Uppercut Down Low

In a profession where felony convictions outnumber advanced degrees, boxing promoter Joe Kelly is a freak.

Kelly, a 26-year-old Pembroke Hill alum who is working toward a graduate business degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, attended a boxing match earlier this year and left the event feeling that it lacked panache. Where were the fighter introductions? he wondered. Where were the lights? “There wasn’t that Vegas fanfare,” Kelly says.

Believing he could do better, Kelly started Titan Entertainment, which has staged fight nights at area casinos and Union Station. In September, just eight months after Kelly decided to get into the boxing game, the cable network Showtime aired two bouts from an event Titan co-promoted at Harrah’s in North Kansas City.

So maligned is the sport (see King, Don), Kelly thinks his youth actually works to his benefit: People figure he hasn’t been around long enough to be corrupted. Boxing promoter, Kelly acknowledges, “is a horrible job title.”

One of Kelly’s objectives, in addition to introducing résumés to a rap-sheet world, is to improve Kansas City’s standing in the boxing universe. It is often the case that promising boxers in this part of the country have to relocate to finish their skills and become elite contenders. “There aren’t that many fights, and there aren’t that many opportunities,” Showtime boxing analyst Steve Farhood tells the Pitch.

Kansas City’s reputation is improving before Farhood’s eyes. The analyst called the event at Harrah’s and watched middleweight Francisco Diaz, who lives in Kansas City, dismantle an undefeated opponent. Diaz, 26, has won 13 of his 14 professional fights. “I love Diaz,” Farhood says. “He looked really good.”

Diaz grew up in Dodge City. He started boxing at age 13, partly to imitate his father, who had boxed in Mexico. He turned professional after narrowly missing a chance to compete at the 2000 Olympic trials. “My next dream is to win a world championship,” he says.

If he does, Diaz may prove to be a popular champion. His good looks bring to mind those of another middleweight, Oscar de la Hoya. But for now, Diaz leads a most unglamorous life. After his morning run, Diaz works a day job at Sol’s Fine Jewelry & Loan, a Kansas City, Kansas, pawnshop. He works side by side with his protective trainer, Frank Aguilar. “He’s the real thing,” says Aguilar, who wears a gun on his hip as a warning to those who enter the pawnshop.
Aguilar is taking it slow with Diaz, who has not yet scheduled his next fight. (Titan lobbied Diaz to get in the ring sooner; because of the difference of opinion, Kelly’s company no longer represents Diaz.) In guiding Diaz’s career, Aguilar says he is following the approach of a good tailor, who measures twice before he cuts. “It’s a tough sport, and it suffers no fools,” he says.
For several weeks, Pitch photographer Luke Echterling has been stalking the unheralded boxing scene in the Kansas City area. His photos bring Aguilar’s comment to life. Boxers put themselves through grueling, twice-a-day workouts, then endure poundings in matches. A boxer of Diaz’s station makes $3,000 or $4,000 a bout. The rest compete for pride, cheers and decidedly smaller purses. Here are a few snapshots of their lives from recent events in Kansas and Missouri. — David Martin

Referee Steve Thomasson holds Raul Munoz after the welterweight falls to the canvas during the second round of the main event at the Topeka Expo Center on September 9. Thomasson declared Munoz’s opponent, fellow Topekan Marc Thompson, the winner by a technical knockout.

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The loss to Thompson was Munoz’s first since he returned to the ring last year. Munoz, 28, walked away from the sport in 1998, a year after losing a bout to Joel Casamayor, a Cuban who defected on the eve of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. (Casamayor went on to win a World Boxing Association title.) “I was burned out for a little bit,” Munoz said before stepping into the ring against Thompson.

Munoz resumed fighting largely because he gets high from training. To prepare for his match with Thompson, Munoz ran 6 or 7 miles and did push-ups and pull-ups in the morning; in the evening, he sparred and worked on his technique. “Right now, right before I get in the ring, I feel so good,” Munoz said before his bout.

