Boxing Blog – TSS Tidbits

James Brown, Godfather of Soul, dead at 73

James Brown, aka the Godfather of Soul, a longtime friend of Don King who performed at the Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, passed away on Monday, Christmas Day, at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. He was 73.

Along with Chuck Berry and Little Richard, Brown was one of three high priests in the church of popular urban black music in the mid-20th century, but while Berry was inventing rock ‘n’ roll and Little Richard was pulling up the roots of r & b, James Brown, with his polyrhythmic complexity, raw vocals, and sui generis dancing, was laying the foundation for everything from funk to disco to hip hop.

“James presented obviously the best grooves,” Public Enemy’s Chuck D told the AP several years ago. “To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close.”

James Brown was born dirt poor in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, where he lived in a one room shack in the woods with his parents and sibs. When James was four his mom and dad called it quits and he was passed over to his great aunt Honey Washington, who was the madam of a whorehouse in Augusta, Georgia. Brown danced for money in the brothel and on the streets. He shined shoes and picked cotton. He also sang in church. “Where I grew up there was no way out, no avenue of escape, so you had to make a way. Mine was to create JAMES BROWN.” But at the age of 15 he got nabbed breaking into a car and was sentenced to between eight to 16 years. Behind bars Brown led a prison gospel choir. He was also befriended by a local musician named Bobby Byrd.

Upon his release from jail three years later, Byrd brought Brown into his gospel group, the Gospel Starlighters. With James Brown free at last and in the mix, the Gospel Starlighters changed their name to the Famous Flames. They also changed their focus from singing about Jesus to singing about sex.

King Records signed the group in 1956, and four months later “Please, Please, Please,” a quintessential James Brown classic, was in the r & b Top-10. James Brown has been a hit machine/performance artist like none other ever since.

Brown’s offstage life was often more dramatic than his performances with the Fabulous Flames (and later the JBs) on stages across the world. There were allegations of Brown abusing drugs and alcohol and his wives over the years. There was also a well-publicized 1988 run-in with the law—where Brown, flying high on PCP, carrying a shotgun, with a towel around his waist, invaded an insurance seminar, apparently concerned that someone was using his private bathroom—before leading police on a half-hour high-speed chase out of Georgia into South Carolina (it ended when the cops shot out the tires of his truck)—that landed Brown in the hoosegow for six years, but that dustup only served to burnish his rep as an outlaw artist to the core.

Brown won Grammys in 1965 and 1987, and was awarded a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1992. He was among the first musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and a handful of other pioneering greats.

James Brown wasn’t being ironic when he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1989, “The music out there is only as good as my last record.”

Edison Miranda’s Xmas beatings for Gibbs/Taylor/DiBella

Uncrowned middleweight king Edison “Pantera� Miranda (27-1, 24 KOs) isn’t the strong, silent type. He’s definitely strong—his sensational first round KO over Willie Gibbs on HBO’s BAD clarified that—but judging from the statements he has made since that stunning win, silence isn’t his strong suit.

The most recent trouble started when Willie Gibbs’ crew went to the press after the loss to Miranda to say that it wasn’t Miranda’s power that won the fight, it was a knee injury Gibbs suffered.

“I’m disappointed by the reaction of Gibbs’ team to their defeat,� Miranda said. “I was told Philadelphia fighters always come to fight and that win or lose, they have no excuses—well, this obviously isn’t the case. The only things that knocked Gibbs out were my fists, and I don’t remember hitting him on the knee. But he can look on the bright side, because if the fight would have continued, I would have sent ‘The Gladiator’ out on his shield.�

“I know Jermain Taylor and Arthur Abraham fear me and that I’ll have to shame them into fighting me,� continued Miranda. “That’s okay though, because the people know who the real fighters are and which ones are simply pretenders with title belts. In 2007, I’ll expose all of them.�

A few days later Miranda released another APB, this one addressed to Taylor’s promoter, Lou DiBella, allegedly making disparaging statements regarding Edison Miranda.

“I think Lou DiBella should stick to acting,� said Miranda, referring to DiBella’s portrayal of a boxing promoter named Lou DiBella in the new Sly Stallone film “Rocky Balboa,� “because he plays a promoter in the make-believe world better than he does in real life.

“The fans and media want to see this fight between Taylor and myself, and HBO definitely wants to see it, but Lou doesn’t want to put the jewel of his company anywhere near me because he knows he’ll get knocked out. I won’t be outweighed by 20 pounds on fight night and won’t need a walker to make it to the press conference like the other old men Taylor has fought, so he wants no part of me.�

Miranda addressed DiBella’s claim that he was a one-dimensional fighter.

“You call me one-dimensional, but no one has ever forced me to go to a Plan B in the ring,� said Miranda. “I knock people out and only someone who can deal with my power will force me to show the other parts of my game. That hasn’t happened yet. And let’s not talk one-dimensional when I can describe every Jermain Taylor fight the same way: Jab, right cross, clinch. Jab, right cross, clinch. Jab, right cross, clinch. And you wonder why he is afraid to fight me.�

Miranda went on picking apart DiBella’s critique: “You say that ‘I stink,’ ‘I have no clue how to box,’, ‘no resume,’, and you think ‘Jermain would slaughter me.’ In the next breath you tell the world I should fight Pavlik, ‘if he is man enough to take the fight.’ You make absolutely no sense.

“Both you and Jermain say you want ‘real fights’ and are ‘not looking for a stooge.’ If that’s the case, I challenge you to find another guy at 160 with a better resume than mine. Don’t you even dare mention Sergio Mora or Felix Sturm! If you got such a great team with Jermain and Emanuel, why can’t you beat a guy like me who is ‘one-dimensional and can only punch?’�

Chances are DiBella’s listening to his own music and Miranda’s bleating barely affects the reception, but by beating contenders and challenging the champs Miranda at least gets to have his voice heard.

“Let’s make this fight Lou,� pleaded Miranda. “It’s the right thing for the fans and the right thing for a sport that needs the best in the world fighting each other. If I’m so easy to beat, let Taylor prove it!