Omaha fight doctor Jack Lewis of two minds about boxing

June 21, 2016 leoadambiga 1 comment

Omaha’s fight doctor, the late Jack Lewis, was of two minds about boxing. He championed the closely regulated amateur side of the sport but he decried the anything-goes excesses of the professional game. He saw more fights than he could remember as a ringside physician. He was also a sideline physician at countless football games in his role as team doctor for his alma mater, Omaha Central High School. He was an athlete and scholar there and he went on to be an athlete and scholar at Stanford University. The story I’m posting here is an advance piece I did about the 2006 National Golden Gloves tournament held in Omaha. I got Dr. Lewis and two other venerable members of the local boxing community, Harley Cooper and Tom Lovgren, to weigh in on the event and the sport. Lewis was a much honored member of Omaha’s sports and medical community. He was an inductee in the Central High Hall of Fame as well as the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame. He, his father and his son comprised three generations of physicians.

It is worth noting that world pro boxing champion Terence Crawford of Omaha made it to the finals of that National Golden Gloves tournament in his hometown only to lose a controversial decision. It pretty much marked the end of his amateur career and the last time he fought in Omaha until defending his newly won WBO lightweight title at the big arena downtown, which by that time was renamed the CenturyLink Center.

Before leading you to the story, here is an Omaha Central High Foundation announcement about Dr. Jack’s passing:

It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of Dr. Jack Lewis. A 1952 graduate of Central, Dr. Lewis served as the team doctor at Central for over 50 years, performing thousands of physicals and walking the sidelines of hundreds of football games. Dr. Lewis received numerous recognitions and sat on many different boards, including being inducted into the inaugural Central High School Hall of Fame in 1999, Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame, and Omaha Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame. After receiving his first degree from Stanford University, Dr. Lewis obtained his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine where he then served as a professor of internal medicine. Football games won’t feel the same this fall when Dr. Lewis isn’t on the sideline, offering decades of expertise to our student athletes. Dr. Lewis loved Central, and we will miss him dearly.

The visitation will be held on Thursday, June 23, from 4 – 6:30 pm at the Heafey-Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler Bel Air Chapel on 12100 West Center Road. The service will be held on Friday, June 24, at 11 am at the Presbyterian Church of the Cross on 1517 S 114th Street.

Dr. Jack Lewis, who turns 81 this week, has his physician son watching for mistakes as Lewis sees up to 30 patients a day. “If I made a mistake, I’d be the first one to quit here,” he said.

Dr. Jack Lewis

Omaha fight doctor Jack Lewis of two minds about boxing as the city readies to host the National Golden Gloves

©by Leo Adam Biga

Originally published in the New Horizons

For the first time since 1988, Omaha plays host to the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament, one of the nation’s showcases for amateur boxing. The 2006 tourney is a six-day event scheduled for April 24-29 at two downtown venues. The preliminary and quarterfinal rounds will be fought at the Civic Auditorium the first four days, with the semi-final and championship bouts at the Qwest Center Omaha the final two days.

Historically, the national Golden Gloves has produced scores of Olympic and world champions. Former Gloves greats include Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones Jr.

Three men with long ties to the local boxing scene recently shared their thoughts on the Gloves with the New Horizons.

The man heading up the event is Omaha’s fight doctor, Dr. Jack Lewis, a 71-year-old internal medicine physician. As a doctor who loves a sport that gets a bad name from the medical community, he’s a paradox. While a staunch supporter of amateur boxing, Lewis is a fierce critic of the professional fight game, which he has come to abhor.

His experience in the prizefighting arena included serving as ringside physician for the 1972 world heavyweight title fight in Omaha between champ Joe Frazier and contender Ron Stander from Council Bluffs. Lewis stopped the fight after the fourth round with a battered Stander blinded by blood in his eyes.

“I love the sport of amateur boxing. I was involved in pro boxing and I didn’t like that from a medical standpoint,” Lewis said. “After just a few years working with the pros, I quit. In some cases, I didn’t know who the fighters were. They were fighting under fake names. I’d ask all these questions and the boxer would say the last time he lost a fight was a month ago in Chicago, and then some guy would come up later and tell me that same guy got knocked out last night in Chicago.

“Those pro boxers move around, have fake names, won’t give you their true medical history.”

Lewis continued, “Those pro boxing days are behind me. That sport needs to be cleaned up.”

More than just a fan of amateur boxing, Lewis is a veteran ringside doctor and longtime president of the Great Plains Boxing Association, the main organizing body for amateur boxing in Nebraska. This is the second time under his leadership his hometown of Omaha is presenting the Golden Gloves nationals.

Lewis is optimistic the event will fare better than recent national Gloves tourneys in cities like Kansas City, where the event failed miserably at the gate.

“We’ve done this before. I think our sales are going very well,” he said.

With Omaha’s success as College World Series host, with the Qwest Center filled to capacity for Creighton University men’s basketball home games, with the arena slated to host a slew of NCAA post-season events over the next several years, plus the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, the Omaha’s known as an amateur sports-friendly town. That’s why there’s talk of Omaha trying to host the Golden Gloves on a regular basis. The event is bid out a few years in advance, so it would be awhile before Omaha could host the event again after 2006.

“Omaha knows how to put people in the seats. Plus, this is really a fight town,” said Harley Cooper of Omaha. The former two-time national Gloves champion is seving as the 2006 tournament director. “It’s an outstanding event, Fans will see the best boxing in the country and probably see some future Olympic and professional champions.”

Omaha boxing historian Tom Lovgren joins many others in calling the Qwest “a great facility for boxing.” “The people there do a superb job,” he added.

While he never boxed, Lewis lettered in football and rugby at Stanford University, backing up future NFL great John Brodie at quarterback in the late 1950s. He said his athletic background and internal medicine specialization “lent itself” to begin treating athletes.

After graduation from Standford and the University of Nebraska Medical School, Lewis did his internal medicine residency in Oakland, California. He came back to Omaha in 1964 to practice with his physician father.

Right away, Lewis’ sports medicine interest found him treating a variety of athletes – jockeys at the Ak-Sar-Ben thoroughbred race track, football players at his alma mater Central high School, where he has been team physician since 1964, and boxers at the Omaha and Midwest Golden Gloves tournaments.

Lewis’ passion for amateur boxing has only grown. He enjoys the purity of the sport. He applauds the protective headgear and other measures taken to ensure fighters’ safety. He believes the competition inside the ropes instills discipline in its participants.

“I think the greatest athlete is the guy that steps in the ring and some guy comes after you. I think it builds character. I think it teaches you resraint. It helps you collect yourself. Through those years I’ve been to many meetings and been to many nationals. I’ve been he ringside physician at hundreds of fights and taken care of a lot of medical problems at the fights. Even though I never fought, I’ve educated myself in boxing and in all the trials and tribulations of the kids.”

Lewis said amateur boxing has suffered unfairly from the ills of its pro counterpart.

“There has been a lot of deaths and those deaths really hurt amateur boxing because then parents don’t want their kids to go into boxing. There’s been a lot of unscrupulous stuff. When I started it was a more popular sport. Today, kids are into doing all kinds of other things. They just don’t go into boxing anymore. And the coaching ranks have really declined. It’s an uphill battle.”

Despite the smaller number of young boxers, Tom Lovgren said “there are kids around that can fight and the Golden Gloves is still a major contributor to the U.S. Olympic boxing team. He said a Gloves title still carries weight in the world of boxing.

“If you are a national Golden Gloves champion, you’re highly respected when you make a turn to the pro ranks.”

Lewis said another thing unchanged in the sport over the years is that ethnic-racial minorities are disproportionately drawn to boxing.

“Our best known boxers in the state now are Latino. There’s been a great influx of Spanish-speaking kids. Unfortunately, many of them don’t have U.S. citizenship and the rules require you to be a citizen in order to compete at nationals (Golden Gloves).”

In the history of the Golden Gloves there have been but five national champions from Nebraska. According to Lovgren, the best of the bunch was Harley Cooper, who won his titles in 1963 and 1964 (the first at heavyweight and the second at light heavyweight). He won those titles when he was in his late 20s. which is much older than the typical Gloves fighter. Since retiring from the ring, Cooper’s devoted time to developing and suporting area amateur boxing. He never turned pro.

“Everybody wanted him to fight for them,” said Lovgran, a former prize fight matchmaker and a longtime observer of the local fight scene. “The first time anybody saw hiim in the gym they knew this guy was going to be a national champion. He could punch. He could box. He could do it all. He was the most complete fighter I ever saw from around here. I never saw Harley Cooper lose a round in amateur fights in Omaha. He was that dominant.”

Besides Cooper, the only other Nebraska boxers crowned national Gloves champions were Carl Vinciquerra and Paul Hartneck in 1936, Hartneck again in ’37, Ferd Hernandez in 1960 and most recently Lamont Kirkland in 1980. A number of other Nebraskans advanced to the semi-finals or finals, only to lose.

In general, Lewis said, area kids are at a distinct disavantage.

“Amateur programs here are not strong. We don’t have enough coaches to train these kids. We don’t have enough fighters to have regular smokers that season them. Every year, our kids go to nationals with maybe 10 to 12 fights under their belt and they face opponents with 70 to 80 fights.”

Harley Cooper said Omaha holding the nationals can only help raise the level of the amateur boxing scene here.

“It wil let our kids see what they have to strive to obtain – the different skills and knowledge they will need to be a world-class boxer. Seeing is much better than someone explaining it to you.”

He added the biggest difference between “our boxers and the fighters from bigger cities is the opponents’ strength, size and skill.”

“It’s going to be a great weekend for amateur boxing in Omaha, Nebraska” Lovgren said. “I just hope a couple of guys from Omaha can go as far as the finals.

A raucous home crowd could help spur a local fighter to do great things.

“It can’t hurt,” Lovgren said. “Who knows? Anything can happen. Boxing’s a funny game.”

“There’s still some kids out there. We should see some real good boxing,” Lewis said.

A final elimination stage before the nationals will be held March 17 and 18 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium’s Mancuso Hall. Winners in this Midwest Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions will complete Nebraska’s 11-man contingent for the April national tourney.

Tickets for the nationals may be purchased at the Qwest Center box office or via Ticketmaster by phone at 402-1212, or online at http://www.ticketmaster.com.

For more details, call the Qwest Center at 997-9378 or go online at http://www.qwestcenteromaha.com.

