It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I pass along that our dear friend Sam Macias passed away on July 21.
Sammy devoted so much his life to boxing, as Chairman of and a Commissioner with the Nevada Athletic Commission, as a member of the Board of Governors and Continental Americas Championship Chairman for the WBC, and as President and a long time Executive Board member of the NABF (which I like to think, besides his beautiful wife Sandy, was Sammy’s true love).
Like so many of you, I owe a debt of gratitude to Sammy that I could never truly express and that I certainly could never repay. Sammy assigned me to supervise my very first bout (Vernon Forrest vs Ray Oliveira on Nov. 7, 1997), and, along with his partner-in-crime Dickie Cole, Sammy was instrumental in almost anything and everything that I have received through boxing. We always stress how much the NABF is like a family. In large part, that is due to Sammy.
Sammy was truly one of kind, and, despite how much it pains me to write this, I also can’t help but think of all of the GREAT times that we shared over the years.
RIP, my dear friend. I do not have the words to express how much you will be missed.