Ring Respect

Former pro boxer Tony Doyle, who grew up in Draper, isn’t one to gripe about pro wrestling — even though it is fake and commercialized.
In fact, he admires its competitors.
After he split with boxing manager Angelo Curley, he signed on with a former professional wrestler named Pabo Ketonen, who taught Doyle some of the intricacies of the other sport.
So don’t look for Doyle to complain about Vince McMahon and Co.
“I appreciate that they’re super athletes,” said Doyle. “It’s not just the condition of their bodies, but they have to train their minds, have to know all the tricks and all their moves.”
Doyle said if you think they’re so fake, try “running into one of them on a dark street.”
He got to know a number of wrestlers in his boxing career that lasted from the mid-60s to the mid-70s.
“They’re quality people,” he said.
*****

On a side note, Doyle said one of his back teeth was a casualty of his situation — but not his boxing situation.
Though he fought professionally from 1963-75, he kept all his teeth — until this summer. While undergoing heart surgery, somewhere in the process, he said he broke one of his molars.
“I never lost a tooth as a fighter,” he said.
Only as a patient.