Classic American West Coast Boxing

[Randyman]

The following was sent to me by Bill O'Neill. It goes hand in hand with everything I have heard and read about Moyer. I thought it was hilarious.

A Denny Moyer Story

By Bill O'Neill

Denny Moyer was a good, tough, very PROFESSIONAL fighter. Nice, stand-up style, good movement, great chin, gutty and intelligent--had everything EXCEPT a punch. He boxed brilliantly early in his career; his first loss was to Don Jordan in a world title fight when he was only about 19, and he kept fighting right on up into his forties. Beat a lot of great fighters, but stayed in the game too long. Was from a fighting family. His father boxed, as I recall; as did Denny's brother Phil, and their sons.

But now, let me tell you a story about Denny Moyer--and I'll try to make it brief. A lifelong friend of mine named Jack Thompson was training Denny, very late in Denny's career, in a gym in Portland (Oregon), that was upstairs over a bar in a seedy section of town. The two of them, along with a young middleweight named Davey Rogers, were leaving the gym one evening when a couple of DRUNKS stopped them on the narrow stairway. "Where's Denny Moyer?" one of the drunks demanded. "I've got two hundred bucks that says he can't last one round with me!"

Jack and Denny looked at each other, and decided to go back upstairs and take the guy up on his offer. In the gym, as Jack was lacing up the drunk's gloves, the guy started cursing at Davey Rogers. Words were exchanged, and the drunk said, "Put the gloves on this punk! I'll bet a hundred dollars that says I can knock HIM out in one round, before I knock out Denny Moyer!"

So they strapped a pair of 14-oz. gloves on Rogers, who Jack tells me could really whack. The kid leveled the drunk with the first punch he threw; knocked him flat. The professionals collected the hundred, and had begun to pack up their stuff again when the drunk's friend yelled out, "Look! He's getting up!" And sure enough, the drunk staggered to his feet and said, "I didn't get my shot a Denny Moyer yet!" He and his friend threw two one-hundred-dollar bills on the ring apron and said, "Come on! A deal is a deal!"

So Jack put the gloves on Moyer, but cautioned him: "Look, don't hit this guy in the head. He has just been knocked out, and another concussion like that could get us in big trouble."

Thereupon, Moyer quickly put the guy down and out with a body punch, causing a spew of vomit that shot six feet in the air. A few minutes later, the three pros helped the drunk down the stairs and back into his favorite bar--and departed the scene, three hundred dollars richer. (Fortunately, they didn't get arrested.)

bon

[Randyman]

Jose Becerra..20 G's for the Halimi fight...

Even by today's standard, I would be happy to make that for one nights work (although we know it takes more than one night to earn your money). Becerra must have felt pretty good with a check like that in his hands. Frank, thanks for posting all the great photos on Becerra and Halimi. good stuff!

Randy

[Randyman]

Roger, your painting on Ramon Fuentes seems to be a hit with his family. I have received yet another email.

Cynthia Thomas has left a new comment on your post "Ramon Fuentes by Roger Esty":

If Mr. Esty has another painting of Ramon Fuentes I would like to buy one. From his daughter, Cynthia.

Randy

[Rick Farris]

The following was sent to me by Bill O'Neill. It goes hand in hand with everything I have heard and read about Moyer. I thought it was hilarious.

A Denny Moyer Story

By Bill O'Neill

Denny Moyer was a good, tough, very PROFESSIONAL fighter. Nice, stand-up style, good movement, great chin, gutty and intelligent--had everything EXCEPT a punch. He boxed brilliantly early in his career; his first loss was to Don Jordan in a world title fight when he was only about 19, and he kept fighting right on up into his forties. Beat a lot of great fighters, but stayed in the game too long. Was from a fighting family. His father boxed, as I recall; as did Denny's brother Phil, and their sons.

But now, let me tell you a story about Denny Moyer--and I'll try to make it brief. A lifelong friend of mine named Jack Thompson was training Denny, very late in Denny's career, in a gym in Portland (Oregon), that was upstairs over a bar in a seedy section of town. The two of them, along with a young middleweight named Davey Rogers, were leaving the gym one evening when a couple of DRUNKS stopped them on the narrow stairway. "Where's Denny Moyer?" one of the drunks demanded. "I've got two hundred bucks that says he can't last one round with me!"

Jack and Denny looked at each other, and decided to go back upstairs and take the guy up on his offer. In the gym, as Jack was lacing up the drunk's gloves, the guy started cursing at Davey Rogers. Words were exchanged, and the drunk said, "Put the gloves on this punk! I'll bet a hundred dollars that says I can knock HIM out in one round, before I knock out Denny Moyer!"

So they strapped a pair of 14-oz. gloves on Rogers, who Jack tells me could really whack. The kid leveled the drunk with the first punch he threw; knocked him flat. The professionals collected the hundred, and had begun to pack up their stuff again when the drunk's friend yelled out, "Look! He's getting up!" And sure enough, the drunk staggered to his feet and said, "I didn't get my shot a Denny Moyer yet!" He and his friend threw two one-hundred-dollar bills on the ring apron and said, "Come on! A deal is a deal!"

