Classic American West Coast Boxing

[kikibalt]

Randy, around the same time there was a Joe Fisher fighting in L.A, both him and Johnny Fisher were out of Denver, Co., don't know if they were brothers.

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Randy, here is Joe Fisher on the left, front cover of the Knockout magazine.

[Randyman]

Randy, here is Joe Fisher on the left, front cover of the Knockout magazine.

It's possible they were brothers. There is a similarity. I think Fisher was from Colorado. I'm going to have to look up his son. Thanks for posting the cover photo.

[bennie]

The one colored orange on the map:

Sweden is huge. What is the country to its left?

[kikibalt]

Great picture of Danny "Lil Red" Lopez hitting the heavy bag
at the Main St. Gym.

[kikibalt]

[bennie]

Welsh great Joe Calzaghe continues his all-too-recent travels against former American great Roy Jones Junior (Senior, these days) at Madison Square Garden tonight, scheduled for 12 rounds.
Calzaghe outscored Philadelphia's Bernard Hopkins in a close, scrambling, disappointing 12-rounder back in April in Las Vegas, his first fight at light-heavyweight and his first ever in the States. It looked a poor performance - from both men - but Calzaghe turned out to be a helluva lot better than Kelly Pavlik, and the 43-year-old Hopkins, after picking off Pavlik for 12 rounds last month in Atlantic City, is demanding a Calzaghe rematch, and who would have thought that seven months ago.
A young Jones, it should also be pointed out, looked poor himself against the canny Hopkins.
I didn't see Calzaghe-Hopkins but I read about it and I saw pictures of Joe at the final bell. He was celebrating but celebrating in a hollow way. One could sense the fight had been a stinker; one could sense Calzaghe wasn't satisfied with his performance. This (hopefully) gives Joe the impetus to get stuck into the near-40-year-old Jones, who comes off a decent 12-round decision over Puerto Rican puncher Felix Trinidad in The Garden in January - but fighting a faded Trinidad is a far cry from fighting Calzaghe.
Jones has actually won three in a row since he lost three in a row in an horrendous 18-month stint which threatened to send him back to his fighting dogs for good. The Pensacola man used to be a superbly coordinated boxer but lack of personality and charm meant one never particularly warmed to him. Referee Richie Davies told me he once saw Jones refuse an autograph for a young boy at ringside (Jones was in his prime, and would probably sign today). Jones refused to accept a disqualification after he set himself and hit a worthy opponent twice on the floor with clean, hard shots. He refused to travel after they jobbed him in the 1988 Olympic light-middleweight final in Korea against a Korean. Jones has never fought outside the United States in 19 years as a pro.
Nonetheless, he was undeniably the best fighter of the the 1990s.
Calzaghe is a 'home boy' himself, of course, but wins here over the previously unbeaten pair of Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler raised his profile to such a level, America proved inevitable, especially with Ricky Hatton already cashing in over there. Enter Hopkins, enter Jones, although this is something of a pension fight for both Jones and Calzaghe and has failed to capture the imagination of boxing fans on either side of the pond. Calzaghe is now 36, he's apparently struggled to make the light-heavyweight limit, which is quite shocking after all his years at super-middleweight - the two fighters appear plain bored in plain boring TV trailers. Calzaghe has pressing and expensive legal problems as well, but I won't go there, except to say that this fight is promoted by Jones himself.
Leave the fighting to McGuigan.
Can Jones roll back the years? The man was always a better boxer than he is a promoter and it enabled him to move up to heavyweight from light-heavyweight and befuddle John Ruiz for 12 rounds for a version of the world heavyweight title, but who is Ruiz? Foolishly, Jones dropped right back down (some say because he didn't fancy fighting someone by the name of Jirov at cruiserweight, and Jones has really always been his own promoter) and the strain on his body took its toll against Florida rival Antonio Tarver, who licked him twice, a quick, heavy handed southpaw like Calzaghe. The spring in Roy's step is gone, the ability to play basketball on the day of a fight is a distant, unimpressive memory.
Jones looks more than bored in those TV trailers, he looks old.
Yes, then, Calzaghe looks the favourite, still fresh enough to pump put those famous bunches of punches, still unbeaten (in 45 pro fights) - he hasn't lost since a Romanian turned the trick in the amateurs in 1990. It speaks for itself. Calzaghe also has a history of beating 'name' opponents past their best and (usually) beating them in style and, after the Hopkins snoozefest last time out, is due an impressive Stateside display and will know that more than anyone. Jones is there, there for the taking. History, the Marciano record, big, big money beckons if Joe does take him.
He must take him.

