Boxing Challenge

   Plenty of titles at stake this weekend with the lightweight division bringing its four titles together in Australia, an excellent two-title defense in the junior featherweight division in the United States, and a version of the junior lightweight title in Wales as the winner could stay in the mix for a future fight against Shakur Stevenson, all on the table.

Let's start in Melbourne, Australia as the lightweight title that should have never been divided will become whole (Unless there is a draw) as WBA, IBF, and WBO champion George Kambosos defends against WBC titlist Devon Haney.

The WBC title would have been involved with the unification already had the organization not started with their ridiculous "franchise" champion idea and given it to then-champion Vasyl Lomachenko with the addendum that the designation could not be transferred, only to allow the title to be transferred to Teofimo Lopez when Lopez upset Lomachenko.

While Haney didn't receive the title under the best circumstances, he has defended the title four times with victories over former champions Jorge Linares and Joseph Diaz in his most recent defenses.

Haney is a solid fighter that is well-rounded but hasn't shown the dominance that elite fighters show.

As for Kambosos, the entire reason this fight is in Australia, he looked like another overmatched number one contender entering his fight with Lopez with only two split decision wins over past their prime former champions Lee Selby and Mickey Bey as the best wins on his resume" before his shocking upset that saw Kambosos survive a tenth round knockdown to win a split decision.

This is such an intriguing fight on many levels as the deck appears to be stacked against Haney, who has to fight without his father, who also trains him, because he isn't allowed into Australia due to a previous drug conviction, and should Haney win, he will have to fight Kambosos in Australia again.

Editors Note: Bill Haney has been given permission to enter the country and will be in his son's corner for tonight's fight.

Should Kambosos emerge with the victory, there will be no rematch so the pressure is all on Devin Haney in this one but the key will be Kambosos, who will answer this question in the fight one way or the other- 

Was George Kambosos the fortunate fighter to catch an ailing and overconfident Teofimo Lopez on the right night along with fighting the fight of his career?

Or was that a fighter stepping into the spotlight for the first time in what eventually becomes an excellent career?

That question will be answered tonight in Melbourne.

The undercard has two interesting fighters with two former world title challengers meeting in a ten-round bantamweight bout as Australia's Jason Moloney will battle Aston Palicte of the Philippines.

Moloney was knocked out in a challenge to WBA and IBF champion Naoya Inoue in 2020 but rebounded with a solid win over Joshua Greer.

Palicte is moving up to the division after losing challenges on two occasions at junior bantamweight, first to then-WBO champion Donnie Nietes and most recently to the current WBO champion Kazuto Ioka.

The other fight is in the heavyweight division as New Zealand's Junior Fa will take on Australian veteran Lucas Browne, who long ago held one of the WBA's minor titles.

The 43-year-old Browne has only three losses but all three are by KO and two of those three are in his last four fights to non-entities David Allen and Paul Gallen.

Fa lost for the first time in February 2021 by unanimous decision to countryman Joseph Parker and lacks a win over anyone of note but Browne seems to have very little remaining in punch resistance, so anything other than a Fa win would be a surprise to me.

Showtime's event from Minneapolis, Minnesota has been pushed aside from the headlines a bit due to sharing the date with Kambosos-Haney but their main event is of the same high quality and the co-feature will showcase one of the fastest rising super middleweights in the world.

Stephen Fulton continues to seek the best competition available as Fulton will defend his WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles against the best non-champion in the division as Fulton faces former WBA and IBF champion Daniel Roman.

Fulton added the WBC title to his WBO belt in his last outing with a very close majority decision over Brandon Figueroa that could have been won by either boxer (I had Figueroa a 115-113 winner) and in taking a fight against Roman, surely isn't taking any soft touches after a grueling affair against Figueroa.

Roman, who lost his WBA and IBF titles to current champion MJ Akhmadaliev via a debatable split decision that I thought was a draw in 2020, has won twice since and since Akhmadaliev or any sanctioning bodies haven't been interested or mandated a rematch, Roman is going after the other two titles held by Fulton.

Fulton is the smoother boxer, Roman is going to come forward but isn't a big puncher, and I think that this match is very similar to the Fulton-Figueroa bout in style and I think it's going to be a similar fight as far as action goes.

The difference could be that Roman is a little harder to hit than Brandon Figueroa and that might be enough to decide what should be a very close battle.

The co-feature is essentially a Showtime Showcase as Cuban David Morrell defends a WBA minor title against Kalvin Henderson.