So Jack put the gloves on Moyer, but cautioned him: "Look, don't hit this guy in the head. He has just been knocked out, and another concussion like that could get us in big trouble."

Thereupon, Moyer quickly put the guy down and out with a body punch, causing a spew of vomit that shot six feet in the air. A few minutes later, the three pros helped the drunk down the stairs and back into his favorite bar--and departed the scene, three hundred dollars richer. (Fortunately, they didn't get arrested.)

bon

Great story!
Thanks to Bill O'Neill and Randy for posting it.


-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

Michael Carbajal vs Chiquita Gonzalez

These guys put on three great wars!
Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

[dagosd2000]

Roger, your painting on Ramon Fuentes seems to be a hit with his family. I have received yet another email.

Cynthia Thomas has left a new comment on your post "Ramon Fuentes by Roger Esty":

If Mr. Esty has another painting of Ramon Fuentes I would like to buy one. From his daughter, Cynthia.

Randy

Thanks for passing the info along to me. When the girls send their emails,pass it along to me. I'll see that they're taken care of. Rog

[dagosd2000]

The following was sent to me by Bill O'Neill. It goes hand in hand with everything I have heard and read about Moyer. I thought it was hilarious.

A Denny Moyer Story

By Bill O'Neill

Denny Moyer was a good, tough, very PROFESSIONAL fighter. Nice, stand-up style, good movement, great chin, gutty and intelligent--had everything EXCEPT a punch. He boxed brilliantly early in his career; his first loss was to Don Jordan in a world title fight when he was only about 19, and he kept fighting right on up into his forties. Beat a lot of great fighters, but stayed in the game too long. Was from a fighting family. His father boxed, as I recall; as did Denny's brother Phil, and their sons.

But now, let me tell you a story about Denny Moyer--and I'll try to make it brief. A lifelong friend of mine named Jack Thompson was training Denny, very late in Denny's career, in a gym in Portland (Oregon), that was upstairs over a bar in a seedy section of town. The two of them, along with a young middleweight named Davey Rogers, were leaving the gym one evening when a couple of DRUNKS stopped them on the narrow stairway. "Where's Denny Moyer?" one of the drunks demanded. "I've got two hundred bucks that says he can't last one round with me!"

Jack and Denny looked at each other, and decided to go back upstairs and take the guy up on his offer. In the gym, as Jack was lacing up the drunk's gloves, the guy started cursing at Davey Rogers. Words were exchanged, and the drunk said, "Put the gloves on this punk! I'll bet a hundred dollars that says I can knock HIM out in one round, before I knock out Denny Moyer!"

So they strapped a pair of 14-oz. gloves on Rogers, who Jack tells me could really whack. The kid leveled the drunk with the first punch he threw; knocked him flat. The professionals collected the hundred, and had begun to pack up their stuff again when the drunk's friend yelled out, "Look! He's getting up!" And sure enough, the drunk staggered to his feet and said, "I didn't get my shot a Denny Moyer yet!" He and his friend threw two one-hundred-dollar bills on the ring apron and said, "Come on! A deal is a deal!"

So Jack put the gloves on Moyer, but cautioned him: "Look, don't hit this guy in the head. He has just been knocked out, and another concussion like that could get us in big trouble."

Thereupon, Moyer quickly put the guy down and out with a body punch, causing a spew of vomit that shot six feet in the air. A few minutes later, the three pros helped the drunk down the stairs and back into his favorite bar--and departed the scene, three hundred dollars richer. (Fortunately, they didn't get arrested.)

bon

Great story!
Thanks to Bill O'Neill and Randy for posting it.


-Rick Farris

Sounds like the Denny Moyer I knew.

[dagosd2000]

Today I sold the painting of Redd Foxx to one of my fellow teachers. 200 hundred bucks. After work I filled the tank with gas. 60 dollars. Bought some art supplies.40 dollars. My son in law calls me up and invites me to dinner. The waitress comes over with the tab and my son in law steps out to go to the bathroom. Another 50 flies out of my wallet.Finally ran out of food in the fridge since my wife left for Mexico. Went to the super market. There went the rest of the 200.

[Randyman]

Today I sold the painting of Redd Foxx to one of my fellow teachers. 200 hundred bucks. After work I filled the tank with gas. 60 dollars. Bought some art supplies.40 dollars. My son in law calls me up and invites me to dinner. The waitress comes over with the tab and my son in law steps out to go to the bathroom. Another 50 flies out of my wallet.Finally ran out of food in the fridge since my wife left for Mexico. Went to the super market. There went the rest of the 200.

Rog, I believe the day will come, in the not so distant future, when your teacher friend will be interviewed by someone, regarding your painting, and somewhere in the conversation he (or she) will say-Can you believe I only paid $200.00 dollars for this?

