 Thompson's Last Message?
By Steve Kim (Aug 15, 2008) Photo © Chris Farina
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When noted manager Cameron Dunkin inked the highly touted Anthony Thompson - then thought to be the best amateur the United States had to offer and strong contender for Olympic gold in 2004 - to a managerial pact in 2002, he believed he had signed his next world champion. Back then, it was Thompson that was his most decorated young prospect, not Kelly Pavlik or Steven Luevano.
"I thought he was a special guy, thought he was a guy who could win a title, like in three years, by 2006," said Dunkin, who won a heated bidding war for his services. "I figured he'd be fighting for a world title and winning it. It just hasn't quite turned out that way."
No, it certainly hasn't. While Pavlik has gone onto to capture the middleweight championship of the world and attain pound-for-pound status and Luevano has carved a fruitful niche as the WBO featherweight belt-holder, Thompson is now relegated to facing Ishmail Arvin as the main event on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights from someplace called the Ibiza Nightclub in Washington D.C.
It wouldn't be fair to label Thompson a bust in the realm of Kwame Brown (who natives of DC are all too familiar with) or Ryan Leaf just yet. But Thompson is akin to that bonus baby who is still toiling in the bush leagues, eons away from the 'Big Show'. By this time, Thompson was expected to have been headlining shows on HBO or Showtime, not making small change on 'the Deuce' at a nightclub that is converted into a makeshift boxing arena.
Thompson, himself, expected to be in a better place by 2008.
"Yeah, but however, I say this - not with a grain of salt, I'm a spiritual person. So in my life, my career was always going to be how I serve my God. You live and die by what you believe in. So I feel like the things that everybody else does in life, I can't do. And somehow if I go through the left or the right, doing those things, I feel like that God will punish me," says Thompson, a practicing Hebrew-Israelite. "So I don't know if I defeated myself mentally with certain things and winning certain fights or dealt with my career with this on my conscience.
"But it's OK, because anybody that's spiritual and believes in God knows that it gives you an optimistic mind state. So whatever happens, happens. If my career’s over today, or tomorrow, y'know, I got a chance to do some things that some people never got a chance to do. I just hope and pray that I can bounce back."
Thompson, as he said, is a deeply spiritual person, and there's not an interview that goes by where he doesn't mention his faith in detail. But you get the sense that his career and his religious beliefs have always conflicted with one another. Such issues as his Sabbath, which forbade him to box from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, have complicated his career path.
“My biggest fight is not in the ring, it's really outside the ring," he admits. "There are a lot of things I've allowed to distract me outside the ring. Anybody would say that talent was never an issue when it comes down to me. And I'm not the only fighter that had a lot of talent but got distracted outside of the ring. Y'know, applying myself to family, spiritual beliefs - as far as not fighting on certain days and things of that nature - and all that really affected my outcome."
Thompson says that members of his family - including his mother - have been at odds with his decision to fight during his Sabbath. They will not be in attendance as he takes on Arvin tonight.
“I’m not really worried anymore about what people have to say about this fight," he says. "This is a decision that I'm going to make and I'm going ahead with a clear mind. And this will be a focused Anthony, ain’t no going away to Africa, no changing to no vegetarian diet. This will be me focused. For six-and-a-half weeks, I trained and focused for this fight."
Yeah, about Africa, no, he didn't go all Dave Chappelle. But he went there on what could best be described as a spiritual retreat with family members in Israel before his bout with Yuri Foreman last July in New York.
"I came back too late, 11 days left and instead of me focusing on making adjustments, I had to focus on losing weight. When I was out there I really didn't have anybody to spar," he explains. "Because I went out there believing in the spiritual, I do regret going out there. I'm not going to lie. But spiritually, going out there, I have family out there, Israel, the Holy Land – and I should've just stayed home and just really focused on that fight and gone to Israel when I got back. It really set my body back. I was sooo tired."
