Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

WHERE'S RANDY?

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m2lMuF2UaU

El Moro De Cumpas(the famous racehorse of Sonora)

Chayito Valdez

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Rick,Frank
I went up to the Olympic to watch the first Indian Red/Hedge Lewis fight. Talk about electricity in and out of the ring. The truth was I saw around a dozen big fights in LA. Either at the Forum or the Olympic. No comparision to what was going on in San Diego,but the big fights in TJ were something special. I saw Davey Moore jump out of the ring with all his boxing attire after beating Kid Irapuato. Wrote about that one. Dad took me to see Sugar Ray fight Memo Ayon. Wrote about that one too.

Frank
Is there a way to put the thread on a disk?

Rog...I guess it could be done, I'm not that good with computers to know how, right now the only way that I can think of doing it, is to print every page, scan it into your computer (My Pictures) then put every page into a folder, send the folder to "RecordNow" and from there put it in a DVD, the pictures would have be downloaded to "My Pictures" and put on a another folder, send to "RecordNow" and put on another DVD, shit, I'm tired just think about it....

[dagosd2000]

Novios en Jiquilpan

[dagosd2000]

La Plaza

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To touch on the Teran-Cadilli match mentioned by Frank and Rick:

It would be hard to visualize another such scenario nowadays because that was such a unique situation, and that is why it will always remain with people like Kiki and myself. I thought up that match, but I was by no means the first to do so. Half of Belvedere and possibly all of Maravilla was wondering if those two kids would face each other in regulation battle. I merely saw it as a distinct possibility and I wanted to see that fight myself.

Here you had two kids, encouraged and schooled by one man from the start, stablemates even at an early age. Johnny Forbes had a reputation for finding youngsters, counselilng them, training them, and giving them a sense of worth. When it became obvious that the two might be on a collision path as pros, he released Keeny, first to Manuel Ortiz, then two Ray Luna.

Fast forwarding to the actual fight, it helped to sell out our Legion Stadium as a semi-windup to Bolanos and Eddie Chavez, on our premiere show of the year, the "Fight for Lives" in June, 1950.
The fans didn't really know what to expect from such a match; it could have turned out to be a wild-swinging slugfest, or a dull dancing match. But the two kids dug deep into their ring education, employing every scientific tactic they had been exposed to, leading effectively, counter-punching, blocking, parrying,using footwork that belied their tender years, so that it became a classic boxing match between two young men who might have been conditioned for a ten round boxing match! For months on end, our Legiion fans would talk about the two prodigies.To top it off, the battle ebbed and flowed, with first one kid, then the other, assuming command. Fellas, that bout could not have been scripted better at the movie studios surrounding our Legion Stadium.

hap navarro

Hap...Thanks so much for the inside info on that great fight...

The kids from Flats....

[dagosd2000]

My wife and my neice Claudia. Gee I Love Family

Eating Carnitas at a party in Jiquilpan

[dagosd2000]

Rick,Frank
I went up to the Olympic to watch the first Indian Red/Hedge Lewis fight. Talk about electricity in and out of the ring. The truth was I saw around a dozen big fights in LA. Either at the Forum or the Olympic. No comparision to what was going on in San Diego,but the big fights in TJ were something special. I saw Davey Moore jump out of the ring with all his boxing attire after beating Kid Irapuato. Wrote about that one. Dad took me to see Sugar Ray fight Memo Ayon. Wrote about that one too.

Frank
Is there a way to put the thread on a disk?

Rog...I guess it could be done, I'm not that good with computers to know how, right now the only way that I can think of doing it, is to print every page, scan it into your computer (My Pictures) then put every page into a folder, send the folder to "RecordNow" and from there put it in a DVD, the pictures would have be downloaded to "My Pictures" and put on a another folder, send to "RecordNow" and put on another DVD, shit, I'm tired just think about it....

Lost me too

[dagosd2000]

EL RINCON DEL CIELO (The Corner Of Heaven)

That was the name of the place. A little restaurant above the town of Quitupan in the mountains of Jalisco. The family lived in the back. The kitchen was in the middle. The restaurant out front. It was my wife's birthday. We all drove out of Jiquilpan. Took about an hour winding up through the hills and then down into the valleys, and then up again. The ride was slow and the view was beautifull. Everything was green . The agaves,and chaparral. The pine trees were full and rich. Finally we reached the little restaurant. Comidas corridas. Carne asada,carnitas,plenty of frijoles and hot corn tortillas. The coast was not that far away. La Costa Azul. Shrimp cocktails,swordfish was on the menu also.

