Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

THE ANNIVERSARY OF SOMETHING

You see these movies where mad scientists(or normal scientists)create these robots or take dead bodies and turn them into "humans". Usually their creations have deranged personalities,or at the least, they are a bit "quirky".

Now examine the Classic West Coast Boxing Thread. Combine all the posts of our gang of contributors and you have a living breathing personality. A spirit. A total package. A renaissance man.

If the thread was a person,it would be as a diverse a human being if there ever was. Ready to converse about various topics. Showing insights and drawing upon memories and experiences that would reveal an individual of much knowlege and wisdom. A sense of humor. And above all,a sensitivity that can think through events and experiences and draw the correct conclusions. And to further that,those conclusions,when they are no longer validated,can be recognized as that and we can go on to see life as it is.

[kikibalt]

GM cars for 1958

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeHFErgTYfg

[kikibalt]

Thanks, Rick, we had lots of fun working at that car wash back in the day, I used to wash Lou Filippo's car back then, 1951-52.

I'll see Lou on Sat. morning at a HOF meeting. Where was that car wash, Frank? I want to mention it to Lou. I was born in 1952, so I'm going to have some fun reminding him of a few things that aren't written in boxing history that I'm really too young to know. I do that everytime I see him, and he looks at me like, "how the hell do you know that?" It's like a game between us now, he gets a kick out of it. :)

-Rick Farris

Rick....That car wash was in Whittier, Ca. he would drive up in his blue 1949? Pontiac with his boxing gear in the back seat.

[kikibalt]

The guys from the barrio, "Simons brickyard", Montebello, Ca. 1949


I knew all those guys, but the one only I can name right now is Beto, second fron left,
we used to call Beto "Mara" because he moved from Maravilla in E.L.A to Simons.

[kikibalt]

Beto, "Mara", dress-up as Cantinflas for Holloween, 1949

[bennie]

Beto, "Mara", dress-up as Cantinflas for Holloween, 1949

He would be wearin' a helluva lot more for Halloween over here.

[bennie]

This post is for all readers---

Back in my era there were many good fighters coming out of Mexico City, some were from Guadalajara and some were from Baja California. I knew quite a few of them, but I lost track of most of them. Maybe some of you readers know who they are and where they are today.

Kid Anahua--- I was his sparring partner when I was 14 years old. He was such a great boxer and I would get so frustrated because I couldn't hit him. He won a decision against Sugar Ramos and that same night I fought the 10 round semi main. I won by KO which was among my first 35 consecutive knockouts.

Mario Diaz---Another excellent boxer. I used to watch him train in Guadalajara but never fought him.

Torito Mota--- He reminded me of Dwight Hawkins. He always kept on coming at his opponent with devastating body punches. He also trained in Guadalajara. I only knew him slightly.

Alfredo "Molote" Cota, Jose "Potrillo" Lopez and Jesus Pimentel were also great fighters but I never fought or sparred with any of them.

Efren "Alacran" Torres, his older brother, Moy Torres and Vicente "El Tortas" Garcia were three more that I knew very well. We all trained together at the same gym in Guadalajara and we helped each other sparring before each fight.

Hector Agundez, Colimote Gutierrez, Surdo Pina, and Raul Soriano were big name fighters, all of them from Baja but I never met any of them in person.

El Gato

Thanks for the breakdown, Rodolfo.

[kikibalt]

Beto, "Mara", dress-up as Cantinflas for Holloween, 1949

He would be wearin' a helluva lot more for Halloween over here.

You guys have Halloween too?....

[bennie]

Beto, "Mara", dress-up as Cantinflas for Holloween, 1949

He would be wearin' a helluva lot more for Halloween over here.

You guys have Halloween too?....

Yes, Frankie, but we're not as big into trick or treating. We tend to have Halloween parties and we wrap up because it is COLD on October 31 in England.

[kikibalt]

He would be wearin' a helluva lot more for Halloween over here.
You guys have Halloween too?....

