Those “Friendly Confines” By Bernie McCoy

(SEPT 22, 2004) It was the redoubtable Harry Caray who first called that wonderful old ball park on the corner of Clark and Addison in Chicago “the friendly confines.” It was a near perfect place to watch a ball game on a summer day and was, according to urban legend, a friendly place for the home standing Cubs to play. We’ve seen, lately, that “friendly confines” are not, by any means, limited to Clark and Addison on the North Side of Chicago; boxing, in this case, Women’s boxing, has it’s share of “friendly confines.”

 On September 11, Elena “Baby Doll” Reid traveled to Karlsuhe, Germany to step into the ring with the female pride of German fight fans, Regina Halmich. Many “boxing insiders” doubted Reid could get a “fair shake” against Halmich, in a country that has proven, over the years, to be a Germanic equivalent of ” the friendly confines.” After a fast paced ten rounds, according to most observers, including many of the local European journalists covering the bout, Reid came away the clear cut winner. However, true to the nature of “friendly confines,” the judges called the bout a draw: 98-94, Halmich; 97-93, Reid; 97 even. Both fighters said all the “right things” after the fight, but it was abundantly clear that Reid had been on the wrong side of a wrong decision.

However, there are draws, when the winner is clear and then there are draws that really aren’t draws. In what can only be entitled “Chaos in Kyoto,” Yvonne Caples, a highly skilled and respected fighter, despite her 7-6-1 record, and a fighter very familiar with the “problems” of overseas bouts, took on Yuko Sodeoka for the vacant WIBA Mini Flyweight title in Kyoto, Japan last weekend. After ten rounds of back and forth action, the judges rendered a majority draw decision, two judges calling the fight even, one voting for Sodeoka; a majority draw, which, according to most ringsiders, was a fair call, it was adjudged an even fight by most observers.

Unfortunately, that’s when the chaos took over and at the same time, the Japanese translation of the term “friendly confines” seemed to kick in. The Japanese boxing officials, operating under what can only be a rule that does not translate well to English, or for that matter, most other languages, handed the WIBA belt to Sodeoka. While the WIBA officials stood around dumbfounded, Sodeoka gratefully wrapped the belt around her waist. It seems, in Japan, at least in Kyoto, on this night, the cumulative score counts, thus the one judge gave the fight to Sodeoka swung the decision to the Japanese fighter. Whether this was a scoring innovation that had been invented on the spot, or just another example of “friendly confines” scoring is still being investigated (the phrase “too little to late” comes to mind). Caples took the loss with an amazing amount of grace, detailing her side of this inexcusable decision in a lucid open letter on WBAN.

The WIBA officials, once they recovered from their shock, provided their own assessment of the situation and, unfortunately, came very close to sounding a bit like the Ralph Kramdem character from the old “Honeymooners” TV show (“hamana, hamana, hamana”); someone who had little, if any, conception of what was going on. In the meantime, the WIBA belt was hi-jacked by a bunch of Japanese officials, secure they in the realization that they could pull off such a travesty, at home, in their very own version of “the friendly confines.”

 (update: according to the WIBA this belt is now squashed and they are trying to figure out a rematch for Caples and Sokoeko in neutral territory…WBAN will keep boxing fans posted on this..Sue Fox)

The fact is you don’t always need a passport to reach the land of “friendly confines.” Take the recently reemerged Jacqui Frazier-Lyde. Once one of the “famous daughters” of the sport, Frazier-Lyde recently shed her lawyer’s mantle and returned to the ring, after a seventeen month absence, winning an easy four round decision over perennial “opponent” Carley Pesente in Frazier-Lyde’s “friendly confines” hometown of Philadelphia. A mere ten days later Frazier-Lyde, still not venturing too far beyond those comforting confines, won a ten round decision over Mary Ann Almager in Atlantic City. According to ringside reports, Almager, who has not won a fight in over two years, and who unaccountably came out of retirement last year to absorb four rounds of pounding by Laila Ali, gave Frazier-Lyde a “busy” night for ten rounds. In fact Almager was credited with two knockdowns over the ten rounds.

Not surprisingly, given the “friendly” location of Atlantic City, within a long cab ride of Philadelphia, Frazier-Lyde was awarded a unanimous decision. What was a bit more surprising was that one of the those votes was rendered as 97-92, which is a hard score to mathematically justify given that Frazier-Lyde was on the canvas in two rounds and should have lost both those rounds by a count of 10-8. But, the best was yet to come: As a result of this win, Frazier-Lyde was anointed the “UBA” Heavyweight champion. Thus, after a long absence from the ring and following wins over fighters neither of whom had won in over two years, Frazier-Lyde was declared a champion. The rewards of fighting in “friendly confines” are not always limited to wrong headed decisions or undeserved belts, every once in a while, its possible to come away with an unheard-of title.

Other times, it’s just a matter of keeping your fighter out of the ring. During this past summer, Sunshine Fettkether’s management publicly complained that their fighter was unable to find suitable opposition. Oklahoma promoter Bobby Dobbs made an offer to the Fettkether camp proposing a bout for Fettkether with Sumya Anani, who certainly qualified as a suitable foe. Anani has, similarly, had difficulty getting fights, but one surmises, for distinctly different reasons than Fettkether. Almost miraculously, the Fettkether camp replied, a fight had materialized for Fettkether on September 11 and a bout with Anani wasn’t possible. Now, to be fair, with all the intendant craziness surrounding Halmich and Reid, who did, indeed, step into the ring on September 11, I might have missed reports of Fettkether’s bout on that same date. But, cynic that I am, the thought crosses my mind that “friendly confines” aren’t always defined by geography, sometimes it’s confined to fantasy matchmaking.

It’s been validly stated that the sport of Women’s boxing currently has more talented fighters than at any time since the inception of the sport. But, it’s also valid to posit that the enormous amount of talent is being badly utilized. Reid/Halmich and Caples/Sodeoka are perfect examples of good fights marred by absurd decisions; one decision clearly wrong, the other just as clearly wrong headed. Reid was a clear cut winner and deserved to be announced as such. And even if Yvonne Caples didn’t deserve a win, she does deserve a rematch and she certainly didn’t deserve to watch a belt being wrapped around her opponent after a majority draw was announced.

Down in the City of Brotherly Love, Jacqui Frazier-Lyde is a welcome addition back in the ring, that particular weight division needs more good fighters. But Jacqui Frazier-Lyde is not a “champion” based on two wins over less than competitive opponents and she needs several more wins against quality fighters before she deserves to appear in the same paragraph, much less same ring, as Laila Ali. Finally, some quality fighter simply has to bite down hard on her mouthpiece and climb in the ring with Sumya Anani. Whether it’s Sunshine Fettkether or Mary Jo Sanders or Lucia Rijker, all quality fighters, Anani deserves to be in the ring and, as her record shows, she’s a fighter who has never needed the advantage of “friendly confines.”