Morrell has blitzed through five overmatched opponents and fringe contender Alantez Fox in his short pro career and is facing another fighter of the same ilk in Henderson, lost to his only opponent of note in undefeated prospect Isaiah Steen and has a majority draw with the awkward Hagerstown journeyman Genc Pilana.

I don't see Henderson lasting long against Morrell's onslaught as Morrell builds a case for a potential fight against David Benavidez or Caleb Plant.

The day starts on DAZN from Cardiff, Wales as hometown favorite Joe Cordina challenges for the IBF junior lightweight title against champion Kenichi Ogawa.

Ogawa dropped Azinga Fuzile twice last November on his way to winning the vacant title (the title was vacated when Joseph Diaz missed weight before his fight vs Shavrat Rakhimov and when the fight ended in a draw, the title was declared vacant) by unanimous decision and is earning a larger paycheck by making his first defense on the road against Cordina.

The 16-0 Cordina is a former Olympian that has been successful at the British level but is facing his toughest opponent, although Ogawa hasn't fought many top twenty level opponents either so Cordina's lack of experience may not be as important as usual in a boxer's first attempt at a world title.

This fight is a big deal for more than the obvious reasons of a world title at stake as WBC and WBO champion Shakur Stevenson has stated his desire to win the two remaining championships (Roger Gutierrez currently holds the WBA title) that he doesn't own so the winner could earn the biggest paycheck of their career (past and future) in a unification fight against Stevenson.

Boxing Challenge

Unification WBA/IBF/WBO- WBC Lightweight Titles. 12 Rds

George Kambosos vs Devin Haney

R.L: Kambosos Split Decision

TRS: Haney Split Decision

V.S: Kambosos KO 11

Bantamweights. 10 Rds

Jason Moloney vs Aston Palicte

All: Moloney Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights. 10 Rds

Junior Fa vs Lucas Browne

R.L: Fa KO 5

TRS: Fa KO 3

V.S: Fa KO 7

WBC/WBO Junior Featherweight Title. 12 Rds

Stephen Fulton vs Danny Roman

R.L and V.S: Fulton Unanimous Decision

TRS: Roman Split Decision

Super Middleweights. 12 Rds

David Morrell vs Kalvin Henderson

R.L: Morrell KO 4

TRS: Morrell KO 2

V.S: Morrell Unanimous Decision

IBF Junior Lightweight Title. 12 Rds

Kenichi Ogawa vs Joe Cordina

R.L and V.S:  Ogawa Unanimous Decision

TRS: Cordina Unanimous Decision

Forgotten Superstars: Bob Lanier

  The recent passing of perhaps the most underrated NBA star of the 1970s at 73 years of age made me think that Bob Lanier is a perfect selection for our Forgotten Superstars series.

Bob Lanier never played on an NBA title-winner but he always ranked among the elite centers in basketball during his time in the league with Detroit and Milwaukee and for some fans, Lanier is more remembered for his size 22 shoe (which fans can compare their shoe against Lanier's at the basketball hall of fame.) than his career, which saw his college program (St.Bonaventure) and both of his NBA teams retire his jersey number.

Much like Nate Thurmond, a half-generation ahead of Lanier, Lanier was a Hall of Fame center that sometimes didn't get the attention that he deserved because he was the third-best pivotman of his day.

In the case of Thurmond, Thurmond's peak saw him trail Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and then Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar before ironically being passed by Lanier for that position.

Lanier's name usually ranked behind Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar at first, then after Chamberlain's retirement behind Bill Walton (when Walton was healthy), maybe Artis Gilmore when Gilmore first arrived from the ABA, and later a young Moses Malone but make no mistake about it, Bob Lanier ranked with the best centers of all-time.

It was Lanier's name along with Walton that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar famously references in the film "Airplane" telling a young fan "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for forty-eight minutes".

Lanier also had a cameo role as an opposing player in the 1979 Julius Erving film "The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh".

I'm not sure which I would select between Lanier and Artis Gilmore in a hypothetical draft but fans narrowly missed seeing the two talented big men hook it up in the 1970 Final Four but late in Lanier-led St.Bonaventure's East Regional title victory, Lanier injured his knee in a collision with future Detroit teammate Chris Ford and would miss the national semi-final in which the Bonnies would lose to Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore.