[Randyman]

Great picture of Danny "Lil Red" Lopez hitting the heavy bag
at the Main St. Gym.

Frank. it does my heart good every time I see a photo of the Main Street Gym, even more so when it's one that I have never seen before. As you were climbing up the steps, you could hear the voices, the sounds of the speed bags and the heavy bags being hit, and the rhythmic sounds of the rope hitting the wood floor. It got louder as you got nearer to the doors, then, and especially when it was packed, as you went through the doors it hit you like a punch in the face as you instantly became engulfed in the chaotic beauty that was a typical day at the Main Street Gym. I can still smell the musty old gym that was permeated with the smell of sweat, alcohol and wintergreen. It lives in me.

This is how I still see Danny Lopez in my mind's eye. Young and strong, still set on conquering the world. Thanks for the great post Frank. Nothing stirs my heart like the Main Street gym.

Randy

[raylawpc]

The one colored orange on the map:

Sweden is huge. What is the country to its left?

Norway

[Randyman]

Below are a few various photos of my cousin Rocky Burke of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Rocky was trained by his father, the late Sammy Burke. Sammy was a top amateur boxer during the late 1940's. He served as a Marine in the Korean War. Wounded in action, he was unable to continue his career as a boxer and eventually became one of the top trainers from New Mexico. The Sammy Burke PAL Gym in Las Cruces was dedicated to his memory. Rocky, himself a former Marine, fought briefly in the early 1980's. Rocky has become one of the top referees in the southwest, though he is not limited to only the southwest. He also serves as a judge. Rocky is the older brother of Louie Burke.











Career Record as a Judge: http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hu ... &cat=judge

Career Record as a referee:http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hu ... at=referee

Career Record as a Boxer: http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hu ... &cat=boxer

[Randyman]

The Countdown begins. One week from today.

Randy

[Expug]

Im getting in to LAX at around 11.30 pm Friday the 14th.
I wanted to get out there a little earlier ,but I have to work that night.
Im staying at The Marriott. Maybe someone would wanna get a late night sasparilla?
Or something with a little more kick?

[kikibalt]

Eder Jofre

By Diego

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Leonard Morrow vs Fitzy Fitzpatrick

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Art Aragon (right), boxing's original "Golden Boy," connects with the face of
Henry Davis during a 1953 welterweight bout in San Francisco. Aragon never
won a title but he was one of boxing's biggest attractions in the 1940s and 1950s.

[kikibalt]

New Yorkers trying to save historic Tin Pan Alley


AP – Simeon Banoff, left, an advocate for New York City's historic neighborhoods, and Tin Pan Alley tenant … NEW YORK – A group of New Yorkers is fighting to save Tin Pan Alley, the half-dozen row houses where iconic American songs were born.

The four-story, 19th-century buildings on Manhattan's West 28th Street were home to publishers of some of the catchiest American tunes and lyrics — from "God Bless America" and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to "Give My Regards to Broadway."

The music of Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, George M. Cohan and other greats was born on Tin Pan Alley.

The buildings were put up for sale earlier this fall for $44 million, with plans to replace them with a high-rise. The construction plan fell through amid the turmoil in the economy, but the possibility of losing the historic block hastened efforts to push for landmark status for Tin Pan Alley.

"The fear of these buildings being sold for development crystallized their importance, and the need to preserve them," said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, a nonprofit preservation organization aiming to secure city landmark status for the buildings, which would protect them from being destroyed.

The Landmarks Commission is "researching the history of the buildings and reviewing whether they'd be eligible for landmark designation," said Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

No date has been set for a decision, which she said depends on "a combination of historical, cultural and architectural significance."

The block is sacred to Tim Schreier, a great-great-grandson of Jerome H. Remick, whose music publishing company occupied one of the houses and employed a young sheet music peddler named George Gershwin.

"I'm not opposed to development in New York, but we have to balance development with history — and this is definitely American cultural history," said Schreier.

From the late 1880s to the mid-1950s, the careers of songwriters who are still popular today were launched from the buildings at 45, 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55 West 28th.

