Farhood: ‘Lucky’ to be inducted into boxing Hall

WHEN Steve Farhood graduated with a degree in journalism from NYU in 1978, he did what just about all journalism majors did back then: He applied to about 150 newspapers ... and he got 150 rejections. Then he tried magazines and got a nibble.

“I happened to get an interview with a publishing company in Long Island that put out professional wrestling and professional boxing magazines,” Farhood told The Post recently. “I got the job for $185 a week and here I am 40 years later doing the same thing but for more than $185 a week.”

Forty years later, Farhood is part of the 2017 class that will be inducted Sunday into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y. The journalist and broadcaster for Showtime goes in with a stellar class that includes boxers Evander Holyfield, Antonio Barrera, Johnny Tapia and John Lewis, boxing judge Jerry Roth, broadcaster Barry Tompkins and famed ring announcer, Jimmy Lennon Sr.

Farhood is humbled to be among such a distinguished class.

“It means everything,” the Brooklyn native said. “I’ve been a boxing guy for 40 years and this is pretty much validation for me. I feel it’s 40 years well spent. I’ve been lucky to cover boxing. The athletes are great to cover. The events are great to cover. Now this happens. It’s a huge bonus at this point in my career.”

Farhood said he put on gloves and sparred briefly in his early 20s.

“It was just enough to learn that I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I learned very quickly it’s easy to hit a guy. It’s not so easy to get hit.”

Ask him what is his favorite fight of all-time and his answer comes quickly.

“The best fight I was at was 35 years ago and still holds No. 1 in my ratings which is Pryor-Arguello 1,” Farhood said referring to the epic duel between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello at the Orange Bowl in 1982.

The most bizarre? There are two. The Bite Fight where Mike Tyson was disqualified after the third round for biting a chunk out of Holyfield’s ear in 1997; and the night heavyweights Riddick Bowe and Andrew Golota met at the Garden in July 1996. Golota was disqualified in the seventh round for repeated low blows. Members of Bowe’s camp charged Golota, inciting a riot.

“I looked behind me and I saw the angry mob and I looked in front of me and I saw Bowe’s people hitting Golota on top of the head with a cell phone,” Farhood recalled. “I was in the middle and figured I’d better get up out of my seat so I can move, and I was able to do that.”

Farhood traces his journalistic roots in the sport back to the Felt Forum, where boxing was held every two or three weeks in what now is the Garden Theater. New state insurance laws requiring $1 million of coverage per fighter to treat potential brain-related injuries has made staging small boxing shows too expensive without the support of network television. As a result they have become virtually nonexistent.

“I had a regular seat at the Felt Forum, which was basically having fights every two or three weeks,” Farhood said. “That was home and we saw so many fighters develop. If you don’t have a place to develop fighters, they don’t get developed. That’s very sad for the New York fight fans.”

It won’t be a sad day in Canastota on Sunday. Farhood promises his speech won’t be long.

“I’ve been on the other side of that stage for several years and I’ve heard goodintentioned people going on way to long,” he said. “I won’t be one of those guys.”