Staying Positive , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Paul Banke

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

143 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

A member of the USA's stellar 1984 Olympic boxing team, Paul Banke then scaled the heights as a professional to become world champion in 1990. Unfortunately, throughout his career, he was at the mercy of his secret mistress - drugs. As part of the celebrity slipstream, Banke often had free access to heroin, crystal meth and cocaine. Best remembered for his epic trilogy with Daniel Zaragoza, drugs overtook him and Banke soon became a forgotten champion. Shortly after retiring in 1993, he was homeless and destitute. Having not eaten for three days, Banke found himself lying in a dumpster in Vegas, ecstatic at finding a partially consumed cheeseburger. Arrested for grand theft auto in 1995 he was urged in jail to take an HIV test, due to sharing needles. He had contracted full-blown AIDS. Miraculously, after three decades of drug abuse, Banke turned his life around in September 2014 and became clean and sober. Now once again warmly embraced by the boxing fraternity, he shares his story to inspire and deter those on a similar path.

Sujets

Boxing

Xian de Boxing

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	30 septembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785316074
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Paul Banke and Paul Zanon, 2019
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-540-4 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-607-4
---
Ebook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Foreword
Down In The Dumpsters
1. Paul Andre Banke
2. Kidding Around
3. Boxing Bug
4. Azusa
5. Gym Addict
6. Wanderlust
7. Global Development
8. Cold War
9. Shattered Dreams
10. High Ground
11. Career Blow
12. All Heart
13. No Horsing Around
14. First Time Failure
15. Fight Of My Life
16. KO In Korea
17. Slam Dunk
18. Losing The Battle
19. Curtain Call
20. Busted
21. Positive
22. Death s Door
23. Outcast
24. Scared
25. Drug Damage
26. Hometown Hero
27. Hall Of Shame
28. Clean
29. Facebook Friend
30. Guardian Angel
Wayne McCullough: WBC world bantamweight champion, 1995/96
31. Old Faithful
32. Take Care
33. Fresh Start
Robert Garcia: IBF junior lightweight champion 1998/99 and trainer of world champions
34. Experience, Strength And Hope
Paul The Ultimate Vaden: IBF junior middleweight champion, 1995
35. Positive
How did Paul survive after all he went through in life? It wasn t a miracle. It was destiny.
Yolanda Miranda, Paul s mother
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A BIG thank you to everyone who took the time to share some stories for my book. Special thanks to Jaime Cantu, Alfred Godinez, Ronnie Essett, Connie Lynn Brown, Steve Rosenzweig, Jeff Fenech, Mario Miranda, Karl Abrams, Paul Vaden, Freddie Roach, Mauricio Sulaim n, Pepe Sulaim n, Steve Banke, Tim Munz, Rebecca Munz, Yolanda Miranda, Michele Chong, Louie Valenzuela, Victor Valenzuela, Sherman Henson, Bob King, Ricky Romero, Carlos Palomino, Robert Shannon, Eddie Pagan, Ray Mancini, Roberto Garcia, Hector Lizarraga, Paula Munson, Mack Kurahara, Wayne McCullough, Ruben Castillo, Henry Tillman and Zack Padilla. Also, a big thank you to Luca Rosi for taking the time to go through and diligently edit and pull it up another level.
I d like to add a note about John Maresca. John s originally from New Jersey, owned a gym out there, was training fighters, then sold that gym and came here to the West Coast in 2001. In 2015, he organized a fundraiser for the late Bobby Chacon and I was there, being my usual chatty, energetic self. John thought, This guy is nuts! , but in a fun way.
He then started managing fighters out here and we kept seeing each other at boxing events. Then he made the mistake of getting my number to talk about some business stuff and I started bombarding him with 35 phone calls at all hours of the day. When he spoke to my ghostwriter Paul Zanon, he told him, You get talking to him and get attached to him. He pisses you off, but somehow you miss him if you don t get a phone call from him every hour!
We have a few standing jokes between us now. Once we were both at the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame and John had Ronnie Essett, Carlos Palomino and me standing next to him. John said, Let s take a picture. I said, I ll be right back, but I had no intention of returning, just to wind John up. John started mumbling a load of bad words under his breath. That little son of a To this day, John won t let me get into pictures with him. I have to sneak my way in.
Here s another example of us in full flow. One day I decided he was going to be my manager. I wrote on a napkin that John was my manager and then signed it. Since that day, I ve hired and fired him thousands of times, sometimes up to 20 times a day. I ll write on Facebook, My ex-manager, just to piss him off. We have a Tom and Jerry relationship. We piss each other off, but we always remain good friends.
Fast forward to 2018. John had been trying to help me get my autobiography written for a few years. Without him, this book would never have happened. Going through my life helped me to reconnect with friends and family I may have drifted from, and pushed me to look at my boxing career from the first day I ever put on a pair of gloves up to this present day.