If you know anything about college basketball and the size of schools, you'll know just what an achievement it was for a school like St.Bonaventure to make the Final Four, and fans in northwest New York still vow that had Lanier not been injured that the Bonnies would have snapped the UCLA national title string in 1970, not in 1974 by N.C. State.

Their point is well-taken as that Bruins team was the most vulnerable of the seven straight champions as the 1970 team was post-Alcindor/Abdul Jabbar yet before the arrival of Bill Walton with the best players on those teams listing Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, and Henry Bibby as their stars.

If a team such as St. Bonaventure was going to defeat one of the seven consecutive championship teams - 1970 was the one team that could have been vulnerable.

Lanier would be selected as the first pick in the 1971 draft by the Pistons and in his ten seasons with Detroit, Lanier would average a double-double with a scoring average of 22.7 and a rebounding average of 11.8 per outing, despite battling through debilitating knee injuries but Lanier's Pistons never even reached the conference finals as at that time the Pistons were in the Western Conference which was the more balanced of the two conferences.

Lanier played in eight All-Star games and won the game's MVP in the 1974 edition but the Pistons of the late seventies were rebuilding (and desperate to the point of hiring Dick Vitale as their head coach)  and with Lanier's knee continuing to weaken, Detroit traded Lanier to the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that won their division often but couldn't get by Seattle or Portland (Milwaukee also was in the Western Conference) to reach the finals.

Lanier helped to maintain the Bucks at that level but lost to Seattle in his first season and the Bucks last year in the West and couldn't get past Boston or Philadelphia after being moved to the Eastern Conference.

Lanier wasn't the scoring presence as a Buck that he was a Piston (averaging thirteen points a game in five seasons with Milwaukee) but his knees forced him to average ten fewer minutes a game and became a more stationary figure that slowed down any running game that the Bucks would try to use.

Lanier's hook shot wasn't the weapon on the level of Kareem's skyhook but his shorter more rounded hook shot was almost as deadly and Lanier was far from a finesse player on the block with a reputation as an enforcer that ranked him among the elite of the NBA's enforcers as his knockout of Atlanta's Bob Christian and his one-punch left hook that left Detroit's Bill Laimbeer prone on the floor left players smiling long after Lanier's retirement that Laimbeer frustrated throughout Laimbeer's career.

Lanier would serve as an assistant to his Bucks head coach, Don Nelson, with the Warriors and finished the 1994-95 season as Golden State's head coach when Nelson resigned mid-season.

Lanier finished the season winning twelve of thirty-seven games and didn't coach thereafter.

In my opinion, the two most glaring omissions on the NBA's recent 75th-anniversary team roster were Lanier and Bernard King and I have to think that it was held against both players that they never reached an NBA Finals.

It's sad that Bob Lanier never seemed to receive the break that he needed to receive the credit that he truly deserved going back to the knee injury at St. Bonaventure through his early years with the Pistons and his later years with the Bucks playing with teams that were very good but not quite good enough to win a championship.

I certainly think Lanier had a legitimate argument as the most underrated big man of his time and arguably ever and deserves to be remembered as the terrific player that was as we welcome "The Dobber" to the Forgotten Superstars universe.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

   The tributes never stop, they only occasionally slow down from time to time.

Goodbye to Daryle Lamonica at the age of 80.

"The Mad Bomber" spent four seasons as a backup to Jack Kemp with the Buffalo Bills before a trade to the Oakland Raiders turned his career around with Lamonica winning two AFL MVPs with the Raiders and taking the team to Super Bowl II.

Lamonica threw six touchdown passes in the first half of a 1969 game against Buffalo, a feat that has only been equaled once before or since (Aaron Rodgers in 2014).

Lamonica's career finished with an excellent 66-16-6 record as a starter.

It was Lamonica that started the "Immaculate Reception" playoff game for Oakland against Pittsburgh in 1972 but was ineffective and the team's only touchdown was scored behind Ken Stabler, who would replace Stabler as the starter the following season, leaving Lamonica as a backup for two seasons before finishing his career with the WFL's Southern California Sun in 1975, when the league went under midway through the season.

Goodbye to Kenny Moore at the age of 78.

Moore ran in the Olympic Marathon in 1968 and 1972, narrowly missing a medal when he finished fourth in Munich in 1972.

Moore may be better remembered as a long-time writer for Sports Illustrated after retiring from track and field.

My favorite work is his article promoting the release from prison of Ethiopian Olympic champion (1968 Gold, 1972 Bronze) Mamo Wolde, who held off Moore down the stretch in Munich.

