Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

For Rick

Los Angeles history -- noir

The Los Angeles Conservancy is sponsoring a one-day tour of sites titled "L.A. NOIR-chitecture, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 9. The locations have become famous in noir fiction and film and include the Formosa Cafe (James Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential"), Warner Bros. Studios (Dashiel Hammett's "Maltese Falcon"), the Parva-Sed-Apta Apartments (Nathanael West's "Day of the Locust") and Southern Pacific Terminal in Glendale (James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity"). People on the tour will drive themselves from one spot to another and go on tours led by docents. Tickets are $30, $25 for Conservancy members.

The tour is being produced in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs as part of the Big Read program of the National Endowment for the Arts and focuses on Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon," which is set in San Francisco.

Cultural Affairs is showing "Maltese Falcon" on Nov. 21-22. Venues are the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Hollywood, the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown Los Angeles and the Warner Grand in San Pedro. The agency plans a showing at the Warner Grand with appearances by an unidentified Hammett scholar and members of Hammett's family.

Looks interesting.

[bennie]

Ken Buchanan Today


"Kenny"

By Diego

Sheer artistry, Rog.

ThanksBennie
The pictures I saw of the fighting Buchanan in his stance didn't catch my eye like the present day Kenny. He looks sad in these recent shots. Bennie is he OK? Did I miss something about him on an earlier post? Very powerfull,yet sad expressin.

Yes, he seems really happy. Someone told me Kenny was back on the bottle recently, which surprised me, but then that same someone bumped into Ken at an amateur show and admitted he had got it wrong. He was astonished how well Kenny looked.

[kikibalt]

Kenny Lane beats Luis Molina in 1962
Bobbin & Weavin

[kikibalt]

There will be no rebroadcast next week of this fight, am I buying it because its not going to be rebroadcast? NO!!

Sergio Mora barely makes the weight

Two hours after tipping the scale at 156 pounds, he makes the limit of 154 for bout against Vernon Forrest.
September 13, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- Sergio Mora, a major player in today's boxing card at the MGM Grand, gave promoters a scare Friday before making his 154-pound weight about two hours after the first weigh-in.

Mora, of Los Angeles, will fight Vernon Forrest of Atlanta in a rematch of their June fight, won by Mora, who gained the attention of the boxing world by winning the TV show "The Contender." Mora's first weigh-in was 156 pounds.


Their match will directly precede the main event between Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico and Joel Casamayor, the Cuban who now lives in Miami. They will fight at 135 pounds, and both hit that number in Friday's weigh-in.

The televised card, an HBO pay-per-view show ($44.95) that will not be rebroadcast next weekend -- the norm with these pay-per-view shows -- will begin at 6 p.m. It will include three fights labeled title events: Marquez-Casamayor; Mora-Forrest; and a 12-rounder between junior-welterweights (140 pounds) Victor Ortiz of Oxnard and Roberto Arrieta of Argentina.

The card will start on-site at 3 p.m. and feature a total of eight bouts.

Bill Dwyre

[kikibalt]

By Norm Frauenheim
spam.com


ThisMargarito plots his next move

The robe was a shower curtain. The crown was paper. Bling doesn’t make a king. It didn’t eight years ago and it doesn’t now. Antonio Margarito is the people’s choice, if not the people’s champ, after his dramatic upset of Miguel Cotto in July.

Margarito’s co-manager, Sergio Diaz, was in Phoenix, not far from a tiny arena at an open-air mercado where the future welterweight champ entered the ring then unknown, yet today remembered by former Arizona promoter Dick Todd for an unpretentious costume topped by a crown that came with fries and a cheeseburger.

“I’ll never forget that get-up,’’ Todd said of a first-stoppage of somebody named Jose Luis Benitez on Sept. 17, 2000. “I asked him about it and he said he’d be the champ one day.’’

Who knew then? Who knew before his 11th-round TKO of Cotto? Not this writer, one in a chorus line that picked Margarito to lose.

In the weeks since he walked through Cotto, the guess was that Margarito could pick and choose. Wrong again. There are longer lines of people who choose to get Margarito’s autograph these days. But the world’s best-known fighter is still first in line to get away from him. Otherwise, Oscar De La Hoya would have agreed to fight Margarito on Dec. 6 instead of Manny Pacquiao, a former junior-flyweight.

“To be honest with you, we pretty much find ourselves in the same situation still,’’ said Diaz, who was in Phoenix to promote a card that featured hometown super-featherweight Juanito Garcia against Jose Hernandez of Fort Worth, Tex., Friday night at Wild Horse Pass Casino. “Yes, there is frustration. Tony has worked so hard. As you recall, nobody would give Tony a chance for a long, long time.

“Before the Cotto fight, Oscar made some statement that he would fight the winner and that he wanted to fight the best. But he didn’t think Tony would win.’’

Certainly not in the stubborn, bruising fashion that fractured Cotto’s advertised potential. In terms of bucks and bruises, De La Hoya figures to get a lot more of the first and fewer of the second against the smaller Pacquiao than he would against Margarito.