Categories: Athletes, Athletics, Boxing, Dr. Jack Lewis, Football, Medical, Omaha, Omaha Central High School, Sports, Writing Tags: Boxing, Dr. Jack Lewis, National Golden Gloves, Omaha, Omaha Central High School, Omaha Fight Doctor, Ringside Physician, Sports Medicine

An Ode to Ali: Forever the Greatest

June 4, 2016 leoadambiga 1 comment

An Ode to Ali: Forever the Greatest

©by Leo Adam Biga

When Muhammad Ali burst onto the scene as a provocateur and poet among athletes, he was a revelation. He freely drew from bigger than life sports personas who preceded him to create an image that was one part schtick and one part deeply held personal conviction. Because of his boxing brilliance, his charming demeanor, his bold attitudes, his outspokenness and his genius for using the mass media times he intersected with, he gained an unprecedented platform and emerged as an original among citizen-athletes. Before his arrival there were athletic figures who transcended their sports, such as Jim Thorpe, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Jesse Owens, Bill Tilden, Joe Louis, Babe Didrikson and Jackie Robinson, but none even came close to the impact Ali eventually made. That’s because he was a black man who openly defied the system in support of his own beliefs. His braggadocio and conversion to Islam did not endear him to many at the time. Indeed, his words and actions were viewed as a threat by most outside the black community. His refusal to enter the Army during wartime on conscientious objector grounds earned him support and respect in some quarters but made him a pariah most everywhere else. At the height of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements he became a powerful symbol of defiance and a powerful advocate for social justice. For many African-Americans, he embodied what it meant to be a strong, self-determined black person. He represented Black Pride and he unabashedly pronounced that Black is Beautiful. His message affirmed self-love as well as love of one’s heritage and people. At the very peak of his boxing greatness, he was stripped of his world heavyweight title and denied the opportunity to make his livelihood in the ring. Instead of wallowing in bitterness, he fought for his rights and he celebrated his blackness at the very moment when the struggle for equality and true emancipation reached its zenith. Having risen to the top and taken a fall, he then came back bigger than before to reclaim his former title and glory. That’s when he transformed from star to living legend and icon. Then, when Parkinson’s ravaged his body, he didn’t let that setback define him as some tragic figure who retreated into the shadows, rather he used his fame as a tool for humanitarianism. Has there ever been anyone who once antagonized and alienated so many and then went on to become such a universally beloved figure? No athlete since him has come close to being the worldwide icone he became, not even Michael Jordan. Indeed, no popular enterrtainer or public figure of any kind has come close to his impact. Ali did nothing less than inspire billions of people by appealing to our shared humanity and challenging us to live up to our better ideals and to realize our potential. His legacy is all about breaking down barriers and building bridges. It’s all about dreaming and walking into Greatness. When he boasted that he could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” he was really instructiing us to follow his example and to move through life and through whatever it is that we do with grace and purpose. He touched our hearts and expanded our minds by speaking the truth and having the courage of his convictions. Rest in Peace. Forever the Greatest.

Categories: African-American, African-American Culture, Athletes, Athletics, Boxing, Celebrity, Muhammad Ali, Social Justice, Sports, Writing Tags: African American, Boxing, Boxing Great, Celebrity, Muhammad Ali, Sports, Sports Icon, Sports Legend

TERENCE CRAWFORD STAMPS HIS PLACE AMONG OMAHA GREATS

February 24, 2016 leoadambiga 2 comments

In a relatively short time I have developed a fairly significant body of work about one Terence “Bud” Crawford, the two-time world boxing champion from Omaha. He and I share that city as hometown and residence. Here is the latest piece I have written about this young man who has taken the prizefighting world by storm, single-handedly resurrected the sport in Omaha, and will be making his Madison Square Garden debut on Feb. 27 against Hank Lundy. The piece appears online at http://reviveomahamagazine.com/. You will be hard-pressed to find a more well-rounded picture of him than what I give you in the stories in the aggregate of stories I have written about him. I have spent time in his Omaha gym, I have been to his grandmother’s house and I have met and interviewed most of his immediate family, I have gotten to know some of his closest advisors and primary coaches and trainers, I have traveled with him to Africa. I have charted his rise through the sport from his youth to the elite professional standng he’s arrived at today.

You can read my collection of stories about him on this blog. Link to those stories at-

https://leoadambiga.com/tag/terence-crawford/

TERENCE CRAWFORD STAMPS HIS PLACE AMONG OMAHA GREATS

©by Leo Adam Biga

Terence “Bud” Crawford, cemented his status as King of Omaha Sports Figures by dispatching Dierry Jean in a WBO super lightweight bout on October 24 before 11,000 hometown fans at the CenturyLink Center arena.

Crawford, who’s quickly become The People’s Champ, imposed his will on the game, but overmatched the contender from Canada. He dropped Jean three times and had him in serious trouble again when awarded a 10th round technical knockout. The Omaha native carried the fight from the opening bell, using superior boxing skills and decisive height and reach advantages to repeatedly back Jean against the ropes and in the corners, landing nearly at will when pressing the action. The few times Dierry managed an attack, Crawford countered with combination barrages that left the challenger bloodied and bruised.

The end was never in doubt because Crawford was never in trouble. It was just a matter of when Derry would go or when the referee would stop the scheduled 12-rounder.

Photos courtesy of Terence Crawford Management

The event marked another coronation for Crawford, who has gone from a hungry kid just looking for a shot, to a mature champion on the cusp of being one of his sport’s highest paid big names. Along the way he’s captured the hearts and minds of a city he is proud to call his own. From the moment this local hero entered the arena amidst entourage members holding aloft his two title belts, the fighter exuded the confidence and star quality associated with sports icons.In the days before the fight Jean and his manager called out Crawford, vowing to take his lightweight belt to Canada. When Jean trash talked during the bout, Crawford first let his fists do the talking before variously chirping back. Stomping the canvas and smiling at the crowd as if to say, “I’ve got this” and “He’s mine.”

During the HBO interview just after the fight’s conclusion Crawford taunted Jean and his manager in the ring with, “Did you get what you were looking for?” The crowd erupted in cheers. He also got a big response when he answered commentator Max Kellerman’s question about the source of his fierce fighting nature with, “Where I’m from…” and gestured to friends and family who share the same neighborhood he does. He also expressed love for all the support Omaha gives him. The way he handled everything, from the crowd, to the media, to Jean, and still took care of business showed a professional athlete with real poise and presence. The more the spotlight shines on him, the more the boxing world discovers he’s also a humanitarian with a deep commitment to his community.

At the post-fight press conference, where WBO head Bob Arum sat next to him and all but crowned him the fight organization’s next superstar, Crawford was the calm, confident picture of Boxing’s Next Big Thing. Crawford’s already the toast of this town.

Now he’s the toast of New York City, where he’s fighting challenger Hammerin Hank Lundy Feb. 27 at fabled Madison Square Garden. In the Big Apple for a press conference announcing the fight, Crawford was afforded star treatment. He got more of the same attending a Knicks game at the Garden, where he was pictured with the likes of Spike Lee, Ice Cube, Floyd Mayweather and Carmelo Anthony. It turns out those celebrities are fans and followers of The Champ.

Omaha’s African-American community has produced high achievers in many fields, but none more than in sports.

A small sampling of black athletic greats from Omaha include:

Eugene Skinner, Charles Bryant, Marion Hudson, Bob Boozer, Bob Gibson, Roger Sayers, Gale Sayers, Don Benning, Ron Boone, Marlin Briscoe, Johnny Rodgers, Mike McGee, Larry Station, Maurtice Ivy, Jessica Haynes, Andre Woolridge, Ahman Green, Peaches James, Ashley Carter, RaVaughn Perkins, Mayme Conroy, Niles Paul.

The list goes on and on.

Photos courtesy of Terence Crawford Management

An undisputed new entry to the list of great athletes from Omaha is Crawford. The North Omaha native is enjoying a ride few in sport or any endeavor ever experience. In less than two years he’s gone from being just another challenger, to the man nobody wants to face. Along the way singlehandedly reviving the city’s long dormant boxing scene.Everywhere he fights, he represents by wearing trunks emblazoned with Omaha and caps bearing University of Nebraska emblems.

The unbeaten fighter’s dramatic ascent began with him taking the WBO lightweight title from reigning champ Ricky Burns in Scotland.

Crawford then twice successfully defended that belt in his hometown before mega CenturyLink crowds, scoring a 9th round technical knockout against Yuriokis Gamboa and then tallying a unanimous 12-round decision over Raymundo Beltran.

Those three signature wins in 2014, all carried by HBO earned him the Fighter of the Year recognition from the Boxing Writers of America.

Crawford then went to Texas last April to capture the vacant WBO junior welterweight title by dismantling Thomas Dulorme via 6th round TKO. His dominance over Dierry back in Omaha this past fall was the latest in a string of convincing wins for the unbeaten (27-0) fighter.

It’s all in a day’s work for Crawford.

“I’ve always been confident,” he says. “I’ve never doubted myself.”

Not since Bob Gibson carried the St. Louis Cardinals in three World Series in the 1960s has a Neb.-born athlete dominated a sport in so many high-stakes settings.

Crawford’s work landed him on the cover of Ring Magazine and reinforced TopRank’s grooming of him to be prizefighting’s next king.

In addition to the BWA and Ring honors, he’s been:

Inducted into the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame
Inducted into the Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame
Added to the Omaha Press Club’s Face on the Barroom Floor roster
Immortalized in a mobile mural by artist Aaryon Lau Rance Williams
Nominated for an Espy as Fighter of the Year

That’s a heady rush of fame and adulation for a 28-year-old, yet he’s taken it all in stride. His cool-under-pressure comes from childhood, when he first dreamed of being a champion. He got steeled early on by countless scrapes and school suspensions, He often sparred guys older and bigger than him. He never gave in. He never gave up.

“I was one of those kids they said was never going to make it – I used that as an opportunity to prove them wrong.”

A wakeup call that nearly cost him his life happened just as his pro career was taking off when he caught a bullet in the back of his head after “hanging with the wrong crowd.” Since that 2008 incident he’s rededicated himself, staying away from bad elements and throwing himself into a grueling training regimen. His renowned mental and physical toughness, plus his well-studied approach, has thus far made him an unstoppable force in the ring.

Until Crawford, Omaha hadn’t seen a pro title fight since Ron Stander fought Joe Frazier in 1972. Thanks to Crawford, Omaha’s now hosted three in short order. He once again brought the focus of the fight world back home when he scored that TKO over Dierry Jean in October.

Crawford’s best performances and biggest paydays may yet be ahead, including possibly facing legend Manny Pacquiao in 2016.

Through it all, Crawford’s hometown rootedness remains strong. His community giveback saw him and co-manager Brian “BoMac” McIntyre open his own gym, the B&B Boxing Academy, in his old neighborhood. He sees the gym as a refuge for youth and young adults to escape the streets and engage in positive, supervised activities. It’s the same mission Carl Washington’s CW Boxing Club served for Crawford when he was growing up.

“I look at it as an outlet for the kids that are just hardcore and mad at the world because of their circumstances,” Crawford says. “They come to this gym and they feel loved and they feel a part of something. For some kids, feeling a part of something changes them around.

“It’s not just all about boxing. We’re trying to teach kids how to be young women and young men – to have respect and dignity. We’re teaching life skills. Boxing is a great way for kids to learn discipline.”

He knows from experience the difference caring adults make.

Photos courtesy of Terence Crawford Management

“If they feel like nobody cares, than they’re not going to care, but if they feel one person cares than they tend to listen to that person.”Among those to take an interest in him was boxing coach Midge Minor. He’s been with the fighter all through the amateur ranks and up the pro ladder and is still a vital Team Crawford member today.

“He’s got the wisdom,” Crawford says. “Every fight, he tells me what he thinks I should do, and we go from there. Midge is the brain. Everything goes through Midge before it’s all said and done. Without the brain we can’t do nothing. So it’s very important Midge is there.”

He says Minor saw his potential and convinced him he was special.

“Midge always instilled in me ‘can’t nobody beat you,’ especially if you work hard and put your heart into your training. The fight’s the easy part. Preparing for it, that’s the hard part.”

Crawford’s surrounded by figures influenced by Minor.

“Every person I turn to in my corner that’s giving me instructions came up under Midge,” he says.