Moore not only writes of Wolde, he writes of his own frustration during the race and his feelings late in the race knowing that his years of training would fall short of a medal.

Moore would also write a book on legendary Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman and served as a co-writer on the film Personal Best on the life of Steve Prefontaine, who was a close friend and Olympic teammate in 1972.

Goodbye to Gino Cappelletti at the age of 88.

Cappelletti won the AFL MVP award for the then-Boston Patriots in 1964 as a kicker and wide receiver and was one of only three players to play every game for the same team in the history of the AFL.

Cappelletti was named to the AFL all-star team five times, led the league in scoring five times, and holds the distinction of being the only player to run for a two-point conversion, throw for a two-point conversion, catch a pass, intercept a pass, return a punt, and return a kickoff in the same season.

Cappelletti finished his AFL career as the league's leading all-time scorer and in the top ten in receptions and receiving yards before spending twenty-eight as the color commentator on the Patriots radio network.

Goodbye to Jurgen Blin at the age of 79.

The one-time European heavyweight champion, Blin fought Muhammad Ali in Zurich, Switzerland in 1971 as Ali fought three times in that year following his loss to Joe Frazier.

Ali stopped Blin in seven rounds in their affair and Blin never threatened "The Greatest" in a fight that allowed Switzerland a chance to see Ali live.

Blin failed in his various attempts to defeat top ten fighters with two losses to Joe Bugner, the loss against Ali, and was stopped by contender Ron Lyle in two rounds in 1973 in what would be the final fight of the German's career.

Boxing Challenge: Davis Whacks Romero

    For most of the first six rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Rolando Romero had not only fought a surprisingly technically sound fight against heavily favored Gervonta Davis, but he was also fighting well against Davis.

That ended late in the sixth round when Davis smashed a left hand that sent Romero sailing to the floor and ended the fight as Romero beat the count but was judged unable to continue by referee David Fields.

Romero was leading on one card 58-57, as did I, with the other two judges giving Davis the nod by the same score entering what would be the final round but Davis had his best round of the fight in the fifth and appeared to be taking control of the fight.

Romero didn't charge from the gate throwing the wild power punches that he had been known for in his fights against lesser opponents but he did throw enough that Davis was surprisingly reserved in his offense in return, waiting to set Romero up for exactly the counter that would win "Tank" the fight.

For Davis, we now wait to see if he re-signs with Floyd Mayweather promotions, takes the side step to Al Haymon's PBC where he could stay with his longtime broadcaster Showtime or take his wares to the open market in an attempt to land a big fight that his resume' lacks.

Davis is certainly a live and pay-per-view attraction but the question still remains what happens when better fighters are able to handle Davis's power and can answer back.

Ryan Garcia was in attendance for the card and both fighters called the other out but I'm not sure that fight takes place in the event that Davis would stay with PBC and/or Mayweather Promotions as PBC and Golden Boy almost never do business together.

Physically, Garcia's build, punching power, and style seem to give him an edge against Davis but Davis is more experienced and I might give Davis a small edge in power.

I'd like to see the match and I think it would do heavy purchases on PPV and at the arena but color me skeptical on getting this one off the drawing board and into the ring.

While Davis vs Romero didn't prove to be the mismatch that most predicted, that couldn't be said for the co-feature which was the exact lopsided fight that almost all expected as Erislandy Lara knocked out Spike O'Sullivan in the eighth round.

The less said about this the better with Lara winning every round, knocking O'Sullivan down in the fourth and out in the eighth and both fighters simply repeating their history with Lara dominating in these types of showcase fights and O'Sullivan getting knocked out in now his fourth attempt to defeat a world-class boxer.

Lara's win over O'Sullivan was his fourth in a row over an overmatched opponent (Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, Thomas "Cornflake" LaManna, and now O'Sullivan) to retain his worthless WBA trinket against fighters that aren't even top twenty material.

Lara hasn't fought anyone of note since his 2018 split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd and his 2019 draw with Brian Castano, so Lara has not notched a noticeable victory since his October 2017 decision win over Terrell Gausha, who is solid but not a divisional elite.

At thirty-nine, Lara either is happy to rack up "title defenses" against opponents that no one wants to see or is hoping to wait out the WBA and hope they eventually get around to addressing the middleweight division as they reduce their belt situation.

