Classic American West Coast Boxing

[granberry]

Well yes, you got your thing and I got mine, beside I don't like to roll in the mud.

I'll roll in the mud, but not here.

Rick,

I have a caution for you--

although maybe it's none of my business :

If you roll in the mud, you"ll get your clothes dirty.

.

[Rick Farris]

Hey Frank . . .

Hap Navarro used to tell me stories of his experiences with Jackie McCoy, and Jackie's fighter, Buddy Evatt.

I remember McCoy and Evatt remained friends after Buddy retired, and I'd see him with Jackie on occcasion.

Scanning those cool pages you post reveals Evatt's name on a card from the Olympic. He was scheduled to open the show in a four rounder.

Do you remember Buddy?


-Rick

[Rick Farris]

IT would'nt be the first time . . .

[kikibalt]

I don't how many of you had the good forture of meeting Cannonball Green, he was as colorful as Duke Holloway, I have a quote from Cannonball, though not verbatim.

My son Frankie was fighting the main at the Olympic and Cannonball had a kid fighting in the semi main, we usually had A dressing room to our self's but Cannonball ask me if I would let his fighter share our room, I liked Cannonball so I said, "sure why not", about 8:00 p.m. Cannonball's fighter starts bitching about the money he is getting paid, Cannonball turns to me and ask what he should do, I told him go talk to Don Chargin, he did, about 15 minutes later he walks back into the dressing room with a big smile on his face, so I said to him " you must have gotten more money, how did you do it?"

He smile at me and he tells me "I don't try to out smart them, I out dumb them"

[kikibalt]

Hey Frank . . .

Hap Navarro used to tell me stories of his experiences with Jackie McCoy, and Jackie's fighter, Buddy Evatt.

I remember McCoy and Evatt remained friends after Buddy retired, and I'd see him with Jackie on occcasion.

Scanning those cool pages you post reveals Evatt's name on a card from the Olympic. He was scheduled to open the show in a four rounder.

Do you remember Buddy?


-Rick

Yes I do, and I have a pic. of him.

[kikibalt]

Buddy Evatt

[Rick Farris]

[
. I met up with Yaqui Lopez a couple of months back and he's in tremendous shape.

Hey Scar . . .

I also saw Yaqui Lopez, last Oct. at the WBHOF Banquet. "Counter Punch Productions" set up a small studio across the hall from the memorabelia-autograph signing show.

We had Dan Hanley interview Yaqui, and it is a CLASSIC! Dan, who had followed Lopez's career from start to finish, took Yaqui back in time, bringing to memory so many exciting fights. Hanley set up a warm, memory filled exchange between Lopez and his one-time advisary, Matthew Saad Muhammad. The result is priceless.

In due course, this footage will be available, and some of you here might enjoy it.

-Rick[/i]

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

[
. I met up with Yaqui Lopez a couple of months back and he's in tremendous shape.

Hey Scar . . .

I also saw Yaqui Lopez, last Oct. at the WBHOF Banquet. "Counter Punch Productions" set up a small studio across the hall from the memorabelia-autograph signing show.

We had Dan Hanley interview Yaqui, and it is a CLASSIC! Dan, who had followed Lopez's career from start to finish, took Yaqui back in time, bringing to memory so many exciting fights. Hanley set up a warm, memory filled exchange between Lopez and his one-time advisary, Matthew Saad Muhammad. The result is priceless.

In due course, this footage will be available, and some of you here might enjoy it.

-Rick[/i]

Dan interviewing Yaqui.

[kikibalt]

That BO'N guy is really Boxing writer Bill O'Neill

[kikibalt]

Gil Cadilli (R) vs Keeny Teran...1951

I took this pic. of a DVD that I have, it doesn't have the whole fight, just high lights

[dagosd2000]

When I was a kid my father liked to go down to TJ to get haircuts. They were something like 50 cents. I still go down there for a haircut. I've had the same barber for 20 years. He's got this old barber chair that's got to be an antique. It looks like something that ought to in one of those plazas in Rome. Curvy designs. Looks hand made. My barber is kind of an artist himself. Uses mostly a pair of scissors and the straight razor. Takes his time. Trims around the ears. Gets the nose hair out,and makes sure the eyebrows are correct.

Well one Saturday afternoon me and my dad are in the barber shop next to Colonia Morelos. The weekends are pretty busy for barber shops down there,so my dad gets in the chair first and tells me to wait in the park across the street. Just about every colonia has a park. Nothing extravagant. It's usually a square block of iron benches,shade trees,lots of colorfull flowers,and of course swings and a slide for the kids. At each corner of the park there's a vendor and his cart. Tacos,sliced fruit,cotton candy,raspados(shaved ice with different flavored syrups),and ice cream. The parks are a good place to sit down to reflect,watch the passerbys,or take a cat nap. I always liked to get ice cream in Mexico when I was a kid. The ice cream had more flavors and was smoother than the ice cream in the U.S. I walked over to the ice cream cart. It had wheels so you could push it and a little bell to let the kids know that the ice cream man was around. Hand painted on the side of the cart was "Ositos". I guess that was the name of the ice cream company. And for the life of me,there was always a little old guy selling the ice cream. I got the usual:a scoop of mango topped off with a scoop of coconut. At that time you couldn't get those flavors in the U.S. side. Chocolate,vanilla,and strawberry ,if you were lucky.

