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SASKATOONEXPRESS - February 22-28, 2016 - Page 1
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Volume 14, Issue 7, Week of February 22, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Pro boxing hits city Dennis Page guided his brother, Greg, to the world heavyweight boxing title (Photo by Ryan Grainger) Cam Hutchinson Saskatoon Express he menus sat untouched for more than an hour. Dennis Page was sharing stories from his past and present, and his hopes for the future. Lunch would have to wait. Page grew up in the projects in Louisville, Kentucky. He fought his way out. Page was a boxer who was going places. He fought a main event. His fights were being televised. His dreams of becoming the best of the best in the ring ended one day when he received a call from his father, Albert. It is time to come home, his father said. It was time for Dennis to quit boxing and guide his younger brother. That younger brother — Greg, or Gregory as Dennis calls him — would become the WBA heavyweight champion of the world and the longest reigning USBA champion in history. In the glory days of boxing, the heavyweight title was the most prestigious in sports. Dennis Page has been living in Saskatoon for more than a decade. He came to the city quietly and kind of likes it that
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way. Even as he was putting together a card for a Feb. 27 professional boxing event, he didn’t play the Page card when signing boxers to participate. That’s not his style. Page has waited a long time for the chance to showcase professional boxing in Saskatoon. It took years and a lot of red tape before the province put an athletics commission in place to sanction combat sports. Page says Saskatoon and Louisville are about as opposite as two places can be. He saw everything imaginable where he grew up. He means everything. His father wanted a better life for his sons. One of the ways out, Albert figured, was boxing. “He didn’t want us doing the same things all our friends were doing. By the time I was in the 10th grade, the majority of my friends had gone to jail or had children or whatever. I am the only one of all the guys I went to school with that has never been to the penitentiary, who has never been arrested for stealing or anything like that. My dad always wanted us to do something else.
“My dad was macho before macho became cool,” Page said with a long laugh. “He was one of those guys who said, ‘This is the way it is going to be and that’s it.’ There was no deviation. ‘If you are out there running with those fools, then I am putting foot to butt.’” Page said he was working at a summer job when he was first approached about turning pro. The owner of the company saw potential in Page and wanted to be involved. “He went to my dad and wanted to invest some money in us right then. That was really weird. My dad said, ‘(Dennis) is only 16 years old and you are talking about putting in money and doing this and doing that?’ That was kind of strange to my dad. “My dad is one of those guys who is from the Deep South and anything that resembled taking advantage of black people, he didn’t appreciate. To him it was another example of somebody taking advantage of a black kid. So he didn’t take it anywhere. As a matter of fact, he made me quit that job. I quit that job and went and got a paper route,” he said with another long laugh.
Page got out of the projects when he was 18. He went to live with his grandparents and joined the military. It was a different world out there. While stationed in North Dakota, he got his first glimpse of Saskatchewan — and curling. He laughs as he recalls trying to explain the sport to people in Kentucky. While in the air force, Page continued to box. He humbly says maybe he could have been the champion his brother would become. “Of course we all have our own vanity, but I do believe I could have done those things. When I turned pro, it was the same time my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I fought a main event and won that every easily with all the skills I had and had been taught. I fought a couple times on television and fought in a couple international competitions. “As I said earlier, my dad was one of those guys who said, ‘This is the way it is going to be.’ My dad said, ‘Look, Dude, you need to quit fighting and help Gregory.’ (Continued on page 9)