The fighter’s allegiance to Omaha extends to his crew.

“Midge always told my manager, ‘Don’t let nobody get a hold of him.’ A lot of people were coming at me with deals, wanting me to move out of town, trying to get me to fight for them and sign with them, telling me I can’t make it from Omaha. They said I need new corner men – that they took me as far as they could.

“But I’m loyal and I think that’s what a lot of people didn’t understand. My coaches have faith in me and they trust I’m not going to do nothing to jeopardize our relationship. And I trust them and have faith in them.”

Some public school teachers have been instrumental in his life as well, including Jamie Fox Nollette, who taught him in fourth grade at Skinner Magnet School. The pair forged a bond then, but they lost touch with each other in the ensuing years. They only reconnected 2 years ago and in short order he was traveling with her to Uganda and Rwanda, Africa, where her Pipeline Worldwide nonprofit supports sustainability, self-sufficiency and empowerment programs for vulnerable populations.

He went with her again in June. They visited humanitarian organizations and met the people running programs and receiving services. They visited places benefiting from clean water wells and other places in need of resources. They ventured into crowded urban slums and small rural villages. They went on safari. They danced with locals. They shopped at outdoor markets.

Crawford and Nollette went every step of the way together. He helps raise awareness for her organization’s work and she helps do the same for his gym. She’s leading a $1.2 million building campaign to renovate and expand his B&B gym at 3034 Sprague Street.

The fighter and his former teacher have something special together.

“It’s a very close relationship,” he says. “She treats me like a son.”

“Terence is really family to me. He’s like this second son I feel responsibility for looking after,” Nollette confirms. “At the end of the day I care about him and what happens to him and his future. I just want to be there for him.”

Their friendship is largely why he’s twice gone to these developing nations wracked by poverty and the aftermath of violence. His girlfriend and the mother of his children, Alindra “Esha” Person, accompanied him the second journey.

He says “seeing the Motherland” always appealed to him and Nollette afforded the chance to show him things he might otherwise not see.

“You know you only live once and certain opportunities don’t come every day, so I just saw this as an opportunity to get out and see something new.”

Experiencing Third World conditions, he says, “just made me appreciate things more – it kind of humbled me in a way to where I don’t want to take anything for granted. Their way of living and our way of living is totally different. They appreciate everything that comes upon them, even if it’s just a hug, even if it’s a handshake, even if you give them a piece of paper.”

He returned a different man each time.

“It’s life-changing when you get to go over there and see people and help people. I had a great time with great people. I experienced some great things.”

Just like he wants to assist Uganda and Rwanda, he’s committed to North Omaha.

“This is my community, B & B is my gym, so I am in it for the long haul.
I could be anywhere, but my heart is with Omaha. We just want to help as many kids as we can. Everything is for the kids.”

The same message he delivered to African boxers, he delivers here:

“Work hard, stay dedicated, give your all every time you go in there and who knows maybe you can be the next champion of the world.”

Just as he will “never forget” the people in Africa, he will never forget the people in his hometown.

Categories: African-American, African-American Culture, Athletes, Athletics, Boxing, Omaha, Sports, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford, Uncategorized, Writing Tags: African American, African-American Culture, Boxing, Omaha, Omaha Black Sports Legends, Sports, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford

HOMETOWN HERO TERENCE CRAWFORD ON VERGE OF GREATNESS AND BECOMING BOXING’S NEXT SUPERSTAR

October 23, 2015 leoadambiga 3 comments

HOMETOWN HERO TERENCE CRAWFORD ON VERGE OF GREATNESS –

AND BECOMING BOXING’S NEXT SUPERSTAR

©by Leo Adam Biga

From a past Reader cover story I did on Bud.

When hometown hero and reigning WBO world junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford takes care of business as expected against challenger Dierry Jean Saturday night (Oct. 24) at the CenturyLink, everything then opens up for him. The scuttlebutt is that he would fight Manny Pacquiao or, should he come out of retirement, Floyd Mayweather, in which case Terence would be fighting for the chance to be boxing’s next great superstar. TopRank has already indicated they are looking to hand off the baton of King of Boxing to the right candidate and they are clearly grooming Terence to be that guy.

Anyone who knows Terence understands that he has been preparing for this nearly all his life. Nothing fazes him because he’s come through a lot to get here and ever since getting shot in the head back in 2008 he’s made boxing, outside of family, his singular focus. And now that he’s already gotten this far there is no one and nothing that he will let stand in his way, not if he has anything to say or do about it.

In a way, he really doesn’t have anything left to prove, other than showing that he truly belongs among the pantheon of contemporary and perhaps even all-time boxing greats. Only time will tell there. But it does appear he will get his opportunity to make his mark and knowing him he will take full advantage of it.

I have written before how Terence is in a long line of outstanding athletes to come out of North Omaha to do great things at high levels. In terms of boxers from here, he stands alone, with nobody really even close. Among all athletes from North O, I argue that he is the most accomplished in his sport since Bob Gibson dominated for the St. Louis Cardinals in the late 1960s-early 1970s. A case could be made for Gale Sayers as well. In terms of the most beloved, Bud’s only close competition is Bob Boozer, Johnny Rodgers and Ahman Green, and maybe Maurtice Ivy.

It has been fascinating to see how in such a short period of time, ever since he won his first title as a lightweight in 2014 and subsequently defended that title twice in Omaha before huge crowds, he has won over such a large cross-section of folks. He has single-handedly resurrected the sport of boxing here and put this town on the national and international boxing map, thus giving this place one more thing to take pride in. And at 28 he may be the best known living Nebraskan now outside of Warren Buffett and Alexander Payne.

Omaha has gotten behind him and his passion for his hometown and for his North O community in a way that I don’t think anyone could have predicted. It’s very heartwarming to see, He already had a strong team around him in his Team Crawford crew of managers, coaches and trainers and now a whole team of advisers has come on board to help guide him and protect his earnings and to help him realize his vision for the B&B Boxing Academy. At Wednesday’s meet-up down at the gym, there was an incredibly diverse mix of people present – B&B members, neighborhood residents, family, friends, movers and shakers and media, of course. Lots and lots of media.

The Omaha World-Herald has reported about Terence’s heart for community and others and those are threads I’ve been writing about for some time. I have helped frame the B&B Boxing Academy story and I traveled with Terence and his close friend and former teacher, Jamie Fox Nollette to Uganda and Rwanda, Africa to see first-hand his curiosity about and concern for people in need in the Motherland. I hope to follow more of his journey as time goes by.

Read my extensive reporting and writing about Terence at-

https://leoadambiga.com/tag/terence-crawford/

I will be covering his fight against Jean and so look for my impressions about that fight and many more things about Terence and his ever evolving story in future posts and articles.

Categories: Boxing, Jamie Nollette, North Omaha, Omaha, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford, WBO Welterweight Champion, Welterweight Tags: Boxing, Dierry Jean, Omaha, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford, Top Rank, WBO, WBO Welterweight Champion, Welterweight, World Boxing Organization

The Champ looks to impact more youth at his B&B Boxing Academy; Building campaign for Terence Crawford’s gym has goal of $1.2 million for repairs, renovations, expansion

October 14, 2015 leoadambiga 3 comments

Here is some of my latest writing on Omaha’s own two-time world boxing champion, Terence “Bud” Crawford, this time centered around the $1.2 million buidling campaign to make much needed repairs and renovations and to do much needed expansion to his B&B Boxing Academy. The Champ and his friends have a beauiful vision in mind for the academy. See the renderings for the new and improved facility below and read about the heart Crawford has for his community and the role he sees his center playing in being a positive force for youth and young adults. And meet some of the members who train at B&B.

The Champ looks to impact more youth at his B&B Boxing Academy

Building campaign for Terence Crawford’s gym has goal of $1.2 million for repairs, renovations, expansion

©by Leo Adam Biga

Two-time world boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford is putting Omaha on the map with the title bouts he brings here, but he also hopes to steer attention to his B&B Boxing Academy.

The fight world’s focus will once again be on Omaha when Crawford defends his WBO junior welterweight title October 24 at the CenturyLink Center. The Champ wants people to know his roots extend far beyond the fights he has in Omaha to include his nonprofit gym serving youth and young adults in his hometown.

Located at 3034 Sprague Street in a former cold storage warehouse in the very neighborhood he grew up in, B&B is a nonprofit, community-based athletic center with a mission of building body, mind and character. Experienced coaches help members reach goals inside and outside the ring. Positive, structured activities teach confidence, discipline and healthy habits for a lifetime. Crawford started the gym with co-manager Brian “BoMac” McIntyre as a safe haven from the negative street influences that compete for young people’s attention. When Crawford isn’t away training, he and McIntyre are there at B&B, rubbing shoulders with the mix of amateur fighters who frequent it.

But the building housing the gym is in need of total renovation. Antiquated electrical, heating and plumbing fixtures need replacing. There’s no locker room. The single bathroom is shared by males and females. Because the roof leaks, the only thing keeping the Champ and others dry are tarps affixed to the ceiling. The walls leak, too.

Meanwhile, the gym’s reached physical capacity. On warm summer nights the place overflows with members going through their paces – running, working the bags, shadow boxing, sparring. To accommodate the overflow, the doors and fences are opened and the parking lot emptied to create a makeshift outdoor training site. If the numbers keep growing as expected members will need to train in shifts.All of this is prompting friends of the B&B to support a building campaign with a goal of $1.2 million to address the structural needs.

Omaha entrepreneur Willy Theisen is among those supporters.

“Terence and his gym have a true positive impact and he’s committed to B&B,” Theisen said. “He and Brian and the other coaches there do a great job of building champions but I think we must do better as far as the facility goes. We come from a very generous community that gives back and that pays ahead and I think we can get this thing done. A newly renovated building will help Terence and B&B have an even greater impact on the neighborhood and community.”

Currently B&B is only using a fraction of the available space. The vision is to convert the entire warehouse into a spacious, state-of-the-art gym that can also host community events. It is a huge undertaking.

The newly outfitted gym will add a second ring, more punching bags, new exercise equipment, a dedicated fitness-weight training room, meeting-activity spaces and offices. The renovations will also include boys and girls locker rooms and showers, and a community outreach kitchen that can be used for serving meals to the kids as well as hosting special events.

Friends of B&B such as Theisen, along with B&B Advisory Committee members Jamie Nollette Kenneth Patry, Jay R. Lerner, Jason Caskey and Garth Glissman, invite people to help build a gym and give youth a fighting a chance.

For donation inquiries, contact campaign manager Jamie Nollette at jnollette@pipelineworldwide.org or (623) 824-3273.

Categories: Boxing, North Omaha, Omaha, Terence "Bud" Crawford Tags: Boxing, Boxing Gym, North Omaha, Omaha, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford, Top Rank

Pad man Esau Dieguez gets world champ Terence Crawford ready

April 25, 2015 leoadambiga 2 comments

Terence Crawford of Omaha is a two-time world champion who’s proven his mettle time and again against tough foes. When he climbs through the ropes into the ring on fight night it’s just him and his opponent in a mano a mano test of will and skill and toughness. But he’ll be the first to tell you that a whole team of people helps get him ready for that harsh proving ground of the square circle and its sweet science. His Team Crawford is a group of coaches and trainers who put him through his paces so that come fight night he’s prepared to take care of business. The people who make up Team Crawford have been with the champ for years. One of its members is Esau Dieguez, a Guatemala native who fought for many years and wound up in Omaha looking for work and fell in with Crawford and Co. and has been the fighter’s trusted pad man during his remarkable rise up the boxing ladder. In my El Perico profile of Dieguez learn something about his own journey to get to this point of being a key member in the camp of one of boxing’s greatest new stars and perhaps it’s next superstar. Top Rank’s Bob Arum thinks Crawford is that fighter and after Crawford easily dispatched Thomas Dulorme in Arlington, Texas on April 18 to capture the vacant WBO light welterweight title only months after his second successful defense of the WBO lightweight title he won in early 2014, it’s jard to to argue the point. Just know the next time you see Crawford fight that Dieguez had a hand in his success.

