Both fighters were more interested in clinching and holding and hitting than in giving the fans a taste of their respective boxing abilities. The incompetence of the ref bothered Andre Dirrell much more than it seemed to affect Froch. Carl Froch seemed quite content to fight his usual fight, which consisted of hitting and holding and rabbit punching Dirrell for the greater part of each round. The outrageously pro British referee very rarely warned Froch about such fragrant fouls while inexplicably warning Dirrell for being the recipient of such fouls. Weird!

Dirrell was warned for hitting Froch low and indeed was deducted a point by the referee for hitting low. Curiously though, Dirrell had a point taken away without being given the requisite two warnings beforehand.

Dirrell’s frustration began to show as he allowed the referee and to dictate his game plan and pace for the fight. Dirrell lacked the imagination and experience to adapt to such an overtly biased referee. Dirrell should have altered his tactics and approach midway through the fight. Why he didn’t is anybody’s guess. Doing so would have given him a better chance of winning the fight while taking the ref completely out of the decision making process as regards to the outcome of the fight. Yes the referee was terrible! Accept it and move on.

Carl Froch is a very effective one-dimensional fighter. He’s got power in both hands and a great chin. Jermain Taylor was well ahead of Froch when he got knocked out. Taylor ran out of gas and got caught with a great shot. Unlike Taylor, in boxing years, Andre Dirrell is young with energy to spare.

Dirrell fought only in spurts. Whenever Dirrell gave Froch angles and used his speed of hand and foot effectively, he was able to handle Froch with relative ease. More often than not, he tried to go inside and fight Froch’s fight by trading power shots with him. Why fight your opponents’ fight if you don’t have to? Dirrell could have won this fight walking away had he chosen to utilize his vast arsenal of boxing skills.

If Dirrell hopes to get back in the win column in this tournament, he better learn quickly how to adapt his vast skill set during midfight. You must remember that Dirrell allowed the ref to become a factor in the fight.

Such adaptability will better enable Andre Dirrell to overcome any adversity he encounters in the squared circle, whether it’s a horse’s arse of a referee, a dirty fighter or even a bad cut.

The mark of all great fighters is the ability to adapt during a fight in order to gain victory. Muhammad Ali changed tactics dramatically against George Foreman, which allowed him to recapture the heavyweight title.

In retrospect, Andre Dirrell’s loss was more of a failure of imagination rather than a lack of skill or effort. The outcome was in his hands and he didn’t grasp his opportunity fully. Let’s be honest here. There was virtually no chance of Andre Dirrell defeating Carl Froch by decision in England, Froch’s backyard. Dirrell needed a kayo to pull out a win but instead opted to fight as if a slim points victory would be good enough. It wasn’t good enough and neither was Andre Dirrell that night and that’s why he stands at 0-1 in this tournament.

Bantamweight World Champion

In the first half of the twentieth century Canadian boxers seemed to do very well in Boxing’s lighter weight divisions. One of the first boxer’s from Canada to help Canadians shake their ingrained inferiority complex when it came to all things American was the great bantamweight world champion from Toronto, Ontario, Johnny Coulon.

Johnny Frederic Coulon was born February 12th, 1889 in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city. Toronto was also the home of America’s Sweetheart, silent screen star Mary Pickford. While Mary Pickford made her mark on the big screen, Johnny Coulon marked his spot in fistic history by dominating all comers in the squared circled in the early 1900’s.

Ironically, Johnny parents were American citizens by birth that had immigrated to Canada in search of a better life. Early on in Johnny’s childhod, his parents, father Emile Eugene Coulon (1857-1911), and his beloved mother Sarah Loretta Waltzinger (1857-1923), decided to move the family to Chicago to improve their job possibilities and meagre stations in life. Growing up in turn-of-the-century Chicago provided Johnny with plenty of opportunities for mischief and mayhem. In Chicago in the early part of the last century, kids who could fight ended up in street gangs or in boxing.

Johnny found out at a very young age that although many young boys fought out of necessity to provide food for their family, or to protect their turf, he actually loved to fight. He also seemed to win much more often than he lost. This transplanted Canadian possessed something most of the other broken nose toughs didn’t have. Johnny Coulon had skill and agility to go along with his ever-present moxie. He also had tremendous hand and foot speed. There’s an old adage in sports that says, “speed never slumps.” In boxing that translates into a simple equation. He who lands first and often usually wins. Now take all those physical advantages and then mix it with the final ingredient – smarts – and you have a fighter that’s almost impossible to beat. Early on critics would always praise Coulon’s ring smarts. Smarts wins you fights, guts get you hurt. Boxing is controlled fury. Control comes from discipline, something Johnny had in abundance.

