Dallas Boxing Examiner | Matt Stolow
DALLAS - What do you do in Dallas - Fort Worth during fight week in March? Here is a little useless trivia, but I'll add more serious tips as the event gets closer.
Dallas - Fort Worth has one of the strongest economy's in the country. It's the fifth - largest media market in the country. It's the seventh - largest population center in America (6.3 million). Dallas dominates Fort Worth in virtually every category. Except for crime and boxing.
Dallas - Fort Worth Airport is seventh busiest in the world when it comes to passengers and third busiest in the world in takeoffs and landings. I don't understand it either.
While Dallas has a living member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Fort Worth has five former world champions to its credit.
Fort Worth's greatest boxer has to be future Hall of Famer Donald "The Cobra" Curry. Curry won titles started winning titles in 1983 at 147 and later at 154. At one time he was the No. 2 pound for pound fighter in the world behind only "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.
Around the same time as Curry, there was former WBA 140 champion Gene "Mad Dog" Hatcher.
Hatcher upset Johnny Bumphus in 1984 to win his title.
"Little" Stevie Cruz won the WBA Featherweight Championship in 1986 in a big upset as a late replacement over popular Barry McGuigan.
Troy Dorsey won his IBF Featherweight title in 1991 over Alfred Rangel. Dorsey also doubled as a world kick-boxing champion. .
Most recently Paulie Ayala upset Johnny Tapia in 1999 to win the WBA Bantamweight (118) title.
40 miles east on I-30 in Dallas, two fighters have won world titles.
In 1967, welterweight Curtis Cokes won the world WBA/WBC Welterweight title. Cokes was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 1995 Quincy Taylor knocked out Julian Jackson to win the WBC Middleweight Title.
So while Dallas makes a good account of itself, I say Fort Worth is a better fight town.
Maybe most important for visiting fight fans is that Dallas leads the entire country in restaurants per capita (per person) at 469 people per each restaurant. Dallas also has the most gentleman's club per person (numbers not available but it's impressive).
If you're coming here for the fight, assume you will have to eat Mexican food, barbecue and gourmet hamburgers. The closest casino is just an hour away on the Oklahoma border. There is not a sports book though. Poker, slots and blackjack.
The nightlife is world class.
You can easily kill a week with things to see and do while in Big D.
Source: Examiner.com
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