Classic American West Coast Boxing

[bennie]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar with co-trainer, Jimmy Montoya

Was Jimmy unwell when that photo was taken?

[kikibalt]

Its 3:40 AM, getting coffee ready for Connie and me....

[Rick Farris]

Its 3:40 AM, getting coffee ready for Connie and me....

Frank, it's 3:55am and I'm out the door in a few minutes.
Have to be at the Ontario Airport today where we are filming today. Have to be there at 5am.
No time for coffee here, will have to wait until I get to the set.
Have a great day guys!

[kikibalt]

Its 3:40 AM, getting coffee ready for Connie and me....

Frank, it's 3:55am and I'm out the door in a few minutes.
Have to be at the Ontario Airport today where we are filming today. Have to be there at 5am.
No time for coffee here, will have to wait until I get to the set.
Have a great day guys!

Just make sure you get coffee when you get there. I fly out of Ontario Airport when I fly to Phx. to visit Anthony and Bobby and their families.

[kikibalt]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar with co-trainer, Jimmy Montoya

Was Jimmy unwell when that photo was taken?

Jimmy always looked like he was sick, still does....

[kikibalt]

Is there a paypal option?
Being a bit younger than the typical attendant i have never seen a cheque nevermind used one

No, paypal. Checks and cash only.....

[bennie]

Ireland's John Duddy announced his retirement from boxing earlier this week, admitting that he is no longer in love with the sport.
The 31-year-old Derry man was scheduled to meet Limerick's Andy Lee in a lucrative all-Ireland showdown in the States in March, but Duddy, who traded on fitness and desire, said training had become "a chore" as he walked away from what would have been the biggest fight of his career.
Duddy was once desperately close to a world middleweight title shot at Kelly Pavlik, only to suffer terrible cuts against Canada's unheralded Walid Smichet in Madison Square Garden in February 2008. He came through on a 10-round decision but the cuts required 25 stitches. Pavlik pounded on Gary Lockett instead in June 2008 in Atlantic City.
Based in New York, Duddy could whack a bit and enjoyed a tear-up but he was too easy to hit, which made him all the more exciting. He generated huge interest among the Irish fraternity in New York every time he fought but the Smichet wobble was soon followed by his first defeat to Billy Lyell in April 2009, on a split decision, and he was comprehensively outscored by Julio Cesar Chavez Junior last summer in San Antonio, in what turned out to be his last fight.
At 29-2 (18), Duddy's best wins came over Howard Eastman, Prince Arron and Yory Campas, and he was 26-0 when he lost to Lyell. Ultimately, the charismatic Irishman who was never stopped gave it everything and just came up short.

[CNorkusJr]

Great tale Charlie on the gyms of NY, on my trips to NY I have often thought it would be great if the old places were plagued up so I could find them with ease,I have visited Gleasons gym on many occasions & been made most welcome by Bruce but are there any other of the old gyms left in NY, I'm hoping to return this year & would love visit if there are any

I'm not sure if any gyms are left from the 40's or 50's era, or if they are still standing in the former places they were originally. There are a couple of newer "more modern gyms" about.
No doubt, Gleasons in Brooklyn is probably the most well known gym in New York today.
There are quite a few smaller places dotted across the 5 boros of New York. Give me about a month and let me get the names and addresses for you and post them here for all to see. The New York Golden Gloves start tonite-at BB Kings Restaurant in midtown- to kick off the season.The tournament sponsored by the New York Daily News paper is still a success story. Whats even better for me is that they have a few nights in which the bouts are right in my own backyard(High Schools,Athletic Arenas) here on Long Island where many kids fight out of Long Island.Gerry Cooney & Howard Davis just to name a couple who fought out of Long Island. The tournament will last about a 2 months. Finals in early March. Gyms become very active and small clubs operating out of small backrooms work too for the kids.
Let me see whats out there and give you a report in couple of weeks.

Bennie-Thanks for the Duddy update. For awhile there I was on the Duddy Bandwagon seeing him fight a few times at the Garden. Once he started looking downhill and found out he had manager problems it was a long road ahead for him. Reports said he was happy and training well with his new Irish team, but maybe his skills are diminished, and not his Heart. Sometimes his heart fought tougher than his fist. A comeback-maybe- but as you posted, this was his clear chance to get back into the ratings in a big way against Lee.
I am now on the Thomas Adamek bandwagon.Having met him at a dinner a couple of months ago, I found him to be very nice and appreciative of his surroundings. A throwback to a different age. Though he moved up to Heavywt and his 6'2 inch frame doesnt support a beefed up heavy-he has quickness and steam in his punches. His lack of height and overall size(reach) could be a archilles heal, especially to the 230 pounders and height guys like Klitschko.