Who did we find there enjoying a Sunday meal but my neice Esmeralda and her family. We celebrated and ate and drank. Bohemias and Jimador Tequila. After eating the kids played outside on the swings. The sky turned pink and gray and we sang with the mariachis. We emptied many bottles.

On top of the mountain ,looking down on the town of Quitupan ,with all the little amber lights, we were very happy. Looking across the mountains and into the valleys were more of those amber lights. Each representing a little pueblo. You could see the arc lightning electrify the sky and then the sound of thunder.

A corner of Heaven. El Rincon Del Cielo. A good place to live. And when the time comes....

[Expug]

Well, its coming up on a year fellas .As you guys have mentioned.
Its been a real pleasure getting to know all of you.
Maybe some day , some way, Ernie Lopez will know that he has brought together some great pals!

[dagosd2000]

Hard working good people

El Rincon Del Cielo Quitupan,Jalisco

[dagosd2000]

Well, its coming up on a year fellas .As you guys have mentioned.
Its been a real pleasure getting to know all of you.
Maybe some day , some way, Ernie Lopez will know that he has brought together some great pals!

GREAT THOUGHT

[Rick Farris]

Well, its coming up on a year fellas .As you guys have mentioned.
Its been a real pleasure getting to know all of you.
Maybe some day , some way, Ernie Lopez will know that he has brought together some great pals!

GREAT THOUGHT

Agreed!

[Rick Farris]

Rick,Frank
I went up to the Olympic to watch the first Indian Red/Hedge Lewis fight. Talk about electricity in and out of the ring. The truth was I saw around a dozen big fights in LA. Either at the Forum or the Olympic. No comparision to what was going on in San Diego,but the big fights in TJ were something special. I saw Davey Moore jump out of the ring with all his boxing attire after beating Kid Irapuato. Wrote about that one. Dad took me to see Sugar Ray fight Memo Ayon. Wrote about that one too.

Frank
Is there a way to put the thread on a disk?

Rog...I guess it could be done, I'm not that good with computers to know how, right now the only way that I can think of doing it, is to print every page, scan it into your computer (My Pictures) then put every page into a folder, send the folder to "RecordNow" and from there put it in a DVD, the pictures would have be downloaded to "My Pictures" and put on a another folder, send to "RecordNow" and put on another DVD, shit, I'm tired just think about it....

Monica is pretty good with computors but had trouble loading it on to a disk. She wasn't able to do it. A few years back, we had a lot of classic Hap Navarro history lost on the CBZ, as well as everything else in their forum. We who posted on those threads lost everything, I'm not sure what happened, but we couldn't retrieve most of it. I'd hate to lose this thread, but we must realize this is a possibility. We must find a way to save year #1.

-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

Phil Garcia . . .

This guy had a few fights in L.A. during the late 60's, in fact, he was the opponent Hedgeman Lewis faced in the Detroit native's Los Angeles debut. Hedge put Garcia to sleep with left hook in a televised prelim from the Olympic. He'd meet the same fate in '68, when he fought Mando Ramos at the Olympic. Later he'd fight Fraser Scott and Cyclone Barth.

A few months after Phil lost to Hedge Lewis, I saw him at the Teamsters Gym one Friday night. He was signing up his young son, Philberto Jr., to fight on the evenings Jr. Golden Gloves card. Frank, do you remember Phil Garcia, or his little boy? The kid would have been about 6 or 7 at the time (which means he's pushing 50 today. )

-Rick Farris

[bennie]

Wanted: Dead or Deader

[kikibalt]

Phil Garcia . . .

This guy had a few fights in L.A. during the late 60's, in fact, he was the opponent Hedgeman Lewis faced in the Detroit native's Los Angeles debut. Hedge put Garcia to sleep with left hook in a televised prelim from the Olympic. He'd meet the same fate in '68, when he fought Mando Ramos at the Olympic. Later he'd fight Fraser Scott and Cyclone Barth.

A few months after Phil lost to Hedge Lewis, I saw him at the Teamsters Gym one Friday night. He was signing up his young son, Philberto Jr., to fight on the evenings Jr. Golden Gloves card. Frank, do you remember Phil Garcia, or his little boy? The kid would have been about 6 or 7 at the time (which means he's pushing 50 today. )

-Rick Farris

Rick...I remember Phil and his son real good, Phil and I would always talk at the Jr. shows, real nice guy!....