De La Hoya, who is as good at promoting and politicking these days as he is at punching, forewarned everybody he wouldn’t fight Margarito because he didn’t want to wade back into the public-relations dilemma that haunted him earlier in his career. Then, Mexican fans disliked him when he fought Julio Cesar Chavez. He didn’t want an encore against Margarito, who Diaz said has been spending most of his time at home with his wife in Tijuana.

But De La Hoya also had said he would never fight Cotto, Puerto Rico’s best, because his wife is Puerto Rican. He changed his mind. But don’t look for a similar reversal about Margarito. It’s not the border or cross-cultural currents. It’s all about the risk. It’s just too high. Diaz expects Mayweather to eventually come out of retirement.

“We’ve heard rumors that he is training right now,’’ Diaz said.

But Diaz isn’t expecting any voice mail or text messages from Money May’s representatives about the possibility of a comeback that would include a bout at any time with Margarito.

“Slim to none,’’ Diaz said of those chances. “I’ve heard from people close to the Mayweather camp that Tony is the one Mexican they don’t want to see. Tony is a natural welterweight who comes forward and throws a lot punches. Mayweather has never wanted to take that chance.

“Before, it was always high risk and not enough money. Now, it’s just too much risk. I believe Oscar will make money, a lot of money, against Pacquiao. He has said it will be his final fight. But I don’t believe that it’ll be his last. He has left the door open.’’

If – as some predict – Pacquiao beats De La Hoya, Diaz also doesn’t foresee a bout with the popular Filipino. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach already has said that De La Hoya is the only bigger, big-name fighter he would face. De La Hoya, Roach suggested, is shot. Margarito is not.

“Tony told me the other day he thinks that what Oscar is doing is a fraud,’’ Diaz said. “He said he wants to be in real fights for the people who pay real money to see them.’’

For Margarito, that probably means a rematch with Cotto. Diaz said there were preliminary discussions, but nothing more.

“We talked about November, but time just kind of caught up with us,’’ said Diaz, who mentioned next June as a possibility. “It was just talk, nothing.’’

There also was never much to the speculation that Margarito would meet Joshua Clottey, who beat Zab Judah after his victory over Cotto.

“That was mostly media talk,’’ Diaz said of Clottey, who lost a decision to Margarito in December, 2006.

Another possibility is Paul Williams, who upset Margarito 14 months ago on a subpar night. The list also includes Shane Mosley, a real possibility for a fighter who has been forced to keep it real throughout a career that once included a plastic robe and a paper crown. That was no costume. It was a promise that Margarito has kept, no matter what fighters with more bling have done or won’t do.

[bennie]

Prescott took part in two classics with Billy Walker in London. The Brummie had a lot of talent and certainly proved he was better than Billy.

Bennie,

Did you see those fights? if so what you tell us about them.

No, didn't see them but have seen footage. First one was all Prescott when Walker opened up in the 10th and last round with a series of thumping right hands (Billy could certainly whack, as giant American Cornelius Perry once found out) and forced a stoppage, although Prescott was on his feet and covering up (if not throwing back) and complained bitterly. The second was another thriller, with Prescott's better boxing this time seeing him home.

[kikibalt]

Sergio Mora, might be a nice guy and all, but he is one fighter I don't care to watch, his style just turns me off

Montebello's Mora a humble champion
By Robert Morales, Staff Writer
SGVT.

Sergio Mora stood on a stage in the plaza behind Olvera Street in Los Angeles on Monday. The Schurr High School graduate had just taken part in a news conference promoting the defense of his super welterweight world title tonight against Vernon Forrest at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The card will be available on HBO pay-per-view.

It has become clear that becoming the world champion hasn't put the former Montebello resident's head in the clouds. He's still the same guy who stunned the boxing world by taking the title from Forrest via majority decision in June in Uncasville, Conn.

It's Mora's nature to be modest. Besides, he knows that he still hasn't received the respect a champion usually receives, so he can't afford to become cocky.

"You can't honor yourself, that's the thing," he said. "Yeah, you're a world champion, but you don't let it get to your head with people calling you champ here and there. It's still very unfamiliar to me and I really don't take it too serious, too much to heart, because I gotta solidify that title.

"I gotta keep solidifying it. Now I have to solidify myself as a legitimate champion. I'm still coming in here as a contender at heart. It just so happens I have a belt with me. I just have to stay focused and humble."

Mora, 27, has scored two significant victories in his professional career. Three years before his upset of Forrest, Mora defeated Peter Manfredo Jr. in May 2005 to win the championship
on the first season of "The Contender" reality series.

But Dean Campos, Mora's longtime trainer, said that Mora has not taken on the persona of a big shot.

"A lot of times I don't even realize he's a champion until I see his (championship) belt laying in his room on his bed or whatever," Campos said. "He's still the same guy. He does the same things every day. He hangs out with the same friends. Everybody treats him the same way.

"He doesn't like it when people tell him he's this and he's that. He doesn't pay attention to it. He knows that he still has to get in the ring and perform because he could easily turn around the next day and not have that championship anymore."