Leroy Neiman has competition.

As far as the money goes, $200.00 ain't what it used to be.

Randy

[Randyman]

Michael Carbajal vs Chiquita Gonzalez

These guys put on three great wars!
Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, they did put out three great wars, didn't they. As I recall the first fight, Gonzalez was winning the fight, really giving Carbajal fits, Carbajal caught Gonzalez with a hook(?) if I remember right and stopped him. During the interview, I don't remember who it was, Larry Merchant perhaps, Carbajal in his excitement blared out that "Chiquita" had no heart. The interviewer, and rightly so, questioned that statement. Carbajal realized he was talking out of his ass and quietly backed down. His adrenaline was really pumping through his body at the time, and I'm sure he didn't really mean it. It was one those "Oh Oh, I put my foot in my mouth moments". Both fighters had big hearts.

Thanks for the great photo, Frank.

Randy

[dagosd2000]

A PARTY FOR PANCHO

The wife called from Jiquilpan last night.
"How you guys getting along down there?"I asked.
"Oh muy bien."
"You guys having any parties?"
"Oh si. Today we have party for Pancho and his family."
"Anyone else."
"No,"my wife sighed. "Just Pancho and his family and todos los ninos."
"I bet all the kids had a good time."
"Oh yes ,"said my wife."Mucho comida. Music. Everybody dancing."

I told my wife that I loved her and missed her and the kids, and that I would pick them up at the Tijuana airport Saturday.Then I thought about Pancho.

Pancho was my wife's oldest brother's kid. Her nephew. I remember her brother Pancho Sr. He was doing well with his construction business when he suffered a stroke. He wound up paralyzed on one side. It also made him a little simple. He lost almost everything.

He had to give up his house and move into a place with a dirt floor. One room. One bed. 9 kids. Pancho,the dad,took to the bottle. 192 proof cane alcohol. He was drinking when he keeled over and that was it.

Before the stroke, Pancho SR. was an OK guy. He provided and took care of his kids and even his nephews from his brothers and sisters. He was the patriarch of the family. Then he had the stroke, and everyone turned their back on him except my wife. She would send him down money to get along. I think the money went for booze and cigarettes. What was left I think was pilfered. I don't want to mention names.

I also remember his son,my nephew,Pancho. He was 12 years old when I first met him. His dad was crippled and the family was destitute. One day I invited the kid to come with me for a bite to eat. We went to this little restaurant in town. The kid sat there star struck. I don't think he'd ever been inside a restaurant before.

Pancho,my nephew, is grown up now.he's got to be in his 50's. When I see him he's got this wild look. Nothing really dangerous,but like someone who was thrown out to the street and making it on his own forever. He drives an old pick up truck with a sticker that reads "El Paso Taxas" on the bumper. Pancho's arms a dotted with jail tatoos. His beard is matted and scruffed. Pancho has a glare in his eyes. He also has a wife and four kids. The rest of the family keeps their distance. They know they aren't going to lend him a hand.

Like I said,my wife's in our home in Jiquilpan. The party yesterday was for Pancho and his family. Of course all the kids were there. The adults stayed away.I know how they are. They felt Pancho didn't deserve a party. They could have attended,but they showed their insolence.

I know my wife had a good time. I know Pancho and his family had a good time too. It was praobably the first time anyone threw a party for them.




Pancho and two of his boys. The picture is blurry. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

[Randyman]

After the fight you can see Billys Dad discover the padding gone in Restos gloves.
Hegrabs a commision guy and points it out.
Very infuriating what happened in that fight. Very infuriating.

Brian . . . I agree, very infuriating.
Although different circumstances, this is how I feel about Margarito against 5-1 underdog Mosely.


-Rick Farris

Same here Rick.
I dont understand these guys.
I'd rather take a beating and lose then win in criminal fashion.

You guys, and I include myself, can't fathom that type of thinking or behavior because we're not built that way, we're wired different. I would rather be beaten fair and square.

My take on "Assault in the Ring" was that Luis Resto got caught up in the whole sordid mess and did nothing to stop it. That made him a willing accomplice. But the guy that really should have been punished, Panama Al Lewis, is still training fighters despite being "Banned" from boxing.

I hope I never live long enough to understand that type of thinking!

Randy

[Randyman]

Story by Bob Hough
Photo courtesy of HBO

Larry Merchant believes that times of vulnerability create stories of greatness, despair and loss.

He has seen them unfold in Miguel Cotto’s determination, in Victor Ortiz leaving observers and perhaps himself with doubts about his commitment, in Arturo Gatti’s passing.

“People like drama,” Merchant said recently in San Jose, Calif., where he attended a fight card, met fans and sat down to discuss what he’s seen in those three men. “For better and for worse, there tends to be a great deal of drama in boxing, certainly so in just the last few weeks.”

Merchant, who joined HBO as a commentator in 1981 after writing newspaper columns and three books, is as absorbed by boxing as he was almost 30 years ago.