Nearby, high-rise condominiums have pushed out old brownstones. The four-story Tin Pan Alley buildings house street-level wholesale stores selling clothing, jewelry and fabrics; eight apartment units fill the upper floors.

It's a noisy neighborhood, with trucks beeping as they back up amid street hawkers selling bootleg movies and knockoff perfumes. A century ago, the windows of music companies broadcast a cacophony of competing piano sounds that earned the area the nickname Tin Pan Alley, to describe what one journalist said sounded like pounding on tin pans.

Leland Bobbe, a 59-year-old photographer, has been renting his apartment at Remick's old building since 1975. He says it's important to salvage the buildings in a neighborhood "that has lost its uniqueness. It's just another symbol of what New York was and what it will no longer be."

[Rick Farris]

The Countdown begins. One week from today.

Randy

I'm really looking forward to this. I'll be at the Mariott on Friday and will try to hook-up with Scar and Pug. Randy, would you E-mail your phone number? I'd like to give you a call. Lennox Lewis has confirmed he'll be there. Lennox refused any travel or living accomodations from the hall, a non-profit organization, he said "I'll pay my own way, just give me four tickets for the event." Last year, Larry Holmes demanded a dozen "first class" plane tickets, suites and accomodations for all of his group. When we said we'd only be able to cover the expenses for two, he refused to come. I have total respect for Lennox Lewis. I won't go into my opinion of Larry Holmes.

-Rick

[kikibalt]

The butler sees a new White House


CLARK, The Washington Post
Eugene Allen, 89, a retired White House butler, tries on his old tuxedo for a photo. Allen, who served eight presidents during a period when America's racial history was being rewritten, is marveling at the election of Barack Obama.
Now retired, he started when blacks were in the kitchen.

By Wil Haygood
November 7, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- For more than three decades, Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines. During some of those years, harsh segregation laws lay upon the land.

He trekked home every night to his wife, Helene, who kept him out of her kitchen.

At the White House, he worked closer to the dirty dishes than to the Oval Office. Helene didn't care; she just beamed with pride.

President Truman called him Gene. President Ford liked to talk golf with him. He saw eight presidential administrations come and go, often working six days a week.

"I never missed a day of work," Allen said.

He was there while racial history was made: Brown vs. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.

When he started at the White House in 1952, he couldn't even use the public restrooms when he ventured back to his native Virginia. "We had never had anything," Allen, 89, recalled of black America at the time. "I was always hoping things would get better."

In its long history, the White House -- note the name -- has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans.

"The history is not so uneven at the lower level, in the kitchen," said Ted Sorensen, who served as counselor to President Kennedy. "In the kitchen, the folks have always been black. Even the folks at the door -- black."

Before Gene Allen landed his White House job, he worked as a waiter at a resort in Hot Springs, Va., and then at a country club in Washington.

He and wife Helene, 86, were sitting in the living room of their Washington home. Her voice was musical, in a Lena Horne kind of way. She called him "Honey." They met at a birthday party in 1942. He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked his down. They married a year later.

In 1952, a lady told him of a job opening in the White House. "I wasn't even looking for a job," he said. "I was happy where I was working, but she told me to go on over there and meet with a guy by the name of Alonzo Fields."

Fields was a maitre d', and he immediately liked Allen.

Allen was offered a job as a "pantry man." He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $2,400 a year.

There was, in time, a promotion to butler. "Shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for," he said.

"I was there, honey," Helene said. "In the back maybe. But I shook their hands too." She was referring to White House holiday parties, Easter egg hunts.

They have one son, Charles, who works as an investigator with the State Department.

"President Ford's birthday and my birthday were on the same day," he said. "He'd have a birthday party at the White House. Everybody would be there. And Mrs. Ford would say, 'It's Gene's birthday too!' "

And so they'd sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.

"Jack Kennedy was very nice," he went on. "And so was Mrs. Kennedy."

He was in the White House kitchen the day Kennedy was slain. He got an invitation to the funeral. But he volunteered for other duty: "Somebody had to be at the White House to serve everyone after they came from the funeral."

The whole family of President Carter made Helene chuckle: "They were country. And I'm talking Lillian and Rosalynn both." It came out as the highest compliment.

First Lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming state dinner for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She told him he would not be working that night.

"She said, 'You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.' I'm telling you! I believe I'm the only butler to get invited to a state dinner."