Campos said Mora (21-0-1, 5 KOs) doesn't walk around with a large band of hangers-on, spending loads of money on them.

Quite the contrary. When he and his friends go out to eat, sometimes Mora buys, sometimes they do.

"He'll tell us, `Hey, where's the money, man,' " Campos said, laughing.

Yes, this is Mora. He treated people with respect and humility before he became known, and he still does. But for someone like Mora, it's even more important that he remain grounded.

He wasn't expected to beat Manfredo to win "The Contender." He was even more of an underdog against Forrest three months ago.

"I think I humbled a lot of critics and I just shut a lot of people up," he said. "There are still critics. I just tell people that keep knocking my talent that I just have to keep knocking down these victories and be successful in doing what I do to be happy as a young Latin champion and be positive and a role model.

"It doesn't matter how many critics I have because I'm good at heart."

He'll need all the heart he can muster when he steps back into the ring with Forrest (40-3, 29 KOs) tonight. Forrest, 37, made a myriad of excuses after Mora took his title, and there are plenty of experts out there who believe that Forrest was indeed off his game and that he will take his title back.

Not only has Mora grown tired of hearing how Forrest was "flat" because he "overtrained," he is using Forrest's "Alibi Ike" routine for motivation.

"A good fighter, a great fighter, can adapt to whatever's going wrong," Mora said. "So there are no excuses. That was Vernon Forrest.

"If I have a bad night, you can bet I'm going to try and go out on my shield and defend my title."

Jeff Wald promotes Mora under his Tournament of Contenders banner.

"Sergio's probably the most disciplined, smartest fighter I've ever been around," Wald said. "And brains have a lot to do with the fight, as well as his attitude and the way he conducts himself."

[bennie]

There will be no rebroadcast next week of this fight, am I buying it because its not going to be rebroadcast? NO!!

Sergio Mora barely makes the weight

Two hours after tipping the scale at 156 pounds, he makes the limit of 154 for bout against Vernon Forrest.
September 13, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- Sergio Mora, a major player in today's boxing card at the MGM Grand, gave promoters a scare Friday before making his 154-pound weight about two hours after the first weigh-in.

Mora, of Los Angeles, will fight Vernon Forrest of Atlanta in a rematch of their June fight, won by Mora, who gained the attention of the boxing world by winning the TV show "The Contender." Mora's first weigh-in was 156 pounds.


Their match will directly precede the main event between Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico and Joel Casamayor, the Cuban who now lives in Miami. They will fight at 135 pounds, and both hit that number in Friday's weigh-in.

The televised card, an HBO pay-per-view show ($44.95) that will not be rebroadcast next weekend -- the norm with these pay-per-view shows -- will begin at 6 p.m. It will include three fights labeled title events: Marquez-Casamayor; Mora-Forrest; and a 12-rounder between junior-welterweights (140 pounds) Victor Ortiz of Oxnard and Roberto Arrieta of Argentina.

The card will start on-site at 3 p.m. and feature a total of eight bouts.

Bill Dwyre

Mora well over, then; two pounds is a lot. You wonder how much shifting it has weakened him and you also wonder how 'up' he is for this quick rematch - so quick, it is almost as if Mora hasn't had time to enjoy his win. It reminds me of most British world champs, who rush into a quick first defence in an attempt to cash in on their status
Forrest had a rematch clause.

[bennie]

Tequila helped fuel boxer Joel Casamayor's defection to U.S.

Matt Sayles / AP
Boxer Joel Casamayor, above, will fight Juan Manuel Marquez in a lightweight bout on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Two weeks before he was scheduled to box for Cuba in the 1996 Olympics, Casamayor escaped an unhappy training camp in Guadalajara.
Bill Dwyre

LAS VEGAS -- For Cuban boxer Joel Casamayor, coming to America was more happenstance than political. It was more about tequila than tactics.

Casamayor is 37 now, 12 years removed from the international intrigue that surrounded his defection two weeks before he was to box for his second gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

He has been a good pro, especially effective at 135 pounds. He has lived in Miami since his escape from Cuba, has won a couple of titles in the alphabet-soup world of prize fighting, and will carry a 36-3-1 record into tonight's matchup with popular Mexican Juan Manual Marquez, who is 48-4-1. Since Marquez is 34, this is probably a boxing finale -- grand or otherwise -- for one or both.

So that makes the retelling of Casamayor's defection story somewhat more fitting.

It was two weeks before the start of the Atlanta Olympics. The Cuban boxing team, which had dominated the tournament in 1992 in Barcelona and had gotten a gold medal from Casamayor at 118 pounds, was training in Guadalajara.

By his own account, Casamayor was not a happy camper. For his gold in Barcelona, the Cuban government had given him a bicycle. He had been exposed enough to the rest of the world to know that Soviet gold medalists got cars and apartments and Americans filled the pocketbooks of their golden people and put them on Wheaties boxes and TV.

Casamayor sold his bicycle to buy a pig for his family.