Yes, Frankie, but we're not as big into trick or treating. We tend to have Halloween parties and we wrap up because it is COLD on October 31 in England.

You can have the parties, bennie, give me the candies...

[dagosd2000]

Chucho Castillo

[scartissue]

Chucho Castillo

Great pic, Rog. I think Chucho Castillo along with Rafael Herrera are two of the most underrated fighters of all time. And both are extremely worthy of HOF induction. Man, when you look at Castillo's record it is something. Today, people look at it and point out the losses, I point out the fighters he fought. How many fighters today would have engaged Ruben Olivares (3 times), Rafael Herrera (twice), Lionel Rose, Enrique Pinder, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Jesus Pimental, Joe Medal (twice), Bernardo Carraballo, Vlad Pinto and Rogelio Lara. Not to mention even in the twilight of his career beating future 126 lb. titlist Rafael Ortega. Not to many resumes around today like that.

Scartissue

[dagosd2000]

Chucho Castillo

Great pic, Rog. I think Chucho Castillo along with Rafael Herrera are two of the most underrated fighters of all time. And both are extremely worthy of HOF induction. Man, when you look at Castillo's record it is something. Today, people look at it and point out the losses, I point out the fighters he fought. How many fighters today would have engaged Ruben Olivares (3 times), Rafael Herrera (twice), Lionel Rose, Enrique Pinder, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Jesus Pimental, Joe Medal (twice), Bernardo Carraballo, Vlad Pinto and Rogelio Lara. Not to mention even in the twilight of his career beating future 126 lb. titlist Rafael Ortega. Not to many resumes around today like that.

Scartissue

Dan
I agree with you 100%

[Rick Farris]

This post is for all readers---

Back in my era there were many good fighters coming out of Mexico City, some were from Guadalajara and some were from Baja California. I knew quite a few of them, but I lost track of most of them. Maybe some of you readers know who they are and where they are today.

Kid Anahua--- I was his sparring partner when I was 14 years old. He was such a great boxer and I would get so frustrated because I couldn't hit him. He won a decision against Sugar Ramos and that same night I fought the 10 round semi main. I won by KO which was among my first 35 consecutive knockouts.

Mario Diaz---Another excellent boxer. I used to watch him train in Guadalajara but never fought him.

Torito Mota--- He reminded me of Dwight Hawkins. He always kept on coming at his opponent with devastating body punches. He also trained in Guadalajara. I only knew him slightly.

Alfredo "Molote" Cota, Jose "Potrillo" Lopez and Jesus Pimentel were also great fighters but I never fought or sparred with any of them.

Efren "Alacran" Torres, his older brother, Moy Torres and Vicente "El Tortas" Garcia were three more that I knew very well. We all trained together at the same gym in Guadalajara and we helped each other sparring before each fight.

Hector Agundez, Colimote Gutierrez, Surdo Pina, and Raul Soriano were big name fighters, all of them from Baja but I never met any of them in person.

El Gato

Gato . . .

The list of names you posted are very familiar to me, having grown up reading about many of them. However, I only saw four of them fight in person. I wanted to see Mario Diaz fight, but he only fought in America twice, once in Texas and once in L.A. when I was about ten. In Los Angeles, he fought featherweight champ Davey Moore at the Sports Arena. He was a top ten featherweight right thru the sixties and I could never understand why he wasn't brought to L.A. to fight the top feathers we had here, such as Dwight Hawkins, Raul Rojas, Frankie Crawford, etc. He pretty much stayed in Mexico thruout most his career, except for a few trios out of town to fight in Argentina, Brazil, etc.

I remember Igancio "Zurdo" Pina, a slick southpaw fighting Dwight Hawkins and a few others in L.A. I remember the great stories you told of growing up with the Torres brothers, and what Alacran was like as a kid, as well as Vicente Garcia. I also saw Jose "Potrillo" Lopez fight in L.A. in '65. He fought Norman Parra on the undercard of the Luis Rodrigues-Hurricane Carter rematch at the Olympic.

