Final chapter, final Page likely written for former champ

Final chapter, final Page likely written for former champ
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
June 18, 2013

A week ago today, former WBA welterweight titlist James Page was arrested in Northern California in connection to six bank robberies that took place around the Bay Area over the past six months. According to the Bay Area News Group, he is being held on $395,000 bail.

It was just over a year ago that Page emerged from prison following an 11-year sentence stemming from a bank robbery in Atlanta in 2001. After serving his time, Page left prison a cut and ripped 159 pounds, intent on returning to the ring in an attempt to find old glory.

Page's comeback received little fanfare, though he took it much more seriously than most fortysomethings coming off more than a decade of inactivity. Page sparred with the late Omar Henry at King's Gym in Oakland, as well as junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo under the watchful eye of Angulo's trainer, Virgil Hunter.

In doing a story for the February edition of the UK publication Boxing Monthly, this writer recalls discussing Page with Hunter when it first became apparent that he was out of jail and looking to return to the ring. Hunter instantly brushed off the idea of it. He'd had a change of heart after seeing Page go toe-to-toe with Angulo in sparring.

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James Page's Battle to Turn Back the Clock

In the February 2013 edition of British boxing publication Boxing Monthly, I have a four-page spread on the unlikely comeback of former WBA welterweight titlist James Page, who returned to the ring in November 2012 after a 10.5 year jail sentence stemming from multiple bank robberies. In fact, Page's picture makes it on the front cover in the upper right corner. Though Page's comeback didn't go as planned, there was still a worthwhile story behind the ring return.

I was very proud of this piece. Unfortunately, the photographer I used pictures from was completely unprofessional and refused to provide me with shots of Page getting worked over by his opponent in that comeback fight, telling me "Page is her homie". This despite the fact I lined her up to get paid for the photos.

Former Pittsburg boxing champion tries to turn Page

Former Pittsburg boxing champion tries to turn Page

Mark E. Ortega

Martinez News-Gazette

October 18, 2012

OAKLAND, Calif.—Adoring the walls of King's Gym on 35^th St. in Oakland are legions of fight posters and photographs that likely number in the thousands.

Among the plethora of worn and torn snapshots of history are a handful from the glory days of Pittsburg's James Page, the one-time WBA welterweight champion who held the crown briefly from 1998-1999.

Now, more than a dozen years since he first defeated Andrey Pestryaev of Russia in two rounds for the vacant title, Page has returned to the famed East Bay boxing gym as he readies himself to climb back into the ring for the first time since losing in his attempt to regain his crown against Andrew Lewis in 2001.