So when things went badly at the Mexican training camp, the Cubans insisting he fight at 118 again, even though he was nowhere near that weight with two weeks to go, he feared being sent back to Cuba, his career over.

"I would be cleaning backyards," he says.

With no clue what to do, he went to the house of a friend, watched a telecast of the first fight between Macho Camacho and Roberto Duran and drank lots of tequila. That, of course, furthered his weight problem.

He returned late that night to Cuban camp and was met at the door by the head trainer, Alcides Saragusa, who marched him directly to the scale. He weighed 135 pounds and was, for all intents, a dead man in the eyes of Cuban sports officials.

"I laid in bed wide awake," Casamayor says. "I waited until everybody was asleep. I knew I couldn't go back to Cuba. Then I snuck out."

He was hidden by his friend from Guadalajara, and moved from home to home, deeper and deeper into the city, as Mexican police, not wanting this high-profile mess to attract big headlines in their country, pledged full cooperation with Cuba.

At the same time Casamayor disappeared, so did world champion Ramon Garbey, a light-heavyweight who many thought would become the next Teofilo Stevenson, a legendary Cuban Olympic star.

Casamayor found his way to Garbey, and Casamayor's Mexican friend got them both to the border at El Centro, where they declared their intentions to defect and were put in holding cells.

Enter Bob Arum, then as now an internationally known boxing promoter.

"There was a guy from the Dominican Republic," Arum recalls, "and he was telling me how this Garbey was the next great heavyweight, and I had heard a little about him. So I got a good immigration lawyer, got them out of San Diego and signed a contract with Garbey.

"I remember, there was a little guy who came with him in the deal. It was kind of like, you hook the big fish, and there was a little one, hanging on. So you keep them both."

The little fish was Casamayor who, along with Garbey, spent his first month in the United States, living unlike most defectors. He and Garbey lived in a suit in Bally's in Las Vegas.

Arum says Garbey, under contract with him and working out so Arum could get him in a fight, immediately found the lure of females and alcohol in his new environment too much.

"He went insane," Arum says.

Then, one day, Garbey and Casamayor went away.

"They were just gone," Arum says. "We went to the hotel and everything had been cleaned out. They just disappeared, and we were very concerned, for maybe a week or more."

Then, he found out that Garbey and the little fish, Casamayor, had been spirited off to Miami by a man named Luis DeCubas. Arum agrees that the fighters would be more comfortable in Miami, but didn't agree that DeCubas could steal away a fighter he had under contract.

Lawsuits were filed, DeCubas eventually paid Arum for his trouble and life went on, Garbey fighting with mixed results for DeCubas and, according to Arum and Casamayor, never really straying from his choice of parties over training.

Arum has no time for Garbey, and refers to DeCubas, whose son of the same name now manages Casamayor, as a "scumbag" and a "wannabe promoter." But he says his impression of Casamayor is that he has turned out to be "a nice guy who has stayed on the straight and narrow well enough to have a good career."

Casamayor has gotten most of his family, but not all of it, out of Cuba. That includes paying for a successful boat run a year ago that brought his mother, brother and 16-year-old daughter to Miami.

Most likely, there is one prized possession he will never get back.

"I had a trophy case, with 200 trophies on the wall," Casamayor says. "They came into my home after I was gone and took one thing out. The gold medal. It is in a museum now."

He shakes his head, smiles wistfully, and adds one more word.

"Fidel," he says.

Dwyre can be reached at [email protected]. For previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

F uck me, Casamayor looks like the ghost of Diego Corrales.

[bennie]

California's Timothy Bradley makes the first defence of his WBC light-welterweight title tonight on the Nate Campbell-Joan Guzman bill in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Opponent is Edner Cherry.
Bradley won the title with an upset split decision over Bradford's Junior Witter in Nottingham in May. The 25-year-old from Palm Springs came over as the mandatory challenger but was largely untested and - stocky and aggressive - looked made for the counterpunching, switch-hitting Witter. Bradley showed fast hands, though, and dropped Witter with a big right in the sixth and maintained a high tempo throughout to prove an impressive, worthy winner in his first 12-rounder, despite the split.
Witter is not an easy guy to look good against, let alone beat.
The improving, unbeaten Bradley moves on to the useful Cherry, a 26-year-old Floridian who comes off an imposing 10-round stoppage of former lightweight star Stevie Johnston and, in recent years, has lost only to current IBF light-welterweight champ Paulie Malignaggi, who takes on Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in November.
Altogether, Cherry is 24-5-2 (12).
Won or lose, Cherry comes in as a threat but will be fighting out of his natural weight class, which is lightweight. In seven years as a pro the chunky challenger has never scaled within two pounds of light-welter (heaviest is the 9st 11¾lbs he came in for Malignaggi), although it will help him that Bradley is a chunky fellow himself. Cherry is tough, willing and pours it on late in his fights. He's never been stopped.
The champion, however, is a natural light-welterweight and thus the stronger man, and clearly relishes the limelight and his new-found status. He is on fightviews virtually every day. To sum up, if Bradley can beat Witter in England, he can get past Cherry in the States.