I appreciate your bringing up the names of these Mexican headliners. As a kid, I'd try to learn Spanish by reading Ring Mundial. These were some of the names I would read about.

Gracias!

-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

This post is for all readers---

Back in my era there were many good fighters coming out of Mexico City, some were from Guadalajara and some were from Baja California. I knew quite a few of them, but I lost track of most of them. Maybe some of you readers know who they are and where they are today.

Kid Anahua--- I was his sparring partner when I was 14 years old. He was such a great boxer and I would get so frustrated because I couldn't hit him. He won a decision against Sugar Ramos and that same night I fought the 10 round semi main. I won by KO which was among my first 35 consecutive knockouts.

Mario Diaz---Another excellent boxer. I used to watch him train in Guadalajara but never fought him.

Torito Mota--- He reminded me of Dwight Hawkins. He always kept on coming at his opponent with devastating body punches. He also trained in Guadalajara. I only knew him slightly.

Alfredo "Molote" Cota, Jose "Potrillo" Lopez and Jesus Pimentel were also great fighters but I never fought or sparred with any of them.

Efren "Alacran" Torres, his older brother, Moy Torres and Vicente "El Tortas" Garcia were three more that I knew very well. We all trained together at the same gym in Guadalajara and we helped each other sparring before each fight.

Hector Agundez, Colimote Gutierrez, Surdo Pina, and Raul Soriano were big name fighters, all of them from Baja but I never met any of them in person.

El Gato

Gato
When I was in Michoacan last summer,my neice's husband(who's a big boxing fan)told me Alacran Torres owns a furniture store in Guadalajara. Rogelio

Roger, in 2007 Efren "Alacran" Torres was inducted into the WBHOF. Dan Hanley and I were looking forward to interviewing both El Gato and Torres together, in Spanish, to capture them remeniscing about their youth. Rodolfo had told us a few stories and Dan & I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get it on film. We had a small studio set-up in the morning, right off the room where they conducted an autograph signing session. Unfortunatly, health reasons prevented the great Mexican flyweight from attending the function. We did get "El Gato", however, and the result of that interview was priceless. In many of our interviews, these great champions would have tears in their eyes, remembering the good 'ol days.

The great thing about El Gato is that he has been connected to so many all-time greats, both here and in Mexico. His sharp mind and brilliant memory make for a great interview everytime.

-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

Courtesy of Dan

[Rick Farris]

Thanks, Rick, we had lots of fun working at that car wash back in the day, I used to wash Lou Filippo's car back then, 1951-52.

I'll see Lou on Sat. morning at a HOF meeting. Where was that car wash, Frank? I want to mention it to Lou. I was born in 1952, so I'm going to have some fun reminding him of a few things that aren't written in boxing history that I'm really too young to know. I do that everytime I see him, and he looks at me like, "how the hell do you know that?" It's like a game between us now, he gets a kick out of it. :)

-Rick Farris

Rick....That car wash was in Whittier, Ca. he would drive up in his blue 1949? Pontiac with his boxing gear in the back seat.

Gracias, Frank. I'll catch him off-guard with this one. Whenever he sees me, we say "hello", and now he kind of waits for me to tell him something off-the-wall from the past. This one will be the best. A sparkle will come to his eyes and he will expand on the tale. The info I have laid on him so far must be pretty accurate, because he has never said . . . "No, it wasn't that way". I've noticed that if he was in a serious mood prior to our talk, he'd immediatly begin to smile and from there he'll tell another story, usually something that relates.