[kikibalt]

This morning as Connie is walking out the door to go to work I asked her, "today is Thursday, right?".
She answered, "yes,. and in a couple of days I get to stay with you".
"Don't you just love it" I told her.
"Nope!" was her reply.
Go figure!!.

[Panzerfaust]

I am now on the Thomas Adamek bandwagon.Having met him at a dinner a couple of months ago, I found him to be very nice and appreciative of his surroundings. A throwback to a different age. Though he moved up to Heavywt and his 6'2 inch frame doesnt support a beefed up heavy-he has quickness and steam in his punches. His lack of height and overall size(reach) could be a archilles heal, especially to the 230 pounders and height guys like Klitschko.

Charlie , I met Adamek in 2002 when he was barely a prospect . I got the impression that he was a very gentle and friendly person.

[THEHAMMER321]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar

In this picture you could name him Tony ''Elvis'' Baltazar

[THEHAMMER321]

Our late body shop .Notice the boxing gloves under the phone number, by the door.
Pomona,Ca.

That's cool, Frank. When did you close the shop?

Frank you didn't carry a sledgehammer around to drum up business did you ,there was this gypsy who did that, he would go around to grocery stores, close to where his body shop was and ''manufacture work'' for himself, luckily they caught him.

[kikibalt]

Our late body shop .Notice the boxing gloves under the phone number, by the door.
Pomona,Ca.

That's cool, Frank. When did you close the shop?

Frank you didn't carry a sledgehammer around to drum up business did you ,there was this gypsy who did that, he would go around to grocery stores, close to where his body shop was and ''manufacture work'' for himself, luckily they caught him.

No, no sledgehammer. We stayed busy by greasing some hands... insurance guys, you know

[THEHAMMER321]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar with co-trainer, Jimmy Montoya

This must be Tony in the late 1980s, he wasn't as big when he fought Blake and Howard Davis in 1983 ,and Montoya everytime I see him I think of Big Jess driving the bus.

[kikibalt]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar with co-trainer, Jimmy Montoya

This must be Tony in the late 1980s, he wasn't as big when he fought Blake and Howard Davis in 1983 ,and Montoya everytime I see him I think of Big Jess driving the bus.

We were in training camp for the 1989 Buddy McGirt fight when this pic was shot....Big Jess and the "Meat Wagon"

[kikibalt]

More than 120 busted in Northeast mafia crackdown

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Tom Hays, Associated Press –

NEW YORK – More than 120 organized crime associates face charges including murder, extortion and narcotics trafficking in one of the largest Mafia crackdowns in FBI history, prosecutors announced Thursday.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a news conference Thursday in New York City that the 127 defendants include high-ranking members of the Gambino and Colombo crime families and the reputed former boss of organized crime in New England. All five of New York's five major crime families were targeted.

The charges cover decades worth of offenses, he said, including "classic mob hits to eliminate perceived rivals," a killing during a botched robbery and a double shooting in a barroom dispute over a spilled drink.

More than 100 of the defendants were arrested Thursday as some 800 federal agents and police officers made busts in several states. One person was arrested in Italy.

Other charges include alleged corruption among dockworkers who were forced to kick back a portion of their holiday bonuses to the crime families.

Holder called the arrests "an important step forward in our nation's fight against organized crime."

The crimes include two murders dating back 30 years, and another as recently as 2002. One of the defendants, among the scores arrested, is a former New York City police officer.

Authorities say the investigation was aided by informants who recorded thousands of conversations by suspected mobsters.

Luigi Manocchio, the reputed former head of New England's Patriarca crime family, was arrested Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the U.S. attorney's office in Providence said. An indictment accused him of collecting protection payments from strip club-owners. Also arrested was Thomas Iafrate, who worked as a bookkeeper for strip clubs and set aside money for Manocchio, prosecutors said.

The takedown was the result of multiple investigations. Federal probes aided by mob turncoats have decimated the families' ranks in recent years and have resulted in lengthy prison terms for several leaders.

On Friday, a federal judge in Brooklyn sentenced John "Sonny" Franzese, 93, to eight years in prison for extorting Manhattan strip clubs and a pizzeria on Long Island.