I have no need to see any more of these B.S. squash matches presented as world title fights from Lara and PBC but I have a feeling that we will see one next year when Lara makes his yearly "defense" against the latest no-hoper.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 93 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 77 (3)
Ramon Malpica: 77 (3) 

Browns extend David Njoku

   The Cleveland Browns continued to attempt to lock up their core players as the team extended the contract of tight end David Njoku with a four-year contract worth over fifty-six million dollars.

Njoku was the final of the Browns three first-rounders in the 2017 draft and even after five seasons in Cleveland, Njoku is still only twenty-five years old.

Njoku caught thirty-six passes for four hundred and seventy-five yards and four touchdowns for the Browns in 2021, playing in sixteen of seventeen games.

I have to admit that I'm straddling the fence on this signing.

I love Njoku's talent and downfield ability, he does seem to be coming into his own as a player after some admittedly erratic season, and DeShaun Watson has been noted for using his tight ends often during his time in Houston.

However, I still wonder if Njoku has proven enough to be counted on as much as this contract will count on the former Miami Hurricane, and has he truly matured enough as a player that the spectacular catches remain and the routine catches become routine?

Njoku will be the fifth highest-paid tight end in the league and while this doesn't seem to make sense when you look at pure production, the Browns have leaned on the analytical notation of paying for projected future performance rather than past performance.

While that is sound reasoning, it also can be a far riskier gambit than relying on a player to repeat what they have placed on the stat sheet in the past.

My issue isn't with the payout as the contract is structured that should Njoku disappoint that the Browns could walk away from the deal after the 2023 season and should Njoku play to expectations, Cleveland's agreement with him could prove to be if not a bargain, certainly of excellent value.

In the end, this is all about projection as David Njoku isn't deserving of a contract of this size for what he has done on the field.

However, Njoku has shown just enough tantalizing glimpses of elite talent to make him at least worth considering a contract of this amount and I suppose Njoku couldn't be any worse than Austin Hooper for yards after the catch, so despite the risk, I can see why the Browns decided to make this commitment.

Boxing Challenge

 The boxing slate is a thin one this weekend but it does feature one of the bigger stars in the game in what could be his final fight with his current promoter in a matchup that is very likely to produce an exciting conclusion from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Gervonta Davis won't be muting the criticism concerning the quality of his recent competition against Rolando Romero but he should return to the sports world's highlight reel with what seems to be fated to be a spectacular knockout.

Davis did have his struggles in winning a close decision over Isaac Cruz in his last fight but Romero's competition makes the Davis foes look like Murderer's Row and Romero is very crude and wild with his offense resembling the wild swipes of Ricardo Mayorga which should leave him wide open for the big power bombs from Davis.

Davis's contract with Floyd Mayweather's promotional company expires after this fight and the boxing world is somewhat abuzz with where Davis could be headed.

Davis seems to be most likely headed away from Mayweather but headed to affiliated Al Haymon and the PBC.

The problem with that would be that PBC isn't strong at lightweight or junior welterweight and could place Davis in the same spot that he resides with Mayweather- a lack of elite opponents.

Top Rank holds a lock at 135 and 140 pounds as they either promote or co-promote almost all of the best at those fights (Devin Haney, Vasyl Lomachenko, Josh Taylor, Teofimo Lopez, etc) with working agreements with George Kambosos and only Ryan Garcia with Golden Boy (who has an even worse relationship with Al Haymon than Top Rank) isn't promoted by Bob Arum's bunch.

Davis's decision could come down to this- Is he interested in facing the best and creating a legacy or is he more concerned with making the maximum amount of money?

Romero has predicted a first-round knockout and Davis doesn't have a history of being an extremely quick starter, so it will be interesting to see how Davis adjusts if Romero blasts out of the corner as he is promising.

Romero has basically done two things to earn this fight against Davis- fight for Mayweather Promotions for an easy in-house fight and talk a huge game.

Romero's best wins are over journeymen Anthony Yigit and Avery Sparrow and two fights ago, almost everyone thought he received a gift decision over Jackson Marinez, who isn't a top ten lightweight.

The fight should be fun while it lasts and if Romero can fight even close to the level of his smack talk, then we could see an even better battle.

The co-feature looks like another squash match as Erislandy Lara defends his minor middleweight trinket against Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan.

Lara can punch, should he choose to engage like he did in his last fight against dreadfully outgained Thomas "Cornflake" Lamanna.

