MINNESOTA BOXING HALL OF FAMER HARRIS MARTIN TO BE FEATURED ON CHANNEL 5!

1880’s legendary middleweight contender, Harris Martin, a.k.a “The Black Pearl”, is set to be featured on Channel 5 KSTP’s next week’s edition of “So Minnesota” at 10 pm on Monday, October 23, 2023.

Minnesota boxing history expert, Jake Wegner, is interviewed about the 2010 Minnesota Boxing Hall of Famer.

“I got a message from current Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame president, Sean Conrad Strauss, saying he passed along my number to the news station because they had contacted him asking who they should speak to about The Black Pearl. When any news source is looking to feature one of our boxers, as those times don’t arise often enough, but this case was special because of who it was they wanted to know more about. Harris Martin is special to me because of all the time I spent restoring as much as I could for his record. When I first began restoring his record on boxrec.com, he only was credited with like 20 fights or so, some of which I don’t even think are really his out east. Now his record is up to 83 fights and I’m sure there’s more out there. Unfortunately for me, I got incredibly sick the day before the filming and had a horrible ear infection that ending up rupturing the night before. I woke up that morning with no sleep, a lot of pain, and could hardly breathe so I was concerned about even talking normal for the shoot, but it was a lot of fun. Joe Mazon of KSTP-TV is such a pro and a really great guy. Tony Grygelko was kind enough to let them film at Lyke’s Boxing Gym and Fitness in Circle Pines and then we also filmed at the cemetery where the Pearl is buried and showed his Hall of Fame plaque where Forest Lawn Cemetery staff still proudly display their most famous resident. I hope the public enjoys the documentary.”