[professordp]

For coverage of this simulation, Stevenson's progress will be reported through the eyes of a ficticious scribe, Skip Bailey, who writes for an equally fiticious boxing magazine, "CounterPunch". To add a little flavor, there's a picture of Bailey below. The picture is just of a late 70s, middle-aged guy (it's not me!) and reflects how I thinks Bailey would look.

I'm poviding this introduction so that you get a general idea about how Bailey sees things. What he will write during the simulation will usually be an accurate, objective presentation of what will or has taken place. But there will be instances where you'll be reading about the world according to Skip Bailey. Some of the things he predicts will take place, some will not.

The simulation begins December 1976

Skip Bailey

Born Scipio Bellaconi on June 5, 1931 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Skip Bailey has been covering professional boxing for two decades. The nephew of 1940s middlweight contender Joe Curcio, Skip contends that he's been around boxing since he was a babe in arms.

"I was raised in the Newark Armory," he claims. "My mother changed my diapers in the locker room on fight nights." You should note that Skip is at times inclined to inflate and exaggerate.

After taking a degree in what is now known as Jersey City State College, Skip wrote copy for the "Newark Evening News". In 1956, he joined the staff of "The Ring" where he regularly wrote a column entitled "Bailey's Beat" in which he covered the New Jersey boxing scene.

It would appear that after a few years, Bailey's flamboyant, opinionated style did not mesh well with the rather staid image that Nat Fleischer wanted to maintain for his publication and there was a parting of the ways.

Starting in June 1959, Bailey began writing for "Boxing Illustrated", a recently launched competitor to "The Ring." In 1970, he left "BI" and joined the equally iconclastic Bert Sugar to create "CounterPunch", a monthly boxing magazine which is one part "People Magazine" and one part "National Enquirer."

Both the magazine and Bailey have enjoyed considerable success ever since. As the editor, Bailey broke with tradition an introduced color photos into the pages of a boxing magazine. He created a contoversey and alienated boxing traditionalists by colorizing black and white photos just as Ted Turner did when he took his box of crayons to the film classics of the 1930s and 40s.

Married (and divorced) four times, Bailey is a jet-setter who can be found these days on the Studio 54 dance floor. He's become somewhat of a national celebraty, frequently in the company of the "beautiful people." You'll often see him on the talk shows (it feels like he's on Carson every other night), and for the past two years, he's been a boxing analyst for ABC's fight broadcasts.

Bailey's very much like Dick Morris, the contemporary political analyst. He knows the game better than anyone. He thinks outside of the box and comes up with some pretty wild predictions. Sometimes, you'd swear that he has a crystal ball. Other times, he's totally wrong. During his tenure at "Boxing Illustrated" he insisted that Thad Spencer would win the 1968 WBA heavyweight tournament.

If there's one word to describe Skip Bailey it's "EGO"!

You've been warned.