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 Augustus Gets Back in the Saddle
By Steve Kim (July 11, 2004) Photo © HoganPhotos.com
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You know Emanuel Augustus has been shafted a few times throughout his career when he tells you that what happened to him this past Tuesday night in Muskegon, Michigan, isn't even the worst jobbing of his career.
In fact, he'll tell you it's not even the worst thing to happen to him inside the ring in the past month or so.
"The worst one really was the fight right before this one happened at the Dodge Arena, in my title fight," said Augustus of his fight on June 18th in Hidalgo, Texas, a seventh round disqualification loss to Tomas Barrientes that cost him his IBA belt. "That was the worst one. The referee stopped my fight because I would not look at him. So that was the worst one because I lost a belt; I lost my title and I had just won it."
In that fight - in which he was winning - Augustus would be DQ'd by referee Laurence Cole. But since that fight wasn't televised, it has largely flown under the radar. But his 'loss' against Courtney Burton on ESPN2's Tuesday Night Fights has caused an uproar in the boxing community.
From the very beginning it seemed that referee Dan Kelley, and everyone else associated with that promotion, was working against Augustus, who once again played the role of a road warrior.
"I've been in these situations enough times to know that it doesn't matter, that the only way to beat the system is to knock the guy out," he says, of his familiar role as the spoiler. "And I don't consider myself a knockout artist, I consider myself an entertainer. If I should happen to knock a guy out, then hey, so be it. But my goal is to win the fight, to beat the guy, and to not get hit - don't get hit as much as him."
Which he seemed to do, as the broadcast duo of Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas had him winning by a wide margin, as did most of the nationwide audience. But inexplicably, both Robert Paganeli (99-90) and Ed Mosley (97-92) had Burton the easy winner. Jack Richards was the lone dissenter, as he had the fight scored 98-94 for Augustus.
Augustus says that he's an entertainer - which he is; he is fun to watch with his antics - but knowing what he knows, shouldn't he try and finish his opponents instead of toying with them and leaving things in the hands of judges who may be either incompetent or just plain corrupt?
"Y'know, I did try and do that," he claims. "I was actually trying to do that. But at the same time it's like I'm thinking I really don't want to waste my energy on this person," continued Augustus, who took this bout on less than two weeks notice. "Some people will say,' This guy can't stay in there with you. He's not on your level. get him outta there.'
"But I'm like, 'Y'know what? I'll just embarrass him, I'll leave it to somebody else to get him outta there' Y'know what I mean? I'll just show the world that I deserve to get better fights."
Judging by Kelley's conduct in the ring, perhaps no matter what Augustus did on that night, he simply wasn't going to win that fight. Remember, it was Kelley who erroneously ruled a fourth round knockdown a low blow, along with several other clean body shots. Augustus was content to try and win every round, something he thinks he accomplished.
"To be honest, I felt like I won all of them," he says. "But my coach thinks maybe I lost two or three rounds because he felt like there were times I was getting touched every so often. My coach really didn't like that at all and he felt that was bringing him (Burton) back into the fight."
But as you heard the wide margins of the scores - where no names were called by ring announcer Tony Rockman - you just had to think that this was a unanimous verdict for Augustus.
"To be honest, I wasn't even listening to them," he says. "The only thing I was waiting to hear is, 'From the red corner.' I even had to look at my corner to make sure what corner I was in. I mean, I hear the calls, but I don't hear the calls. I only really listen to see who won, whose name they call in the end. And in my mind I'm saying, 'I know I'm the winner, but let's see if they do what they're supposed to do.'"
But it looks like Augustus, who's gotten the short end of the stick often, has almost become a bit desensitized to being robbed.
"When they called him, I was like, 'It's a prime example' but I'm glad it happened on TV."
And even though Burton was from nearby Benton Harbor, the crowd was sympathetic to Augustus.
"It took a while for me to leave the ring because of all the love I was getting from the crowd at the time," says Augustus of his reception from the live audience. "When I left out the ring, nothing but love, nothing but love. Everybody was like, 'This was bullshit, they robbed you.' And the only thing I could tell people was like, 'Look, what you all need to do is to bring it to the commissioner or the promoter.'"
And it looks like those at the LC Walker Arena and watching on ESPN2 took his advice to heart. Just a day after the debacle, the Michigan Athletic Board of Control announced that they will review the fight, spurred on by the angry reaction they received via phone calls and e-mails about the decision.
Augustus' plight has become the story du jour in the game, although he seems oblivious to it.
"But I tell you what, it's about time because it's nothing new," he says of the outcry. "If it takes me to have to be the one to do it, so be it. But I refuse to believe that can't nothing be done. Again, I hate to keep going back to the last fight, but the referee stopped my last fight because I wouldn't look at him and everybody was telling me, 'Hey, why fight it? There's nothing you can do about it.'
"Yeah, well there's nothing you can do about it if you don't do nothing about it."
Augustus says that he will be appealing his bouts with Barrientes and Burton.
"I have written a letter and sent an e-mail to David Hollister, officially requesting that the match be challenged," said Jim Carver, who represents Augustus. Hollister is the director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
Carver is an attorney out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Augustus hails from. He has helped Augustus out in several contractual disputes over the past five years. He admits his knowledge of boxing is limited, but what he saw on Tuesday night looked awfully familiar to him.
"To be honest, it's not that different than some of the other matches I've seen Emanuel fight," he says. "I think over the years - and I'm not exactly sure why - he's gotten the bad end of a lot of decisions. I thought it was a clear victory. He's a good kid, he grew up on the streets, he's always been honest with me, straight with me. I like him."
It's pretty clear what happened against Burton since the show was nationally televised, but his DQ loss back in June wasn't. There are differing accounts of what happened, but it's clear that Augustus and Cole had a personality conflict.
"Apparently so," says Carver. "I have a tape of the fight and the best I can tell is that Emanuel is an emotional kid and he can be a hothead and apparently he and the referee got into a conflict, I'm not sure what.
"I've gone back and read the Texas rules and it looks like to me that Laurence Cole may have been within the letter of the law within the Texas rules, but certainly not within the spirit of the law. He penalized Emanuel a couple of times some strange way. He grabbed Emanuel's hands and in most state boxing commissions, a referee is not allowed to touch the fighter except to break up a clinch. And he was just in the middle of the ring and he grabbed his hand, which upset Emanuel to no end.
"Emanuel probably didn't react the most mature way," admits Carver, but he adds, "I can't criticize him; I wasn't in the middle of that ring, either."
As we speak, Augustus is in Houston, getting some work in as a sparring partner for Jesse James Leija as he prepares for his bout against Francisco Bojado on July 24th. But what's really on his mind is cleaning up the mess from his last two bouts.
"Right now I'm trying to take care of this here; I got pending paperwork, I'm trying to back up all this stuff that I've been talking as far as filing the complaints and the proper documents," Augustus told MaxBoxing. "I'm doing it for this fight and the last fight. I have to take care of my title fight first because the deadline is the 18th of this month."
For Augustus this is business as usual. Go on the road, get robbed and go back to work. But this time, he seems to be getting a lot more mileage out of it. In a
roundabout way, this could be the best thing to ever happen to his star-crossed career.
"The people over at 'Tthe Contender', the show that's coming out, I heard I got a call or something," he says. "I gotta call the people back and see what's gonna happen with that. But even if nothing happens with that, I still have my boxing career to look after, But I wouldn't mind getting me a little TV time, fo' real, y'know what I'm saying?"
Yeah, we hear ya' Emanuel. Loud and clear.
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