sugar ray seales
CANASTOTA, NY – FEBRUARY 8, 2012 – The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced today 1972 Olympic gold medalist “Sugar” Ray Seales will attend festivities planned for the 23rd Annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend set for June 7-10th. While in Canastota, Seales will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of his Olympic triumph.
“What a thrill it will be to welcome ‘Sugar’ Ray Seales to Canastota as he celebrates this landmark anniversary,” said Hall of Fame director Edward Brophy. “He proudly carries his medal with him and is always willing to show fans the gold he won representing the United States.”
“Sugar” Ray Seales
A native of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Seales relocated to Tacoma, WA in 1965. At age 16, he qualified for the 1968 Olympic Games, but the age limit to compete was 17. He made the 1972 team as light welterweight (139 pounds) and captured the USA’s only gold at the Munich Games. Seales engaged in 350 amateur bouts, winning 338 and losing only 12. After winning the gold, he turned pro in 1973 and won the NABF and USBA middleweight titles. During a 10-year pro career (1973-83), he posted a 56-8-3 (33 KOs) record. Now residing in Indianapolis, Seales trains amateur and pro boxers.
Events planned for the weekend include a banquet, a heavyweight bash, parade, golf tournament, boxing autograph card show, cocktail party and the Official Induction Ceremony honoring the Class of 2012. Living inductees to be honored at the Official Induction Ceremony on Sunday, June 10th are multi-division champion Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, two-division champion Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson, “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble” ring announcer Michael Buffer, trainer Freddie Roach, broadcaster Al Bernstein and journalist Michael Katz. Posthumous inductees will also be honored.
An impressive list of over 40 boxing greats from the United States and abroad are scheduled to participate in weekend festivities.
For more information on the Hall of Fame’s 23rd Annual Induction Weekend please call (315) 697-7095, visit online at www.ibhof.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/InternationalBoxingHallofFame and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BoxingHall.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
Sugar Ray Seales is NOT being inducted – he will be there for the weekend. Someone made a pretty aggregious error. The boxers being inducted are Tommy Hearns & Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson. Whoever originated this error owes a deep apology to Seales and the International Boxing Hall of Fame