Chicago has always been a wonderful fight town and back then in the early 1900’s was no exception. Johnny proved so adept at fisticuffs that he was urged to turn pro at the tender age of 16. Hey, as the old saying goes, if you are going to get punched in the face on a regular basis, you might as well get paid for it. Given Johnny’s skills and supreme confidence, he was usually the one dishing it out. Coulon believed that when it came to pushing leather it was far better to give than to receive.

Coulon became known as “The Cherry Picker from Logan Square,” at the start of his career. The nickname was colorful and helped to keep him in the public’s mind between matches. Having the public on your side is half the battle in arranging the fights you want and need to further your ring career.

Coulon’s rise up the bantamweight rankings was meteoric. It is incredible to contemplate that he turned pro at 16 and a mere five years later at 21, he was the bantamweight champion of the world! So many fighters toil for years before getting a title shot, if they even get one at all. The only way to achieve such success in five short years is to keep the public behind you, and your opponents below you on the canvas.

Coulon set a blazing pace to begin his career, rattling off 26 consecutive victories before finally coming down to earth. Kid Murphy punched his way to a ten round decision over Coulon. In a much-anticipated 1908 rematch with Murphy, Coulon used all his boxing savvy to avenge his only loss thus earning recognition as the bantamweight champion of America.

Coulon went on to annex the world bantamweight championship when he defeated England’s Jim Kendrick in 19 hard fought rounds on March 6th, 1910. As Kendrick was from England and recognized universally as the champion bantamweight of his time, Coulon’s victory reinforced his claim for universal recognition as bantamweight world champion.

Coulon went on to successfully defend his title many times. He defeated such top bantamweights of his era as Earl Denning, power-punching Harry Forbes, Frankie Conley, Frankie Burns and the always-tough Kid Williams. Coulon was always proud of the fact that he faced three futures hall-of-famers during his career. The aforementioned Kid Williams, the immortal Pete Herman (whose fame eclipsed Coulon’s) and ring legend Charley Goldman, who is probably best known for training Rocky Marciano.

Johnny Coulon was trained and managed by his father Eugene, known affectionately in boxing circles as, “Pops.” Pops Coulon trained many other fighters too but his main focus was always on his son Johnny. You don’t really make money in boxing until after you win a world title. His father knew this and always took pains to protect his best investment.

Coulon’s magic championship carpet ride atop of the bantamweight division came to a sudden, clubbing end, when Kid Williams, whom he had defeated years earlier, stretched Coulon for the full ten when he knocked him cold in three rounds in 1914.

Coulon served his adopted country well during World War I, often teaching his fellow American soldiers the finer points of the art of self-defense. After his tour of duty during World War I ended, he fought a couple of more times and retired from the ring in 1920 with a record of 97 career bouts, with 56 wins, 24 of which came via the KO route. He had 4 losses, 4 draws and 32 fights that were ruled no contest, in accordance with the law at the turn of the last century.

Boxing careers that rise as swiftly as Coulon’s usually peter out quickly and end sadly. This wasn’t the case with Coulon, who fought at the highest levels of his sport from 1905 to 1920. Coulon’s career longevity is even more remarkable when you consider that boxing was not even legal in most parts of the United States, during his hey day.

Although boxing gradually was becoming more socially accepted it was still not condoned or even protected by law until 1920 with the introduction of the Walker Law, which led to the formation of the New York State Athletic Commission. By this time, however, Johnny Coulon had retired from the prize ring. Coulon always claimed to have had well over three hundred professional fights in his career, although this is hard to verify. The official record book lists him as suffering only 4 defeats in 97 total career bouts.

Coulon’s claim of over 300 pro bouts may very well have been closer to the truth than we realize as it is almost impossible to track down all of a fighter’s bouts from that era. Records back then were not kept as meticulously as they are today. Coulon often fought several times a night and sometimes 20 or 30 times a month! Some fights were deliberately under the table back then with fighters using aliases, thereby allowing them to earn extra purse money without having to share it with Uncle Sam or their managers.

Sometimes fighters filled in for other fighters, as a favor. He main reason Guys fought under the table is because this was their job and then wanted to get all the money they could while they were still able. There were hundreds of little boxing hamlets scattered all throughout the United Staes. If they were offering you some dough for an easy tune-up fight, hell, why not take their money? The quieter they kept it the better for all involved. The more people who knew, the more people there were to pay off to keep them from going to the authorities.
In retirement, Johnny Coulon did not shy away from the public spotlight. His retirement from boxing coincided with the golden years of vaudeville. There was a lot of money to be made for an undisputed world-boxing champion whose name still carried prestige with the public nationwide.

