Boxer Meza-Clay's life just like a movie
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Monty Meza-Clay works out with paddles wielded by head trainer Tom Yankello at an Aug. 20 media session at the Rivers Casino to promote his upcoming Super Featherweight fight against Allen "The American Boy" Litzau on August 28. At left is assistant trainer Kevin Corlew. -
Monty Meza-Clay goes to work on the paddles wielded by head trainer Tom Yankello at a media session at the Rivers Casino August 20. -
Monty Meza-Clay -- "You can make a movie off of what I've been through in the past year and a half."
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Monty Meza-Clay pulled into a gas station Thursday to find another customer staring him down. Meza-Clay tried to avoid eye contact, but the guy kept looking. Finally the man smiled.
"Good luck Saturday," he said. Meza-Clay understood.
The man must have seen the posters or the commercials for Meza-Clay's fight, the first at the Rivers Casino, against Allen Litzau (13-5, seven KOs) tonight. The seven-bout card starts at 7 p.m. The fact that the man recognized Meza-Clay (28-3, 19 KOs) is astounding considering what has happened to Meza-Clay recently.
"You can make a movie off of what I've been through in the past year and a half," he said.
Could you? Meza-Clay mentions movies often. Monty Meza-Clay does not quite roll off the tongue like Jake La Motta. Unlike Rocky, he is a featherweight. But what do movies need? Intrigue, complications, setbacks, heartbreak, redemption, climax. Meza-Clay has them all.
FADE IN:
INTERIOR OF WORLD CLASS BOXING GYM, AMBRIDGE, PA. AFTERNOON.
Up three dark flights of stairs is a high-ceilinged room, home to the World Class Boxing Gym in a brick building on 8th street in Ambridge.
In the mirror stands Meza-Clay, 29, shadowboxing two days before his big fight. Meza-Clay at 5 feet 2 had established himself as one of the premier 130-pounders. He won the IBA super featherweight title in 2005 and was the top-ranked contender for the WBO featherweight title in 2008.
Then, things turned south.
Legal problems jeopardized his future. Business dealings blocked his title shot and sent him out of the country. Multiple injuries forced him to miss more than a year.
"But now I got the city behind me," he said. "I got a great team, and everything seems to be back on track."
To understand Meza-Clay's path to the fight tonight, one must travel further back.
INTERIOR OF CLAY HOME, WASHINGTON, D.C. EVENING
Ramont Clay was born in Pittsburgh to parents who met in the Army but grew up in Washington, D.C. His father was a boxer, but Meza-Clay, who added his Mexican mother's name to his in 2004, never saw him fight. They talked about it, though, and Meza-Clay remembered watching Mike Tyson fight with his dad and his sisters. He shadowboxed his sisters until his dad, also Ramont, told his sister to shut him up, and she did.
First Published August 28, 2010 12:00 am