Well across the street from the park is this big army base. I'm sitting there taking my time with the ice cream when I see a group of about 15 soldiers file outside. I guess it was a platoon. This big soldier comes out and starts barking out at this group of soldiers. He was probably their sergeant. I think he was trying to get them to stand at attention or present arms or something,but all they did was horse around. One guy points his rifle at another guy's head and pulls the trigger and goes"click". Another guy is poking another guy in the ass. It's really funny to watch this,but let me tell you,the sergeant is going absolutely ape. Those soldiers never did obey the sergeant. It was worse than Bilko's platoon.

I could see my father walk out of the barber shop,so I get up. Just then this car comes speeding to the corner of the park. It screeches to a halt in front of the guy selling tacos. Everybody in the park starts running over towards this car. I see it's a lemon colored convertible with the top down. I can tell there's a Mexican driving and a light skinned gal snuggled up next to him.

I look at my father and he waves me over to the where the car is. There's a lot of people by now and I can't figure out what all this commotion is about. My father puts his hand on my shoulder and says."Do you know who that is ?" pointing to the Mexican dude who got out of the convertible. He's a good looking guy wearing a bright blue sport shirt open all the way at the collar. You can tell he's a lady's man.
"No," still looking hard at his face. "Who is he?"

"You should know",my father says. "You're a fight fan"
I still couldn't put it together.
"Gaspar Ortega"said my father.
"We just saw him fight on TV last week in New York"
"Didn't you know? Ortega lives here in Colonia Morelos."

I couldn't believe it. I bet I saw Ortega fight a dozen times on television. Last week he had beaten Paret in Madison Square Garden,and now he's in this little park in TJ buying tacos. Ortega pulls out a twenty and it's tacos for everybody in the vicinity. I take a look at the girl. She's a "gringa"(an American woman), a real blonde,and real pretty. Ortega's got this big smile and all the kids want to touch him. He's trying to shake hands as fast as he can,and then he gets back in the convertible and screeches out again.

I looked up at my father.
"Imagine that. I just saw Gaspar Ortega. Now that's something to remember."
I started to walk towards where my father had parked the car. My father let out a laugh.
"Hey wait a minute. Did you forget you had to get a haircut?"

[kikibalt]

Baby Arizimendi vs Henry Armstrong...1939

[kikibalt]

Carmen Basilio vs Gaspar Ortega

[dagosd2000]

Baby Arizimendi vs Henry Armstrong...1939

I worked with a Mexican gal. Her uncle was Joe Conde. She always talked about the trilogy of fights between Conde,Arizmendi,and Baby Casanova. The "Epoca de Oro". Hey youngster,were you around for the Zoot Suit riots in LA?

[dagosd2000]

Carmen Basilio vs Gaspar Ortega

Thanks buddy. Carmen was my dad's favorite. He was Italian and a Marine in WW II like my dad.

If you read my post,I wonder whatever happened to that blonde?

[kikibalt]

Yeah, I was around for the Zoot Suit riots, but I was a little young though.

My uncle, my dad's younger brother was a Zoot Suiter.

[granberry]

[
. I met up with Yaqui Lopez a couple of months back and he's in tremendous shape.

Hey Scar . . .

I also saw Yaqui Lopez, last Oct. at the WBHOF Banquet. "Counter Punch Productions" set up a small studio across the hall from the memorabelia-autograph signing show.

We had Dan Hanley interview Yaqui, and it is a CLASSIC! Dan, who had followed Lopez's career from start to finish, took Yaqui back in time, bringing to memory so many exciting fights. Hanley set up a warm, memory filled exchange between Lopez and his one-time advisary, Matthew Saad Muhammad. The result is priceless.

In due course, this footage will be available, and some of you here might enjoy it.

-Rick[/i]

Rick,

I saw a photo of Yaqui Lopez at one of these so called hall of fame get togethers

and unlike the photos of most of the other guys I used to know, which are very depressing to see because of their aging,

Yaqui looked terrific. Which made me feel good. Strong genes.

I remember seeing him fight Matt Franklin (Sadd Muhammed) at the Philly Spectrum.