Coulon performed the same stupefying physical feat every night to the constant amazement of each audience. He would strip down to his waist and appear on stage. Now, given that he was a bantamweight. Coulon was just five feet tall and maybe 112 pounds soaking wet. Simply put, he dared anyone in the audience to simply come onstage and lift him up. No one ever managed to call his bluff. To say audience members were confounded was an understatement. He later revealed that whenever anyone tried to lift him, he would grab their neck (as if to balance himself) and, surreptitiously pinch a nerve in their neck, momentarily immobilizing them.

Johnny was smart and waited to after his boxing career to marry Marie Maloney in 1921. Mary never saw Johnny fight. This proved to Johnny that she genuinely loved him for himself and not for his fame. Along with Johnny she ran Coulon’s Gymnasium on the tough South Side of Chicago. Marie was the business manager, an arrangement still preferred by many smart husbands today. The list of fighters who trained at Coulon’s in Chicago reads like roll call at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Champions such as Joe Louis, Jim Braddock, Sugar Ray Robinson and The Greatest, Muhammad Ali all showed off their fistic talents under the gym lights at Coulon’s Gymnasium.

In fact, in answer to the often-asked question, “What did Muhammad Ali do with himself while in exile?” He could always be found almost daily at Coulon’s Gymnasium staying fit and sharp.

Johnny Coulon was also a topnotch boxing trainer with a keen eye for spotting up and coming talent. He was the manager of former welterweight world champion Eddie Perkins and fringe light-heavyweight contender Allen Thomas.

Johnny Coulon’s circle of friends was as eclectic as it was wide. For instance, whenever he was in Chicago, Ernest Hemingway would always visit Coulon’s gym to kibbitz with Johnny about the old days and, to spar with some of the fighters hanging around the gym. Boxing artist leroy neiman would always bring his canvas and easel to Coulon’s gym where he would spend days at a time sketching various boxers, some famous, some not.

Johnny Coulon is immortalized on screen in the cult classic Medium Cool, which shot some scenes at his gym.

Johnny was unique for turn of the century boxers in that he never drew a color line in or out of the ring. He accepted people on merit. He was a very close friend of world heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. When Johnson ran into tough times and was abandoned by most of his entourage, he could always count on the financial support and friendship of Johnny Coulon. Coulon was one of the few white people who frequented Johnson’s Chicago restaurant, Café de Champion. Johnny was even a pallbearer at Johnson’s funeral, heartbroken though he was.

Johnny Coulon was a reknowned boxing historian. He was there in the heyday of the gloved era and hee proudly reminded reporters and fans that he knew every heavyweight champion of the world from John L. Sullivan to Joe Frazier.

Johnny Coulon was the exception to the rule for retired prizefighters. He was not forced to live out his remaining days in some old, dilapidated room in some broken down old tenament building, living off of handouts from others.

He became more famous with each passing year during his retirement, becoming a celebrity in Chicago, revered for his achievements in the ring and his compassion and kindness out of it. By the 1960’s Johnny Coulon was a living legend in Chicago, a warm link to a better time. Johnny retained his mental and physical faculties all of his life. In fact, when he 75 year-old, he would stun onlookers in his gym, leaving a boxing ring by jumping over a top rope and landing safely and calmly on his feet.

He accepted a bet on his 80th birthday and walked the entire length of his gym on his hands. This Canadian giant of the prize ring went down for the final count of ten in 1973 at the age of 84. He lies in rest at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Chicago.

Jermain Taylor rose to the top with the help of an excellent management team and an outstanding trainer. He won the middleweight strap with a controversial decision over future first ballot Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins. Most experts agree that Taylor was given a gift decision over Hopkins in their title tilt. Hopkins was again robbed in the rematch, with Taylor even looking shocked that he had won the decision. Such are the vagaries of boxing. Be that as it may, he is happily married with children and was the middleweight champion of the world. Most professional boxers never get to be champion, so Jermain is in rarefied company. He has nothing left to prove, to himself or to the boxing world.

At this point, at the obvious end of his career, Taylor was overmatched against Arthur Abraham. Abraham showed more power, more heart and was on par with Jermain in the arena of speed. Abraham put everything on every punch he threw, looking to ko Taylor with each shot he landed. Taylor was winging arm punches with nothing on them. Abraham walked through Taylor like a fat kid through a chocloate factory.

Arthur Abraham fought a steady if not spectacular fight. He is a typical power fighter, always coming forward, looking to pound his opponents bodies in hopes of wearing them down gradually and setting them up for a late round knockout. Against Taylor, his plan worked to perfection. He was able to easily cut off the ring and pouind the heart and strength out of Jermain Taylor.