“It’s an endless novel,” the 78-year-old said. “I’m still wired into it.”

Able to comment wisely about tactics and strategies, Merchant is often drawn toward the human sides of the characters, their lives and complexities.

Boxing, he believes, is “a very rich place to observe human behavior.”

While the Brooklyn, N.Y., native is endlessly fascinated by what happens in and out of the ring, he remembers that fighters are unlike most of us and as human as all of us. His thoughts are of understanding boxing and of human understanding.

“It’s a harsh game and there are harsh judges; the judges who score fights, people who comment on them and the fans,” said Merchant, a recent inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. “Sometimes you get over-praised and some times you get over-blamed.”

Merchant believes that fans want to see boxers risk all to take all, reminiscent of Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler in their extraordinary 1985 fight.

There’s a balance in there somewhere, Merchant thinks, between reasonable expectations and remembering that fighters are human.

“Fans want to see a guy fight. They admire a masterful performance and they want to see what happens when a fighter has to struggle. You have every expectation that ‘You signed up for this. You signed up for being a fighter. You signed up for this fight. I expect you to give your best ’til you can’t give any more,’ but maybe the fighter thinks he gave his best and truly did, even though he quit or it looks like he did.”

With Ortiz, who appeared to have had enough in an arduous fight against Marcos Maidana, there’s a sense from Merchant of maybe too much praise before the fight, too much blame afterward.

“We’ve seen fighters come back from those scenarios,” Merchant recalled. “When Vitali Klitschko quit or resigned against Chris Byrd, I was among those who strongly criticized him. He was way ahead in the fight. All he had to do was survive a couple rounds, three rounds, and it turned out he had a shoulder injury that required surgery. Were we correct in criticizing him and wondering about him? I think so, but we found out he had a serious injury, and as we know, he came back and showed great, great heart and toughness in his fight against Lennox Lewis.”

In Merchant’s eyes, a “confluence of pressure” on Ortiz might have taken a toll.

“We saw a young fighter, twenty-two, who was under severe pressure from an opponent and from his own promoters who were trying to hype him into being a star, so I think he could have felt pressure not just to fight, but to be great on that night.”

In promoting Ortiz as the next big thing, the process may have been rushed and he may have been cast in a role he can’t fill. “You can find somebody who might be a star, but you can’t create a star,” Merchant continued.

After he was dropped in the sixth round, Ortiz startled observers when he appeared to walk away from the referee with an ‘I have-had-enough’ expression and a no-mas wave of his hand. If people were taken aback by that, seconds before the bout was officially stopped because of a cut, they were shocked by his comments.

“I’m not going to go out on my back,” Ortiz said in a televised post-fight interview. “I’m not going to lay down for nobody. I’d rather just stop when I’m ahead. That way, I can speak well when I’m older. I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to get beat up like this. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”

To Merchant, beyond the fact that fighters have had questionable moments and have later shown vast commitment, there’s another reason to cut Ortiz some slack: Post-fight interviews are complicated moments.

“We all want to hear what fighters say right after the fights are over, whether they won or lost, and it can be fascinating because it is an emotional time,” Merchant said. “For me, those interviews can be the most interesting ones, but we have to remember the circumstances, the adrenaline and the emotion. It can be one of the best or worst moments of a person’s life.”

Merchant recognizes that Ortiz said those things in a moment of frustration and disappointment.

“It’s hard to imagine all the things going through his head,” he said. “It was a hard fight and probably a lot harder than he expected. Maybe he let his guard down or maybe he was just discouraged that he couldn’t give the fans what they were hoping to see or expecting to see, what they were led to expect.

“Do we wonder? Sure. How could we not? We can’t say he won’t go on and be great and we can’t say that he will. He had never been in that kind of a big fight or in that kind of hard fight. You add it all up and say, ‘Okay, I want to see how he deals with it in the future,’ and give him another chance.”

The choice Ortiz made generated the attention it did in part because it was unusual, Merchant thinks, while brave performances like Cotto’s effort in earning a decision against Joshua Clottey are more expected. Cotto, cut over his right eye and struggling to see, regularly stepped back to wipe away blood.

“That is what fans want to see: fighters who are tested by their opponent, by circumstances or by both of those things and they respond like Cotto did,” Merchant said. “If they are discouraged or worried or scared, they don’t show it, and it seems to strengthen them to overcome what they’re facing. It can be in adversity that there is a chance to be great. Miguel Cotto has shown us that he is someone with a great spirit and toughness.”

In those respects, someone like the late Arturo Gatti.

From Merchant’s perspective, raw-courage fighters like Gatti and the late Diego Corrales can generate an unusually close, caring reaction from people near and far.

“Nobody was ever a tougher warrior than Holyfield and, I think, Shane Mosley,” Merchant said. “Those fighters and others have received the respect they deserve, but there is a type, like Corrales, like Gatti, that seem to resonate in a different way. They’re what they endure and what they endure is uncommon.”