Phil Garcia

Country USA
Global Id 61201
Division Middleweight


Career Record © http://www.boxrec.com

Date Opponent Location Result
1969-05-19 Cyclone Barth San Francisco, USA L KO 3
1968-09-12 Fraser Scott Los Angeles, USA L PTS 6
1968-05-02 Mando Ramos Los Angeles, USA L KO 9
1967-11-02 Pulga Serrano Los Angeles, USA L PTS 10
1967-06-08 Charlie Watson Los Angeles, USA W PTS 6
1966-12-01 Hedgemon Lewis Los Angeles, USA L KO 3
1966-11-03 Dan Ries Los Angeles, USA L UD 6
1966-09-01 Jimmy Owens Los Angeles, USA W KO 5
1966-08-04 Mike Thomas Los Angeles, USA L PTS 6

Record to Date
Won 2 (KOs 1) Lost 7 Drawn 0 Total 9

[kikibalt]

Rick,Frank
I went up to the Olympic to watch the first Indian Red/Hedge Lewis fight. Talk about electricity in and out of the ring. The truth was I saw around a dozen big fights in LA. Either at the Forum or the Olympic. No comparision to what was going on in San Diego,but the big fights in TJ were something special. I saw Davey Moore jump out of the ring with all his boxing attire after beating Kid Irapuato. Wrote about that one. Dad took me to see Sugar Ray fight Memo Ayon. Wrote about that one too.

Frank
Is there a way to put the thread on a disk?

Rog...I guess it could be done, I'm not that good with computers to know how, right now the only way that I can think of doing it, is to print every page, scan it into your computer (My Pictures) then put every page into a folder, send the folder to "RecordNow" and from there put it in a DVD, the pictures would have be downloaded to "My Pictures" and put on a another folder, send to "RecordNow" and put on another DVD, shit, I'm tired just think about it....

Monica is pretty good with computors but had trouble loading it on to a disk. She wasn't able to do it. A few years back, we had a lot of classic Hap Navarro history lost on the CBZ, as well as everything else in their forum. We who posted on those threads lost everything, I'm not sure what happened, but we couldn't retrieve most of it. I'd hate to lose this thread, but we must realize this is a possibility. We must find a way to save year #1.

-Rick Farris

The only way that I think it can be done is as I said by first printing the pages on paper, scanning to your computer, then to disk, the thing is, it takes 2-3 sheets of paper for every page on the thread, lots of printing and scanning....

[kikibalt]

Another promising prospect from the early 1950's was the very talented Al Cruz

As an amateur, Cruz was the 1950 Los Angeles Times Golden Gloves Featherweight champion. He also was the National (Chicago) Golden Gloves bantamweight champion.







Al Cruz

Country USA
Global Id 29399
Division Featherweight


Career Record © http://www.boxrec.com

Date Opponent Location Result
1956-11-20 Larry Bataan Fresno, USA L TKO 5
1954-09-25 Rudy Garcia Hollywood, USA L UD 12
1954-07-03 Humberto Carrillo Hollywood, USA D PTS 10
1954-04-20 Kenny Davis Los Angeles, USA L UD 12
1954-01-19 Billy Peacock Los Angeles, USA W UD 10
1953-12-08 Rudy Garcia Los Angeles, USA W SD 12
1953-09-16 Oscar Torres Inyokern, USA W PTS 10
1953-06-16 Auburn Copeland Los Angeles, USA D PTS 10
1953-04-28 Jorge Manjarrez Los Angeles, USA W RTD 8
1953-03-27 Tenejeros Boy Manila, Philippines W PTS 10
1953-03-15 Flash Elorde Manila, Philippines L PTS 10
1952-10-07 Dave Gallardo Los Angeles, USA L SD 12
1952-09-09 Chico Rosa Los Angeles, USA W UD 12
1952-08-26 Hector Rios Los Angeles, USA W TKO 3
1952-08-14 Freddy Bravo San Diego, USA W PTS 10
1952-07-29 Bobby Garza Los Angeles, USA W UD 6
1952-07-22 Jimmy Dunn Los Angeles, USA W UD 6
1952-07-01 Freddy Bravo Los Angeles, USA W TKO 4
1952-06-21 Bobby Romo Hollywood, USA W UD 6
1952-06-03 Pete Aguirre Los Angeles, USA W UD 6
1952-04-19 Ramon Carrillo Hollywood, USA W SD 6
1952-04-05 Johnny Malloy Hollywood, USA W TKO 1
1951-03-05 Javier Gutierrez Ocean Park, USA L TD 8
1951-02-27 Cecil Schoonmaker Los Angeles, USA W KO 1
1951-02-09 Johnny Malloy Hollywood, USA W TKO 2
1950-08-22 Roy Higa Los Angeles, USA W TD 3
1950-08-04 Bob Holliday Hollywood, USA W TKO 1
1950-07-11 Jesse Morales Los Angeles, USA W PTS 4
1950-06-30 Bob DiGiovanni Hollywood, USA W PTS 4
1950-06-27 Javier Gutierrez Los Angeles, USA W KO 1
1950-06-16 Jesse Morales Hollywood, USA W PTS 4

