Letter from Benny, world traveler visits Montreal and New York

Getting up close and personal with the man you’re about to face in the boxing ring is not something you enjoy. Just ask Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (l) and Jesus “El Martillo” Gonzales (r) who weighed-in Friday at the Bell Centre in Montreal for their bout on Saturday, February 17, 2012 to decide the IBF Intercontinental title.

Benny Ricardo, an 11 year NFL veteran, color commentator for the sport of boxing, tennis and the NFL, a standup comic who has appeared on Letterman, etc., etc. wrote us that he had an amazing weekend of Boxing culminated by the much anticipated Main Event in Montreal.

“The great Fast And Furious series put on by Yvon Michel and His Gym Boxing Promotional company,” begins Benny, “was even faster and more furious than I had expected after Adonis “Superman” Stevenson rocked Jesus “El Martillo” Gonzales with a left hand that dropped him like a detonated building.

“I have never, ever, in all my years of calling professional boxing on TV or even just watching it on TV, seen a man get so knocked out like I saw last night. It was scary to watch as both of Gonzales’ arms and legs became totally erect and off the canvas, quivering while he was on his back. His body experienced total trauma as the referee Steve St. Germain didn’t even bother to count or stop the fight.

Mind control in La-la Land: As you can see from this photo, even though Jesus Gonzalez has just been knocked unconscious, his arms are straight back and maintain the same distance from the canvas.

The scary part came when we saw his legs and arms start to quiver while lying there on his back. It was as if his arms and legs were no longer connected to the rest of his body and they had a mind of their own.

Overall, it was a great card top to bottom featuring the up and comers, the sure to be and the already are. Montreal has quite a fan base and the fighters came from all over the world to be a part of it.

Close up, the 5’11” light heavyweight Adonis “Superman” Stevenson from Blainville, Quebec, Canada appears even bigger.

At 34 years of age, it appears Adonis Stevenson’s time is now, as he moved himself up to his #2 IBF ranking. The hope is he will now get a title shot in the very deep Super Middleweight Division headed by Andre Ward and Montreal’s own, Lucien Bute.

My announcing partner Corey Erdman (r) joined me for this photo in front of the Guy Lafleur statue at the Bell Center.

Of course no fight can ever take place without the ring card girls as nobody would know what round it was, even those of us who are announcing it.

The Big Apple can be intimidating with the vastness of activities and attractions.

I was also in New York City to announce the World Series of Boxing. The match involved the first place Baku Fire and the second place Mexico City Guerreros. In between time I had a meeting with my friends at Sirius Satellite Radio to discuss dome programming opportunities inside this huge building that houses Sirius Satellite Radio.

Howard Stern has his own wing and the collection of people, there…well, you can imagine. The neatest, coolest studio of course belongs to Martha, Martha Stewart.

It was an absolute beautiful day in the Big Apple, more like a spring day than a chilly mid February day.

Benny Ricardo (r) is shown sitting next to his broadcast partner, “the Colonel,” Bob Sheridan.

The Colonel and I got to call the World Series of Boxing and it was a blast. They have a great format. One that the amateur boxing worldwide badly needs. There’s no head gear or protective vests, pro rules are used for scoring by professional judges and referees, you have five rounds, three minutes in length and five weight divisions per team, bantamweight, lightweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.

You really notice the habits of the amateur fighters who are used to fighting with head gear and showing the bad habits of placing their heads right in front of their opponent to touch heads. Up to now, Amateur fighters never spend any time digging to the body or creating punching angles. It’s all squared up shoulders and pitter patter punches.

This format is going to make for some great Olympic Boxing in London later on this year.

The only real punishment in Amateur Boxing is being suffered by the amateur judges who have to score the fights.

After pushing a button on the computer to count the punches, most of these judges end up suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome.

The Baku versus Mexico City match was tied 2-2 which meant it was up to the Heavyweights to bring home the win.

The Mexican team left their fate in the hands of Omar Garcia from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Garcia’s opponent was Farid Shabanov of the Baku team.

It was a No Contest because our Mr. Garcia was so big. How Big? Big enough to play one of those gigantic bass guitars that the mariachis play. Our producer Russell Best had more definition in his body than Garcia. The more skilled Shabanov pounded Garcia like a Mexican Taco cook, the ones who pound the meat on the grill before cooking. The fight was stopped in the second round with Shabnov getting the TKO victory over Garcia. That’s all I have to report until my next journey.