In October, Mafia turncoat Salvatore Vitale was sentenced to time served after federal prosecutors praised his total betrayal of his own crime syndicate — and after he apologized to the families of his victims. Authorities said he had a hand in at least 11 murders, including that of a fellow gangster in the fallout from the infamous Donnie Brasco case.

The evidence provided after his arrest in 2003 helped decimate the once-fearsome Bonanno organized crime family, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres said.
___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

[CNorkusJr]

Tony "Tiger" Baltazar with co-trainer, Jimmy Montoya

This must be Tony in the late 1980s, he wasn't as big when he fought Blake and Howard Davis in 1983 ,and Montoya everytime I see him I think of Big Jess driving the bus.

We were in training camp for the 1989 Buddy McGirt fight when this pic was shot....Big Jess and the "Meat Wagon"

Tony's pictures at this time are exquisite Frank. What a fighter. I enjoyed watching whenever he was on Tv. Thanks for sharing these great shots.

[CNorkusJr]

The mafia raid is one of the biggest as of late. The past few weeks had a few stories in the papers on some "old timers" be brought to trial "Sonny" Franzese- being testified against by his own son.

The mafia, as they were once known, were was pretty much decimated over the years. Now the "new kids" are just a bunch of rag tag youths who lost that old "respect" thing and are ruthless killers looking to line their own pockets.Sure there are a few oldtimers who oversee the operations but they have no leadership qualities as they once had, and therefore got sloppy in their holdings and operations. This makes for good cases for the FBI and such.Pretty much they are screwing their own as they force kickbacks from workers, who got their jobs from them anyway. Taxpayers do pay a price in the long run though.
Out of these few 100 busted, watch now how many turn evidence on their own and put away dozens and dozens to save their own hide. Sammy Gravano was one of the big ones for this and it started a mess for the the "new" mafia of New York.

The bigger threat right now in New York are the gang-bangers. Fighting over local turf in bad neighborhoods for drugs and guns, innocent bystanders are getting hit pretty often here. If you stay away from from these areas, your okay somewhat, but the bad economy is causing bank robberies, jewelry store heists and such to increase. If a threat comes across these guys while in action, then all must duck for cover because most have a "not going back to jail" mentality and rather shoot their way out.

[raylawpc]

Part 2 Stillmans Gym:

Guys like Hurricane Jackson,Cesar Brion,Roland LaStarza trained there regularly in the AM session. My father along with Billy Graham,Joe Miceli, Carlos Ortiz in the afternoons.
Later on my dad was sparring partner there for Jose Torres who trained there regularly too.

You must remember that there were a few other gyms about which were equally popular in New York. Original Gleasons Gym in Bronx was active with the likes of Jake LaMotta,The Belloise brothers (Sal & Steve),Nino Valdez & a great champ Phil Terranova and mostly Bronx guys.Gleasons moved to midtown in the late 1970's when no body wanted to go into that tough-rough area of burnt out bldgs in the Bronx-and was relocated near the present day Garden.Many fighters like Ali,Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard trained there when in town.Bobby Gleason passed away shortly after moving his gym to midtown.In 1987, The Savarese(Bobby Gleasons daughter) family (good friends and neighbors sold it to Bruce Silverglade) and he moved gleasons to Brooklyn where it stands active today.
Personal note: John Savarese (Bobby Gleasons Grandson) is a lifelong friend and was my Best Man at my Wedding 4 years back.
Brooklyn had a couple (their name escapes me at this moment) but guys who fought at Eastern Pwy arena & Ridgewood Grove Arena would get final tune-ups in the area.

Back to Stillmans-Located just 3 blocks from the Garden,Jacobs Beach and home offices of the IBC, It was the place to be in the 1940's & 50's. Promoters walked into Stillmans all the time and would announce that they need a middleweight or lightwt or whatever to fill in on a substitution at the Garden in a day or two, or that night. for a pre-lim. If you were in decent shape and could put up a good fight-you could make a living on it. Teddy Brenner also had St Nicks arena only 10 blocks up & over 2 blocks (ABC studios stand there now-Regis Philbin & Kelly Ripa do their show in that exact spot) and filled cards there too.
Boxing was second only to baseball in popularity. Football was growing and basketball & Hockey drew crowds but nothing compared to Boxing at the Garden on Fight Nights.
Equally important as a famed hangout for sports in the day; The Neutral Corner Bar was located just 2 blocks north of Stillmans on 8th Ave also. When the gym was packed-managers and promoters moved their business up there for making deals.Its where fighters went to go after training to meet writers and newsmen for interviews. Damon Runyon and the like called it home after the fights.The phones at both Stillmans & Neutral Corner were always ringing with deals my father said.
In 1959 with boxing beginning to wane from the "good old days"- My father hung them up in 1959-Lou Stillman sold the place to a developer. On a few month to month basis the gym became 8th Ave gym run by Irving Cohen. The developer eventually KO the building and built a no-class looking highrise apt bldg which still stands today. Lou Stillman died in 1969 in a nursing home in Santa Barbara,CA. He lived with his daughter, Joyce, near there just previous to his passing. He was 82..It was estimated in print that 35,000 fighters trained there from when it opened its doors till Stillman sold it and walked out.