To a man who’s seen an incalculable number of fights and fighters, Gatti was like few others.

So often expansive in his thoughts, Merchant could only say of Gatti’s death, “It was tragic and it broke my heart.”

For Merchant, it was a cruel element in this never-ending novel. He reminds us that we don’t know if we will see fighters touch their own hearts, put themselves on the line and touch our hearts, step back from the precipice or step too far.

“I think it really does come down to the fact that we want to see drama, and in those most compelling moments, how fighters react to adversity and challenge. Fighters like Gatti provide it, at times out of the ring as well, so there’s a closer connection to fighters like that, a sense of compassion.

“Maybe they seem vulnerable.”

[Rick Farris]

Chiquita Gonzalez . . .

We had just wrapped the pilot for what was going to be Michael Landon's newest TV series, "US".
We completed the pilot, but Michael would be dead before it was ever aired. He passed away six months later.
Of course, the series never came to be.

We completed the principal photography on a friday, in early December, 1990.
The following monday, I acquire a pair of Dan Goossen's first row ringside seats for that night's card at the Forum.
I learned of my aquisition as I pulled up to the stage where my crew was wrapping out all of our lighting equipment.

I had two tickets, and I was trying to decide who I wanted to ask to join me.
It was a good main event, featuring Humberto "Chiquita" Gonzalez versus a tough Fillipino, Rolando Pasqua.
I had about a half dozen prospective guests waiting on stage, guys who loved boxing.
However, I loved women and there was a very cute little make-up artist I had gotten close to on the production.
She had mentioned to me once that "she'd love to attend a boxing match live sometime."
I guess it's no surprise who I chose to sit ringside with me.

Before the match, I was telling her about the main event, and I was laying it on heavy about how great this Chiquita Gonzalez was.
Shortly after my friend and I took our first row seats, Dan Goossen shows up with an associate and is setting next to us.
We discuss Chiquita briefly, and when we are finished my lady friend was expecting to see our hero score a one-sided victory.

What we expected to see, and what actually happened, were quite different.
On this night, Chiquita Gonzales was beaten, battered and finally stopped about half-way thru the match.
This wasn't my first BBQ, I undertsand boxing is the theatre of the unexpected.
As we left the Forum, I thought to myself, "Well this little known Fillipino just ended the future of a helluva fighter."

History would eventually prove me wrong twice that night.
Humberto "Chiquita" Gonzalez was a great Mexican fighter. These guys take their licks, and come back.
They aren't ruined by ONE bad night.

As I watched Gonzalez wage one great battle after another after that cold December night, I would smile and was glad I was wrong.
My ladyfriend and I had a great time that night, but I didn't exactly impress her with my ability to predict the outcome of a boxing match.
That night was a bad one for Chiquita, but the best of Humberto Gonzalez had yet to be seen.

I bet the wrong fighter, but I brought the right guest. It was a fun night.


-Rick Farris

[bennie]

"Broken Noses", is that the documentary about Andy Minsker?
I wonder whatever happened to him.

Minsker was a tough guy who licked Meldrick Taylor in the Olympic Trials but then told Taylor that he had been hurt to the body (presumably as one fighter to another) and Taylor went to the body in their next two bouts and scraped the Olympic berth (and won Olympic gold).
Hand injuries curtailed Minsker's pro career, I believe.

http://wweek.com/story.php?story=5713


Here is a shot of Minsker in his prime:

[bennie]

Frankie, how did you find Roger Mayweather as a person?

Never knew him well enough to say Bennie, but I don't like what I see on tv/read to say anything good about ALL the Mayweather's....

Any pre-fight antics with Tony?

[bennie]

I am having lunch with Tom, (Raylaw) tommorow in downtown Chicago.
Hes in town at a meeting.
I imagine the topic of boxing will come up.
Im looking forward to it.

Photos please.

[kikibalt]

Budd Schulberg dies at 95; author of 'What Makes Sammy Run?'


Budd Schulberg in 2005. His greatest success came with “On the Waterfront.” His screenwriting Oscar was one of eight Academy Awards the 1954 film won — including nods for picture, director (Elia Kazan), supporting actress (Eva Marie Saint) and actor (Marlon Brando).
The scathing look at the film industry drew the Hollywood establishment's anger. The writer, who named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee, won an Oscar for 'On the Waterfront.'

By Dennis McLellan
August 6, 2009

Budd Schulberg, who exposed the dark side of American ambition in his acclaimed Hollywood novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" and won an Academy Award for his screenplay depicting the mob-controlled longshoremen's union in the film classic "On the Waterfront," has died. He was 95.

Schulberg, a onetime Communist Party member who was ostracized in Hollywood after naming names before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., his wife, Betsy, told the Associated Press.

In a writing career that spanned more than six decades and reflected a strong social conscience, Schulberg wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, plays, teleplays and nonfiction books.