Husbands and wives don't sit together at these events, and Helene was nervous about trying to make small talk with world leaders. "And my son said, 'Momma, just talk about your high school. They won't know the difference.'

"The senators were all talking about the colleges and universities that they went to," she said. "I was doing as much talking as they were.

"Had champagne that night," she said, looking over at her husband.

He just grinned: He was the man who stacked the champagne at the White House.

Colin L. Powell would become the highest ranking black of any White House to that point when he was named Reagan's national security advisor in 1987. Condoleezza Rice would have that position under President George W. Bush.

Gene Allen was promoted to maitre d' in 1980. He left the White House in 1986, after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a sweet note. Nancy Reagan hugged him tight.

Interviewed at their home last week, Gene and Helene speculated about what it would mean if a black man were elected president.

"Just imagine," she said.

"It'd be really something," he said.

"We're pretty much past the going-out stage," she said. "But you never know. If he gets in there, it'd sure be nice to go over there again."

They talked about praying to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They'd go vote together. She'd lean on her cane with one hand, and him with the other, while walking down to the precinct. And she'd get supper going afterward. They went over their election day plans more than once.

"Imagine," she said.

"That's right," he said.

On Monday, Helene had a doctor's appointment. Gene woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged Helene again.

He was all alone.

"I woke up and my wife didn't," he said later.

Some friends and family members rushed over. He wanted to make coffee. They had to shoo the butler out of the kitchen.

The lady he married 65 years ago will be buried today.

The butler cast his vote for Obama on Tuesday. He so missed telling his Helene about the black man bound for the Oval Office.

Haygood writes for the Washington Post.

[dagosd2000]

Im getting in to LAX at around 11.30 pm Friday the 14th.
I wanted to get out there a little earlier ,but I have to work that night.
Im staying at The Marriott. Maybe someone would wanna get a late night sasparilla?
Or something with a little more kick?

Hey Pug
You beat me to the punch. I'm gonna take Friday off. I'm going to book a room at the Marriot. I've got night blindness(probably advanced stages of syphylis).Can't drive that well anymore. Me and Maria will get up there Friday. We'll belly up to the bat for a few night caps. Maybe have breakfast. Let me know the room number.

Rog

[dagosd2000]

The butler sees a new White House


CLARK, The Washington Post
Eugene Allen, 89, a retired White House butler, tries on his old tuxedo for a photo. Allen, who served eight presidents during a period when America's racial history was being rewritten, is marveling at the election of Barack Obama.
Now retired, he started when blacks were in the kitchen.

By Wil Haygood
November 7, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- For more than three decades, Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines. During some of those years, harsh segregation laws lay upon the land.

He trekked home every night to his wife, Helene, who kept him out of her kitchen.

At the White House, he worked closer to the dirty dishes than to the Oval Office. Helene didn't care; she just beamed with pride.

President Truman called him Gene. President Ford liked to talk golf with him. He saw eight presidential administrations come and go, often working six days a week.

"I never missed a day of work," Allen said.

He was there while racial history was made: Brown vs. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.

When he started at the White House in 1952, he couldn't even use the public restrooms when he ventured back to his native Virginia. "We had never had anything," Allen, 89, recalled of black America at the time. "I was always hoping things would get better."

In its long history, the White House -- note the name -- has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans.

"The history is not so uneven at the lower level, in the kitchen," said Ted Sorensen, who served as counselor to President Kennedy. "In the kitchen, the folks have always been black. Even the folks at the door -- black."

Before Gene Allen landed his White House job, he worked as a waiter at a resort in Hot Springs, Va., and then at a country club in Washington.

He and wife Helene, 86, were sitting in the living room of their Washington home. Her voice was musical, in a Lena Horne kind of way. She called him "Honey." They met at a birthday party in 1942. He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked his down. They married a year later.

In 1952, a lady told him of a job opening in the White House. "I wasn't even looking for a job," he said. "I was happy where I was working, but she told me to go on over there and meet with a guy by the name of Alonzo Fields."

Fields was a maitre d', and he immediately liked Allen.

Allen was offered a job as a "pantry man." He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $2,400 a year.

There was, in time, a promotion to butler. "Shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for," he said.

"I was there, honey," Helene said. "In the back maybe. But I shook their hands too." She was referring to White House holiday parties, Easter egg hunts.