Munoz fought hard, knocking down Thompson, who was able to regroup and deliver the fight’s decisive blows.
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Trainer Jim Boucher cuts the tape from Michi Munoz’s wrists after the 154-pounder wins his second official fight as a professional. Munoz overwhelmed his opponent, Jesse Phillips, in the first round of their fight at the Topeka Expo Center.

Munoz, 23, is following in the steps of his older brothers, Alex and Raul. Michi watched his brothers learn how to fight while he was still in the cradle. “We’d sit him in the corner of the garage while we trained,” says John Alcala, who worked with the Munozes when they were boys and is now a member of the Topeka City Council.

Munoz entered the ring at the Expo Center wearing trunks emblazoned with the flags of Mexico and the United States. When he’s not boxing, he puts his hands to more delicate use, playing bass in a traditional Spanish band. “I’ve gotten swollen a few times [from boxing], but I was still able to play,” Munoz says.
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Featherweight Alvin “Nick” Brown of Grandview, right, packs a hard punch, but his rangy opponent, Priest Smalls, prevailed in the main event at the Ameristar on September 22, which drew about 1,000 customers. Smalls, who is from San Diego, used a quick jab to prevent Brown from landing many body blows and won the 12-round bout by a unanimous decision.

The two boxers embraced in the dressing room afterward. “Very good fight, bro,” a dejected Brown said.

“If I make it to the top, like I should, I will definitely give you a shot,” said Smalls, wearing lipstick on his collarbone from a post-fight kiss planted by his sister, who manages him. Benjamin Nogueras, Brown’s manager, seemed to recognize that Smalls was promising more than he could realistically deliver, however. Brown is 35 years old. After the loss, he fell out of the World Boxing Organization’s top 15 featherweights. An opportunity — Smalls was rated a few spots ahead of Brown — had been missed.

“We worked extremely hard,” Nogueras said. “We could have worked harder.”
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Mary Ortega, left, has trouble finding worthy competition. The 24-year-old bantamweight has had 28 wins and only 2 losses since turning professional in 1997. Once, Ortega fought (and knocked out) a 46-year-old nurse who had obtained her boxing license on the day of the fight.

Ortega started fighting when she was 13 or 14. A neighbor, Brian Spicer, had a gym in his basement in Pleasant Valley where he trained boxers. Ortega approached Spicer with the intention of improving her strength and stamina for soccer. Before long, she was fitting a mouth guard over her braces and throwing punches. “I pushed her very hard,” says Spicer, who continues to train Ortega and other fighters at the Summit Athletic Club north of the river. “She is physically a very strong person.”

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At the Ameristar on September 22, Ortega won her fight by decision. In defeating Leslie McNamara, right, a lawyer who works in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Ortega showed signs of rust. She hadn’t fought during the eight months she trained to become a Kansas City, Missouri, firefighter. Spicer says he encouraged Ortega to join the fire department. Boxing, he says, “is not going to make her a million dollars.”
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The presence of riverboat gambling in greater Kansas City provides glitz and promotional backing for boxing events. A fight at Harrah’s Casino in North Kansas City on September 2 brought out not only the cable network Showtime but also showgirls.
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After darkness fell on the Harrah’s lot , referee Mike England asks middleweights Francisco Diaz, left, and Guadalupe Martinez for a clean fight. Diaz, who trains in Kansas City, says that once he entered the ring, he put the television cameras out of his mind and focused on Martinez, who came into the fight undefeated.
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Diaz knocked down Martinez in the second round, but Martinez got up and lasted the duration of the eight-round fight. Martinez proved to be tough, but Diaz was also in excellent condition and won the fight by a unanimous decision. “I knew I could go eight rounds,” Diaz says. “I knew I could go ten or twelve rounds.”
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Diaz is confident about his future. One ranking service says he is the 56th-best middleweight in the world. “I’m more content now than I have ever been in my whole career,” he says. “The best is yet to come.”

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