[kikibalt]

I don't think I'll be watching fights tonight, I'll be watching football, UCLA and later on USC.

[kikibalt]

Joe Louis vs Jack Roper...1939

[dagosd2000]

I don't think I'll be watching fights tonight, I'll be watching football, UCLA and later on USC.

Frank
USC or Ohio State?

[kikibalt]

Ezzard Charles vs Charley Norkus

[kikibalt]

I don't think I'll be watching fights tonight, I'll be watching football, UCLA and later on USC.

Frank
USC or Ohio State?

Don't know, but I'll be rooting for USC big time... 8)

[kikibalt]

LAS VEGAS - SEPTEMBER 12: Steve DeAngelis of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (C) stands between boxers Joel Casamayor (L) of Cuba and Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico during their official weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena September 12, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fighters will meet in a 12-round fight on September 13. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

[dagosd2000]

THE CURB

My little nephew Fernando at one time wanted to be a boxer. Where he got the
idea,iIdon't know. He was the youngest of three brothers. His mother,who's my wife's sister,had the boys with three differenr men. They left as soon as she got pregnant. We finally had to get her tubes tied because this was becoming a yearly thing. She lives in Jiquilpan in one of our houses by herself. A while back she had this drunk boyfriand who was living with her not payng any rent so I threw him out.Her sons want no part of her. They live in TJ. She doesn't ask about them anymore.

When Fernando told me about being a fighter,I took him down to Cheto's Gym downtown in the Santa Cecelia Plaza. He was always a tough kid with a temper. He could beat up his older brother,but the oldest one still had enough size to pick on Fernando and get away with it. One day when the oldest was pushing him around,Fernando threw a hammer at him and busted open his eye.

I found a trainer for Fernando,a fellow named Nacho who used to fight at the Auditorium. I told Nacho and Fernando that this was on my "dime",but because I worked on the U.S side I wouldn't be able to monitor what was going on. But Fernando loved boxing. He loved to fight. His friends would go down to the gym with him and watch him train. The boy always had natural stregnth. He was lanky,but very strong. I remember picking him up as a little guy and feeling the power in his body.

Well fernando was progressing just fine. He was 14 and in the gym everyday. He didn't smoke and didn't drink. Drugs,he thought,were for weak minded people. The other boys in the gym admired him and Fernando was beginning to have a big following.

But just like that it was over. Me and the wife made our weekly family visit. On the couch was Fernando in a cast. We asked him what happened. He said he was stepping off a curb downtown and his achilles tendon snapped. He was in the cast for months. When they took it off you could see that his whole leg had shrunk. He rehabbed it but could never move around in the ring with any quickness anymore. He stopped going to Cheto's.

Today fernando stands out in front of a strip club on Revolution Street. His job is to hustle people into the club. He stands out there shilling with lines like,"Two for one.". Or "You want to have sex with a virgin?" He's married. His wife and him have a little girl that looks just like him. Wild with big black eyes. A Morena.

I think of what might have happened if Fernando hadn't stepped off that curb that day. But you can't change that now. Today it's two beers for the price of one,and a chance to screw a "virgin".

[kikibalt]

JACK "The Giant" O'HALLORAN THE FORGOTTEN WHITE HOPE

By Jim Amato

As Muhammad Ali ruled the heavyweight division in the mid 60's, white hope contenders came and went. Henry Cooper, George Chuvalo and Karl Mildenberger all were vanquishedby the "Greatest". When Ali was forced to relinquish his crown in 1967, the best of the white contenders was probably Jerry Quarry. By 1969 a huge brute of a man named Jack O'Halloran had compiled an impressive 16-1-1 record. Standing at around 6'6 and weighing in the vecinity of 240lbs., Jack struck fear into opponents by his mere bulk. In 1969 he upgraded his opposition with mixed results. He dropped decisions to Joe "King" Roman, Joe Bugner and Tony Doyle. On August 19th he was halted by rugged "Florida" Al Jones. In turn he outscored Carl Gizzi and stopped Mexican contender Manuel Ramos in seven rounds.

On January 26th, 1970 in New York Jack was kayoed by George Foreman in five rounds. On April 9th he was destroyed in one round by Mac Foster. Jack lost a rematch with Roman but he did manage to outpoint Britisher Danny McAliden. 1971 was a dismal year for Jack as he lost to Jack Bodell, John Griffin, Ron Stander and Ron Lyle. Jack did decision Cleveland Williams and he kayoed Terry Daniels.

Big Jack made his move in 1972 as he fought his way into the heavyweight ratings. On March 17th he lost a ten round donnybrook to future champion Kenny Norton. Many felt this was one of the best bouts between big men on the west coast in years. On June 16th Jack dropped a verdict to a highly regarded Henry Clark. On August 10th in what became Jack's career highlight, he won a twelve round rematch with Clark for the California State heavyweight title. One month later he halted Ali's brother Rudy Clay (Rahman Ali) in eight rounds. Quickly Jack put out a challenge to Muhammad to avenge his brother's loss. Luckily for Jack the ex-champ had other commitments.

