The Mahoning Valley has a rich boxing tradition with Roland Commings the lone pugilist in this year’s class, simply because he stood out both in and out of the ring.
Born December 18, 1965, the “Irish Express,” as he was affectionately nicknamed, is a 1984 graduate of Chaney High School.
He becomes the 62nd boxer to be so honored by the organization, dating back to their first fighter honored, Tony Zill, who was inducted into the area’s premier sports hall of fame as part of its 1958 inaugural class.
Known as a boxer who would fight anyone, anytime and anywhere they so desired, he had a successful amateur career that led him to the professional ranks where he posted a 22 (10 KO’s), 27 (11 KO’s) and 3 ledger over 325 total rounds, 52 fights total.
In 50 amateur scraps, he posted a 40-10 overall ledger where he captured the 1984 and 1985 Youngstown Golden Gloves open division featherweight title.
Those same two years he was the West Virginia Silver Gloves champion, adding the 1984 Akron Regional crown to his impressive and ever-expanding amateur resume despite suffering an orbital fracture in the first round and finishing the fight with double vision.
His professional career started out like a house on fire, winning his first seven fights, nine of his first 10 and 11 of his first 13 match-ups, his marketability to promoters resulting in eight appearances on ESPN with another four that were featured and televised on USA Network.
He made a most auspicious professional debut in August of 1985 by defeating Clint Houston in Youngstown, following that up with a win over Donald Boone two months later, also on his home turf.
He fought in eight different weight classes over a four-decade career with one of his most memorable televised fights coming in October of 1991 when he sent Vinnie Burgese of Philadelphia packing – he had lost to Burgese four months earlier at Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon – after going down in the first round.
The fight took place at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel in Atlantic City.
He fought three epic fights with George ”The Butcher” Klinesmith at nearby Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort, battling to a draw with his opponent in April of 2002 while losing hard fought battles to his opponent in August and November of 2005.
He won the IBC Intercontinental championship in a 12-round decision over Tom Alexander of Pittsburgh in 1994 and in March of 1993, at Youngstown’s Metro Plex Center, he defeated “Irish” Tommy Hanks for the vacant Ohio Athletic Commission junior welterweight title.
Other notable boxers that he fought included Julio Cesar Merino, defeating his opponent on the undercard of the Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini-Hector Camacho undercard in January of 1987, dropping a hard fought decision to then undefeated world welterweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (17-0-0) in January of 1993, then falling to world junior welterweight title holder Carl Griffith (26-2-2) in May of 1993 and No. 1 contender Rodolfo Aguilar (26-3-2) in July of 1991.
There were two other notable fights, the first in May of 1992 when he came up short versus Oba Carr (23-0-0) at The Palace of Auburn Hills and then against Ralph “Tiger” Jones (22-1-0) in February of 1995 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
The combined records of those aforementioned fighters is a most impressive 144-6-5.
He and his wife, the former Alayne Clark, are the proud parents of four children, Ashley, Sabrina, Patrick and Kayla.
They reside in New Middletown.