Pad man Esau Dieguez gets world champ Terence Crawford ready

©by Leo Adam Biga

Originally appeared in El Perico

Few know what it’s like being on the receiving end of punches from a world boxing champion. Esau Dieguez knows. Most days he absorbs punches thrown by former world lightweight boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford when the champ’s in training. That’s because Dieguez is the mitt man or pad man in the Team Crawford camp.

Wearing well-padded gloves, Dieguez catches blow after after blow offered by Crawford as the two men move around the ring in a classic workout to help the fighter deliver crisper, faster single shots or combinations. Perfecting the Sweet Science gets Crawford sharp.

He was plenty sharp last year. He dethroned lightweight champ Ricky Burns in Scotland to win the WBO title before twice defending the title in his hometown of Omaha in front of large, CenturyLink Center crowds. Those three big wins in 2014 earned him wide acclaim as fighter of the year. Crawford then relinquished his title to go after the vacant WBO junior welterweight title in an April 18 fight against Thomas Dulorme in Arlington, Texas.

Dieguez, 43, is among the veteran coaches and trainers who get Crawford ready to fight. Dieguez has worked with him since 2004. Their association goes back earlier, to when Dieguez, 16 years his senior, fought professionally and a promising teenager named Terence Crawford was a sparring partner.

The young fighter impressed him.

“Even when he was like 13-14 years old, he was really good. I thought he was going to be a world champion,” says Dieguez. “He has the talent. He’s just a natural. And he works really hard. A lot of fighters, they’ve got the talent, but they don’t work hard. He’s got the talent and he works hard, too. Man, he works really, really hard.

“You have to be smart and work hard to be somebody in this sport.”

For a long time Dieguez harbored his own boxing dreams. After a successful amateur career in his native Guatemala, where he won national championships. he moved to Calif. to turn pro. Things didn’t work out and this husband and father of five resettled in Omaha. He found a steady job with Quality Pork International in the shipping department and hooked up with the CW boxing club, whose budding star was Crawford.

By the time Dieguez called it quits as a fighter, Crawford emerged as one of America’s top talents. Dieguez has been there as he’s evolved from promising amateur to dominating pro.

Dieguez still works with young boxers at Crawford and McIntyre’s B&B Boxing Academy in North Omaha, where he works with national qualifiers Abel Soriano, Sergio Ramirez and Treven Coleman Avant. But his niche catching leather from Crawford trumps everything as he may not get a chance to work with a world champ again. Besides, it’s special being part of the inner circle that prepares the champ for battle.

“I’m the coach that works the mitts with him. It helps him a lot with snapping punches. It helps him with a lot of techniques like counterpunching. That’s what I do with him – I have him work on his combinations and counter punches, his timing, his speed.”

Dieguez has been called “the best pad man in the business” by Crawford and by Crawford’s co-manager, Brian BoMac” McIntyre.

“Yes, that’s what they call me,” he says. “I’m just trying to be the best at what i do. God gave me the skill to work with the pads and I enjoy it.”

McIntyre also refers to Dieguez as “my right-hand man,” adding that his trust in him is such that “he can step in the head coach’s position at any time – if one of us goes down, Esau is right there. Esau is the man. He and Terence have the best rhthym I’ve seen since (Floyd) Mayweather and Roger (Mayweather). I do the pads during camp but that week of the fight I step back and I tell Esau to make sure Terence’s rhythm and speed and power is there, and Esau will be right on it.”

So just how hard does Crawford hit?

“Man, I cannot explain it,” Dieguez says. “I work with a lot of fighters but he’s stronger than the rest. He’s naturally strong. When he throws his punches he doesn’t throw only with the arm, he throws with his whole body. That makes his punching stronger. He’s still working to snap those punches and put them together with more power.”

Heading into Crawford’s April 18 fight, his first since moving up to the junior welterweight class, Dieguez felt Crawford would be stronger than ever with the added five pounds and not struggling to make weight. Crawford indeed proved strong in the heavier division, scoring an easy technical knockout of Dulorme to capture the vacant WBO title.

Dieguez sees Crawford “getting better and better” and the team around Crawford getting better, too.”

He says just as Crawford’s learned to hone his instincts to become a real technician, Team Crawford members have learned to combine their experience and expertise to push the fighter to greater heights.

Contributing to the champ’s success and seeing it happen in Omaha, he says, “is something I thought would never happen,” adding, “Being part of the team of a world champion is an honor and a blessing.”

When Crawford goes off to train in Colorado Springs, where the altitude improves his conditioning, the team goes with him, including Dieguez, and they train right alongside the champ.

“We do all what he does, running in the mountains, cutting weight. We’re always together. That’s motivation for him. We keep pushing him. We all have the same goals, we’re all thinking greatness for Bud and working really hard for it. All of us are focused on it.”

Team members wear T-shirts, sweatshirts and caps that read: Mindset. A not so subtle reminder of their single-minded focus.

Dieguez and Co. were in Colo. six weeks, stopped in Omaha for a few days and then went to Texas for Crawford’s fight with Dulorme.

“It’s not easy to stay away from the family but this is what we have to do. When we work for our goal we have to make sacrifices. It’s part of the price. People that don’t pay the price, don’t get nothing. We’re paying the price and everybody’s happy with the results.”

Categories: Boxing, Esau Dieguez, Latino/Hispanic, Omaha, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Terence Crawford Tags: Boxing, Esau Dieguez, Omaha, Pad Man, Team Crawford, Terence Crawford

Omaha conquering hero Terence Crawford adds second boxing title to his legend; Going to Africa with The Champ; B & B Boxing Academy builds champions inside and outside the ring

April 21, 2015 leoadambiga 5 comments

Omaha conquering hero Terence Crawford adds second boxing title to his legend

Going to Africa with The Champ

B&B Boxing Academy builds champions inside and outside the ring

©by Leo Adam Biga

All hail Terence Crawford of Omaha for claiming his second world boxing title with his 6th round technical knockout of Thomas Dulorme on April 18 in Arlington, Texas.

Crawford vaulted to world prominence with his three signature wins last year in the WBO lightweight diviion, beginning with his unaminous decision over then-lightweight champion Ricky Burns in Glasgow, Scotland and followed by Crawford twice successfully defending his title in his hometown before huge crowds at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha. Those three wins earned him consensus boxer of the year recognition, including the coveted Fighter of the Year nod from the Boxing Writers Association of America. It was long anticipated that his dominance of the rather weak lightweight division would see Crawford move up a weight division or two in time. With the junior welterwight title vacant, it only made sense he would test himself there, though doing it this soon after reaching the top may have been a bit of a surprise. Then again, Crawford, who had trouble making the lightweight limit, has the frame that allows him to naturally carry the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds with ease and with his performance against Dulorme it’s obvious he can carry his power up to that weight class, and probably well beyond it, too. It’s a good bet that within a few years he’ll move up another weight class or two, certainly to welterweight and perhaps all the way up to middleweight. When all is said and done he stands a good chance of fighting for and perhaps winning another world title or two or three. Should he do that, perhaps adding another Fighter of the Year award for good measure, on top of what’s already, he will be mentioned with maybe a dozen or so all-time boxing legends. That’s where he’s come to already at age 27.

No single Nebraska-born athlete has dominated his sport in this way or to this extent since Bob Gibson went on his 10-year pitching tear for the St. Louis Cardinals from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. Gibson led the Cardinals to two World Series titles and very nearly to a third. His combined Series numbers of 7 wins and 2 losses and 1.89 ERA give you an idea of how brilliant he was in the post-season. He was twice the Series MVP. His regular season numbers and awards were equally impressive. He posted a 1.12 ERA and 13 shutouts in 1968, when he won both the Cy Young Award and the MVP. He won a second Cy Young another year. His dominance contributed to Major League Baseball lowering the mound. Terence Crawford’s string of four wins in a year-and-half over world-class fighters, two of those wins earning him world titles, and each victory more impressive than the last, is just about equal to where Gibson was at his peak in his sport. Just as Gibson was acclaimed by many to be the best pitcher, not to mention the best athlete, player and competitor in baseball, Crawford is nearing that kind of accilmation as the best fighter in the ring today. Once Floyd Mayweather retires, Crawford may be the guy everyone talks about in that vein. Just as Gibson still had a few good years left after 1968, Crawford has at least another three to five prime years left. Anything after that will be gravy.

As Crawford’s career blossoms, it’s rapidly becoming obvious that Bob Arum, the man behind Top Rank, the fight organization the fighter is contracturally signed to, is not alone in procaliming this warrior as the next big thing in boxing. When he looks at Crawford’s considerable talent and prodigious work ethic Arum sees a dependable and bankable star that he and Top Rank and HBO can ride for a decade or more, barring injury or other things that could interrupt this meal ticket. Having covered Crawford the last year or two, I see what Arum and others see in him – a dedicated, mature young man with a good heart who is also well-grounded about who he is and what’s he’s doing and how he wants to help his family, his friends and his community. Like all great fighters and athletes regardless of the sport, he views what he does in the ring as a job, and he views all the work that goes into preparing him for his fights as part of the job. It happens to be a profession that he’s passionate about and respects and thus he never cuts corners. That attitude and practice will keep him sharp and help him avoid the pitfalls many top-flight boxers suffer once mega fame and fortune come their way.

On this same blog you can find my various stories about Terence, who also goes by Bud. I have links to those stories below. I recently did some new writing about him for a project drawing attention to his B&B Boxing Academy in North Omaha and I’m sharing that here for the first time. Bud and comanager Brian McIntyre are founding partners of the academy and they have a beautiful dream to make it a full-fledged resource center for underserved youth. What follows is a kind of prospectus for what the gym is about and who it serves.

To learn more about Bud and his boxing journey, here are inks to my stories about him:

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/01/08/sparring-for-omaha-boxer-terence-crawford-defends-his-title-in-the-city-he-calls-home/

https://leoadambiga.com/2014/06/25/bud-rising-bud-crawfords-tight-family-has-his-back-as-he-defends-title-in-his-own-backyard/

https://leoadambiga.com/2014/02/25/terence-bud-crawford-in-the-fight-of-his-life-for-lightweight-title-top-contender-from-omahas-mean-streets-looks-to-make-history/

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/07/30/in-his-corner-midge-minor-is-trainer-friend-and-father-figure-to-pro-boxing-contender-terence-bud-crawford/

Look for more from me about Bud and his ever expanding story as I preview the trip to Rwanda and Uganda, Africa that he and BoMac will be making.

I am going on this adventure as the 2015 recipient of The Andy Award, a grant for international reporting presented by UNO’s International Studies and Programs to a news entity, reporting team or individual journalist whose reporting raises the global awareness of Nebraskans.