You would think that against a fighter like Abraham whose modus operandi is to keep coming forward like a tank column, Taylor would at least try to make it difficult for him by offering angles and feints and lots of head movement. None of that was to be found in Taylor’s arsenal. In terms of boxing ammo, Taylor’s cache was virtually empty. He made the fight relatively easy for Abraham. The 12th round knockout was not a surprise really, as Taylor fought the whole fight with his hands down by his side without creating enough distance between himself and Abraham to make such a stance a wise decision.

With Taylor not offering up anything in the way of power, why would Abraham even bother to have any respect for what was left of Taylor’s boxing ability? Why wouldn’t Abraham walk forwards constantly in a straight line if there was nothing in the way of power from Abraham to dissuade him?

Abraham didn’t have to worry about missing with the occasional wild punch because Taylor had no intention of making Abraham pay with a counter. I distinctly remember the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight. Going into the fight Leonard’s legendary trainer Angelo Dundee noted that nobody ever made Hagler pay whenever he missed with a punch. Other guys showed him way too much respect by standing still and waiting for Hagler to reset. Dundee told Leonard to whack Hagler everytime Hagler missed. In other words, let him know that there were going to be no free rides. You miss you pay and Hagler paid for every mistake he made. Not so with Jermain Taylor. Abraham was often off balance and wide open to a counter straight right hand or a left hook. That was not to be however as Taylor continually let Abraham regain his balance and reset.

Maybe Taylor no longer has it in him physically to do such things anymore. Rather than automatically countering an opponent, Taylor has to think about it first, by which time the opportunity has already passed. When you react that way, you are by definition a shot fighter. Countering requires reflexes, speed and a willingness to scrap. Taylor has speed but precious little else.

Taylor should withdraw from the rest of the tournament rather than put his health seriously at risk. At the very least, he should retire for the sake of his family. Let’s hope that Lou Del Bella succeeds in getting through to Jermain Taylor’s head. It seems his opponents aren’t having any trouble doing that. Jermain Taylor had a successful career and he should be happy about that. Any professional fighter would be proud to have had a career like Jermain Taylor’s. He’s got nothing left to prove but a helluva lot to live for.

It’s time for heads to roll. The CBC is top heavy with upper management. Why? To what effect? Their programming is still dreadful. Why is George Anthony, a former newpaper columnist, allowed to continue drawing a salary at the CBC? What, if anything does he do there (when he’s not trying to seduce some young male intern) and what achievements can he claim credit for in all his time their other than getting his daughter Alex a permanent writing job at the CBC.

I worked on the Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui show at the CBC in it’s first season. We all knew that friday Night without Ralp Benmergui would be a much better alternative. I was brought on midway through the first season along with Lawrence Morgenstern. We knew the show was terrible. Everybody in Canada knew the show was horrible. The head writer, Tom Nursall (a great guy and talented writer/producer) told me one day that my job wasn’t to come up with funny jokes or skethces, but rather to always agree with Ralph and producer Joe Bodolai regardless of whatever lame idea they came up with. Joe loved everything. Any shit idea anybody came up with, Joe loved it. Joe was the ultimate CBC player. Never rock the boat, never make waves, never be original or funny, just agree with everybody else and keep collecting your paycheque. I made the cardinal sin of diagreeing with Joe and Ralph numerous times about certain ideas I thought were just not funny. I was always told to hush up and lets make these ideas as painless as possible. I thought the idea was to be funny and original. Silly me.

Any CBC employee you speak to always agrees with the fact that Little Mosque on The Prairie is the single worst show ever produced by the CBC if not any network. Does anybody ever watch this dreck? Most CBC insiders you talk to openly admit the show is embarrassingly bad. The CBC claims that it’s popular in Arab countries. So is circumcising female teens and stoning pregnant women to death. I thought the CBC’s mandate was to produce television for Canadians and not members of the United Arab Emirates. Little Mosque is so bad it can be used as a form of torture to get members of Al Qaeda to talk. if they don’t give up info, just show em another episode and eventually they’ll cave or take their own life. Why is this show still on? It is horrifically bad. The CBC has what I call the “Carla Collins Syndrome.” You all know Carla Collins? A former host from the Weather Network, she is an abysmal, talentless stand-up comic wannabe. The Comedy Network has given her 3 or 4 shows, each one failing miserably. They always promote her because they “know” what’s funny. They haven’t got a fucking clue. Yet they still keep giving her chances and she still keeps bombing. The CBC has that same mentality with Little Mosque. The show’s writing is unbelievably bad yet they still have it on. The CBC will never ever produce a Corner Gas because they don’t have the intelligence or the balls to put it together. They meddle with every show they produce. They produce shows by committee. They write and edit them by committee. Talentless imbeciles who haven’t a fucking clue tell seasoned writers what works and what doesn’t. Certain CBC employees are married to well-known Canadian comedians. They think that this makes them an excellent judge of comedy too. Unfortunately it doesn’t. Same at citytv with Marci (Mousy) Martin. Just because her sister was Andrea Martin she thought she knew funny. She knew nothing and was put in charge of stuff there. She finally and justifiably got the axe last year after CTV took over. Good riddance to another talentless bootlicker.

