the house or not. Though I do believed I peeped Jermaine Dupri, and I heard Nelly call Ashanti to the stage.



Source: Last weekend was a knockout