Veteran New England boxing publicist Bob Trieger, who personally worked with nine world champions during their respective title reigns, published his first book, New England’s Greatest Boxers, which is a comprehensive, in-depth list of the greatest New England boxers of all time in order from one to 25.
“I enjoyed reading Bert Sugar’s book, Boxing’s Greatest Fighters, which listed the top 100 fighters of all time, and I was fascinated by it. I had the idea for the top 25 New England fighters of all time for the last ten years, however, I never had time to work on it,” said Trieger. “I knew it would take a lot of time to write and research it, and I did not want to work on it for a few months and then stop. Then the pandemic [Covid-19] hit, and I finally had time to write the book since boxing stopped.”
New England’s Greatest Boxers is a fast-paced, engaging page-turner that includes detailed biographies of the top 25 New England fighters’ careers and a breakdown of all their world title bouts. Trieger provides a wealth of knowledge about each boxer and an extensive overview of New England boxing from the early days of bare-knuckle fighting to the modern era of professional boxing. The book lists all the world championship fights by the top New England fighters and Ring Magazine’s New England Fights-of-the-Year and Fighters-of-the-Year.
He was the publicist for three world champions featured in his book, two-time heavyweight (and first Latino) belt holder John “The Quietman” Ruiz (number 15), undefeated two-division world titleholder Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (number 18), who is the only active boxer and Olympian in this top 25 list, and three-time, two-division world champion, “El Gallo” Jose Antonio Rivera (number 23). Trieger also worked with “Irish” Micky Ward (number 25), widely known for his epic trilogy with Autro Gatti (who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) in 2012), with two bouts being Fights-of-the-Year by Ring Magazine.
“Working with Bob was great. He helped my boxing career tremendously. Bob has been with me for many years, including helping me with my promotional company [Rivera Promotions Entertainment, which he co-owns with his son AJ],” said Rivera, who obtained his last victory at the age of forty-six [43-6-1, 25 KOs]. “This book is well written, and I am honored to be listed with some of New England’s great world champions and hall of famers.”
Trieger formed a selection committee of twenty trusted, respected, and well-informed New England promoters, matchmakers, managers/advisors, announcers, photographers, trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, and boxing attorneys, who voted for their top 25 New England fighters. To qualify as a New England fighter, they had to be either born in New England (which consists of six states: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) or lived there for five years during the height of their professional career.
“We started with the top 100 New England fighters, then 50, and then 25. When we had 25 fighters, each committee member voted for their fighters in order from one to 25, and I assigned points for each slot,” said Trieger, who has lived in New England for his entire life. “I then totaled the points up – most for first place, fewest for 25th place – and came up with the top 25 in order.”
Willie Pep finished number one overall, but Rocky Marciano (number two) finished with one more first-place vote. Marvin Hagler (number three) got two first-place votes, and John L. Sullivan (number six) received one. Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire only had one top 25 New England fighter (Joey Gamache from Maine – number 24). The other twenty-four boxers came from Massachusetts (14), Connecticut (eight), and Rhode Island (two).
Determining New England’s top 25 fighters is challenging when many boxers have exceptional resumes and high-quality victories over formidable opponents. Everyone has their own opinion of who is the best of all time, and no two people agree on the same list of fighters, so New England’s Greatest Boxers included ten honorable mentions.
“Ray Oliveira was one of those fighters who just missed making the list of the top 25 fighters,” said Trieger. “Oliveira and Ward were supposed to fight one another, which would have settled the debate as to who was the better fighter, however, that bout never happened.”
Trieger founded Full Court PRESS, a Boston-based combat-sports publicity agency specializing in boxing, in 1998. Over the last 25 years, he worked with six additional world champions: Beibut Shumenov, Paulie Malignaggi, Randall Bailey, Bermane Stiverne, Peter Quillin, and female fighter Holly Holm, who got inducted into the IBHOF in 2022. Trieger was the publicist for six Olympic boxers, four from the United States: Jason Estrada, Antonio Tarver (bronze medalist in the light heavyweight division), Nico Hernandez (bronze medalist in the light flyweight division), Andrade, and Kevin McBride (Ireland), and Shumenov (Kazakhstan).
He has covered 36 world title fights in Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States. Trieger worked on non-world title bouts in Brazil. He is a publicist for 3 Point Management, a boxing management company that represents fighters like former super middleweight world titleholder and light heavyweight world title challenger Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramírez and undefeated up-and-coming super flyweight prospect John “Scrappy” Ramirez (no relation). Trieger also works for Gionta Management (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania), Groupe Yvon Michel (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Toro Promtions (Los Angeles, California), and USA Boxing (Colorado Springs, Colorado). In addition, he is a publicist for two New England boxing promotional companies, Shearns Boxing Promotions and Granite Chin Promotions.