The Garden on 8th & 50th being gone-now stands a full block complex called "worldwide Plaza". on 8th Ave stands a tall skyscraper with Comm'l offices. Behind it on the 9th ave side is a condo complex about 6 stories high with courtyard and seats in the middle and accessible to the public. You can get to the exact middle of the complex and sit on benches-very nice. My father visited my firehouse which is located on 48th St & 8th Ave. He remembered the old firehouse there when he fought in the 50's. A memorable moment between my dad and I when we walked over to the bench in the middle of the complex when I got off work one night in the late 1980's and opened two cans of beer.. It would be approx where the Ring would have been set up in the old Garden where my dad fought. We talked about climbing through its ropes, The Ezzard Charles fight, The crowd and Stillmans gym. After not too long my dad, would shift his head as if his memories where right there with him in the moment. He began to choke up and I stood up and told him to come we got to go home. He looked around again as if the crowd was there. We walked off and I changed the subject to firefighting. I can tell he missed the place and the people who were part of his life then.



Final Note: Ring 8 is in the final stages of commemorating by Bronze plaque to be affixed to a outdoor side wall of a Wendys Hamburger Joint-denoting where Sunnyside Gardens Arena once stood in Queens. It is a beginning of what we hope to be a plaque being affixed to walls of bldgs denoting where famed Boxing Locations once stood in New York and people to see where such history was made. Why Sunnyside Gardens now? Many active members of Ring 8 from the 40's & 50's fought there and the org. feels lets get that one up first before we lose these guys before they can see it. There is alot of prep & politics to get such a thing going.(2 years in the making) Wendys -much to their credit-was well on board with this.

A busy and sad four weeks have kept me off the thread. But, like a bad habit, you guys can’t get rid of me.

A terrific piece on Stillman’s. A bit of history: Originally, the premier fight gym in New York was Billy Grupp's on 116th Street. But around WWI, the Jewish fighters in New York discovered Grupp was Anti-Semitic and blamed the Jews for WWI. After that, Benny Leonard and other Jewish fighters refused to train at Grupp's gym, and settled on Stillman’s. At the time, when in Harlem, Stillman’s wasn’t even a professional gym, but it was good enough for Leonard because Grupp wasn’t there.

I have also read that Marciano preferred training at the two places Charlie mentioned because that’s where Charley Goldman liked to train his fighters. Charley lived in a boarding house near the YMCA location, so it was more convenient for him.

[raylawpc]

A Boxing Idol in Cypress Park

Sports fame in L.A. at the turn of the last century was attained with boxing gloves. Jim Jeffries, an Ohio-born son of an Evangelist minister Alexis C. Jeffries, sparred his way to notoriety beginning in 1896. By 1899 he appeared in a Coney Island fight against Bob Fitzsimmons, and Jeffries won the heavyweight championship by knock out. He retired undefeated in 1905.

Jeffries appeared in celebrity endorsements ads. He opened a downtown bar at 326 So. Spring Street (proprietors being J&J, perhaps with a brother Jonathan.) Jeffries came out of retirement in 1910, but lost to African American fighter Jack Johnson.



Jim Jeffries' Gentlemen's Club at Spring Street

The Jeffries family settled in Cypress Park around 1882. The family included mother Rebecca Boyer, three other sons Charles, Jonathan and Calvin; daughters Lydia, Alameda and Lillian. Their home was situated on their property bordered by Jeffries Avenue, Isabel Street, Figueroa Street, and Cypress Avenue. Located here were two of their houses at 535 and 545 Cypress Avenue, which sat within the present-day footprint of Florence Nightingale Middle School .