Going to Africa with The Champ

Every year Nebraskans make humanitarian mission trips to Africa, often through medical, educational or religious institutions and other non-governmental organizations.

In June a small group of Nebraskans will travel to Rwanda and Uganda, Africa with the goal of raising awareness about challenges facing people there and ongoing efforts to find solutions. Headlining the trip will be two-time world boxing champion Terence Crawford from Omaha and Pipeline Worldwide co-founder Jamie Nollette, who was the fighter’s fourth grade teacher at Skinner Magnet School in North Omaha. Nollette’s nonprofit works with partners doing sustainable water and agricultural projects in Rwanda and Uganda that aim to improve living standards and encourage self-sufficient practices.

Last August Crawford traveled there with Nollette. What he witnessed profoundly impacted him. He saw a scale of human need he’d never experienced before. He saw people trying to move on from a traumatic past. If progress can be made there, he thought, then perhaps problems facing his northeast Omaha community, where his B & B Boxing Academy serves at-risk youth, can be surmounted.

Joining the fighter this time will be Crawford’s co-manager and B & B partner Brian McIntyre and myself. I’ve closely followed Crawford’s rise to boxing stardom in a number of articles I’ve written.

The reporting I do in Africa will be featured in a future Omaha Metro Magazine (http://www.spiritofomaha.com) issue as part of its long-running Journeys series. I will also write about the experience for The Reader (http://www.thereader.com) and the Omaha Star (http://theomahastar.com) and possibly other publications.

On our journey we will glimpse various aspects of Rwandan and Ugandan life that reflect on these nations’ troubled recent history. Tribal-sectional tensions and harsh government policies have led to coups, revolutions, civil wars, reprisals and atrocities. In Rwanda, feuding ultimately resulted in a genocide whose repercussions are still felt today as reconciliation efforts continue. In Uganda, a succession of dictators and instability has given way to the iron clad rule of president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, whose reign has been marred by human rights violations and the invasion of Congo.

Picking up the pieces is not the only narrative with currency in Rwanda and Uganda. But recovery is a primary theme there. So is the need for these poor, developing nations to build infrastructure, stimulate work, maximize resources and achieve enduring, empowering solutions to fresh water and arable land shortages, among other problems.

My chronicles for various Omaha publications will cover my and my travel companions experiences with:

•meeting perpetrators and survivors of genocide
•visiting a genocide memorial and the Hotel Rwanda
•visiting projects building fresh water wells and growing food
•meeting aid workers

We will meet meet people who have been internationally recognized for their humanitarian work, including the famous Sister Rosemary.

We will go on a safari, do gorilla trekking and see all manner of natural wonders.

We will also attend an African boxing convention where we will meet athletes and coaches from across the continent.

The trip is just one way Heartland residents engage with Africa and other developing regions. Opportunities to serve and learn about places in need are as far away as Africa and as near as North Omaha. Everyone who goes on these journeys comes away changed, their world vision broadened, their humanity deepened. My reporting will cover this transformation and lessons learned, too.

Look for more on this in the weeks to come.

Omaha's Crawford working to keep combat in the ring, not on the streets

Here’s a look at the B&B Boxing Academy that is so close to Crawford’s heart.

The B&B Boxing Academy

The Mission
B & B Boxing Academy is a community-based athletic center that builds body, mind and character. Expert, caring coaches help members reach goals inside and outside the ring. Positive, structured activities teach confidence, discipline and healthy habits for a lifetime. Learn the winning edge at B & B, the home gym of two-time world champion Terence “Bud” Crawford.

Boxing Brothers
Boxing brothers Terence “Bud” Crawford and Brian “BoMac” McIntyre have shared the same dream for years. Coming up through North Omaha’s hard knock streets, they were determined to make it in the sport they love in order to give back to their community.

After a solid amateur ring career BoMac turned pro but found his real calling as coach and manager. His prize pupil, Bud, fulfilled the early promise he showed as a youngster. Under the tutelage of BoMac and Midge Minor, Bud became one of America’s best amateur fighters and now has carried his hard work and talent all the way to a world professional championship.

Omaha has entered the spotlight of the sport after his two rousing WBO lightweight title defenses in front of packed CenturyLink Center crowds and loads of HBO viewers. Those victories, combined with his winning the title at the start of 2014 in Scotland, earned him Fighter of the Year recognition. He recently added to his lustre by winning the WBO light welterweight title with a TKO over Thomas Dulhorme on April 19 in Arlington, Texas.

But reaching the top was never the end of Bud and BoMac’s quest. Their vision has always included a gym serving youth located in the very neighborhood they grew up and got their own boxing start in.

The pair’s B & B Boxing Academy, opened in October, 2013, is a nonprofit dedicated to building the body, mind and character of young people, including at-risk youth in need of positive, structured activities. Team Crawford has expended blood, sweat and tears turning the former garage and storage space into a working gym that gets lots of use. Since the doors first opened it has been a magnet for young people. Some are there for competitive boxing, others just to get fit. Many kids who come reside in the neighborhood. They walk or ride their bikes there. Gang violence is a real threat on what can be mean streets. It reminds Bud and BoMac of when they were young and flocked to the neighborhood CW Boxing Club. It was their refuge from the lures and dangers of those same inner city streets. They want the Academy to serve the same sanctuary role for today’s youth.

“It’s not just all about boxing,” Bud says. “We’re trying to teach the kids how to be young women and young men. We’re teaching them to have respect and dignity. We’re teaching life skills. You’ve got to be able to control yourself in the ring as well as outside the ring and boxing is a great way for kids to learn discipline.”

Team Crawford’s coaches and trainers are mentors who care. They teach lessons for life. Having a caring adult to provide direction means the world to young people who may not have that support at home or even if they do still need another guiding hand.

“If they feel like nobody cares than they’re not gong to care, but if they feel one person cares than they tend to listen to that person,” says Bud, who had parents, teachers and coaches steer him straight.

Bud knows from personal experience the difference a gym can make for a young person working out anger issues.

“It’s a good place to come and get away, release some stress, release some steam if you’re having problems at home or school and you just need to let it out. What better way to let it out than on a bag, rather than going somewhere else and letting it out the wrong way. I look at it as an outlet for the kids that are just hardcore and mad at the world because of their circumstances. They come to this gym and they feel loved and they feel a part of something. For some kids, feeling a part of something changes them around.”

Kids who compete under the B & B banner train as a team, vying for titles and trophies against fighters from other gyms. But you do not have to fight to be a B & B member. Every member receives instruction and mentoring from top-flight coaches and trainers with decades of experience. Every member is exposed to winners and champions.

BoMac says the Academy, located at 3034 Sprague Street, offers “the remedy” for young people at-risk of falling prey to negative behaviors. All that he and his fellow coaches need is to get youth through the door and then, he says, they can “shape and mold” them to develop healthy habits that last a lifetime.

As B & B expands it will offer tutoring and academic support programs through community and corporate partnerships. A commercial kitchen serving fresh, hot meals for members of the gym and the community is envisioned. The renovated-expanded gym will add showers, a dedicated fitness-weight training room, meeting spaces, a second ring, more punching bags and new workout equipment.

Even as Bud’s career grows ever larger, he pledges to make B & B an ongoing part of his unfolding legacy.

“This is my community, B & B is my gym, so I am in it for the long haul. I’m not in it for the fame or anything like that. I could be anywhere but my heart is with Omaha. We just want to help as many kids as we can. Everything is for the kids.”

His fondest wish is that some young people training at B & B now or in the future will one day take over the Academy. Then they, too, will pay forward what they received to help a new generation of young people. Each one, to teach one…

Terence Crawford will fight at MSG on 2/27

The Fighters
The young people coming to the B & B Boxing Academy all have different reasons for being there but all share in common a desire to improve themselves with the help of coaches who care.

Haley Roberts
Small for her age, 14-year-old high school freshman Haley Roberts struggled with self-esteem issues until working out at the gym.

“I was self-conscious about how small I was and everything. I felt different from everyone else because everyone had a sport they were good in but i was never good at sports. Then when I found boxing I realized I had more strength and power than I thought, and I put it to good use,” she says.

“I enjoy coming. I just enjoy the sport. It helps my confidence, it helps me feel better about myself all around.”

She likes the communal approach used at the gym.

“I enjoy the different people who train me. Certain days we’ll work on certain things, like our footwork or straight punches. We just work on different things as a group. It’s really a team environment.”

Having a world champion on hand in the person of Terence “Bud” Crawford is an extra benefit of training there.

“When Terence is in town to train everyone comes in and wants to train with him. It’s really cool seeing the Crawford entourage coming in.
It’s amazing actually just watching his fights and realizing, ‘Oh, I train with him.’ It’s really cool, too, that he kind of helps everyone (with pointers).”

With Bud and Co. behind her, Haley is excited about her potential in and out of the ring. She looks forward to traveling to tournaments next summer to prove herself in competition.

“I’d like to show everyone that girls can do what guys can do. I’d like to go as far as I possibly can in the sport.”

Away from boxing, her new-found confidence has her intent on studying forensic science in college. Her goal is to become a crime scene investigator.

Alan and Ary Panduro Angulo
Siblings Alan and Ary Panduro Angulo hail from a boxing family. Their uncle Alfredo Angula is a highly regarded Mexican prizefighter who once held the WBO light middleweight title. The boys, ages 10 and 13, respectively, were trained by their father at home before they tried out some gyms. After meeting Bud they fell in with him and his B & B Boxing Academy and they have not looked anywhere else since.

Training there Alan’s learned the value of putting his all into the sport.

“It’s like really hard work – hitting the pads, hitting the bag, doing pushups, doing jumping jacks, it’s just a lot of hard work. It pays off in fights, you know,” says Alan, who was among the first fighters to compete for B & B.

The brothers say the work ethic that boxing demands carries over to their schoolwork and chores.

Alan says it doesn’t hurt either being surrounded by champions who exemplify what it takes to be successful. “It gives me motivation,” he says. Getting advice from a world champion, he adds is, “really awesome.”

Ary also appreciates having Bud in his corner. “He’s very gracious. He motivates everyone in the gym. Whenever I’m tired and I sit down he’s like. ‘Go hit the bag and exercise more.’ He’s like always there. He’s great, he’s really a nice guy to be around. He’s very cool and funny. I like him a lot.”

He says the coaches look out for him and his brother: “They’ve always got our back.”

Ary. who’s battled obesity, appreciates the health benefits he sees from getting in good shape and staying fit. “It’s helped me lose weight and it’s gotten me in good condition.” That’s given him a better self-image.

At other gyms the brothers were sometimes the only kids present. At B & B they often work side by side with kids their own age trying to get in shape and learning the ropes of the Sweet Science just like them.

Alan says, “You’re not like the only kid around here, you’re surrounded by kids that want to do this sport. too.”

The brothers have become good friends with Haley Roberts.

While Alan has been fighting in competitions and winning trophies for the gym, Ary has yet to enter a tournament, but he feels boxing has already given him much.

“A lot of kids go through bullying at school and I think it’s good for those kids to go in the sport because it gives you confidence. I know because I was bullied when I was smaller. If kids want to mess with you, you know how to defend yourself.”

The confidence that comes with being able to handle oneself is important to Alan, too.

Both brothers also enjoy traveling to different cities and states for tournaments for the education and experience it gives them.