Jack started 1973 where he left off in 1972. He pounded out a ten round decision over Al "Blue" Lewis. He then split a pair of knockouts with Jimmy Summerville. On June 8th Jack lost the California State title to Howard "Kayo" Smith via a twelve round points call. Jack then dropped back to back verdicts to Boone Kirkiman and Koli Vailee. On December 5th Big Jack was stopped in nine rounds by Larry Middleton. That loss pretty much finished Jack as a viable contender. In all Jack fought two world champions and seven others challenged for the crown. Also include top contenders such as Al Jones, Al Lewis, Mac Foster, Henry Clark, Boone Kirkman and Larry Middleton and you can see Jack did battle with the cream of the crop.

[Randyman]

Has anyone seen "Righteous Kill" yet with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino? I saw it last night. I won't give anything away but I will recommend it. Both of these guys are two of my favorite actors. Or to use boxing terminology "They are among the "pound for pound" best in the business. They play off each each well. The only thing missing was Joe Pesci.

I won't be watching the fights tonight either. I'll be at the wedding and reception of a family friend. Since there will be no replaying of the HBO's fight I guess that means I won't be seeing them later either.

Frank, those old photos that you have been posting the last few days are outstanding. They were all great but the photos at Wrigley Field were the best. Thanks for sharing them here.

[Randyman]

THE CURB

My little nephew Fernando at one time wanted to be a boxer. Where he got the
idea,iIdon't know. He was the youngest of three brothers. His mother,who's my wife's sister,had the boys with three differenr men. They left as soon as she got pregnant. We finally had to get her tubes tied because this was becoming a yearly thing. She lives in Jiquilpan in one of our houses by herself. A while back she had this drunk boyfriand who was living with her not payng any rent so I threw him out.Her sons want no part of her. They live in TJ. She doesn't ask about them anymore.

When Fernando told me about being a fighter,I took him down to Cheto's Gym downtown in the Santa Cecelia Plaza. He was always a tough kid with a temper. He could beat up his older brother,but the oldest one still had enough size to pick on Fernando and get away with it. One day when the oldest was pushing him around,Fernando threw a hammer at him and busted open his eye.

Man Rog, that was kind of sad. You just can't help but wonder what would if be like if only..... It's amazing how such a seemingly small event can change a person's life. ...as the song says "That's Life.


I found a trainer for Fernando,a fellow named Nacho who used to fight at the Auditorium. I told Nacho and Fernando that this was on my "dime",but because I worked on the U.S side I wouldn't be able to monitor what was going on. But Fernando loved boxing. He loved to fight. His friends would go down to the gym with him and watch him train. The boy always had natural stregnth. He was lanky,but very strong. I remember picking him up as a little guy and feeling the power in his body.

Well fernando was progressing just fine. He was 14 and in the gym everyday. He didn't smoke and didn't drink. Drugs,he thought,were for weak minded people. The other boys in the gym admired him and Fernando was beginning to have a big following.

But just like that it was over. Me and the wife made our weekly family visit. On the couch was Fernando in a cast. We asked him what happened. He said he was stepping off a curb downtown and his achilles tendon snapped. He was in the cast for months. When they took it off you could see that his whole leg had shrunk. He rehabbed it but could never move around in the ring with any quickness anymore. He stopped going to Cheto's.

Today fernando stands out in front of a strip club on Revolution Street. His job is to hustle people into the club. He stands out there shilling with lines like,"Two for one.". Or "You want to have sex with a virgin?" He's married. His wife and him have a little girl that looks just like him. Wild with big black eyes. A Morena.

I think of what might have happened if Fernando hadn't stepped off that curb that day. But you can't change that now. Today it's two beers for the price of one,and a chance to screw a "virgin".

[Randyman]

California's Timothy Bradley makes the first defence of his WBC light-welterweight title tonight on the Nate Campbell-Joan Guzman bill in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Opponent is Edner Cherry.
Bradley won the title with an upset split decision over Bradford's Junior Witter in Nottingham in May. The 25-year-old from Palm Springs came over as the mandatory challenger but was largely untested and - stocky and aggressive - looked made for the counterpunching, switch-hitting Witter. Bradley showed fast hands, though, and dropped Witter with a big right in the sixth and maintained a high tempo throughout to prove an impressive, worthy winner in his first 12-rounder, despite the split.
Witter is not an easy guy to look good against, let alone beat.
The improving, unbeaten Bradley moves on to the useful Cherry, a 26-year-old Floridian who comes off an imposing 10-round stoppage of former lightweight star Stevie Johnston and, in recent years, has lost only to current IBF light-welterweight champ Paulie Malignaggi, who takes on Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in November.
Altogether, Cherry is 24-5-2 (12).
Won or lose, Cherry comes in as a threat but will be fighting out of his natural weight class, which is lightweight. In seven years as a pro the chunky challenger has never scaled within two pounds of light-welter (heaviest is the 9st 11¾lbs he came in for Malignaggi), although it will help him that Bradley is a chunky fellow himself. Cherry is tough, willing and pours it on late in his fights. He's never been stopped.
The champion, however, is a natural light-welterweight and thus the stronger man, and clearly relishes the limelight and his new-found status. He is on fightviews virtually every day. To sum up, if Bradley can beat Witter in England, he can get past Cherry in the States.