Among his other best-known works are:

* The 1947 novel "The Harder They Fall," a prize-fighting expose that became a 1956 movie, co-written by Schulberg, with Humphrey Bogart in his final role.

* "The Disenchanted," a best-selling 1950 novel loosely based on Schulberg's experience collaborating on a film script with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

* The screenplay for "A Face in the Crowd," director Elia Kazan's 1957 movie about a singing Arkansas drifter (Andy Griffith in his first movie role) who turns into a power-hungry tyrant after becoming an overnight national TV sensation.

Schulberg's resume included being a syndicated newspaper columnist, the first boxing editor at Sports Illustrated and a columnist for Fight Game and other boxing magazines.

He was a lifelong boxing aficionado, and his nonfiction books include "Loser and Still Champion: Muhammad Ali" (1972), "Sparring With Hemingway: And Other Legends of the Fight Game" (1995), a collection of his essays; and "Ringside: A Treasury of Boxing Reportage" (2006).

Greatest success

But Schulberg's greatest success came with "On the Waterfront." His screenwriting Oscar was one of eight Academy Awards the 1954 film won -- including nods for picture, director (Kazan), supporting actress (Eva Marie Saint) and actor (Marlon Brando).

Schulberg once said, however, that his proudest achievement was as founder and director of the Watts Writers Workshop. Launched in 1965 after the Los Angeles riots of that year, the workshop lasted until 1971 and spawned workshops in other cities.

"I didn't want to just hang back and complain about things," Schulberg later told People magazine. "I thought that we should all do something. I found great poets, great hearts in the ashes of Watts."

The son of B.P. Schulberg, the powerful production chief of Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and early '30s, Budd Schulberg burst onto the literary scene in 1941 at 27 with his first novel, "What Makes Sammy Run?"

A vivid portrait of a brash and amoral young hustler from New York's Lower East Side who connives his way from newspaper copy boy to Hollywood producer, the novel is considered one of the best about Hollywood, and the name of Schulberg's back-stabbing anti-hero, Sammy Glick, has become synonymous with ruthless ambition.

'That horrible book'

Viewed as a savage indictment of the movie business, the novel drew the immediate ire of the Hollywood establishment. As Schulberg once put it: "Overnight, I found myself famous -- and hated."

Movie columnist Hedda Hopper, encountering Schulberg in a Hollywood restaurant, huffed, "How dare you?"

A furious Samuel Goldwyn, for whom Schulberg was then working as a screenwriter, fired him because of "that horrible book."

MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer not only denounced the book at a meeting of the Motion Picture Producers Assn. but also suggested that Schulberg be deported. To which B.P. Schulberg laughed and said, "Louie, he's the only novelist who ever came from Hollywood. Where the hell are you going to deport him, Catalina Island?"

John Wayne so despised Schulberg's negative depiction of the film industry in the book -- and, no doubt, Schulberg's left-wing politics -- that he reportedly attacked the author verbally whenever they met.

Wayne's wrath finally turned physical when he and Schulberg ran into each other in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the actor challenged the writer to a fistfight at midnight. The 6-foot-4 Wayne managed to get the much shorter Schulberg into a headlock before Schulberg's then-wife, actress Geraldine Brooks, separated them.

The encounter with Wayne was but one of many memorable incidents in Schulberg's life -- one that included coming to near-blows with Ernest Hemingway in Key West when Hemingway challenged Schulberg's knowledge of boxing; playfully sparring with Muhammad Ali in what was then Zaire; and accompanying Sen. Robert F. Kennedy into the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the night Kennedy was assassinated.

Schulberg was born in New York City on March 27, 1914. His film scenario writer-turned-producer father moved the family to Hollywood in 1922 when Schulberg, the eldest of three children, was 8. Schulberg's mother, Adeline, became a leader of Hollywood society and later a literary agent.

First partnered with Mayer in the now-forgotten Mayer-Schulberg Studio near downtown Los Angeles, B.P. Schulberg became vice president in charge of production at Paramount in 1925.

The family lived in a mansion in the exclusive Windsor Square neighborhood. Schulberg was a timid child who stuttered, raised homing pigeons and wrote from an early age.

But he was a true child of Hollywood's elite whose playground included the studio stages and back lots of Paramount and MGM.

At Paramount, Schulberg and his best friend, Maurice Rapf, son of MGM executive Harry Rapf, played Foreign Legion on the abandoned fort from "Beau Geste." At MGM, they watched the filming of the chariot race for the original "Ben Hur" and, hidden from view, threw over-ripe figs at a parade of MGM stars, scoring a direct hit on Greta Garbo.

As Schulberg grew up, it wasn't out of the ordinary for Gary Cooper to take time out on the set to chat with him or for Cary Grant to drive up in his Model A roadster to present him with a new dog.

And Schulberg had to be the only kid in America who sold magazines on a street corner after being dropped off in a chauffeur-driven, custom-made town car modeled after an 18th century coach.