Thank you for everything, John.
INTRODUCTION
W HEN I received a message on social media from a certain John Maresca Ed.D, claiming, I have a story for you, I was a little sceptical. I get approached several times a week by people with similar intentions, but the reality is a story needs to have some kind of jaw-dropping content to make it book-worthy and also for me to commit the better part of a year to complete it. After receiving a summary from John about a certain Paul Banke, it soon became evident that this was one hell of a story.
Shortly after the introduction from John, I received a video call from Paul. Within moments the energy and honesty from him was overflowing and we formed an instant friendship. I did, however, wonder why he was calling me at 11am (I m based in the UK), which meant it was 3am on the West Coast. As it goes, 3am would be our calling slot.
One thing that quickly became evident on Paul s social media trail was how he calls people brother or sister . He s got an endearing way of drawing you into his positive slipstream of enthusiasm, and if you re ever having a bad day, he ll pick you up in a heartbeat. I also realiz1ed he s the undisputed king of Facebook and selfies. If you ve ever crossed paths with him, you ll know exactly what I mean.
I hope you have as much pleasure walking in his shoes over the next 35 chapters as I have, reliving the highlights of his brilliant boxing career, but also the darker times, which sometimes catch you by surprise. Paul Banke is one of the richest men on the planet and I hope you ll understand why by the time you reach the final chapter.
Paul Zanon March 2019
FOREWORD
Y OU VE got to respect and admire what Paul Banke achieved in the ring. It s hard enough for anybody to become world champion, but to beat one of the greatest world champions ever in that division in Daniel Zaragoza was something else. People sometimes don t understand the lighter weights, but Paul was a special fighter, he really was. When we used to cross paths at boxing functions in the 1990s, he was always very polite and complimentary, telling me he was a fan of my fights. The fact is, I was actually a fan of his.
Timing is everything as far as life and love goes. Same applied to Paul s time as a professional boxer. If he was fighting now on network television, he would have been a million-dollar fighter. Another Arturo Gatti. He was rough and tough, and brought the fight to the opponent, and that s what the fans loved about him. Paul understood that also. It s like he realized he had an obligation to the fans to give his best, be that all-out performer. A lot of fighters have the heart and want to do that, but not a lot of anything else. Paul could actually deliver. He had the tools. He was that guy.
Unfortunately, without major television coverage, he was known more as a local hero. Back then, if you didn t fight in New York, a lot of people didn t know about you. Paul stayed loyal to his fans, boxed in California and won the world title in California. The West Coast will always have love for him because of that.
And as a person? When I met Paul back in the 1990s, I didn t know his full story, but when I found out, it blew me away. Back then, having AIDS was a death penalty. That was it. You were dead. Nobody knew about the correct medication and many couldn t afford it. How did Paul manage to live on a daily basis not knowing how long he had left on this planet? I admire him. I gotta tell you - I can t imagine how, after getting that news, he could go ahead and try to live a full life. A life of love and happiness. How happy could you be knowing you re living with a death sentence?
When Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV, he gave major awareness to the virus. People back then heard about entertainers getting AIDS and were like, That s their lifestyle, they deserve it. It s going to happen. But Magic helped to dispel myths about HIV and to educate. Paul was right after that, but he was not on the world scale of Magic.
What Paul did have was the ability to speak to and represent the majority of people who either had AIDS or were at risk of getting it. The guys who weren t celebrities. The guys who were sharing needles and having unsafe sex who would never make the front cover of a magazine. Paul could speak to the people on the streets and the homeboys in the barrios. He could speak to the people at the community centers, because he was one of them and could identify with them. He explained the lifestyle he was living and the ramifications of living that life. And here s the thing - he s never stopped since.
What he s done in terms of acceptance and helping others has been so profound and inspirational. I see him now going to the gym, training people, and he speaks with everyone, but always with a smile. In fact, he s always smiling, laughing and joking! His joy of living and his endearing personality is tremendous to see, it really is. I have a lot of love for Paul and am so very proud of him.
Ray Boom Boom Mancini WBA lightweight champion, 1982-84
PRELUDE
DOWN IN THE DUMPSTERS
I WENT from being a broke kid in a poor area to earning $600,000 as a professional boxer, to t