The great thing about Corner Gas is that CTV put together a great writing team and a great show runner and then left them alone and let them do their jobs. That will never happen at the CBC. That’s why the CBC passed on Saturday Night Live, Corner Gas, The Kids In The Hall and the original SCTV. Both Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin told me that SCTV begged the CBC to just air the show and not even pay them a fee and the CBC said no. That is until NBC picked up SCTV then the CBC came begging on hands and knees. Same with Kids In The Hall. The CBC said no until Lorner Michaels picked them up. Corner Gas they had no interest inand SNL was originally offered to them by Lorne Micchaels and they runed it down! He just took it Stateside and look what happened.

The CBC must be put to sleep once and for all. Fade the signal to black and just fire the entire building. Other than news and news documentaries, there is almost nothing of any worth they produce to justify giving them even one lowly dollar of our money. You say you like Strombo? Good. That’s one show. That’s it. Only one show. There are talented people there. They are just straightjacketed until they become pod people and walk around with sallow faces like so many robots in an elevator. It’s time for the government to once and for all completely stop funding this bloated, ill-managed, disrespected train wreck. Give us our money back. Write to your MP and tell him that you’ve had enough of your tax dollars wasted on this archaic institution. it’s finally, at long last, time to turn off the signal for ever and say goodnight to the CBC.

The first person I called after going on my own was Simon Rakoff. Simon was there my very first amateur night 27 years ago and we’re still close friends today. At least that’s what he tells me. Maybe it’s his fault that I haven’t gone anywhere. He’s holding me back. Simon is truly a brilliant, original comedian, and, if you don’t believe me, just ask him. Simon and I have a lot in common. I got married and had a kid. Then right after me, Simon got married and had a kid. I had a daughter. Simon had a daughter. Say, wait a second. That’s my bit! He stole that from me. I got married and had a kid first. He’s a hack! Simon is a hack Dad. I don’t mind if he gets married and has a kid out of town but not in Toronto.

Simon put me in touch with Jim at the Laugh Resort, where I now perform on a weekly basis. It’s a great club and I’ve been treated very well there by everyone. It was the first comedy club I’d been to in Toronto that actually has articles of comedians on the wall and not the owners. It’s such a great feeling to be able to work with Simon every week. I also watched Tim Steeves do a headline set one night and he was jaw-droppingly brilliant. He was absolutely magnificent from beginning to end. I watched Tim and I thought to myself, “Now that’s how stand-up is done.”

This past August I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of performing in Edmonton at Rick Bronson’s Comic Strip. Wow! What a great club! The audiences were fabulous. It was just a real pleasure to be performing at a club where you’re not only wanted but are welcomed as well. The Condo is great too and for a guy who has spent as many years on the road as I have, that’s important.

I did two straight weeks at The Comic Strip and then I went to Ottawa to do Jason Lauran’s club Absolute Comedy. It was a phenomenal experience for me. I did seven sold out shows in Ottawa with audiences that were the best I’ve seen in 20 years. From good evening to good night, the audiences at Absolute Comedy laugh at everything and they laugh loud and long. They are the preeminent comedy club in Ottawa. I’ve never seen customers treated so well as I did in Edmonton and Ottawa. Absolute Comedy is opening here in Toronto on October 1st at the old Yuk’s location at Yonge and Eglinton. In fact, I’m headlining there from November 21st to the 24th. I must commend both Jason and Ricky for running first class, professional operations. They even eject drunk, heckling patrons in order to allow their other customers to enjoy the show. That would never happen at a Yuks club, regardless of whether or not a person or a group of people are acting drunk and disrupting and wrecking the show. In other words, Jason and Ricky get it! They may have lost 12 drunk patrons but they made the other 200 plus patrons happy. Those 200 happy customers will tell their friends, thereby increasing business and giving the club a good name. It shows customers that the club actually cares about them and that they are having a great time. Yuks has never grasped this concept. They will allow the table of drunks to stay, while the other 200 people leave pissed off and angry. Then, they will blame it on the comedian. You know, it’s called show business for a reason.