Schulberg captured those early days in "Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince," his 1981 memoir of his life with his film-pioneer father.

Favor seekers

But the writer grew contemptuous of Hollywood, which the public may have viewed as the glamour capital of the world but which "B.P.'s little boy," as he was referred to, saw as a company town.

"If you were raised in Hollywood, it wasn't too difficult to get pretty angry at the world around you," Schulberg told People magazine in 1989. "People would come up to me when I was a little boy -- 11, 12, 13 -- an actress would want some favor from my father; a writer would urge me to say something about him. That was all around me. When they fussed over me, I knew why."

Schulberg's golden life tarnished in 1931 when his father, a gambler and philanderer, moved out of the house to live with his latest discovery, actress Sylvia Sidney.

By then, the 17-year-old Schulberg was working in the Paramount publicity department, writing fictitious biographies of the studio's stars.

After earning a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., in 1936, Schulberg returned to Hollywood, where he spent the next three years as an apprentice screenwriter for producers David O. Selznick, Walter Wanger and Sam Goldwyn. Among his assignments: writing additional dialogue for "A Star Is Born" and collaborating with Fitzgerald on the "Winter Carnival" script.

Schulberg had already published short stories in magazines when he moved to New Hampshire in 1939 to write "What Makes Sammy Run?"

In his later years, Schulberg lamented that his work had become "a handbook for yuppies," who had seemingly come to embrace Sammy's credo of success at all cost. "Going through life with a conscience is like driving your car with your brakes on," Sammy says at one point in the novel.

Serving in the Navy during World War II, Schulberg was a member of director John Ford's documentary unit. After Germany's surrender, Schulberg spent six months examining secret German films for visual evidence of war crimes.

The writer had been a member of the Communist Party from 1936 to 1939. He later said he became disillusioned with the party at the time of the Hitler-Stalin pact and quit after party members in Hollywood tried to dictate how he should write "What Makes Sammy Run?".

During his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951, Schulberg named 17 people he said he had known in the Communist Party.

"It's not a pleasant thing," he said of naming names in a 2000 interview with the Hollywood Reporter. "My own feeling was that while I didn't like the committee being so right-wing, I didn't think it was healthy having a secret organization trying to control the Writers Guild. I felt it was wrong and undermining democracy."

Many felt that the "On the Waterfront" plot, in which a longshoreman (Brando) courageously testifies at a waterfront crime commission public hearing against the vicious mobster who controls the dockworkers' union was an allegory for Kazan and Schulberg's friendly testimony during the committee's investigation into communist influence in Hollywood.

Kazan did not reject the parallel, writing in his autobiography, "I put my story and my feelings on the screen, to justify my informing." But Schulberg strongly denied that "On the Waterfront" was his apologia for testifying.

"It's total, total nonsense," he told the Chicago Tribune in 1994, saying he had welcomed the opportunity to renounce the Communist Party before the committee.

In writing "On the Waterfront," he said, "I was interested in social conditions on the waterfront and drawing a truthful story, not in justifying my position. Can you imagine Kazan asking me to write something that would justify our friendly testimony? It's a shame that an inaccuracy like that has become a 'fact' when it simply couldn't be more wrong."

Denial supported

A Fordham University professor supported Schulberg's denial, telling the New York Times in 2003 that he had found an early "Waterfront" script among Schulberg's papers that had a similar theme but was written before his congressional testimony.

Of those who see links between "On the Waterfront" and his testimony, Schulberg told the Chicago Tribune: "Let them say what they want, but they're missing the point of the film, which was not about informing but about men standing up to the mob for their rights on the docks. I'm proud of it for a lot of reasons: We prevailed over the enormous resistance of the studios and got it made, and we also proved we could hold an audience and say something we believed in."

Schulberg is survived by Betsy, his fourth wife. Information on other survivors was not immediately available.

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[kikibalt]

Nicaragua boxing legend Alexis Arguello and the mayoral curse

When Alexis Arguello was found dead July 1, he became the latest in a line of Managua mayors to reach a bad end. His apparent suicide -- if it was that -- is surrounded by mystery.

By Tracy Wilkinson
August 6, 2009

Reporting from Managua, Nicaragua -- What was it that Nicaragua's greatest athlete heard from the president's envoy the night he shot himself in the chest?

After dark on June 30, a loyal lieutenant to President Daniel Ortega paid a visit to Alexis Arguello, the mayor of Managua and a world champion boxer three times over. A few hours later, the mayor was dead.

No one is sure why Arguello killed himself. If it really was suicide, that is.

He was only six months into his new job as mayor. But things were not going well. The old demons of drug abuse nipped at his heels. And then there was a new demon -- at least that's how some people saw it.

Arguello had been the candidate for Ortega's Sandinista party. But if ever Arguello truly considered Ortega an ally, the relationship had soured. Arguello was being stripped of any authentic power as mayor, a maneuver widely seen as orchestrated by the president.