Record to Date
Won 23 (KOs eight) Lost 6 Drawn 2 Total 31

[dagosd2000]

WIFREDO GOMEZ

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At the Jr's with Johnnie Flores refereeing

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The Jr's

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The Vato from Flats

[Rick Farris]

At the Jr's with Johnnie Flores refereeing

Johnnie Flores, "Mr. Golden Gloves" . . .

There is a small memorial to Johnnie Flores at the L.A. Youth Athletic Club, which he started at the old L.A. City Jail in Lincoln Heights. Johnny has also been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

A true Los Angeles Boxing Legend

-Rick Farris

[dagosd2000]

END OF A CAREER

The way Gary Young would pound me around the ring i always thought he should have turned pro. He came down from the Portland area and he knew Moyer and Flaherty and Johnny Rodriguez. He was also friends with Boone Kirkman. Gary was tall and very strong. He'd take me down to the 32nd Street Navy Base or I'd ride with him to the Coliseum and we'd work out. Mostly sparring,sometimes with each other, or with some of the other amateur heavyweights.

One afternoon after a workout Gary ran what he had in mind about his future boxing career.
"Rog,I've got something lined up in Los Angeles next week. I'm supposed to fight a pretty good heavyweight and if I can get by him,I want to start to earn some money doing this."
I'd seen Gary fight against amateurs at the Coliseum. Mostly guys in the service. Gary never had much problem with them. His strength seemed to overwhelm his opponents. He stood around 6 foot 3 and weighed 220 pounds with no excess fat.
"I want you to come up with me and Dick. "
Dick Wood was working with Gary and was anxious for him to turn pro also.

It was a 3 round go at the Olympic on an undercard that I can't remember who was in the main event. I was a little nervous because I knew the only guys that gave Gary trouble were good boxers. If thet could stay away from his power,they coild cause him a problem.

As usual there was a good crowd at the Olympic. Gary had never fought there before. In the car on the way up he didn't say much. Dick Wood was pretty quiet too.
"I'm tired of fighting for free. If I win I'll turn professional. I've got an interview with the County Schools Monday. They have an opening teaching emotionally disturbed kids ."

Gary's fight was the opener. His opponent was a black fighter who was as tall as Gary was,but not as muscled. The guy looked a little soft. I thought Gary would make short work of him. For some reason they didn't introduce the boys to the crowd. It was like they were trying to rush the amateur card through or something.

At the bell the fighters touched gloves and then Gary rushed at the black guy. The black guy reached with his left and then threw a right hand straight and from the shoulder catching Gary flush on the jaw. Gary crumpled against the ropes. He was hanging on trying to keep from falling threw. He leaned back and forth against the ropes as the black fighter kept unloading right hands. You could here the thumps throughout the arena.

Well the whole fight went on like this with Gary against the ropes getting worked by this guy's right hand. I don't think Gary ever threw a punch in anger. After the final bell, it was a done deal to who the winner was.

I went down to the dressing room after it was over. Gary was perspiring and was holding an ice pack on his left eye..
"Well,you stood in there with him. He couldn't put you down,"I said.
I was trying to think of something positive.
"Hell,he beat the crap out of me."
"What's next?",I asked.
"I'm through with fighting. No more . That was it."
Gary shifted the ice pack from his left eye to his right.
"Monday I'll go down to the district and interview for the teacher position."
"You were just in with a real wildcat tonight,"I said. I knew that comment wouldn't mend anything.
"Who was that guy anyway?"
"I just caught his last name. Shavers."
"Well,"I said. "If you ever fight him again you'll beat him."
I was still trying to find a silver lining.
"Not in a million years,"said Gary.