Remembering Vince Neratka
Submitted photo
Former Fayette County boxing standout Vince Neratka, who passed away on Nov. 19, 2021, finished his career with a professional record of 44-19-2 with 39 knockouts.
Submitted photo
Vince Neratka
Sad news for area sports fans reached me last week. Former Fayette County boxing standout Vince Neratka passed away on Nov. 19, 2021.
Neratka, a 1964 graduate of Uniontown High School, started boxing out of the Shaffer Boys Club in Uniontown in the late 1960s.
鈥淣eratka was tutored by Tommy Shaffer early on,鈥� former Uniontown resident and longtime fried Dr. Ed Jeffreys said. 鈥淭hat diminished over the years, but in the late 1980s is when that slowed down a little bit because Neratka wasn鈥檛 fighting at that time. But they talked a minimum once a week, once a month.
鈥淗e loved Uniontown. He loved Tommy Shaffer. Neratka lost his father when he was 13 and Shaffer was a father figure as he was for so many young men back in the day.鈥�
Neratka made a splash on the amateur boxing scene. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1965. He continued boxing, representing the USAF in the Philippines, and fought in the Olympic trials and in the Golden Gloves. Neratka won the Golden Gloves twice and was light heavyweight champ in the Air Force in 1968.
鈥淗e won 24 bouts in a row as an amateur,鈥� Jeffreys said. 鈥淗e is credited with 23 because one bout wasn鈥檛 sanctioned.鈥�
Neratka turned pro in 1969 and had a fateful bout with Willie 鈥淭he Worm鈥� Monroe on Nov. 11, 1969 at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. Monroe scored a first-round knockout in a fight that haunted Neratka for years. Neratka had three wins and a draw as a pro coming into the fight with Monroe.
鈥淲hen I lost to Monroe in 1969 my managers told me before the bout that it was his first as a professional,鈥� Neratka told the Uniontown 蘑菇视频. 鈥淚t was his first pro bout all right, but what they didn鈥檛 tell me was that he had a 47-0 record in the amateur ranks, and all by knockout. He had won almost every title around and was handled by the Cloverlay people, the same guys who had (Joe) Frazier.
鈥淚 went out to feel him out in the first round and the next thing I know is the referee is counting me out. I鈥檓 sure if I ever fought him again I could beat him. In fact I鈥檝e begged him to get in the ring with me and he won鈥檛.
鈥淚 guess I never really got over that fight with Monroe. I didn鈥檛 realize people would lie to you like that. If I had known who he was I would have properly prepared myself. Instead I got beat and he goes on to where he is now. (Ranked in the top 10 in the world).鈥�
One bout early in his career against Johnny Gillio was a memorable one on June 24, 1970 at the Catholic Youth Center in Scranton, Pa.
According to the Scranton Tribune, Neratka, the least regarded of the middleweights fighting in three matches that night, ripped Gillio蘑菇视频 left eye so badly that State Athletic Commission Dr. Frank Colizzo required 13 sutures to repair the damage. Yet the meager reward the entertaining granite-chinned Neratka received was the consensus of the 1,910 payees and their colleagues in the press sector that a grave injustice had been done. The judges gave an eight-round decision to Gillio.
Neratka returned to Scranton to face Bobby Phillips in July that year. Phillips was also on the card when he faced Gillio in June. Still smarting from the Gillio decision, Neratka sent a telegram to the Scronton paper promising a different outcome against Phillips.
鈥淚 got robbed last time when I fought Gillio and everybody knows it. There won鈥檛 be any mistake about it this time. Phillips had better come to fight,鈥� Neratka said in the telegram.
Unfortunately for Neratka, Phillips did come to fight and scored a TKO of Neratka in the third round after dishing out some punishment. An hour after his triumph it was revealed the price Phillips paid in his victory: 24 head sutures plus impending surgery for dislocated nose cartilage.
After a hiatus from boxing of about three years Neratka who had moved to Orlando, Florida, returned to the ring. He had changed his boxing name to Joey Vincent, adopting it from his legal name Vincent Joseph Neratka. He did it in part because he was tired of sportswriters misspelling his name.
鈥淩eturned with a manager I could trust,鈥� stated Joey Vincent.
鈥淭he guy that got him back into boxing was former major league pitcher Dean Chance,鈥� Jeffreys explained. 鈥淗e was a big deal in Orlando and he wanted Vince to work with him and eventually said OK. Chance set him up as a promoter with several fights. I think probably 90 percent of his fights were with Dean Chance as promoter.鈥�
Neratka battled his way up through the ranks of Florida middleweights, but had a layoff for about eight months in 1975 after receiving severe leg injuries when struck by a car in a parking lot.
鈥淗e had a flair,鈥� Jeffreys laughed. 鈥淗e wore a poncho and his wife would walk down the aisle to the ring with him and I was his second in about six of his fights. The cut-man in one fight told me when he comes back to the corner you put his chair in there and tell him he蘑菇视频 looking good. The other fighter was beating him and I said you鈥檙e looking good, and Vince grabbed my shirt and said, 鈥榊ou better watch the referee because somebody蘑菇视频 beating the hell out of me!鈥� Vince won the fight with a knockout.鈥�
Away from boxing Neratka worked at several jobs, including selling cars in Uniontown and he was an investigator for an Orlando law firm.
鈥淗e was so popular in Orlando that he had a little break there,鈥� Jeffreys offered. 鈥淎 guy named Michael Peters owned a nightclub and he gave Neratka a job of being at the club as a greeter and he worked that job and made decent money at the time.鈥�
Neratka, AKA Joey Vincent, won the Florida State welterweight championship in August 1976 with a TKO of Ponce Ortiz.
Neratka retired from boxing in 1980. His pro record was 44 wins, 19 losses, 2 draws. He recorded 39 knockouts.
鈥淗e did a lot of public speaking about boxing,鈥� Jeffreys stated. 鈥淗e was done boxing in 1982 and landed a position at Disney World and worked in the sorting area and watched the trucks coming in and made sure everything came in properly. He worked their 20 years until he retired.
鈥淗e had been ill for about three years. He had developed cancer.鈥�
Neratka, aka Joey 鈥淢r. Excitement鈥� Vincent, 75, died in Houston, Texas.
George Von Benko蘑菇视频 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Sunday editions of the 蘑菇视频. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.