I remember, just as the fight was about to start, envying him his position on that evening as he stood there alone in the ring---a stranger in strange city, surrounded by an audience of hometowners, fighting a hometown product (Franklin)

Standing up there alone in the ring before the fight, tall for a lightheavy, with a beautiful head of very healthy black hair cut in some currently stylish fashion.

I had heard from some around Frazier's gym where he had worked out in the last days before the fight that he was in a less than happy state of mind as an outsider surrounded by less than friendly strangers at the gym, almost all of them of a different race (if I may be allowed to say that in these politically correct times).

He was working out with lightheavies available at the gym, quite a formidable bunch, including Jerry Martin and several others rated or soon to be rated.

After his last workout he tried to talk to a couple of those there, asking about Franklin, what kind of guy he was, etc.

They seemed to convey to me that he seemed to be affected to some degree by the cold reception he had received during his days there at the gym.

The fight itself was not a good night for him.

Saad's head hung right out there, but Yaqui kept throwing a circular right hand, while a short straight right hand would have landed every time.

Lopez got hit more as the fight went on, finally with his face turning into what some termed after the fight, a "halloween mask."

He was totally game, was never down, and finally the ref stopped the fight.

After the fight at a conference in the hallway balcony, a number of old trainers commented on how open Matt was for a short right hand while Yaqui kept throwing a circular 'around the world' right.
I asked them why Yaqui had done as well as he had in his career, and they said, "There just aren't a lot of real game guys around any more." They all had great respect for his gameness.

Some time later when I heard that Lopez was fighting Matt for Matt's title, I said that that was one fight I would skip watching, because of the one-sidedness of their first fight which I had already seen.

I heard the next day that it was a great fight, with Yaqui doing very well for much of the fight.

By the way, Jerry Martin told me that Matt Franklin (Sadd Muhammed) was by far the heaviest hitter of all the lightheavies he fought or sparred with.
Martin said Eddie Gregory was not the heaviest hitter he fought, "But every time he hit me, he hit me right on the chin."
When I made a derogatory remark about Marvin Johnson, Martin interrupted me and said he had to make the following very clear: That he had sparred a lot with Marvin Johnson, that Johnson had a tremendous offense, and that you better not take him lightly because he could chop you up pretty quickly.

I remember once Martin told me he had hurt his hand in sparring and wasn't working out. I asked him what happened and he said, "Oh, there's this new guy at the gym. He doesn't amount to much. He's not very tall and he tries to act real aggressive. I hit him on the top of the head when he was coming in and hurt my hand."

I know that NOTHING is ever an 'accident,' so I said, "What is the guy's name?" Martin said several times that the guy was nothing, but finally I got him to tell me the name--Dwight Braxton.
I knew Braxton must amount to something, because Martin would not have hurt his hand like that unless he was pressured.

And it turned out a bit later that Braxton did amount to something.
By the time Martin fought Braxton for Braxton's title, Martin was a physical mess, way downhill from he had been, and the fight should not have taken place.

There was quite a crew of lightheavies around Philly at that point, and you could see some great workouts in the gym.

[kikibalt]

[Rick Farris]

Hey Frank . . .

I remember reading about he Escobar brothers in the old KO and REFEREE magazines, that were given to me by George Parnassus and Johnnie Flores.

I remember Andy, Alfredo, and Herman,the younger brother who came up in the mid-60's, but didn't reach the level of his older brothers.

I remember these guys were managed by Ralph Gambina, and that Frank Sinatra had some interest in them.

Do you have any memories of these guys?

-Rick

[Rick Farris]

Your information on Yaqui Lopez in Philly, Saad Mahammad, etc. was great!

As an L.A. gym rat, I saw a lot of great wars between legendary Mexican champs, etc. However, Philly has always had this rep for great gym wars, and I was a fan of most of those great Philadelphia middle & welterweights.

This past Oct. we, Dan Hanley & I, interviewed Georgie Benton, who was inducted as a trainer. Unfortunatly, we didn't have the time that need be devoted to such a great source of history. I loved watching Benton fight, not to mention Bennie Briscoe, Harold Johnson, "Kitten" Hayward, Gypsy Joe Harris, etc.

Hopefully, Benton will attend our '08 WBHOF banquet. If so, we'll be prepared to do it as it should be done.

-Rick

[Rick Farris]

Question for Frank:

I remember when I was involved with Suey Welch, hearing stories about an L.A. fighter, Phil Kim. There was some kinda mystery regarding his murder, at least, this was the feeling I got as I listened to them talk.

I really don't remember much, I wish I could. Do you remember Phil Kim?

-Rick

[dagosd2000]

Rick or Frank
Danny Millsap promoted a lot of fights in San Diego. Ernie Fuentes also was involved with boxing down here. Are they still around?
Dago

By the way Frank,I've got 7 grandchildren,but have you beat with 4 great grandchildren.

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Baby Face fought out of San Diego in the early 1950's