It's not as though being mayor of Nicaragua's capital is such a desirable position. It has become a cursed job in what a Nicaraguan historian once famously called a cursed land.

Not just because it means running an impossible city, with no real center, seated on the lip of a volcanic lake and blighted, still, with ruins from an earthquake more than 30 years ago.

Cursed because recent mayors have had a tendency to drop dead, or drop into jail or, at best, drop off the political map.

The immensely popular Herty Lewites, a former Sandinista tourism minister who served as mayor from 2000 until he stepped down in 2005 to run for president, died of a heart attack in the middle of the campaign. A predecessor, Arnoldo Aleman, made it to the president's office, but that didn't go particularly well: He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for siphoning off millions of state dollars to furnish his hacienda and other crimes. (He has since been pardoned and released.)

In the small world that is Nicaragua, internecine political battles are almost always personal and familial. Former Sandinistas hate the current Sandinista leadership; the offspring of former Contras, the U.S.-backed rebels who fought the Sandinistas in the 1980s, are now married to onetime revolutionaries.

Family after family is divided in its loyalties to a left that promises prosperity for the poor (only to merely enrich itself) or to a right that promises foreign investment and jobs for all (only to merely enrich itself).

And so, in a country where almost everyone knows everyone (or is related to them, or was once married to them), theories simmer over the fate of Managua's mayors.

When he died, Lewites, who had split from the old Sandinista party to form a new version, was leading Ortega (making his third bid to return to power after repeated defeats) by 20 percentage points in opinion polls.

Lewites was a cherished character during the first decade of Sandinista rule after the 1979 revolution. A rare Jew who remained in the country, the son of a Polish candy-maker who immigrated to Managua, Lewites blithely recommended war-torn Nicaragua as a tourist destination and shrewdly built a mini-empire of stores for resident foreigners that brought in dollars, hard currency, for the besieged Sandinista government.

Then Lewites, who suffered from ill health, dropped dead. His young, second wife refused an autopsy, and first and second families are today immersed in a battle over his legacy. (Ortega, by the way, won the election.)

The death of Arguello has similarly raised questions.

Over the years, Arguello said he knew he was being used by different political forces that were taking advantage of his celebrity. It was OK, he said, as long as good came of it. Born into abject poverty in early-1950s Managua, his eventual fame as a world-class boxer made him a trophy of dictator Anastasio Somoza and later of the Sandinistas who overthrew Somoza (and somewhere in between, of the Contras).

Attaching Arguello's name to the Managua mayoral ticket last year, in municipal elections tainted by fraud, was seen as a publicity ploy on the part of the Sandinista government.

The real trouble began, many Nicaraguans say, when Arguello really thought he was the mayor, and not the Sandinista leadership. He was speaking out, making appearances.

On June 25, Arguello traveled to Puerto Rico, ostensibly for a series of ceremonial duties, including the naming of a boxing academy in his honor. (There are whispers in Managua that Puerto Rico was also a frequent rehab stop for Arguello.) People with him in Puerto Rico said Arguello seemed happy. But while he was away, late on a Friday afternoon, Managua's Sandinista-dominated city council met and voted to "restructure" the local government in a way that diluted the mayor's powers.

Arguello returned to Managua on Monday and was said to have been furious when he learned what had happened. Furious, embarrassed, offended. And then depressed.

On Tuesday, people close to him say, he decided to resign. That night, Ortega's messenger arrived at Arguello's home. Identified by the opposition newsletter Confidencial as Francisco Lopez, treasurer of the Sandinista party, he reportedly told Arguello that resigning was out of the question.

A few hours later, early on July 1, Arguello apparently shot himself. Coroners said they found no trace of drugs or alcohol in his system.

Thousands of Managuans accompanied his coffin to his grave, mourning another cursed figure in their cursed city's history.

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[kikibalt]

Frankie, how did you find Roger Mayweather as a person?

Never knew him well enough to say Bennie, but I don't like what I see on tv/read to say anything good about ALL the Mayweather's....

Any pre-fight antics with Tony?

No Bennie, Roger Mayweather was at his best behavior before the fight, and after the fight he was rush to the hospital with what was though to be a broken jaw, it wasn't but... , it was enough to keep his mouth shut for a while....

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Roger Mayweather's mug shot

[Rick Farris]

Roger Mayweather's mug shot

He looks right at home.

[Rick Farris]

Any pre-fight antics with Tony?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
No Bennie, Roger Mayweather was at his best behavior before the fight, and after the fight he was rush to the hospital with what was though to be a broken jaw, it wasn't but... , it was enough to keep his mouth shut for a while.... [/quote]
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He tasted Tony's left hook.

[kikibalt]

Any pre-fight antics with Tony?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
No Bennie, Roger Mayweather was at his best behavior before the fight, and after the fight he was rush to the hospital with what was though to be a broken jaw, it wasn't but... , it was enough to keep his mouth shut for a while.... :bow
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He tasted Tony's left hook.

He sure did in the second round....