Michael Bennett needed less than two years to fight his way from prison release to amateur world heavyweight champion and co-captain of the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team. But it has taken the Chicago boxer six months to get past the last bureaucratic hurdle between him and the Sydney Games in September.
This week, he finally cleared it.
Or rather, the Australian Embassy cleared him, to travel to the Sydney Olympics with his U.S. teammates.
“I was floating when I heard it, I was flying,” Bennett said. “I went around all day with a smile on my face, saying, `I’m going to Sydney! I’m going to Sydney!'”
Paul Montville, executive director of USA Boxing, the sanctioning organization for U.S. amateur boxing, said the Australian Embassy in Washington notified him this week that Bennett has been OK’d to make the trip.
Bennett needed special permission because of his criminal record. Australian immigration officials have authority to refuse entry to anyone with criminal record.
Bennett, 28, served seven years in Illinois prisons on an armed-robbery conviction. He is training in Colorado Springs, where Montville brought him the good news.
“Once he gave me the thumbs up, I said, `Thank you, Jesus.’ Now, I can concentrate on bringing a gold medal home,” Bennett said.
Act and react: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the former presidential hopeful and sponsor of the recently passed Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, has been embarrassingly reminded of the uncertainties of reform.
As McCain awaits President Clinton’s signing of the Ali Act, the type of suspect fight he’s trying to eliminate is heading toward his home state.
Based on no recent merit and despite recent poor performances, former champion Julio Cesar Chavez has leapfrogged a host of legitimate challengers and is in line for a proposed title shot against World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion Kostya Tszyu.
The Nevada commission indicated it wouldn’t license Chavez, who turns 38 next month and reportedly hasn’t been training, so promoters are trying to move the July 29 fight from Las Vegas to Phoenix.
In a letter to Arizona boxing officials this week, McCain warned against sanctioning the bout and expressed “serious concerns because of the evident disparities in the boxers’ current ability, condition and age.”
Lace ’em up: This looks like a real fight.
For all the criticism he has taken. Oscar De La Hoya cannot be faulted for feasting on easy opponents. He has beaten Ike Quartey, Oba Carr, Genaro Hernandez, Hector Camacho and Rafael Ruelas–as well as Pernell Whitaker and Chavez when they were younger–and lost a narrow decision to Felix Trinidad for his only defeat.
On June 17 in Los Angeles, De La Hoya will add a very tough Shane Mosley to his list of opponents.
“I have what it takes to beat him, to stop him,” said Mosley, who did beat De La Hoya when they boxed as youngsters in L.A.
Since last year, Mosley has moved up two weight classes and a dozen pounds to the 147-pound welterweight division. But he rejects the notion that he’s not as strong as his opponent, who has been at 147 for three years, and he dismisses De La Hoya as a one-dimensional fighter: “The only thing he has is a left hook.”
De La Hoya vows to make Mosley the second of four predicted knockout victims this year.
In this corner: Testifying in the New Jersey racketeering trial of International Boxing Federation founder Robert Lee, boxing manager Ivan Feris Chadid of Colombia said he made payoffs to the IBF from 1989 to 1996 to get his South American fighters rated. Chadid, who testified under immunity, said he stopped because “my blood was being sucked. I didn’t want to pay anymore.” The trial is in its seventh week and is expected to continue another two months.
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Top heavyweight contender David Tua, looking to challenge champion Lennox Lewis this fall, squares off against veteran Obed Sullivan on Saturday. Their bout is the main event on a 9 p.m. Showtime telecast.
The World Boxing Association’s vacant heavyweight title will remain so for a while, after ex-champion Evander Holyfield pulled out of his scheduled June 10 title bout against John Ruiz. Holyfield cited a rib injury.
Speaking of ex-heavyweight champs, no sooner was the Majestic Star Casino/Trump Hotel Casino in Gary set to announce it had signed ex-champ Michael Moorer for a June 25 bout than Moorer withdrew, saying he’d torn the rotator cuff in his right shoulder during training Wednesday. He will be sidelined about three months.
In a main event Showtime telecast at 10 p.m. June 16 from Las Vegas, Chicago’s Polish-born heavyweight Andrew Golota will take on Orlin Norris, whose knee gave out after Round 1 of his no-contest against Mike Tyson, who floored him with a punch after the bell.