Niagara Boxing Legend Baby Joe Mesi
Baby Joe Mesi will be a proud recipient when he is inducted into the Niagara Boxing Legends at the 17th Annual Niagara Boxing Legends Show March 21 at the Merritton Community Centre.
“To be remembered for an achievement, no matter what it is, is always humbling,” the 51-year-old native of Tonawanda, N.Y., said. “I’m honoured, especially here 45 minutes from my house.”
The former top-ranked WBC heavyweight fighter, who retired with a pro record of 36-0 and 29 knockouts, fought in Ontario as an amateur and as a pro and has a pair of notable Niagara connections.
“I have great memories right across the border. Tom Glesby was my sparring partner in the late 1990s, Pat Kelly (Shamrock Boxing Club coach) was my cut man for many years and I trained in Niagara. I have great memories of great people and I’m honoured to be recognized along with these other great local fighters and coaches,” he said. “My fondest memories are not fighting at Madison Square Gardens, Mandalay Bay, or in Buffalo, N.Y., in front of 22,000 people. My fondest memories are my amateur ones.”
He is happy to be invited to big boxing cards at Mandalay Bay and Madison Square Gardens but loves going to amateur shows.
“My brother and I talk that those are the best memories there, fighting for our trophies, a medal or a ribbon. We made such good friends and had such good camaraderie with other fighters. When I go to these amateur shows and see kids working so hard, they don’t know what they are going do with their lives or where they are going to go but they will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
Mesi came from a boxing family.
“My grandfather and my uncle were boxers. My brother, Tom, and I were always athletic and we were drawn to the sport because they were boxers. We loved hearing their stories, we loved seeing their (newspaper) clippings and we loved boxing because they loved it,” he said. “Fighting back in that day — we’re talking the late 20s to the 40s and 50s — Buffalo and Ontario had a rich history of boxing and it was incredibly popular. If you were a Golden Glover, you were fighting in front of a full auditorium of 16,000 people and it was insane. To be a Golden Glove champion, you were damn near a celebrity. They experienced that.”
Mesi and his brother competed in football, wrestling and baseball and every time a boxing match came on TV or on pay-per-view all their friends would gather to watch at their house.
“We were the boxing family but it wasn’t until after high school that we started. My mom would say ‘Why are you beating each other up in the basement with boxing gloves? Go to the police athletic gym and you can beat each other up for free.’ It was one of those things where we just did it and slowly we trained, got in shape, sparred and then it was let’s get our licence and take a fight.”
They won their first fights, won again and started to get write-ups in the Tonawanda News, the Buffalo News, in Albany and Syracuse before making it to the Golden Gloves.
His brother didn’t have the same work ethic and his interest in boxing waned but Joe persevered.
“All the attention was on him but I just kept going and going and going and it snowballed into something that was a blessing for me.”
In his younger days, he remembers doing well as an amateur and getting invited to national tournaments.
“As a 21-year-old, they would fly me to Dallas and I would get into the hotel room and I would think it was so much fun. I couldn’t believe it. To win five fights in a row at nationals is a little different and I thought I would probably be sent home in a day or two. But I would go to those tournaments and I would be winning every night.”
He was new to boxing and had no idea who is opponents were.
“I was winning every night and the crowd was almost quiet. Here I am in the finals and people are wondering who is this kid? People were asking me if I knew who I had just beat. Looking back, that was better than anything I did.”
The big Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres fan became the New York State Golden Gloves champion and lost in the finals of the heavyweight division at the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials.
During his pro career, he defeated former world champion Vassily Jirov and top challengers Bert Cooper, Monte Barrett, DaVarryl Williamson and Jorge Luis Gonzalez.
After the 2004 fight with Jurov, an MRI showed he had suffered one or two subdural hematoma. During the fight, he was knocked down once in ninth round and two more times in 10th round. He still won the fight.
The injuries resulted in him being medically suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In 2005, he applied for reinstatement from the Nevada State Athletic Commission but was rejected by 5-0 vote. The decision banned him from boxing anywhere in the United States.
In 2006 and 2007, was licensed to fight in several states and won all his fights before retiring in 2007.
“It’s complex, it’s complicated but I am an advocate for safety. I am 51 years old, I have a wife and family, I have a career in sales and I am successful. I wouldn’t change a day of my past or a day of this path along this journey. I am here right now talking to you. On March 21, I will be honoured at the Legends show and what a gift.”
He describes boxing as the tool that God gave him.
“It gave me a platform and I was very blessed. I look at my situation and I am happy it worked out the way it did because they caught the injury. I stopped boxing under suspension and my next fight would have been against Mike Tyson.”
The fight was scheduled for 60 days later and he would have had to start preparing right away.
“If I would have went back to the gym immediately and started sparring what would have happened? What if he had caught me in the fight? This wasn’t the Mike Tyson in his prime but it was still Mike Tyson. I am really glad that I didn’t have that next fight at the time I did.”
A couple years later after fighting the legal battle, Mesi was ready to go again.
“I rested, I healed and I did think I had a right to box. Maybe not clinically. Nevada told me I wasn’t going to fight there again but every state had the discretion whether or not they wanted to license me again,” the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame member said. “I did box a handful more times in lesser-known states to try and prove to people I was healthy and I could come back to New York and Nevada and fight in the two states I really wanted to fight in but after a few fights I thought ‘This is a battle I am not going to win politically.’ I was barking up the wrong tree and for my safety, I thought there was other things I could do in my life.”
He has no regrets.
“Boxing itself has taught me a lot about myself as a person. It has given me confidence. I speak in public about my story and about the transition and identity of my life and how it has changed. I want kids, college students, athletes to know that there is more to this world and God didn’t put you here for that.”
Boxing allowed him to know himself inside and out.
“It is not a team sport. You are alone in that ring and there’s no hiding and there’s no blending in. If I go 10 rounds with a fighter that I respect, at the end of the fight I know that guy as good as his mother knows him. I know everything I need to know about him, about his will, his drive and his determination. It’s a great sport, it is a challenging and difficult business and I love it.”
Boxing is far more than just skill.
“I had great trainers who taught me a ton and made me a boxer. But it is toughness and will and I found that out about myself in the late 1990s. I had a will and a determination about me. I wasn’t thinking I was unbeatable or the best boxer in the world but if I got knocked down, I was going to do my damnedest to get back up. I had that kind of mentality.”
He does some boxing commentating but has no interest in being involved in the day-to-day business of running a club or training boxers.
“I’m not saying I am better than it. It is just somewhere I don’t belong.”
When asked about his nickname, Mesi laughed.
“It was like I had to figure out something really, really cool and dangerous but my family was like ‘You are Baby Joe.’ For me it was ‘Oh no.’ It stuck. I had been Baby Joe since I was a child.”
Also being inducted are Bruce Greenlaw, Jessie Wilcox, Bill Williams, Sonny Pascuzzi, Brian Baines and Gerry Ryan.
Tickets for the show are $20 in advance and $25 at the door with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the fighting starting at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, VIP tables and sponsorship opportunities, call 905-988-1244.
Former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney will be in attendance at the fights.