Treven Coleman-Avant
Promising amateur lightweight Treven Coleman-Avant, 24, an Omaha Burke High School graduate, wants to be the next champion produced by the gym. In addition to Bud, there is top U.S. ranked amateur light heavyweight and Olympic prospect Steven Nelson. Treven, who trains with both in Omaha and in Colorado Springs, has shown well at regional and national competitions and so he sees no reason why he cannot follow their footsteps.

He uses their dedication to the craft and what they accomplish inside the ring as inspiration and benchmark for himself.

“It all comes with work ethic – hard work and heart. I feed off those guys’ energy and I add it onto mine. Omaha isn’t done producing champions, I’ll tell you that right now.”

Just like his role models, he wants to be a champion outside the ring, too. He senses the same is true for all the people who train there.

“There’s been a flood of new people coming in wanting to get their life changed and that’s the goal of the gym being down in this environment – to pull people off the streets and change their lives.”

Treven says the mentoring he’s received there inspires him to mentor others by “giving advice, showing the right steps to take that you didn’t take.” At B & B, he says, “you learn great leadership,” adding. “It’s built me up as a person. Boxing takes a lot of discipline and dedication and I take that attitude to the other things I do in life – to my work, to being a father. You’ve got to give it your all or you’ll come up short.”

Treven, who has been around boxing his whole life, has developed a special bond with Bud that’s made him a member of Team Crawford.

“To be part of his team and to see where he’s come from to now is a tremendous thing. He’s been like a brother to me.”

In the spirit of giving back to the community, Treven conducts fitness classes at the gym most weeknights and weekends to help young men and women sharpen their minds and bodies.

The Dream
“We’re busting at the seams.”

That assessment from B & B Boxing Academy co-founder Brian “BoMac” McIntyre sums up why the popular North Omaha gym must grow in order to meet the surging demand for its services.

Located at 3034 Sprague Street in a former garage and storage facility, B & B is home to WBO world lightweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, who trains there under BoMac. Together, they opened the gym to provide their underserved community a safe, clean environment to box and get fit in.

With the Academy attracting more participants, the gym has reached physical capacity. On warm summer nights the place over-brims with youth and young adults going through their paces – running, working the bags, shadow boxing, sparring. To accommodate the overflow, the doors and fences are opened and the parking lot emptied of vehicles to create a makeshift outdoor training site. If the numbers keep growing as expected members will need to train in shifts.

A much larger connected space, three times the size of the existing one, is available. The vision is to acquire that warehouse and convert it into a spacious, state-of-the-art gym and to repurpose the current space into new uses that provide academic and community support.

B & B Boxing Academy is a nonprofit, community-based athletic center developing young people to reach their potential. The youth and young adults who train there share the same aspirations and dreams of wishing to improve themselves and realizing their potential.

BoMac, Bud and their Team Crawford family of coaches are dedicated to touching as many lives as possible. B & B is their vehicle for producing winners in the ring and in life.

Categories: Africa, African-American Culture, Athletics, B&B Boxing Academy, Boxing, Leo Adam Biga, Omaha, Sports, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Writing Tags: Africa, Boxing, Omaha, Terence Crawford, Top Rank, WBO

What do Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne and WBO world boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford have in common?

December 2, 2014 leoadambiga 1 comment

What do Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne and WBO world boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford have in common?

These newsmakers share the same hometown of Omaha, Neb. but more than that they share an unflinching loyalty to their roots. Payne could elect to or be swayed to make films anywhere but he repeatedly comes back to Omaha and greater Neb. to create his acclaimed works, often resisting studio efforts to have him shoot elsewhere. Crawford doesn’t get to call the shots about where he fights but for his first two title defenses he did convince Top Rank and HBO that Omaha could and would support a world title card. Besides, it’s tradition that a world champion gets to defend his title on his own home turf. And when there was talk his first title defense might move across the river to Council Bluffs, he wasn’t having it. Now that he’s been proven right that Omaha is a legitimate market for big-time fights and is a formidable hometown advantage for him, he will undoubtedly press to fight here over and over again and opponents will certainly resist coming into his own backyard. As he moves up a division and the stakes get higher, there may come a time when the CenturyLink and Omaha can’t provide the same pay-day that a Las Vegas and one of its mega venues can. Whether Omaha could ever become a main event host for fighters other than Crawford is an open question. The same holds true for whether Neb. could ever attract a major feature film to fix its entire shooting schedule here outside a Payne project. The only way that will happen, it appears, is if the state enacts far more liberal tax incentives for moviemakers than it currently offers. But that is neither here nor there, as Crawford’s done right by Omaha and his adoring fans have reciprocated, just as Payne has done right by his home state and his fellow Nebraskans have responded in kind.

Terence Crawford vs Viktor Postol

Chris Farina/Top Rank

Director Alexander PayneGRANT SLATER/KPCC

The Crawford parallel to Payne goes even deeper. Just as Payne maintains a significant presence here, living part of the year in his downtown condo, serving on the board of Film Streams and bringing in world class film figures for special events, Crawford lives year-round in Omaha except when he goes off to train in Colorado and he owns and operates a boxing gym here, the B&B Boxing Academy, that’s open to anyone. Just as Payne looks to grow the film culture here Crawford hopes to grow the boxing scene and each has made major strides in those areas. A major Hollywood film besides one of his own still hasn’t come to shoot here, though he’s lobbied the state legislature to give studios and filmmakers the incentives they need. No world-class fighter has emerged here yet as a protege of Crawford’s or as someone showing promise to be “next Bud Crawford.” Similarly, “the next Alexander Payne” hasn’t announced him or herself yet here.

Another way in which these two Omaha figures – each so different on the surface, with one the product of white privilege and the other the product of Omaha’s poor inner city – are similar is that each has been embraced and endorsed by the Omaha establishment. They’ve been honored with the keys to the city, feeted at banquets and preened over by the media. When Mayor Stothert showed up for a photo op with Bud at his pre-Thanksgiving turkey giveaway and Warren Buffett appeared at one oh most title defenses, you knew that Crawford had made it.

I don’t know if Payne and Crawford have met, but I would enjoy the intersection of two different yet not so different Omaha’s meeting. At the end of the day, after all, each is in a segment of show business or entertainment. Each is a professional who has reached world class stature in his profession. Each has worked and sacrificed for his craft and been rewarded for it.

I have been covering Payne for going on 20 years, I have been covering Crawford for three years. I admire both men for having come so far with their passion. I congratulated Payne on his latest achievement, the film “Nebraska,” one in a long line of filmic successes. And I now say congrats to Terence “Bud” Crawford on defending his WBO world boxing title in his hometown of Omaha for the third time in the space of a year. The 11,000 fans on hand for each of those fights at the CenturyLink arena were there to support their own and they roared and cheered and gave shout-outs to Bud, who’s become a much beloved folk hero here. Feeding off their energy he’s displayed a full boxing arsenal in thoroughly dominating tough challengers who ultimately proved no match for his all-around fighting prowess. Every time his pressing opponents tried to trap Bud along the ropes or in the corners, The Champ used his superior quickness and agility to turn the tables with sharp counterpunching, By the last few rounds Bud was doing all the attacking, thwarting the few rallies his foes mounted and frustrating them at every turn. Each of Bud’s performances has been an impressive boxing display and further proof that the talk about him being pound for pound one of the best fighters in the world today is no hype. He’s the real deal and almost certainly the best prizefighter to ever come of Nebraska. As I articulated above, the fact that he remains rooted to his community and brings his success back home reminds me of what filmmaker Alexander Payne does in another arena, filmmaking.

Bud’s main events turn into veritable love-ins and as much love as the crowd gives to one of their own he gives it right back. That exchange is a beautiful thing that happens in what can be a brutal sport and a heartless game. After not making a film in his hometown of Omaha for more than a decade another local hero, Payne, is coming back to shoot his new feature “Downsizing” here in the spring 2016. By its nature, filmmaking doesn’t lend itself to cheering crowds the way boxing matches do. Most sets are in fact closed from the public, even the media. But Payne is recognized everywhere he goes, especially back home, and just like Bud he handles well-wishers and autograph-seekers and photo-op fans with great aplomb and charm. Look for my stories about him and “Downsizing” throughout 2016.

Look for my new story about Bud in the next issue of Revive! Omaha Magazine. Meanwhile, you can read my previous stories about Bud at this link:

https://leoadambiga.com/?s=terence+crawford

You can find excerpts of my many past stories about Alexander Payne on my blog, leoadambiga.com. You can also buy my book, “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film,” which is a collection of my extensive journalism about the artist and his work. The second edition of the book is now available and features new content about “Nebraska” and his slated for late 2017 film “Downsizing” as well as the addition of a discussion guide. The book is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and select other sites and booksellers. You can also order it directly from me.

Categories: Alexander Payne, Boxing, Celebrity, Entertainment, Film, Omaha, Sports, Terence "Bud" Crawford Tags: Alexander Payne, Boxing, Entertainment, Film, Omaha, Sports, Terence "Bud" Crawford

Giving kids a fighting chance: Carl Washington and his CW Boxing Club and Youth Resource Center

December 3, 2013 leoadambiga 4 comments

The initials in the CW Boxing Club and the CW Youth Resource Center belong to Carl Washington, the founder and director of longstanding programs making a difference in the lives of at-risk young people. My story for The Reader (www.thereader.com) about Carl and the work he does to keep kids on the straight and narrow touches on what happened in his life to prompt his commitment to mentoring and coaching.

Giving kids a fighting chance: Carl Washington and his CW Boxing Club and Youth Resource Center

©by Leo Adam Biga

Originally appeared in The Reader (www.thereader.com)

Organizations serving at-risk kids come and go but few stay the course the way the CW Youth Resource Center, 1510 Cass Street, has since opening in 1978.

Founder-director Carl Washington hosts a Nov. 29 open house at CW from 4 to 8 p.m. to celebrate 35 years of structured youth activities.

His experience mentoring youth began a decade earlier, when he was like a big brother to his nephew Howard Stevenson. After Stevenson was shot and killed by an Omaha police officer in the wake of a 1968 civil disturbance in North Omaha, Washington was angry. A bully and street fighter at the time, he went to the old Swedish Auditorium boxing gym looking to release his rage.

“I went down there and picked on the first guy I thought maybe I should be able to beat up, a chubby kid by the name of Ron Stander.”

That’s Ron Stander, aka the Bluffs Butcher, who fought heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in a 1972 title bout. But when Washington first laid eyes on him Stander was still a pudgy, no-name amateur.

“Everyone was paying attention to him. My thought was, Knock him off and then you can be the top guy. It didn’t work that way.”

After weeks pestering coaches to let him spar Stander, the exhibition was set. Washington was so confident he brought an entourage. He knew he’d miscalculated when he landed his best blows and Stander didn’t even blink. The first punch Washington absorbed was the hardest he’d even been hit. After a few more punishing shots he feigned injury to end the onslaught.

Washington wanted to quit the sport right then but Stander encouraged him. The two men became friends. While Stander went on to make boxing his career, Washington only fought a year. Well-schooled by the late trainer Leonard “Hawk” Hawkins, Washington saw his true calling not as a fighter but as a coach. He believed boxing could give kids a safe activity in place of running the streets.

He first tried forming the gym in 1971 but it didn’t take. Seven years later he gave it another go, this time with help from two mentors. A lifelong inner city resident, Washington daily saw unsupervised kids getting into mischief and brawls, hungry for structure, and he felt he could give them the healthy alternative they needed.