“Bob Trieger has produced an important addition to the history of boxing not only in New England but on a national scale. New England fighters have often been underrated and overlooked. Bob’s work is an effort to list New England’s best boxers but also put them in historical perspective,” said Ron Borges, who was inducted into the IBHOF in 2022. “A few like Marciano, Hagler, and the Great John L. Sullivan are well known, but many former world champions are not. This book briefly tells their stories and argues successfully in defense of his choices.”
Fifteen boxers mentioned in this book are in the IBHOF, and six are included in Ring Magazine’s list of top 100 fighters. The top 25 fighters in New England’s Greatest Boxers accounted for forty-three world titles. Only Sam Langford, Cocoa Kid, and Ward (who won the WBU Intercontentiental light welterweight title in 2000) were not world champions.
“Boxing was extremely important in New England, and some of the best fighters of all time came from here,” said Trieger. “From 1902 to 1908, Chelsea, Massachusetts, was the boxing capital of the United States, and IBHOF fighters Jack Johnson, Langford, Jackie Fields, and Abe Attell fought here. It was also one of the few places in the United States [at the time] where boxing was legal.”
This well-researched book also includes many interesting facts about each boxer. Willie Pep fought “Sugar” Ray Robinson as an amateur and was told before the bout that Robinson was not that good (Robinson beat him). Vinny Pazienza (Paz) got arrested in Russia while competing in the 1980 Olympics for selling Team USA hats and T-shirts for rubles (Russian currency), but luckily for him, someone knew who he was and let him go.
“I have known Bob for over 25 years and found him to be a forceful advocate for his clients while also being someone whose information can be relied on. Reliability and truthfulness are not always hallmarks of the boxing trade, but you can count on both from Bob,” said Borges, who was a part of the selection committee that voted for the top 25 New England fighters and has covered over 1,000 world title fights. “His book on the best boxers in New England history is a good example of those traits, even if you want to debate him on some aspects of the list.”
Trieger worked at the Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere, Massachusetts, as its Director of Communication and Assistant General Manager. During his 22-year career at Wonderland, he got to personally know many of the boxers who fought there in the 1990s, including his first two clients, Ruiz and Ward, respectively.
“Bob is a good guy and a great publicist. He did a great job for me, and I enjoyed all the work he did for me,” said Ward (38-13, 27 KOs), whose life was portrayed in the 2010 movie The Fighter, which starred Mark Wahlberg (as him) and Christian Bale (as his half-brother/trainer Dicky Eklund). “It was great that I made the list of the top 25 New England fighters, especially considering how many great fighters there are from this area. I enjoyed reading his book.”
He started as a sportswriter in 1968, covering high school sports, and wrote for various newspapers and magazines, ranging from neighborhood weeklies to major daily newspapers. He became the sports editor for the Chelsea Record, a daily paper, in 1975 and wrote a summer-long series (twenty articles) entitled “Boxing’s Roots in Chelsea,” his first boxing writing. These articles were based on interviews with Al Lacy (whom he met at Wonderland), a renowned boxing trainer from Chelsea who trained world champions for five consecutive decades, including two fighters in this book, Jack Sharkey (number nine) and Paul Pender (number 10). Trieger also had a boxing column at the Daily Evening Item newspaper in Lynn, Massachusetts, for five years.
New England’s Greatest Boxers is a well-written, must-have book for any boxing fan, regardless of whether they live in New England. To order a copy of your signed book (for $25, which includes shipping and handling), visit his website, fullcourtpressboxing.com.
“It has worked out well, and I have gotten great feedback from people who purchased my book. Writing this book was a lot of fun,” said Trieger, who took a year to write it. “I wanted to show people I was more than a publicist and could write as well. I also wanted to leave something behind in an industry that I have worked so long in, and I accomplished that, and for that, I am very proud.”
Trieger’s next book, (In Tiger’s Corner), which he is currently writing, is about professional boxer Gary “Tiger” Balletto (31-3-2, 26 KOs). He fought in Season Two of The Contender and won two regional belts (the EBA lightweight title from 2001 to 2002 and the IBU lightweight strap in 2003). When he retired from boxing, he ran three successful businesses (Balletto’s Boxing Gym, Balletto Realty, and Balletto Construction). Balletto sustained a spinal cord injury in 2013 at 37 while playing with his son in his backyard, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He recently founded The Gary Tiger Balletto Foundation, which helps paralyzed individuals.