During this jaunt, he also went on a vegetarian diet. In the aftermath he would lose a disputed 10-round decision to Foreman on the undercard of Miguel Cotto's shootout against Zab Judah at the Madison Square Garden. Foreman, a practicing Jew, had his prayers answered in winning a desultory contest.
"He was happy as hell with that decision, too," said Thompson. "When we said we wanted a rematch, he was like, 'Hell, no. I will never fight you again.'"
Dunkin says of that fight, "He lost a split decision to Yuri Foreman that everyone knows he won. If that fight’s not in New York, if it's anywhere else, he would've gotten his hand raised. He definitely won that fight, but he fought him in his backyard in New York City. We got screwed and that set him back. We'd be going forward; Yuri Foreman's still not going forward because nobody wants to watch him fight. So it's been disappointing."
The problem with Thompson may be that he thinks too damn much. Instead of just going out there and letting his natural talent flow, he complicates things by over-analyzing everything. After all, it's just boxing - two men going out there to hurt each other - doesn't matter if they're Jewish, Christian, Muslim or agnostic.
According to Dunkin, his fighter has cut out the unnecessary clutter.
“No more entourage, no more nonsense, no more guys with their vitamins and their special techniques and their religious drums and all this crap. He's just going to fight. I told him, 'If you do that, you have the ability to be a champion.' So he's supposed to be turning over a new leaf Friday night."
It's pretty simple - any more missteps and Thompson can have all the Friday and Saturday nights to do whatever he wants.
"He knows it, we've all talked about it," said Dunkin, who believes that Thompson is now a victim of his amateur pedigree and the promise that came with it. "It's a sad thing to say about somebody who’s 26 years old, but he had such high expectations and everybody thought so much of him. If he would've been a hidden guy like Luevano or something, nobody would've thought anything about him losing a split decision like Luevano lost a fight. But he's been under the eye of everybody from the beginning. So they're disappointed in him and he can't make any more mistakes. He's gotta look good Friday night, he's gotta make a statement."
But what's maddening is that Thompson says he has no extra sense of urgency going into this fight.
“Nah, not really," he says. "Because it's like this, I can't change the way I think."
Thompson, who has four kids, will tell you that he and his wife make ends meet (meaning they must not drive much) and that his work with at-risk youth in Philadelphia with his Yah's Corporation is every bit as important as his career in boxing.
This guy’s always been wired differently than your average prizefighter. You just wonder if he's wired to succeed as one at the highest levels.
But if he should lose, Thompson concedes, "I don't know, I'd probably sit back, go with my family. I don't know, probably retire. If I lose I'm going to say to myself that I probably shouldn't be fighting. Because all my losses, I shouldn't have lost none of them. So if you find yourself in a track of losing fights that you shouldn't lose, then how are you going to win the fights you shouldn't win?
"I feel I'm just as good as guys like Margarito, but who the hell’s going to believe me if I'm losing to Ishmail Arvin and Yuri Foreman?"
FINAL FLURRIES
Another Philly fighter makes his return to the ring on September 5th, when Demetrius Hopkins takes on Jauqin Gallardo in his Top Rank debut....On that same day in Montebello, California, All-Star Boxing has another show at the Quiet Cannon featuring lightweight hopeful Johnny Molina....September 19th could be 'the Battle for Armenia' in Southern California as 'Art of Boxing Promotions' has a show featuring a bevy of Armenian boxers taking place at the Warner Center Marriott and there's a very good chance that Vanes Martirosyan could be making his return to the Alameda Swap Meet on that same night on Telefutura....Is it just me or is DMX getting arrested every week? This has to be his most embarrassing moment since 'Belly'....There is a chance that WBO bantamweight titlist Gerry Penalosa could be added to the Pavlik-Hopkins undercard on October 18th in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Another fight being discussed for that show is a middleweight contest between Enrique Ornelas and Marco Antonio Rubio....How 'bout a fight between Deandre Latimore and Joe Greene?.....Anyone else enjoying 'Hard Knocks' on HBO as much as I am? I'll say this, if you can't play for Wade Phillips, you couldn't play for anybody. There's not a more likable individual than the son of 'Bum'......
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