“A group of kids I ran across were fighting and I broke it up and took them downstairs to my basement and started working with them. We took two of them to a boxing show at the National Guard Armory and they both won trophies. We put the trophies up on the mantel and the other kids wanted to win trophies, too. So, it grew from there.”

He’d have two dozen youths training in his basement at one time with another similar-sized group out on a long run before they took their turn hitting the bags.

CW took the local amateur boxing scene by storm, winning hundreds of individual and team trophies at smokers and the Midwest Golden Gloves.

“A couple years we won every weight division,” he says of the Gloves.

Washington ran a tight ship. “I instilled discipline. Our guys had to walk the line.”

He bemoans the lax standards commonplace today.

“I see a lack of respect for one another from a lot of kids, a lot of people, Respect is not on the table like it used to be. Respect is an art we should be going back to. I think a lot of that is lost. When all those factors are gone that’s why there’s so much chaos.”

He insists boxing’s a useful tool for instilling values.

“Out of a hundred kids probably one of them might box and go all the way to the Gloves and do all he’s supposed to do in boxing. But for the rest of them it might open the door for them to get into wrestling, football, basketball and other sports. We can give them that discipline.”

He says that discipline carries over to school, work and family life.

The kids he started with are now parents and send their kids to him.

Reaching kids takes patience and instinct. “I have a feel for when I meet a kid exactly what the kid really wants – if he wants to box or to get in shape or if he’s down here because his mother needs a baby sitter. Sometimes they may have aspirations of becoming a champion.”

Terence “Bud” Crawford is a once in a lifetime phenom who came up through the CW ranks and now is on the verge of fighting for the world lightweight title. He remains loyal to the CW, where he still trains under the man who got him started there, Midge Minor, and is managed by another CW alum, Brian McIntyre.

In its early years CW was a predominantly African American gym. Its fighters weren’t always well received.

“We ran into a lot of negativity in the beginning. Some cities we boxed in weren’t too friendly. It seemed like the ones closest to Omaha were the unfriendliest,” says Washington. He recalls that before a Wahoo, Neb. boxing show his fighters got debris and racial slurs hurled at them. They silenced the crowd with excellence.

“A lot of parents with me wanted us to leave and I said, ‘No, we’re not going to leave.’ We parked the cars going toward the street just in case we had to get out of there in a hurry. I said, ‘We’re going to go back in there, box, and act like gentlemen and we’re not going to respond to the crowd. We had 16 bouts that day and we won all 16.”

Boxing hasn’t been the only avenue for youth to explore at CW, which moved from his basement to the Fontenelle Park pavilion to south downtown to its current spot in the early 1990s. CW once featured recording studios and a dance floor to feed the rap and breakdance demand. Washington organized talent showcases and concerts highlighting the club’s many homegrown performing artists

“We were involved in a little bit of everything. We were doing anything we thought could reach kids.”

He says he put on the first gang reconciliation concert back in the mid-1980s when he was doing gang prevention-intervention work before it had a name.

He cobbled together support from grants, donations, fundraisers and raffle sales.

“We had to jump over a lot of hurdles in the beginning. What really built the club was raffle tickets. We were out on the corners and kids sold raffle tickets. I was able to do the (initial) restoration here through the raffle sales.”

At the boxing gym’s peak, he says, “We were going all over the country with kids in the car to boxing shows and coming back with a lot of trophies.” But he feels CW was never fully embraced by its hometown, where fans booed the club’s fighters when the national Golden Gloves were fought here. Boxing’s also lost kids to martial arts and other activities.

Looking back, he says he’s proudest of just “being able to survive,” adding, “We’ve been pretty blessed.”

Though CW doesn’t have as many competitive boxers as it once did, he’s seeing more kids come as a result of Bud Crawford’s success. He scaled down the club’s entertainment facets after frictions surfaced between performers. He stopped holding concerts after a drive-by shooting outside the club. He recently formed a hoops program as a new outlet .

One thing that hasn’t changed, he says, is “I open my doors to everybody and I never charge a membership fee.”

For more information about the CW’s programs, call 402-671-8477.

The kid with the Golden Gloves (wafb.com)

Categories: Boxing, Carl Washington, CW Boxing Gym, CW Youth Resource Center, Mentoring, Sports, Youth Tags: Boxing, Carl Washington, CW Boxing Club/CW Boxing Gym, CW Youth Resource Center, Sports, Youth

In his corner: Midge Minor is trainer, friend, father figure to pro boxing contender Terence “Bud” Crawford

July 30, 2013 leoadambiga 6 comments

As I’ve said before on this blog nearly every writer gets around to writing about boxing at one time or another. I did my first boxing story in the late 1990s and every now and then I get the craving to do a new one. I’ve built up quite a collection of boxing pieces this way and you can access them all on the blog. The following story for the New Horizons in Omaha profiles an up and coming pro lightweight contender, Terence “Bud” Crawford, and the older man in his corner who is trainer, friend, father figure and more to him, Midge Minor. They are as tight as two people nearly 50 years apart in age can be. Crawford has been under the wing of Minor from the time he was a little boy and he still relies on his sage advice today as he prepares for an expected world title fight. The loyal Crawford is an Omaha native and resident who’s never left his hometown or the gym he grew up in, the CW, and he’s not about to leave the man who’s guided him this far.

In his corner: Midge Minor is trainer, friend, father figure to pro boxing contender Terence “Bud” Crawford

Originally appeared in the New Horizons

Nebraska‘s best ever hope for a world professional boxing champion works out of the CW Boxing Gym in north downtown Omaha.

As 25-year-old lightweight contender Terence “Bud” Crawford goes through his paces, he’s watched intently by an older man in a sweatsuit, Midge Minor. Though separated in age by four-plus decades, the two men enjoy a warm, easy relationship marked by teasing banter.

Crawford: “I’ll beat this dude up right now.”

Minor: “You’re scared of me, you know that.”

Crawford: “You be dreaming about me.”

Minor: “You stick that long chin out to the wrong man.”

They’ve been going back and forth like this for decades. At age 7 Crawford got his boxing start under Minor at the CW, 1510 Davenport St., and he still trains there under Minor’s scrutiny all these years later.

The facility is part of the CW Youth Resource Center, whose founder and director, Carl Washington, spotted Crawford when he was a kid and brought him to the gym.

Crawford, an Omaha native and resident, owns a 21-0 pro record and a reputation among some experts as the best fighter in the 135-pound division. The smart money says it’s only a matter of time before he wins a title. That time may come in January when the Top Rank-promoted boxer is expected to get his title shot and the opportunity to earn his first six-figure payday.

Midge Minor

Since showing well in two recent HBO-telecast fights, he’s riding a wave of fame. He’s the pride of the CW, where the number of fighters is up because he learned to box there, made it big and never left.

“He’s one of the causes of our gym being full now,” says Minor. “They all look up to him. It’s kind of like he put us on the map.”

Crawford doesn’t act the star though.

“I’m the same person, I’m regular, I just want to be able to make it and provide for my family,” he says earnestly.

He engages everyone at the gym and offers instruction to fighters.

“I’m always going to have CW somewhere inside of me because this is where I started from. Never forget where you came from. I’m always going to be a CW fighter. I just feel comfortable here. It does feel like home when I walk through them doors because it’s the only gym I knew when I was coming up. I’ve been coming here and going to the donut shop (the adjacent Pettit’s Pastry) ever since I was 7.”

For a long time he was pressured to leave Omaha, where quality sparring partners are rare and pro boxing cards even rarer. But he’s remained true to his team and his home.

“A lot of people came at me with deals wanting to get me to fight for them, sign with them and move out of town. They kept telling me I can’t make it from Omaha and need new cornermen – that they took me as far as they could. But I’m loyal and a lot of people respect me for it. My coaches have faith in me and trust me that I’m not going to do nothing to jeopardize our relationship, and I trust them and have faith in them.

“I’ve just stayed with it and continued to have confidence in my team. I just keep pushing forward.”

He keeps a tight circle of confidantes around him and all share his same CW and Omaha lineage.

“We all family,” he says..”Every person I turn to in my corner that’s giving me instructions came up under Midge.”

CW Boxing Club is located in the CW Youth Resource Center

For his last fight Crawford, who always sports Big Red gear to show his Nebraska pride, wore trunks emblazoned with “Omaha” on them.

As Crawford shadow boxes inside the ring, looking at his reflected image in a bank of mirrors against the near wall, the 73 year-old Minor takes it all in from his spot in the corner, just outside the ropes. Minor has been in Crawford’s corner, both literally and figuratively, since the fighter first got serious about the sport at age 12. They initially met five years before that, when Crawford became argumentative with the trainer. Minor demands obedience. He barks orders in his growl of a voice. He’s known to curse, even with kids. He doesn’t take guff from anyone, especially a brash, back-talking little boy. When Crawford wouldn’t mind him, Minor banned him from the CW.

The trainer hated letting Crawford go, too, because he recognized the kid as something special.

“I saw that he had a lot of heart and that goes a long way in boxing. He never wanted to quit on me.”

The boy’s heart reminded Minor of his own. Back in the day, Minor was a top amateur flyweight, twice winning the Midwest Golden Gloves. But prospect or no prospect, Minor wasn’t going to stand for disrespect. The two eventually reconnected.

“I kicked him out of the gym for five years,” says Minor, a father many times over, “and then I brought him back when he got a little more mature and then we went from there.”

Crawford acquired some rough edges growing up in The Hood. Being physically tested was a rite of passage in his family and neighborhood. It toughened him up. He needed to be tough too because he was small and always getting into scuffles and playing against bigger, older guys in football, basketball, whatever sport was in season. He learned to always stand his ground. The more he held his own, the more courage and confidence he gained.

“I was taught to never be scared…to never back down. That was instilled in me at a young age,” Crawford says. “My big cousins pushing me, punching me, slamming me, roughing me up. My dad wrestling me. After going against them it wasn’t nothing to me going against somebody my size, my age.

“I’d fall and get jacked up or get bitten by dogs or get scratched. I’d need stitches here and there, and my mom would be like, ‘You’re all right.’ There was no going home and crying to your parents or nothing like that. No babying me. I don’t know what it feels like to be babied.”

There was something about Crawford, even as a child, that pegged him for greatness.

“Before I even started boxing my dad used to make me punch on his hands, teach me wrestling moves, throw the ball with me. He always said, ‘You’re going to be a million dollar baby.’ Ever since I was little he was like, ‘You can be whatever you want to be, just go out there and do it, don’t let nobody hold you down or hold you back.'”

His father, grandfather and an uncle all boxed and wrestled in their youth. His dad and uncle trained at the CW. His grandfather boxed with Minor. They all had talent.

“It was just in me, it was in the blood line for me. I just took after them. My dad always gave me pointers.”

By the time Crawford came back to the gym, he was less belligerent and more ready to learn. The non-nonsense Minor and the hot-tempered youth bonded. Like father and son.

“When I came back to the gym Midge and I were like instantly close.

Midge was like my dad,” says Crawford.

What was the difference the second time around?

“I don’t know. maybe it’s because I accepted Midge ain’t going to change for nobody. I didn’t really know him like that at the start. so for him to be talking to me crazy I took that as disrespect. I was offended by it. But when i came back I realized that’s just Midge being Midge. Some people get intimidated by him but one thing about Midge is if he likes you he’s going to roll with you. If he don’t like you, he don’t like you and there’s nothing nobody can do to make him like you. And if he’s with you he’s with you to the end.

