Philadelphia’s Rich Boxing History Continued This Past Weekend

Philadelphia has always been a great sports city, but one thing people may overlook when they think about Philadelphia sports is our very rich boxing history.

Of course, we are known around the world for the Rocky movies. Hell, the statue outside the art museum is packed 24/7 with tourists wanting to take pictures.

But as iconic as Rocky is, our boxing pedigree in Philly goes way beyond a fictional character.

We have boxing legends from this city like Joe Frazier who went toe to toe with the best boxer ever Muhammad Ali.

Plus, who could forget Bernard Hopkins and the great run he had.

B-Hop was so great he even landed himself on the cover of the Fight Night video game series.

Oh, and I can’t forget about Danny Garcia who has held multiple world championships himself.

Well, now that we’re all caught up on some of the history of boxing in Philly, let’s take it to the present day where current boxers from this great city are making quite the names for themselves.

Over the weekend, Pattyann and I got to watch some great boxing matches at my home away from home, the Wells Fargo Center.

There were close to 16k people in attendance to watch the fight of the night from another homegrown talent.

Philly’s own Jaron “Boots” Ennis defended his IBF welterweight title with a TKO victory over David Avanesyan.

Plus, all those people in the building were treated to a great night of boxing from the eight other fighters on the card as well.

Another marquee fight of the night was Skye Nicholson vs. Dayna Vargas.

In that fight, Skye Nicholson recorded a unanimous decision victory over Vargas.

My wife actually got to chat with Skye’s mother after the fight and she was a very pleasant lady!

Plus, and maybe my favorite part of the night, is that I got to see my old pal and former Brooklyn Nets PA announcer, David Diamante!

David is now a legendary voice in the boxing ring.

Overall, it was a great night, and I want to send a huge shout-out to the Wells Fargo Center staff who did a great job all night.

Now, get to reading about the rich boxing history of Philly if you haven’t already!

As many of you know after reading my post about the Stanley Cup from yesterday, I spent the last week on vacation down the Jersey shore.

And from many of my other posts before that, you know I enjoy going for some long bike rides — especially down the shore!

So what could be better than squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week's long vacation? Squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week’s long vacation with a great friend of mine, of course!

I got to go on a great ride with my buddy Casey Boy from The Preston and Steve Show on our sister station, WMMR.

We rode through multiple shore towns as we got in a practice ride in preparation for this Sunday’s Ben To The Shore ride! For those that don’t know, the Ben To The Shore Bike Tour is a charity event that raises funds for Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation, which is for the families of fallen first responders and police officers.

It is always a lot of fun and something I look forward to each year!

During our practice route, Casey Boy and I rode about 25.81 miles from Wildwood to Town Bank to Cape May Point to Cape May then all the way back to Wildwood where we started.

It was a great time and has me ready to conquer the 65-mile Ben To The Shore ride! This will actually be my tenth year riding in the event and each year it gets better and better.

If you are interested in donating, visit fbbcf.org or visit the Team WMMR Rock and Rollers page.

I can’t wait for Sunday and hopefully, the weather holds up for the ride! I’m sure there will be a lot of people on the ride for this great cause!

Who do you think will cross the finish line first, me or Casey Boy?

Here's a selfie Casey Boy took on our ride. It is of Casey, Pattyann, and myself. What a great crew.

I took this during our ride. I'm not sure how I kept my balance! Just ahead of my leading the way are Casey and Pattyann.

Like I mentioned in the photo above, there they are leading the way. It's a tight bridge like many down the shore. Luckily, we all managed to make it across.

The first sign you see in Town Bank. Apparently, it is the birthplace of the South Jersey. I wonder what it was like in 1635?

Outside the beautiful Willow Creek Winery. What a cool sign. We definitely needed to check this place out on the ride.

The land the winery was on was beautiful. Look at those flowers! The property was huge.

You know we had to make our way into the winery! Riding on the bricks was not as hard as you would think. It was even cooler on the inside.

You know I had to grab a group picture inside the winery! I am actually wearing a jersey from a previous Ben To The Shore ride! I wonder what this year's will look like?

Just a group of people that love a good bike ride. I know we all can't wait for Sunday's ride. Hopefully, the weather is as nice as it was on this day!

The map of our 25-mile ride. We covered so much ground. It is nuts looking at it in map form!