They have one son, Charles, who works as an investigator with the State Department.

"President Ford's birthday and my birthday were on the same day," he said. "He'd have a birthday party at the White House. Everybody would be there. And Mrs. Ford would say, 'It's Gene's birthday too!' "

And so they'd sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.

"Jack Kennedy was very nice," he went on. "And so was Mrs. Kennedy."

He was in the White House kitchen the day Kennedy was slain. He got an invitation to the funeral. But he volunteered for other duty: "Somebody had to be at the White House to serve everyone after they came from the funeral."

The whole family of President Carter made Helene chuckle: "They were country. And I'm talking Lillian and Rosalynn both." It came out as the highest compliment.

First Lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming state dinner for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She told him he would not be working that night.

"She said, 'You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.' I'm telling you! I believe I'm the only butler to get invited to a state dinner."

Husbands and wives don't sit together at these events, and Helene was nervous about trying to make small talk with world leaders. "And my son said, 'Momma, just talk about your high school. They won't know the difference.'

"The senators were all talking about the colleges and universities that they went to," she said. "I was doing as much talking as they were.

"Had champagne that night," she said, looking over at her husband.

He just grinned: He was the man who stacked the champagne at the White House.

Colin L. Powell would become the highest ranking black of any White House to that point when he was named Reagan's national security advisor in 1987. Condoleezza Rice would have that position under President George W. Bush.

Gene Allen was promoted to maitre d' in 1980. He left the White House in 1986, after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a sweet note. Nancy Reagan hugged him tight.

Interviewed at their home last week, Gene and Helene speculated about what it would mean if a black man were elected president.

"Just imagine," she said.

"It'd be really something," he said.

"We're pretty much past the going-out stage," she said. "But you never know. If he gets in there, it'd sure be nice to go over there again."

They talked about praying to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They'd go vote together. She'd lean on her cane with one hand, and him with the other, while walking down to the precinct. And she'd get supper going afterward. They went over their election day plans more than once.

"Imagine," she said.

"That's right," he said.

On Monday, Helene had a doctor's appointment. Gene woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged Helene again.

He was all alone.

"I woke up and my wife didn't," he said later.

Some friends and family members rushed over. He wanted to make coffee. They had to shoo the butler out of the kitchen.

The lady he married 65 years ago will be buried today.

The butler cast his vote for Obama on Tuesday. He so missed telling his Helene about the black man bound for the Oval Office.

Haygood writes for the Washington Post.

Nice post Frank.Funny,with a Black man as President,it's going to take a little time to get used to. To adjust. I'm not saying this in a deragatory way,but it's funny that the color of Obama's skin is still mentioned when talking about him. Even his supporters are condencending. They try to make an innocent joke about Blackness in reference to him. Even Obama himself the other night called himself a "mutt." When he walks to the podium,the first thing you notice is that he's Black. The people behind him are White. They are behind our leader who is Black. Then when his family walked onto the stage after the acceptance speech we saw the Black people. In time,I hope those knee jerk reactions will dissappear. Right now it's just new. I don't think anyone knows what to say. I think Obama knows what to do,but he even stumbles over the color of his skin sometimes.

Bill Maher said last night to the Black Governor of New Jersey,"Gee,if Obama is a good President maybe we'll elect another Black man."

I hope in 4 years statements like that will be remembered as part of our growing pains.

[dagosd2000]

The Countdown begins. One week from today.

Randy

I'm really looking forward to this. I'll be at the Mariott on Friday and will try to hook-up with Scar and Pug. Randy, would you E-mail your phone number? I'd like to give you a call. Lennox Lewis has confirmed he'll be there. Lennox refused any travel or living accomodations from the hall, a non-profit organization, he said "I'll pay my own way, just give me four tickets for the event." Last year, Larry Holmes demanded a dozen "first class" plane tickets, suites and accomodations for all of his group. When we said we'd only be able to cover the expenses for two, he refused to come. I have total respect for Lennox Lewis. I won't go into my opinion of Larry Holmes.

-Rick

Rick
Just saw this. Me and Maria will be up there Friday. Maybe we can get together for some eats and drinks. I posted to Pug already. Let me know. Rog

[dagosd2000]

Just made a reservation for Friday. Will be up there around 2 pm. LAX Marriott. I've got the right hotel? Rog