-Rick

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

[Rick Farris]

Chucho Castillo

Great pic, Rog. I think Chucho Castillo along with Rafael Herrera are two of the most underrated fighters of all time. And both are extremely worthy of HOF induction. Man, when you look at Castillo's record it is something. Today, people look at it and point out the losses, I point out the fighters he fought. How many fighters today would have engaged Ruben Olivares (3 times), Rafael Herrera (twice), Lionel Rose, Enrique Pinder, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Jesus Pimental, Joe Medal (twice), Bernardo Carraballo, Vlad Pinto and Rogelio Lara. Not to mention even in the twilight of his career beating future 126 lb. titlist Rafael Ortega. Not to many resumes around today like that.

Scartissue

I agree with you, Scar. I boxed sparred with Castillo prior to his second fight with Herrera. Castillo had stopped Herrera in their first meeting, but this time he lost a close decision. Personally, I thought ChuCho won the second fight too, but the judges voted differently.

-Rick

[kikibalt]

Antonio Margarito...

[raylawpc]

HA!

[scartissue]

Courtesy of Dan

Rick, earlier you mentioned Jose Luis Castillo. These ratings are from about Oct. of '69 and check out who is at #10 in the lightweights just below El Gato. This guy's record is so incomplete it doesn't do him justice. He didn't fall from the ratings until losing to Al Ford. He also gave Jimmy Robertson a tussle. Amazing how two guys could meet so early in their careers only for both to go on to be world rated.

Frank, thanks for posting the ratings. I know it's difficult to resize, so thanks again.

Scartissue

[kikibalt]

1949

[dagosd2000]

Antonio Margarito...

A LONG WAY TO GO

That beating he got from Mosley affected me. Tough Tony Margarito from the Zona Norte in Tijuana. I remember all the little people along that street in the Coahuila where my mechanic is. They were very happy about Margarito. Something good came out of the Zona Norte. "Terrible" Morales' star was extiguished by the PacMan. He was knocked into retirement sitting on the ring apron looking at a fighter that he knew he could never beat again. Now he had his gym in the Zona Norte to go back to .

But there was Tony. Oscar didn't want to fight him. Tony was crude ,but what he lacked in finesse,he made up with will. If Jake LaMotta was the Raging Bull,Tony Margarito was a Toro Loco. Those kind of fighters don't care about being hit with punches as long as they can get inside and land with their crude swings. Marciano would miss by a mile,but he knew that sooner or later...

Tony was of that ilk. He wasn't a pretty boy. Couldn't speak English. Lived in a tough neighborhood. He was "puro Mexicano." Then the fight with Sugar Shane. A guy that looked like he was at the end. A guy who lost to a man Tony Margarito had pummled to the canvas. Cotto's last knockdown was one of the saddest scenes of submission in the history of the sport.

No. That night at the Staple Center would be a special night. They came to see the next Duran. Mosley would be crushed like Cotto. Oh,he'd move and try to keep the bull away from him,but how can a human being beat a bull? Mosley didn't have a sword.

But what we didn't know was that Tony ,who was beginning to resemble the great "Manos De Piedra",actually had stones hidden in his gloves. At least until Mosley's trainer caught him in the act. We'll never know if Tony had resorted to that before. Like the ball player before the press.
"Not me. Never used steroids,"
Or.
"Only did it once."
Or even more pathetic.
"I didn't know what was in the needle."

OK Tony you did it. License revoked. I guess the money will soften the blow. Now what? Your fans in the Coahuila and the Zona Norte have distanced themselves from you. I have. The aficianados that lived through your fights don't ever want to do that again. You know how it is with Latinos. If you stumble ,they will give you the last push.

My take on this? If you're as tough as you came off as,look inside yourself. Get rid of the people that told you to load up your gloves. You need to get your mind toughened up now. You've got a long way to come back. Pajarito and Battling Torres ,once they were derailed, couldn't do it,but they didn't cheat. They just lost their confidence. You need to get your confidence back first Tony.

My dream is to see you get back in the ring and get back up to the top. Remember, when you were at the top,it was an illusion. If you can get back up there on your own,you'll have more fans than before. I hope you can do it Tony.