Bennie, as usual that was great prefight review. Any time you want to write fight reviews on my blog, just say the word. http://boxing-ring.blogspot.com

Randy

[Randyman]

Tequila helped fuel boxer Joel Casamayor's defection to U.S.

Matt Sayles / AP
Boxer Joel Casamayor, above, will fight Juan Manuel Marquez in a lightweight bout on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Two weeks before he was scheduled to box for Cuba in the 1996 Olympics, Casamayor escaped an unhappy training camp in Guadalajara.
Bill Dwyre

LAS VEGAS -- For Cuban boxer Joel Casamayor, coming to America was more happenstance than political. It was more about tequila than tactics.

Casamayor is 37 now, 12 years removed from the international intrigue that surrounded his defection two weeks before he was to box for his second gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

He has been a good pro, especially effective at 135 pounds. He has lived in Miami since his escape from Cuba, has won a couple of titles in the alphabet-soup world of prize fighting, and will carry a 36-3-1 record into tonight's matchup with popular Mexican Juan Manual Marquez, who is 48-4-1. Since Marquez is 34, this is probably a boxing finale -- grand or otherwise -- for one or both.

So that makes the retelling of Casamayor's defection story somewhat more fitting.

It was two weeks before the start of the Atlanta Olympics. The Cuban boxing team, which had dominated the tournament in 1992 in Barcelona and had gotten a gold medal from Casamayor at 118 pounds, was training in Guadalajara.

By his own account, Casamayor was not a happy camper. For his gold in Barcelona, the Cuban government had given him a bicycle. He had been exposed enough to the rest of the world to know that Soviet gold medalists got cars and apartments and Americans filled the pocketbooks of their golden people and put them on Wheaties boxes and TV.

Casamayor sold his bicycle to buy a pig for his family.

So when things went badly at the Mexican training camp, the Cubans insisting he fight at 118 again, even though he was nowhere near that weight with two weeks to go, he feared being sent back to Cuba, his career over.

"I would be cleaning backyards," he says.

With no clue what to do, he went to the house of a friend, watched a telecast of the first fight between Macho Camacho and Roberto Duran and drank lots of tequila. That, of course, furthered his weight problem.

He returned late that night to Cuban camp and was met at the door by the head trainer, Alcides Saragusa, who marched him directly to the scale. He weighed 135 pounds and was, for all intents, a dead man in the eyes of Cuban sports officials.

"I laid in bed wide awake," Casamayor says. "I waited until everybody was asleep. I knew I couldn't go back to Cuba. Then I snuck out."

He was hidden by his friend from Guadalajara, and moved from home to home, deeper and deeper into the city, as Mexican police, not wanting this high-profile mess to attract big headlines in their country, pledged full cooperation with Cuba.

At the same time Casamayor disappeared, so did world champion Ramon Garbey, a light-heavyweight who many thought would become the next Teofilo Stevenson, a legendary Cuban Olympic star.

Casamayor found his way to Garbey, and Casamayor's Mexican friend got them both to the border at El Centro, where they declared their intentions to defect and were put in holding cells.

Enter Bob Arum, then as now an internationally known boxing promoter.

"There was a guy from the Dominican Republic," Arum recalls, "and he was telling me how this Garbey was the next great heavyweight, and I had heard a little about him. So I got a good immigration lawyer, got them out of San Diego and signed a contract with Garbey.

"I remember, there was a little guy who came with him in the deal. It was kind of like, you hook the big fish, and there was a little one, hanging on. So you keep them both."

The little fish was Casamayor who, along with Garbey, spent his first month in the United States, living unlike most defectors. He and Garbey lived in a suit in Bally's in Las Vegas.

Arum says Garbey, under contract with him and working out so Arum could get him in a fight, immediately found the lure of females and alcohol in his new environment too much.

"He went insane," Arum says.

Then, one day, Garbey and Casamayor went away.

"They were just gone," Arum says. "We went to the hotel and everything had been cleaned out. They just disappeared, and we were very concerned, for maybe a week or more."

Then, he found out that Garbey and the little fish, Casamayor, had been spirited off to Miami by a man named Luis DeCubas. Arum agrees that the fighters would be more comfortable in Miami, but didn't agree that DeCubas could steal away a fighter he had under contract.

Lawsuits were filed, DeCubas eventually paid Arum for his trouble and life went on, Garbey fighting with mixed results for DeCubas and, according to Arum and Casamayor, never really straying from his choice of parties over training.

Arum has no time for Garbey, and refers to DeCubas, whose son of the same name now manages Casamayor, as a "scumbag" and a "wannabe promoter." But he says his impression of Casamayor is that he has turned out to be "a nice guy who has stayed on the straight and narrow well enough to have a good career."

