DETRIMENTAL BEHAVIOR?

By Michael Swann

Missy “The Fury” Fiorentino, 15-1 (6), is the highly regarded IWBF featherweight champion, a tough cookie who has been called “The Rocky Marciano of Women’s Boxing” for her exciting, fan friendly style. However, last week Classic Entertainment and Sports Inc. (CES) issued a press release that Fiorentino has been released from her promotional contract, due to “detrimental behavior.” The infraction was incurred on February 9 at “The Hearts of Fire” card in Providence featuring women’s boxing icon Mia St. John and Missy’s CES stablemate Jaime Clampitt. (Clampitt won a 10 round unanimous decision.)

CES president Jimmy Burchfield was quoted in the press release as saying, “CES stands for teamwork, family, and togetherness. That’s what we are all about and anyone who isn’t cannot be with us, regardless of the fighter’s record and accomplishments. We acknowledged all of our fighters (in the audience) by introducing them in the ring, in between fights, as a sign of respect. Nobody could find Missy because she was in Mia’s dressing room, which was the last place anybody from CES would have thought to look. I couldn’t believe she was in the corner of her CES teammate’s opponent. It was a bush league move that I will not tolerate by her or anyone else on Team CES.”

My journalistic sense, such as it is, thought surely there must have been more to the story. I contacted Burchfield’s able publicist, Bob Trieger, and asked him if there was more to the story than face value. Bob replied that “it is what it is,” that Burchfield places loyalty and family with the utmost importance.

That seems fair enough, I thought, but this is boxing. Loyalty and family?

I contacted Fiorentino for her account of the story. Missy, like most fighters, and particularly female fighters, is not getting rich from her accomplishments. She serves at the Sheriff’s office as a Rhode Island deputy marshal, transporting prisoners back and forth to court.

In May 2006, she came up from featherweight to challenge her Rhode Island rival, the aforementioned Jaime Clampitt. Accounts of the fight describe it as non-stop excitement. Missy took the decision 97-94, 96-94, and 96-94 to take Clampitt’s IWBF lightweight crown. It was obviously a high point in Fiorentino’s career.

Surprisingly, Missy was at a loss to offer any explanation for her dismissal beyond that given by CES. However she did offer her views on the matter.

“We’re not friends,” Missy began, referring to Clampitt. “We fought for the same promoter but that’s it. I met Mia on the day before the weigh-in. I thought she was a very nice person. I know she’s a great boxer and to me it was an honor to carry her belt [to the ring]. That was the only reason I carried out her belt. It had nothing to do with Jaime.

“I think they (CES) didn’t like the idea that I wouldn’t give Jaime a rematch. I took her belt from her. I believe that Jimmy wanted her to beat me because I think he wanted one female fighter.

“So I think this is a great opportunity. I’m kind of glad he released me because I felt that I was being held back. I’ve been a pro five and a half years and I have 16 fights. Within a week, my mother, who is my manager, has already had three fight offers for me.

“I think it’s ridiculous what he did, but I don’t even know the true reason because he never notified me that I was released. My trainer, Peter Manfredo Sr., called me from L.A. where he’s training his son and said he saw it on the internet. To this day, I still have not been notified by (Burchfield).

“I’ve tried to get out of the contract before with him and he wouldn’t let me out of the contract. I told him that it expired one time and he said it was extended because I was injured.

“Between me and her [Clampitt], I don’t know how to put it, but they’re always making her seem better than me. Her husband used to work for Jimmy. There’s always been competition between the two of us and we’re not even the same weight. I moved up to lightweight to fight her and I beat her. Then I read things, heard things about how I got a hometown decision, but she’s from Rhode Island too, so that doesn’t make sense. She said I won because I was Italian.

“I sell a lot of tickets. People like the way I fight. I’m happy, I’m grateful. This is the best thing he’s ever done for me and I just want to thank him. I can fight a little more now.”

Boxing is not a team sport. To think that a champion would be released from a contract for standing in the corner of a stablemate’s opponent has stretched my apparently limited comprehension. I just don’t see it as detrimental behavior. I was positive at first that there must have been more involved, but if it is then Missy herself is unaware of the facts.

Perhaps Bob Trieger’s original response was the best all along. If Jimmy Burchfield is simply an old fashioned guy who places loyalty and teamwork and family as the most important things in his business, then I certainly have no right to tell him how to spend his money. It’s unusual in boxing to appreciate such virtues, but certainly it’s his prerogative, and if that it how he truly feels, I apologize. For now I remain unconvinced.

What do you think? Send your comments and opinions to mswann4@aol.com . Meanwhile, don’t forget to come back for my next column on Thursday.