Cornflake was crunched in only one round but Lara's previous fight saw him content to dance in a twelve-round win over another opponent not of his caliber in Greg Vendetti as it appears to be decided by Lara's mood on the day of the fight.

Spike O'Sullivan is a solid European level boxer but in each of his three attempts against world-class fighters, O'Sullivan has beaten defeated soundly by David Lemieux in one, Jaime Munguia in eleven, and Chris Eubank Jr in seven, so this one seems to be up to the enigmatic Lara in how this fight ends.

Boxing Challenge

Lightweights. 12 Rds

Gervonta Davis vs Rolando Romero

R.L; Davis KO 2

TRS: Davis KO 4
V.S; Davis KO 3

Middleweights. 12 Rds

Erislandy Lara vs Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan

R.L.and V.S: Lara Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lara KO 8

Cleaning out the Inbox- Passings Non-Sports Edition

 The non-sports passings are equally important as those from the sports world and sadly they fill up just as quickly.

Goodbye to Bobby Rydell at the age of 79.

One of the original Philadelphia "Teen Idols" of the early to mid-1960s, Rydell placed thirty-four hits in the Billboard Top 100 including his biggest hit "Wild One" which reached second on the charts, and a cover of "Volare".

Rydell would star on Broadway as "Conrad Birdie" in the original adaptation of "Bye Bye Birdie and would have a cameo role in the 1978 film "Grease"

Rydell is also credited as the inspiration for John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing the Beatles hit "She Loves You" as both said that a Rydell song was playing on the radio as the duo penned the song,

Rydell's biggest claim to fame here was in the 1990s when the 1960s NBC program Hullaballoo was released on VHS and DVD and an episode with Rydell singing the song below in such an over-the-top manner is one that Ryan and I still laugh about to this day.

Goodbye to Liz Sheridan at the age of 93.

Sheridan is best known for portraying Jerry Seinfeld's mother in "Seinfeld" but to me, Sheridan will be forever "Raquel Ochomanek" the nosy busy-body next-door neighbor on "ALF" that was constantly trying to figure out what was really going on at the Tanner residence.

A long-time character actress in film and television, Sheridan was a singer and dancer in the 1950s in the New York nightclubs and was the first person in show business to have a relationship with the young James Dean.

Goodbye to Neal Adams at the age of 80.

Adams, a long-time artist, and writer in comics, made his biggest mark with DC Comics where Adams created such characters as Ras Al Ghul, Man-Bat, and John Stewart as Green Lantern as well as doing classic work for years with Batman.

It was Adams that brought the Batman into his dark brooding figure and away from the campy version popularized by the television show starring Adam West, revitalized the Joker into his homicidal maniac from his clownish version during the same period, and brought Two-Face back into the Batman rogues gallery after a long absence from the comic.

But it will be Adams and Denny O'Neil's run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow that is most remembered. GL/GA is so fondly recalled that many are surprised to hear that the title only lasted a surprisingly short time of only two years and was canceled for low sales.

The title dealt with controversial social issues (for its time) of the day and the most remembered issues dealt with Green Arrow's ward and former sidekick Speedy in secret identity Roy Harper admitting an addiction to heroin.

Adams would later be heavily involved with artists' and creators' rights with their work being returned to them after the comics had been printed.

Goodbye to David Birney at the age of 83.

Birney may be best remembered as a husband to Meredith Baxter, who Birney married after their television show, "Bridget Loves Bernie", but had a career that saw him star in his own drama "Serpico", was part of the first season of "St. Elsewhere", and starred in many guest roles on television as well as stage work.

Birney was lambasted by the former Baxter Birney in her 2011 autobiography as being physically and emotionally abusive during their marriage, charges that Birney denied.

Sidebar: "Bridget Loves Bernie" remains to this day- the only program in television history to have finished in the top ten in the ratings in its first season and would not be renewed for a second season.

Sidebar part two: Meredith Baxter during the run of this show ranks high (as in highest level) on the TRS beauty scale...

Goodbye to Mike Hagerty at the age of 67.

The longtime character actor never had the opportunity to star in a breakout role but spent years in both film and television usually playing regular, working man type roles.

Hagerty would only receive one shot as a regular on a series, which was during the only season of "The George Carlin Show" in 1994-85.

My favorite supporting role that Hagerty performed was as "Bad Billy Platt" the best friend of Kurt Russell in the 1987 film "Overboard" starring Russell and Goldie Hawn.