Casamayor has gotten most of his family, but not all of it, out of Cuba. That includes paying for a successful boat run a year ago that brought his mother, brother and 16-year-old daughter to Miami.

Most likely, there is one prized possession he will never get back.

"I had a trophy case, with 200 trophies on the wall," Casamayor says. "They came into my home after I was gone and took one thing out. The gold medal. It is in a museum now."

He shakes his head, smiles wistfully, and adds one more word.

"Fidel," he says.

Dwyre can be reached at [email protected]. For previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

F uck me, Casamayor looks like the ghost of Diego Corrales.

I was thinking the same thing about Casamayor. It should be a hell of a fight tonight between Casamayor and Marquez. A tough one to pick but I'll go with Marquez by UD. Marquez has virtually proven himself to be Pacquiao's equal. it was only the judge's decision that separated them, and it was by a hair.

Randy

[Randyman]

There will be no rebroadcast next week of this fight, am I buying it because its not going to be rebroadcast? NO!!

Sergio Mora barely makes the weight

Two hours after tipping the scale at 156 pounds, he makes the limit of 154 for bout against Vernon Forrest.
September 13, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- Sergio Mora, a major player in today's boxing card at the MGM Grand, gave promoters a scare Friday before making his 154-pound weight about two hours after the first weigh-in.

Mora, of Los Angeles, will fight Vernon Forrest of Atlanta in a rematch of their June fight, won by Mora, who gained the attention of the boxing world by winning the TV show "The Contender." Mora's first weigh-in was 156 pounds.


Their match will directly precede the main event between Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico and Joel Casamayor, the Cuban who now lives in Miami. They will fight at 135 pounds, and both hit that number in Friday's weigh-in.

The televised card, an HBO pay-per-view show ($44.95) that will not be rebroadcast next weekend -- the norm with these pay-per-view shows -- will begin at 6 p.m. It will include three fights labeled title events: Marquez-Casamayor; Mora-Forrest; and a 12-rounder between junior-welterweights (140 pounds) Victor Ortiz of Oxnard and Roberto Arrieta of Argentina.

The card will start on-site at 3 p.m. and feature a total of eight bouts.

Bill Dwyre

Mora well over, then; two pounds is a lot. You wonder how much shifting it has weakened him and you also wonder how 'up' he is for this quick rematch - so quick, it is almost as if Mora hasn't had time to enjoy his win. It reminds me of most British world champs, who rush into a quick first defence in an attempt to cash in on their status
Forrest had a rematch clause.

Just the fact that he struggled a bit to make weight makes me wonder what kind of shape he's in. If he is in shape I think he can win. Forrest, always a tough guy to fight is always in shape. We'll see.

[Randyman]

Posthumous WBHOF Inductees . . .

This year's two Posthumous WBHOF Inductees are forme light-heavyweight contender "Young Firpo" (Guido Bardelli) and former welterweight champ, Luis Rodigue of Cuba. The reason I post this is to let you guys know that Rodriguez has no known family to accept the award on his behalf. We were searching fo a proper recipient for the boxer, and finally came up with somebody whom was not only a stablemate of Luis, but also a close fiend and fellow Cuban World Champ from his era. Sugar Ramos will be on hand to accept Luis Rodiguez WBHOF Induction Bronze. Ramos has already been inducted.

Also on hand for the event will be current welterweight champ Antonio Margarito, as well as Israel Vasquez and Raphael Marquez, who will receive 2008 "Fight of the Year" honors for their second war from earlier this year. I know it isn't the "end of the year" yet, however, the WBHOF considers all bouts held from one banquet to another, so a full year does pass.

-Rick

What an impressive list of guesst Rick. I'm really looking forward to it. Same with Ed Hernandez.

Looking forward to meeting Ed Hernandez, Randy. I found the post about your cousin's Brazilian JJ very cool. My wife, Monica, is from Brazil but has been here for nearly a dozen years. I was surprised she hadn't heard of the Gracies when I first met her, and shocked she didn't know that Eder Jofre was an all-time great boxing champ. I asked her how she could be a Brazilian and not know who Eder Jofre was? She answered, "Honey, I know who Eder Jofre is. He is the Mayor of Sao Paulo, one of our largest cities." She got me on that one.

-Rick

Rick, Ed's pretty excited about going. He's a great guy. I would love to see him on this thread. His computer has been on the blink for a while. His love for boxing as well as his knowledge is on par with the guys on this thread. Speaking of the guys on this thread, everyday I am more and more amazed and impressed by their knowledge and respect. An impressive group of guys.

A while back Frank posted a photo of Ed with "El Gato" from Mando's memorial service. "El gato is Ed's favorite fighter. If you do see the photo, check out the smile on Ed's face. Ed and his son, Ed Jr. ran the PAL gym in Ontario for several years before it closed.

By the way, I received the tickets during the week. Thanks

Randy

[kikibalt]

Big UCLA Bruins Fans, my granddaughter Sierra and Chata