Hello everyone. I am Rodolfo"Gato"Gonzalez. The one who beat Chango Carmona for the lightweight championship of the world on November 10th 1972. I want to thank you all for all your compliments. I don't know how many of you were present that night of my fight with Carmona. He was 3 to 1 fa...

To all Boxrec readers and writers, Today has been a sad day for my hometown Guadalajara and for the whole country of Mexico. My friend and stablemate Efren "Alacran" Torres died this morning. He and I started training on the same day at the Police Station in the City of San Andres, about t...

Rick, Thank you so much for writing about my consecutive knockout record. You are right about saying that I had no idea who I was fighting in those days. My manager, Angel Casillas, would just say, don't worry about your opponent--he is only a four round fighter. But I was fighting him in a 10 round...

Christmas Greetings and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year to all of my friends and readers of "West Coast Boxing"----------. Also thank you Rick and Frank for my Happy Birthday wishes. I finally reached the medicare old timers on Dec.16th. However, a month earlier November 12-14, I tra...

Rick, What a proud day for Monica. Congratulations, Monica. I can remember the day when I became an American citizen over 30 years ago. It was very special for me. There were only about 10 immigrants on that day. I remember how proud I was. Immediately after the ceremony I was interviewed by NBC and...

Roger,

You are right about going to Jiquilpan one of these days next year. What is the best time of the year to go?

El Gato

Hello Everyone, Do you remember me? I haven't posted here for a long time. First of all, Roger, you did a very nice painting of Pacquiao. I didn't get to see his fight as I was at LAX returning from my trip to Guadalajara. It was a great privilege for me to be in my hometown once again after 47 year...

Rick... You are right about "Alacran" Torres and myself. We grew up together. Jose Becerra started training us both on the same day at the San Andres Police Station boxing gym in Guadalajara. I was only 13 years old and he was about 15. His father, Margarito Torres, owned a shoe store and ...

Thanks, Rick, for posting the photo of me smiling. Do you remember why I was smiling? I don't remember what was going on at that time. I remember right after that when Dan asked me about my miracle healing and the Virgen of Guadalupe who came to me in a dream. Every time I talk about it, it brings m...

Hap and Rick, I enjoyed very much reading about the good old days that you experienced---so much interesting information. About all I remember is the street cars. I only took a street car one time somewhere in downtown Los Angeles in 1963. I also remember the Alexandria Hotel where all the fighters ...

Rick, I would like to explain to you and to all the readers how the name "El Gato" came to be. In the early 60's fighting in Guadalajara, the people at my fights would scream come on Gato knock him out. I don't really know who started it but one by one more people started calling me El Gat...

This is for all of the group that will be meeting at Tom's Farms on June 7th--- Something extremely important has come up for June 7th. I feel very badly that I will not be able to be with all of you on this date. On that Sunday I will be attending a charity event at Paramont Studios where they will...

Hi everyone, I had to catch up on the last four pages. First to Dago... Another new artistic painting of me. Thank you so much for doing this and for posting it on this thread. I noticed that it was different right away. As for the earthquake, Barbara and I were sitting on the sofa watching TV with ...

Rick, Thank you for posting the link to my fight with Chango Carmona. What people don't know is that I was thinking about my retirement from boxing already until I was finally given the opportunity for this fight. Even though it was late in my boxing career I was keeping myself in the best shape tha...

Rick, It is sad to see the Hoover Gym gone, where many great fighters trained. The people who live in the nice new homes there now have no idea about the sweat and punches and all the other things that went in the gym years ago, right on the very spot where they are living. And of the great fighters...

Frank, The pictures you posted of Saturday's luncheon are great. Looks like everybody was having a good time. Congratulations to Connie and to all the other "Women behind the Boxer" who were honored. Tomorrow morning the WBC is flying four of us to Mexico City--Mando Muniz, Rene Arredondo,...

Wildhawke Danny,

I can see that you have been through alot. Keep safe and our prayers are for you to be in good health. I am glad that you are posting again. Love to read your interesting comments.

El Gato

Scar, Yes, I knew in the beginning of 1972, they had me ranked #2 in the Jr. Welterweight in this division. It would have been a more comfortable weight for me to fight at, but Jacky McCoy wanted me to win the Lightweight Championship of the World first and then move on to go for the Jr.Welterweight...

Roger, I haven't been able to post on Boxrec for a few days and want to wish you well regarding your eye surgery. I hope your eyes are completely healed soon. Our prayers are with you. Please give me a call. I would call you but I don't have your phone number.(Only your address). Tom, Also our praye...

Rick, Scar and Frank, In the begining of 1972 my first two fights at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles were with Manny Leal on February 24th and on March 16th I fought Chun-Kyo Shin from Korea. I knocked both of them out in the 7th round. Manny Leal had a much better style than Shin with more co...

Rick--- You are absolutely right. That picture in the article is not me. It definitely is Oscar "Shotgun" Albarado fighting somebody. But that other person is not Fermin Soto either. Also they do not have my name spelled correctly. Gonzalez is with a Z at the end. That was a common mistake...

Roger, It was a great afternoon at your home Sunday. It seemed like we talked for hours and hours with no break. We had so many stories to share. Rog has so many pictures of Michoan that brought back so many memories of when I visited there in the 60's and when I fought Jose Garcia in Jiquilpan on F...

Scar and Rick, Joe Medrano was my stablemate in 71 and 72. We would train at the Hoover Gym every day. Even though he did not have a wide variety of combinations he was pretty strong. Many times he would get mad while sparring and would really fight it out. He would also spar with Monroe Brooks and ...

Dago, I fought at the Arena 72 on August 26 of 1974 to a sold out crowd. My opponent was Clemente Muzino. I think the arena held about 8,000 people. Anyway, the people got angry at me because the fight ended so soon. I hit him with my liver punch and double up to the chin in the second round and tha...

Scar, We never did any research uner the name that I used when I first started fighting. My first professional fights were under the name of Joe Gomez. I don't know if there is a record of them anywhere. I had five knockout fights under this name and they may be lost forever. I fought in small towns...