Adam Axelson: Missoula Fighter Sets Out On Boxing’s Boulevard of Rugged Dreams

By Brian D’Ambrosio

At 24, Adam Axelson feels as if he is in the prime of his life. On the outside, he looks solidly conditioned at 185 pounds, his body his instrument, no more muscle than needed, no less either. His is an anatomy of function. He trains his body to do what he asks, and it performs properly when expected.

He has kickboxed professionally and trained and competed in the mixed martial arts, yet it is the sport of boxing that he finds most alluring, even addicting. The sounds of leather slapping leather. Bell, dings, grunts, and gongs.

“Boxing is in my blood,” says Axelson, a Butte native, who calls Missoula home.

Axelson began boxing in high school, at approximately 16-years-old. Few places outside of Butte have the heritage or character to produce a Montana fighter; it is a city where you expect the desperation of street-toughs with nothing to lose and nowhere to go but up.

“Butte has that reputation of the rough and tumble town,” says Axelson. “But I was raised in the nice area of Butte, and that’s not really an oxymoron. I played golf and snowboarded – those are kind of my sports. But I started to get hungry and started to really want something. I got into a couple of altercations in school, and I wanted to learn how to fight.”

At the time, there was not a single amateur boxing gym in Butte, so Axelson had to drive to Anaconda five days a week to train with boxing instructor Chris Eamon. “That’s what I did from my sophomore to senior years. Around then, they started to open up a few amateur clubs in Butte.”

Axelson was selected as “Best Senior Male Boxer” for 2008 for the Montana Local Boxing Committee of USA Boxing. Subsequently, Axelson, a light heavyweight, said he was also recognized the “Second-Best Pound-for-Pound Male Boxer” in Montana. At 19, he went to the USA National Amateur tournament, utilizing, and competing at, the US Olympic facilities. “I had one good fight against a phenomenal athlete, and he outclassed me pretty significantly. I got my butt beat pretty bad. It was so amazing to compete with athletes of that caliber.”

On July 14, 2012, Axelson boxed his first opponent in Browning, Montana, against John Jay Mount, under what he calls a “very weird set of circumstances.” That card featured Joe “The Boss” Hipp, who returned to the boxing ring in his hometown for the first time in seven years, winning in the fifth round with a TKO against Harry Funmaker. His first fight since 2005, Hipp – the first Native American to compete for a world heavyweight boxing championship – bumped his lifetime record to 44-7 with 30 knockouts.

“(Promoter) Shelley Burton called me on a Saturday morning,” says Axelson. “She starts asking me how much I weighed and if I was ready to go. I took the fight on six hours’ notice. I drove up to Browning, just me and my son, and had a great four-round fight. It was a great unofficial pro fight. John Jay Mount is a real technician in the ring and I have a lot of respect for him. I beat him up pretty bad, opening up cuts all over his face. His eyes were swollen shut. He is a warrior, who kept on coming.”

Bruised, fatigued, and elated, Axelson drove back to Missoula that night with the fresh memory of having his hand raised in victory.

In Axelson’s second fight, he lost a four-round decision to friend and fellow Montanan Leo Bercier. Bercier, a rugged journeyman and Great Falls native, with an overall 8-18-1 record, outpointed Axelson at a bout held during Evel Knievel Days. “Leo is a really good friend, we spar together. But they were willing to pay us and we gave them the best show they could ask for. We were not trying to kill one another. It was a great fight. He came out a little ahead.”

Since the loss to Bercier, Axelson has worked hard to isolate himself, to gather his thoughts, and to regroup emotionally. It was back to sweating, toiling, laboring. It was back to staring at the bare ceiling when doing sit-ups, to laying flat on the cold exercise mat, to hitting the pavement before sunrise for a run, and listening to the squeaky sound of the slippery, freshly mopped gym floor.

Sacrifices have payoffs, and for Axelson, who credits Missoula trainer Matthew Powers with helping him “grow as a fighter,” that payoff comes November 9 in Kalispell, when he makes his pro debut against Joe Broken Rope (2-4-1) of Billings. (Axelson’s two previous fights technically do not count, for they weren’t officially sanctioned by legitimate boxing organizations.)

“He’s slick,” says Axelson as Broken Rope. “He’s been around for a while, and he knows what he’s doing.”

Win, lose, or draw, Axelson intends to fight hard. How far does Axelson hope to advance in boxing’s dangerous world of shiny trunks, body shots and refereed violence?

“At this point, I have a 15-month-old son, I’m getting married, graduating from college, and working on a side business. I’m trying to balance boxing together with all my other priorities. I love boxing. Like I said, it gets in your blood, and you want to remain close to it.”

For more information about the Friday Night Fights card on November 9 in Kalispell, which includes a bout with top ranking WBO heavyweight Chauncy Welliver, visit http://www.facebook.com/BurtonBoxing

Montana Boxing Legend Marvin Camel: First Cruiserweight Champion of The World

By Brian D’Ambrosio 
3/31/1980
WBC Cruiserweight Title Bout

Marvin Camel started off the bout, picking up where he left off in their first encounter – a brutally unfair draw on his opponent’s home territory of Yugoslavia. He flicked out a stiff right jab and scored hard body shots. Mate Parlov retreated and lost the first pair of rounds. After a sluggish, indecisive third round, Parlov stepped up the aggression in the next three, countering effectively.