“When I got to know him more I realized Midge will have my back till the day he dies and I’ll have his back to the day I die, and that’s just how close we are. Midge put a real big hold on me.”

When you ask Crawford if he could have gotten this far without him he says, “Probably not because Midge kept me out of the streets. He taught me a lot. Without Midge, I don’t think so, He taught me a lot of responsibility.”

Crawford came to know he could depend on Minor for anything, which only made him trust him more and made him want to please him more.

“I used to ride my bike to the gym with a big old bag on my back, that’s how dedicated I was. Then Midge started taking me to the gym. Over holidays he’d come to my house to take me to the gym. On school days he’d come get me at school and take me to his house. We’d just sit there together and watch boxing tapes. I would watch any kind of fighter just for the simple fact that you never know when you might see that style. He’d tell me what they’re doing wrong and what I could do to beat ’em.”

Minor also became Crawford’s mentor.

“Anytime I needed anything or needed someone to talk to he was always there,” says Crawford. “He’s a great father figure in my life.

Just an all around good guy. He loves kids.”

All of Minor’s work with Crawford inside and outside the ring had the full support of Bud’s mother.

“It was a little like school to me. Sometimes I’d try to duck him and tell my mom to tell him I wasn’t there and she wasn’t having it. Sometimes my mom would call him and say, ‘Come and get him Midge’ and I’d spend the night at his house, watch tapes, work out. It was like that.”

When he got in trouble at school his mother informed Minor because she knew he’d hold him accountable. When Minor got his hands on him he worked him extra hard. it was all about getting the young man to learn lessons and to pay his dues. Instead of resisting it, Crawford took it all in stride. He says, “It was instilled in me early that what don’t kill you will make you stronger.I looked at it that it was helping me.”

“He appreciated it. He respected me,” says Minor. “We got along real well.”

The troubled boy no one could reach found a friend and ally to push him and inspire him.

“Midge always instilled in me, ‘Nobody can beat you, especially if you work hard and put your heart into your training.’ He drilled that in my head. He believed in me so much. There were times I kind of doubted myself in my mind and he was just like, ‘Nobody can beat you.’ The fight’s the easy part. Preparing for it, that’s the hard part. I’ve been fighting all my life so to get in there and fight, that’s easy. That’s 30 minutes. Sometimes only three minutes or 30 seconds if I get an early knockout. That’s compared to training for hours and hours a day.”

Minor routinely put him in the ring with much more experienced guys.

“That’s how much confidence he had in me. Seeing him have that much confidence in me made me even more confident,” says Crawford.

“It didn’t make no difference who I fought him with because he was going to fight ’em. I’ve had a lot fighters but they didn’t have the heart that he has.”

The legend of Terence “Bud” Crawford began to grow when as a teen amateur he sparred pros and outfought them. Even today he likes to spar bigger guys.

“I like to try myself.”

Crawford is now on the cusp of boxing royalty and Minor is still the one Bud puts his complete faith in.

“He’s still there for me taking good care of me,” Crawford says. “I’m always going to have his back. You know he looked out for me when I was little and I’m going to look out for him now that he’s older.”

Having Minor in his camp as he preps for the biggest fight of his life is exactly where Crawford wants him. Having him in his corner on fight night is where he needs him.

“It means a lot to have Midge there. Midge is the brain. Everything goes through Midge before it’s all said and done for me to go in there and fight. Without the brain we can’t do nothing, so it’s very important that Midge is there.

“Before every fight I bring him a disc of who I’m fighting and I ask him what he thinks about the guy and he tells me what I should do and we go from there.”

The strategy for any fight, he says, is “a team effort” between his co-managers Brian McIntyre and Cameron Dunkin, trainer Esau Diegez, Minor and himself.

“We all work together and dissect our opponent but Midge is always the one that’s like, ‘Alright, this is what you’re going to do to beat this guy. This is how you’re going to fight ’em.’ And we all go by what Midge sats. He’s great for seeing things I don’t see and making me see it.

“He gives me the instructions to beat ’em, and all I have to do is follow ’em. He’s got the wisdom.”

Minor says Crawford is a great student who picks things up quickly, including a knack for altering his style to counter his opponent’s style.

“He can observe different fighters and he can adapt to their styles. He doesn’t have no problem adjusting to them,” says Minor. “He listens to me and he produces for me.”

“Oh yeah. I see it one time and I do it,” Crawford says. “You gotta practice it to though, you can’t just think you’re going to perfect it by doing it one time. You gotta keep on trying it in the gym. You might not get it the first time, you might not get it the second time, but you gotta keep trying until you get it right.”

Still, when all is said and done, it’s Crawford who’s alone in the ring come fight night.

“You can tell me this, you can tell me that, at the end of the day I’m the one that’s gotta take those punches and get hit upside my head. The difference between me and other people is that I’m willing to go through the fire to see the light.”

Midge Minor, left, fighting as an amateur

Crawford’s aware of the strides he’s made in recent years.

“I feel like I’m more relaxed in the ring. I know more about the game.

I know what to do, when to do it, and I’m not just throwing punches just to be throwing them. I’m pinpointing my shots more. Yeah, all around my whole arsenal is just way better.”

“Early in his career he used to just throw punches,” says Minor. “He learned to settle down and adjust.”

Crawford says his overall skill set has developed to the point that he doesn’t have an obvious weakness.

“I can adapt to any style. I’m a boxer, a puncher, I’m elusive, I’m whatever I need to be. I’m always confident and I just come to win.

I’ve got it all – hand speed, power, movement, smarts. I can take a punch.”

He’s always in shape and lives a clean lifestyle, Minor says admiringly. The trainer never has to worry his fighter’s not working hard enough.

Minor’s trained several successful pros, including Grover Wiley and Dickie Ryan, but he says he’s never had anyone as accomplished as Crawford this early in their career.

Neither feels he’s reached his full potential.

“I’ve got a lot of things to work on,” says Crawford. “So I figure once I get those bad habits out of the way then I’ll be better than I am now. Little things like not keeping my hands up, not moving my head. Sometimes I’ll get in there and I’ll feel like he can’t hurt me, and I just want to walk through him without coming with the jab.”

Minor’s always watching to make sure Crawford doesn’t abandon his fundamentals. The veteran trainer guided Crawford through a highly successful amateur career that saw the fighter compete on the U.S, Pan American Games team and advance all the way to the national Golden Gloves semi-finals in his hometown of Omaha. Crawford dropped a controversial decision in the semis that left him disillusioned by the politics of amateur scoring and Minor “broken-hearted.”

Minor continues to be the guru Crawford turns to for advice. Perhaps a turning point in their relationship and in the fighter’s development was getting past the anger that seemed to fuel Crawford early on and that threatened to derail his career.

When his temper got the better of him Crawford was suspended from the U.S, national team. He says American amateur boxing officials “put a bad rep out for my name,” adding, “They called me hot-headed and a thug.” He feels the stigma hurt him in his bid to make the U.S. Olympic team.

The fighter acknowledges he had issues. He got expelled from several schools for fighting and arguing. He grew up playing sports and fighting in the streets, parks and playgrounds of northeast Omaha, where his mother mostly raised him and his two older sisters. His father, Terence Sr., served in the U.S, Navy and was separated from his mother, only periodically reappearing in Bud’s life.

No one seemed able to get to the root of Crawford’s rage. Not even himself.

“I really can’t say about my temper. It was just something that was in me. Everybody asked me, ‘Why do you be so mad?’ and I never could pinpoint it or tell them why. I’d be like, ‘I’m not angry.’ But deep down inside I really was. I was ready to fight at any given time and that’s how mainly I got kicked out of all the schools.

“I was in counseling, anger management, all that stuff. None of it ever worked…”

His favorite way of coping with the turmoil was to go fishing at the Fontenelle Park pond.

He knows he could have easily fallen prey to the lures and risks of the inner city. Friends he ran with included gang members. On the eve of his first big nationally televised pro fight he got shot in the head after leaving a heated dice game he had no business being in in the first place. He was told by doctors that if the bullet hadn’t been slowed by the window it passed through in his car it would have likely killed him.

“I was lucky, I was blessed. That just opened my eyes more. I took it as a sign, as a wakeup call.”

Becoming a father – he and his girlfriend Alindra are raising their son and her daughter – also helped him mature.

Through it all Minor was that steadying voice telling him to do the right thing.

Crawford’s temper cooled and his life got more settled.

“It took him a while,” says Minor. “He was hard-headed. I used to make him come over to my house and I’d sit em down to watch boxing tapes and the more he observed other fighters he learned that his temperament had to change to be where he’s at now.”

Crawford also credits two men who took him under their wing at Omaha Bryan High School, then principal Dave Collins and assistant principal Todd Martin.

“They would always talk to me if I got in trouble. They put it in terms like I was in the gym training. They’d say, ‘You cant talk back to the teachers when they’re trying to tell you something you need to know. You don’t talk back to your coach when he’s teaching you how to throw a punch.’ I began to look at it like that and I said, ‘You’re right, i messed up.’ That really got me through my high school years doing what I had to do.”

Now that Crawford’s come so far he’s looking “to give back” to the community through his own boxing gym in the same community he grew up in. He wants his North O-based B & B Boxing Academy, which he recently opened with Brian McIntyre, to be a place that keeps kids off the street and gives them something structured to do.

Bringing a world title belt back to Omaha is his main focus though.

“Oh, it would be great. A lot of people look up to me so for me to bring that belt home to Omaha it would mean a lot, not only to me but to Omaha. Boxing is not real big in Omaha. I used to be and I’m trying to bring it back and I feel I can do that. I could inspire some little guy that later on could be the champion of the world. Who knows?”

He’s not leaving anything to chance in his bid for glory.

“I’ve got my mind made up, I’ve got my goals set, and I’m going to get it. I’m not going to let nothing or nobody keep me from conquering my dreams.”

“That’s that confidence.” Minor says. “I’m so proud of him.”

Crawford knows he wouldn’t be where he is today without Minor. “He’s played a big factor in my life.” He values all that Minor’s meant to him.

“You got to. Nothing lasts forever, so cherish it while it’s here.”

Terence Crawford – The World Awaits! (boxingjunkie.wordpress.com)
BSO Interview: Lightweight Boxing Prospect Terence “Bud” Crawford (blacksportsonline.com)
Terence Crawford Gets a 6th-Round KO Win Over Alejandro Sanabria (sportsnippets.com)

Categories: Athletics, Boxing, Old Market, South Omaha YMCA, World War II, Yolonda Ross, Youth, Zach Wahls Tags: Boxing, CW Boxing Gym, Midge Minor, Terence "Bud" Crawford, TopRank

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Author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga resides in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. He writes newspaper-magazine stories about people, their passions, and their magnificent obsessions. He's the author of the books "Crossing Bridges: A Priest's Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden," "Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film" (a compilation of his journalism about the acclaimed filmmaker) "Open Wide" a biography of Mark Manhart. Biga co-edited "Memories of the Jewish Midwest: Mom and Pop Grocery Stores." His popular blog, Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories at leoadambiga.com, is an online gallery of his work. The blog feeds into his Facebook page, My Inside Stories, as well as his Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Tumblr, About.Me and other social media platform pages.