By 1905 this region underwent residential development. Son Jonathan was a real estate developer. Charles was living at 571 Cypress in a house built in 1911. Two residential tracts were attributed to the Jeffries family: the earlier Jeffries Avenue Tract, circa 1905, that subdivided south of Cypress Avenue, and the later Jeffries Highland View Tract, that spanned north of Cypress Avenue.



Jim Jeffries later moved to Burbank, and he died in 1953. His Spring Street saloon was demolished in 1960.

Burbank Historical Society's Gordon R. Howard Museum is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Jeffries-Johnson fight. The exhibit includes photos and a pair of boxing gloves.

Jeffries Avenue ends at Avenue 26. It forms a T intersection, and the former Lawry's California Center restaurant compound was at this intersection. Its beautiful grounds have found new life as the Los Angeles River Center.

Frank . . . Thanks for posting this. Interesting about Jeff's bar on Spring St. which would have been exactly one block west of the Main Street Gym that we knew. I'm sure Tom Ray would appreciate this. I believe Tom lost his beloved step-mother recently, maybe that's why he's not been around lately. I saw this on Facebook. Tom, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Thanks, Rick. I appreciate your kind thoughts.

[raylawpc]

Do any of you guys know if Jefferies appeared on any live TV being interviewed back in the 50's when TV was basically getting its foothold ?. I would think that if he lived in Burbank, he would have appeared on any early TV, possibly "This is Your Life" or something like that.
Obviously there is movie footage of him,but most of everything I saw was silent.

Jeffries suffered a debilitating stroke not long after his wife died. All my Jeffries' files are in St. Louis, so I'm going by memory. But I think Mrs. Jeffries was killed in 1941, and Jeff suffered his stroke in 1943 or 1946. After that, he could no longer take care of himself and his niece lived with him and provided for him. He was honored on his 75th birthday in 1950, but all the celebrations took place at his house in Burbank. Because of his disability, I doubt he ever appeared on TV.

I enjoyed the photo of the saloon that Frank posted. The bar was the longest in California at the time. I have read that it was saved before the saloon was demolished in the early 1960s, and now graces a resort somewhere in the SW.

[kikibalt]

Found this article as I was surfing the net, Rick might have, like my boys did, boxed at the "Cleland House.
Last year I stopped by the Cleland House and it was open, the boxing gym was also open.

Time Running Out for East L.A. Fixture

Cleland House May Have to Close With Loss of United Way Funding
June 13, 1990|VICKI TORRES | TIMES STAFF WRITER

From its beginning in 1922 as a Presbyterian Church settlement house to its blossoming as a Latino social service agency with a $500,000 annual budget, the Cleland House on Dozier Street provided counseling, job training, child care and sports programs to thousands in East Los Angeles.

Called in times past "the jewel in East Los Angeles" and "the heart of the community," the agency was the first in the East Side to open a kindergarten, library and medical clinic for mothers and babies.

In the 1970s, gang members cut a peacekeeping truce at the Cleland House that some say was responsible for a dramatic reduction in gang killings. Later, it served as a symbolic backdrop when former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed a package of anti-gang bills.

But those glory days are over.

The 68-year-old Cleland House soon may close its doors for lack of money.

Citing a three-year reign of fiscal mismanagement and poorly run programs, United Way in February cut off its annual $163,000 allocation--almost all of the agency's operating budget.

Despite an appeal, the decision is expected to become final at today's meeting of the United Way Metropolitan Regional Board.

Since United Way's action, politicians, corporate donors and city and state agencies have turned a cold shoulder to Cleland House, said board member Richard Martinez.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," Martinez said. "When United Way defunds, it sends a very clear message to other potential (donors) that this organization is not viable."

The center is struggling to keep open, but executive director David Perez admits that unless the Cleland House receives money before July, the long-established agency may go out of existence this summer.

Only Perez and two other staff members remain, unpaid for the past 2 1/2 months. The center is closed during the day to save money. It opens at 4 p.m. for a couple of hours to let teen-agers play basketball, lift weights and work out in the boxing ring.

Teens also wield mops, scrub toilets and pull weeds because the agency can't pay a maintenance crew. And the pool sits unused most of the week, its water turning green for lack of money to buy pool chemicals.

"When they pulled back their funding, (United Way) knew they were removing the last net to the Cleland House's survival," Martinez said.

[kikibalt]

Paul Armstead vs Mauro Vasquez

[THEHAMMER321]

Frank is it time for a cigar yet.

[bennie]

Cotto v Mayorga is a friggin' joke.