In the sixth, Parlov cut Camel’s left cheek near the sideburn. Despite the chants and flag-waving of a small contingent of his countrymen, Parlov could not sustain his advantage. After an even seventh, the rest was controlled by Camel except for the fifteenth when an ugly gash below Camel’s eyebrow caused him to lose that round.

Pleasing to the Las Vegas crowd crammed with many of his home state Montana fans, Camel re-established his right jab in the eighth round and dictated the rest of the fight with his most dependable asset. As the fight progressed, Camel discovered that he could deliver this punch to its target from a crouch, and that Parlov could not counter effectively when Camel was in this stance.

Camel continued to move forward in the tenth round. After scoring with punches, he would pause to back off. The fight seemed to be reversing this cat and mouse trend again in the eleventh as Parlov split Camel’s wound again and targeted his swelling right eye.

The fight’s ebb-and-flow style reversed in round twelve; after Camel won that round by a narrow margin he lit into Parlov with his heaviest punching and scoring in the thirteenth and fourteenth. Parlov sustained a nasty gash over the right eye in the thirteenth. A smattering of left hooks to the head and a wicked left to the midsection were scored by Camel before referee Ferd Hernandez directed the Yugoslav into a corner to have Dr. Donald Romeo to examine the damage. From the fight’s continuance, Camel dominated right through the final bell.

Camel scored the best punch of the fight in the fourteenth, a right hook which landed squarely on Parlov’s face, staggering him into the ropes. With his backpedaling opponent imbalanced and dazed, Camel went in for the kill, pursuing his prey with wild arm and body punches. Parlov somehow retrenched and survived out the round.

The last minute of the final round saw Camel incur a wicked cut directly beneath his right eyebrow. Bleeding profusely, Camel’s face looked bad enough to force the referee to consult the ring physician. Romeo gave Camel a cursory inspection and raised no objections. Parlov tried in vain to stay aggressive. Lacking knockout power and the explosive arsenal of a knockout artist, Parlov couldn’t take advantage of Camel’s bad cut. Camel bided his time and nursed his wound until the final bell.

The conclusion of the fight that would crown the first cruiserweight champion of the world ended without controversy – this time. Mexican judge Jose Guerra scored the bout 148-141; Judge Angelo Toletti of Italy had it 149-141; and Judge Harold Buck of Las Vegas marked his card 144-141 – all in Camel’s favor. 

Ronan, Montana’s Marvin Camel was now the first Cruiserweight  – and Native American – champion of the world.

Brian D’Ambrosio is the author of Reservation Champ: A Life of Marvin Camel, due out April 2013.

Desert Horse: A Life of Marvin Camel

 

By Brian D’Ambrosio

One of the most colorful boxers to arrive in the heavier weight classes in recent times, “Indian” Marvin arrived for his fights in full Indian regalia right down to an impressively long headdress. Just as impressive had been his list of victims, which at one point numbered 36 in 40 fights, including 16 KO’s. When he retired in 1990, Camel’s record was 45-13-4.

Camel, 60, has a legacy which includes the distinction of being the first Native American world-boxing champion, the first Montanan to win a world boxing title, and the first cruiserweight champion ever.

Camel Cruises to Championship

Camel took the newly created cruiserweight title on March 31, 1980 from Mate Parlov in 15 rounds, the same night Larry Holmes stopped LeRoy Jones in a heavyweight title defense. The title was a long time coming for Camel who had fought the former Olympic Champion Parlov to a draw in the Yugoslavian’s home country earlier in December. The cruiserweight division was created for fighters considered too heavy to compete in the light-heavyweight division but not big enough to face the 200-pound plus heavyweights.

With a small trickle of blood oozing from the cut above his right eye, newly crowned World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Marvin Camel perfected a strategy he discovered in his previous fight with Parlov. “When I fought Parlov in Yugoslavia, I went into a crouch in the seventh round and found he couldn’t hit down,” said Camel.

Camel waited until the 11th round to go into the crouch but when he did, he was able to labor Parlov at will and went on to win a unanimous decision, with all three judges putting him ahead by margins ranging from three to nine points.

Robbed in Billings

He lost the IBF title to Detroit’s Lee Roy Murphy October 6, 1984, in Billings. Camel protested the outcome of the fight, which was stopped by referee Dan Jancic before the 15th round. Jancic would not allow Camel to continue because he had cuts over both eyes. But ring doctor H.D. Cabrira said Camel could have fought the last round. Two of the judges had Camel ahead by four points entering the final round while the third official had him up three. A Billings-based group called Concerned Montanans for Marvin Camel initiated a write-in protest.

“Montana finally had a legitimate champion,” says Camel. “And the title was then taken away like a thief in the night.”

Camel is still troubled by controversial decisions that had gone against him and the managers and promoters who, he says, ripped him off, and cynical about those former supporters who jumped off the Marvin Camel bandwagon at the first sign of trouble. Camel had been on a rollercoaster throughout his 25 years in boxing, but in spite of all the regrets, he says, that given the choice, he would do it all again.

 “I still have the brains and can talk to friends. I know of some former boxers who can’t hold a conversation for more than two minutes, who can’t speak at all. As far as the money goes, financially, I’ve got nothing left from boxing. I had two world titles, but not the money to go with it. But I do have my respect and my memories – and those are things I can be proud of.

“I’ve enjoyed my life and seen a lot of the world most people never see. If I had it to do again, I would still be a boxer.”

Brian D’Ambrosio is the author of Desert Horse: A Life of Marvin Camel, Riverbend Publishing, due out 2013.