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BRUCE SELDON: The Atlantic City Express Rolled Into Town

Bruce Seldon may not have been the most decorated heavyweight champion ever, nor the most well-known. But he is a heavyweight champion who was born and raised in Atlantic City, and that, in and of itself, makes him unique.

Seldon’s amateur career was not overwhelming; in fact, he had only 24 bouts, winning a New Jersey state title in the super heavyweight division (over 201 pounds). He turned pro in October 1988 with a first-round KO of Joel McGraw, and he quickly picked up the reputation of being a sound fighter with a lot of talent and an educated left jab. And the results came. One of his early fights was an eighth-round TKO over southpaw Jerry Jones, who had knocked out Michael Bentt in one round just a year before, and another was a second-round stoppage of undefeated Tom Sandner that was televised on ABC.

Along the way to building an 18-0 record, Seldon beat war horses like David Bey, Ossie Ocasio and Jose Ribalta, but in his biggest career test, in April 1991, he ran out of gas and was stopped by Oliver McCall (who would one day win the WBC title) in the ninth round. His next fight after that would be especially disastrous, as he was blown out in one round by Riddick Bowe, who was unbeaten at the time and on his way to a heavyweight championship.

In terms of his viability on the world level, that opened up a lot of questions about Seldon and sent him back to square one. And along the way he had to sustain yet another defeat, a decision to Tony Tubbs, but he then reeled off seven straight wins to put himself into position for a shot at the vacant WBA (World Boxing Association) title against Tony Tucker, as George Foreman had been stripped of his belt. Tucker was the #1 contender, who Foreman chose not to fight, and Seldon was #2.

In that particular fight, which took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in April 1995, Seldon built a small lead on the scorecards, using the left jab with great effectiveness, and Tucker’s left eye began to shut. The referee, Mills Lane, stepped in and stopped it after the end of the seventh round, as Tucker and his corner protested vehemently. Seldon dedicated the fight to his former trainer, Carmen Graziano, and now he had a share of the heavyweight crown.

Steve Friess: Vegas Journalist; Podcaster; Provocateur and more ...

That has been Steve Friess’ route in life, more or less. Born and raised on Long Island New York, Steve moved to Chicago and matriculated at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. With a stopover in Rockford Illinois Steve came to Las Vegas in 1996, to cover county government for The Las Vegas Review-Journal. Then came Florida and Beijing, and finally back to Las Vegas in 2002. You can read more about Steve’s experience in China on his The China Chronicles . The following excerpt will explain why Steve prefers to eat the food at Ping Pang Pong rather than in Chinese Canteens in Beijing.

Next to my elbow fell a large, half-chewed bit of beef and bone ejected by the mouth of the Chinese dude sitting next to me. A moment later, the gal across from him would spit up some fishbones, dripping them right there onto the table surface next to some discarded bits of rice and chicken left behind by her seat’s previous occupant.

It is something of a Chinese custom to discard food refuse on the table, although in local restaurants it is done with a bit more discretion and is always removed before the next group inherits the table. This is, in fact, why the canteen food is repetitive to me despite the dozen or so dishes offered for any given lunch or dinner: I refuse to choose food with bones in it. As immersed as I want to be in the Chinese way of life, spitting all over the place is just one thing that goes too far. Steve Friess China Chronicles Is Steve Friess the Model of the New Journalist?

Steve’s Journalism career has been shadowed by the rise of the internet, having graduated from Medill in 1994, when the internet was in its infancy. As already noted his career started out on a typical path, start at a small newspaper, and work your way up to a larger paper.