Classic American West Coast Boxing

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Eddie Perkins

[dagosd2000]

Noticed Woody Strode on the wrestling card. Frank,do you know what year that was?

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Noticed Woody Strode on the wrestling card. Frank,do you know what year that was?

diego,

Thats from 1948, I have that KO mag. and a 1945 KO mag. also, and some from the early 1950s.

[dagosd2000]

Noticed Woody Strode on the wrestling card. Frank,do you know what year that was?

diego,

Thats from 1948, I have that KO mag. and a 1945 KO mag. also, and some from the early 1950s.



Frank
That's quite an impressive collection of programs. Don't let anyone talk you out of them.]

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Oscar Bonavena

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Oscar Bonavena weight in for the Floyd Patterson fight

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[dagosd2000]

Pug
You might get what I'm going for here. I remember when Sonny Liston was going through the heavyweight division like Attila the Hun. Floyd Patterson was the the champ at the time and I was a big fan of his.I was impressed by his hand speed and the relative ease he went through his opponents.

My father,on the other hand,was not overwhelmed by Patterson.My father thought Patterson was fighting mostly set ups. I read in RING MAGAZINE that guys like Folley,Machen,and Liston should get the next shot,but it was always someone like"Cut and Shoot" Harris or Pete Radamacher who'd be trying to win the crown. I started to feel awkward about it after a while. But I always though Floyd would do the right thing and get around fighting the top contenders..

Howevwer,Johansson knocked out Patterson and was involved in a thrilling series with Floyd with Floyd becoming the first man to recapture the heavyweight title. Patterson won a lot of respect with those fights and then signed to fight the number one contender,Sonny Liston.

Sonny looked scary. Sonny acted like he was keeping some tremendous anger within him that he masked with a deadly stare. Short ansewrs. Mean looks. Big shoulders and arms. A clubber,but also a pretty fair boxer. Trained hard. Rigorous exercises,skipping rope to "Night Train". Towels stacked on top of his shoulders and then covered up with his robe. Sonny was the baddest dude. And he was an ex con. Couldn't fight in New York because of his record. For kids like us,Sonny Liston was invincible.

But Sonny's personality didn't impress my father. Maybe it was my father's combat experience on Okinawa,or maybe Italians from the neighborhood thought that Liston as all about"bull shit". Trying to scare people outside the ring showed no class. You scared people once the bell rang. My father thought it was either an act or maybe Liston was trying to cover up a fear he couldn't deal with, so he acted tough. My father figured Liston would be exposed one day. But it wasn't against Patterson. Floyd was the one who revealed himself. Two losses by knockout in one round. Before the second fight Floyd had brought a mask. What was he hiding from? How could he hide anyway?

After Patterson, when you said Sonny Liston,you hid the women and children. But I know on the West Side of Chicago,they still weren't sold on Sonny Liston. Tough guys in the neighborhood didn't have to prove nothing to no one. If you messed with them,then you found out who was tough.

Well Liston finally showed himself by sitting on his stool in Miami ,and for whatever reason rolled around the canvas in a highschool gym in Maine. From the sullen Liston to the outlandish clowning of the Muslim,Muhammad Ali. I remember those old guys on the West Side didn't talk boxing too much after all that.

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Noticed Woody Strode on the wrestling card. Frank,do you know what year that was?

diego,

Thats from 1948, I have that KO mag. and a 1945 KO mag. also, and some from the early 1950s.



Frank
That's quite an impressive collection of programs. Don't let anyone talk you out of them.]

No way thats going to happen....

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Oscar Bonavena Facing off with Muhammad Ali prior to their championship bout.

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Oscar Bonavena
Birth: Sep. 25, 1942
Death: May 22, 1976

World Heavyweight Boxing's Top Contender Who Went 15 Rounds With Ali and Frazier. A vicious puncher ranked at the top of the professional heavyweight boxing division, Bonavena fought 3 famous champions: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Floyd Patterson. Bonavena knocked down Joe Frazier twice but Frazier won a 10 round decision over Bonavena in New York City on September 1 1966. After winning seven consecutive fights Bonavena fought Frazier again,this time for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in Philadelphia on December 10 1968 but Frazier won a 15 round decision. After winning five consecutive fights by knockout,on December 7 1970 in New York City Bonavena fought 15 vicious rounds with Muhammad Ali. Late in the 15th round Ali knocked down Bonavena 3 times and finally knocked Bonavena out,the only time in 66 fights Bonavena was stopped. On February 11 1972 Bonavena fought a brutal war in New York City with former champ Floyd Patterson, but Patterson won the ten round decision. Bonavena won his last six bouts,his last victory coming with a ten round decision win over Billy Joiner in Reno Nevada on February 26,1976. Known as a hard partier and womanizer when he wasn't training,Bonavena was finally stopped for good. Oscar Bonavena was found murdered at the famed Mustang Ranch bordello and whorehouse on May 22 1976 just outside of Reno. Final professional boxing record of Oscar Bonavena: 56 wins,9 losses and 1 draw,with 42 kayos. He was 33 years old.

Cause of death: Murdered

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[dagosd2000]

You know Frank a lot of those greaseball hoods liked being around fighters. It made them feel tough, or they used them for strong arm shit,but I blame the fighters for falling for that . Liston was another example. Mob guys are no good for anybody. Those guys in that picture. I wonder how many of them died in prison or wound up buried in the desert?

[dagosd2000]

I think about this a lot. When I look at a photograph like the one with those mob guys,I run a gamut of emotions. I remember being around guys like that once in a while. Yeah,they were pretty confident.They were sure about themselves. But I couldn't get away from the impression that the bottom line was that they were vulgar. Most of them were not born in Italy. They ,perhaps,had gone there on a vacation or to visit a relative,but many of them made a big mistake by thinking that they were better than a lot of people. Southern Italy,where their ancestors came from, was terribly poor. Nothing to brag about. Those back East Italians didn't have a high opinion of Blacks,Hispanics,or Asians. It was a cocky brazzeness that was a turn off to me. What were those mob guys anyhow? They never went to school.They killed and robbed.Their people never came over on the Mayflower.The only thing I can say is many of them didn't want to see their children grow up as gangsters.

I know this. My mother couldn't stand that life. The Godfather movies never impressed her. My father got in some trouble in Chicago. We came out here. The high life was gone,but I think his vision of the world was clearer. He missed the good times back in Chicago,but all the guys he ran with(Giancana,Nicoletti,Roselli)were all murdered. Just like his father. I wish the media would stop glorifying crime.

[bennie]

Great pic, Frankie. Even Nigel Collins didn't have anything like this in his book Boxing Babylon, which had a chapter on the murder.

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Wilfredo Benitez vs Harold Weston