Classic American West Coast Boxing

[bennie]

Say what you like about Matthew Hatton - the poor man's Ricky, the powder-puff puncher, and so on and so forth - but you cannot knock him for taking on Mexican sensation Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for the vacant WBC light-middleweight title in the States on March 5.
Hatton, a natural welterweight, makes his way to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, to face a light-middleweight puncher with an unbeaten record of 36 fights, 26 of them ending early, including eight of his last 10. Nobody expects Hatton to win but he bears a nice boxing name, so American-TV is buying the younger brother of Ricky. It also helps, of course, that Matthew and Ricky will be the first brothers in the entire history of British boxing to win world titles if Matthew wins.
Don't laugh. "Magic" Matthew takes over a fair slice of experience - and ability - at a solid 41-4-2 (16) and has won six out of six in the States, in fights most British fans expected him to lose (Tackie, Zepeda, Vazquez...). They also expected him to lose to Italy's Gianluca Branco in a crack at the European welterweight title early last year but Hatton worked his way to the belt and retained it twice, impressively.
The 29-year-old Hatton lacks charisma but has improved massively under new trainer Bobby Shannon from the dark old days when he was outscored by David Kirk, thrown out against Alan Bosworth and outboxed by Craig Watson. His defence is tighter, his stamina better, his combinations sharper. Much like that classy Welsh stylist of a few years ago, Barry Jones, Hatton thinks 'win the round, win the round' in his fights, a mindset that holds him in good stead as those rounds tick by. Matthew needs to build up the points because he hardly whacks like the now-retired "Hitman".
So, Hatton is a 12-round fighter which begs the question: what happens if a cocky, complacent "Canelo" fails to budge him early and finds himself on the receiving end of Hatton's quick combinations in the later championship rounds? Hatton's punches may not hurt Alvarez, but they may hurt him on the cards.
Yes, Alvarez outscored Lovemore Ndou over 12 rounds last time out (and Ndou had held Hatton to an earlier draw) but Ndou barely threw a punch against the freckled, red-haired, 20-year-old Alvarez (a pro at 15) who looks like the American boy next door, the Irish boy next door (or just the milkman's), and the Mexican fans cherish him and his relentless, heavy handed style, of course, so in all ways he gets the full hype treatment. This man is a real crossover fighter - but is he for real?
We are shortly to find out. I feel that Hatton, out of his natural weight class at light-middleweight, has been stitched-up by Team Alvarez, regardless of the world title at stake and presumably the nice payday Hatton will go home with. At welterweight, Hatton would have made it tough for Alvarez, tougher than many might have imagined. A weight up, Alvarez is big and strong enough to force a stoppage win, possibly on cuts.

[bennie]

[CNorkusJr]

More from Patricia Docusen:
---------------------------------

Rick,

My dad loved Mr. Whitey and he told me that he regretted going with his other managers. He said he should have stayed with Mr. Whitey since he taught him everything about boxing and always looked out for him. He said that in some fights that he lost, Mr. Whitey would throw the towel in and stop the fight so that my dad wouldn't get hurt. He would then analyze the fight and later tell my dad that he would get a rematch and that dad would then beat him -- he was always right. He was FAIR and HONEST with my dad and NEVER cheated my dad out of any money like his other managers did. My dad said he was a good man. Dad told me before he died that one day he felt so bad about leaving Mr. Whitey that he cried over it. Mr. Whitey was like his second father.

Thanks for sharing, Rick.

[CNorkusJr]

Thanks Bennie for posting picture.It was not all that long after that picture my father met him -1949. I dont know if he was in the service at that time-nor did my father mention if he was in uniform. I am sure he would have said if he was, as my father was a US Marine from 1946-1948.

[kikibalt]

14 July 1943 (Hollywood Legion Stadium, Los Angeles CA): (from left) James J. Jeffries, Ceferino Garcia,
Mushy Callahan, Jimmy McLarnin, Jack Root, Baby Arizmendi, Willie Ritchie and Johnny Indrisano. Joe Lynch
is at the microphone.

[kikibalt]

May 1949 (Los Angeles CA): From left: Gorilla Jones, Benny Whitman, Morris Rose, and Duke Holloway

[kikibalt]

Art Aragon on the right, just don't know who the opponent is....

[kikibalt]

Front row (left to right): Braven Dyer (journalist), Tom Sharkey, unknown, Tommy Ryan, Mushy Callahan, unknown, James J. Jeffries, & Sheriff Eugene Biscaluiz.

Back row (from left): Unknown, Everett L. Sanders (Commissioner), Announcer Dan Tobey, Al Santoro (journalist), & Barney Oldfield (race car driver & boxing fan).

[kikibalt]

Watching a Johnny Mack Brown movie on the Western channel.

[kikibalt]

Say what you like about Matthew Hatton - the poor man's Ricky, the powder-puff puncher, and so on and so forth - but you cannot knock him for taking on Mexican sensation Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for the vacant WBC light-middleweight title in the States on March 5.
Hatton, a natural welterweight, makes his way to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, to face a light-middleweight puncher with an unbeaten record of 36 fights, 26 of them ending early, including eight of his last 10. Nobody expects Hatton to win but he bears a nice boxing name, so American-TV is buying the younger brother of Ricky. It also helps, of course, that Matthew and Ricky will be the first brothers in the entire history of British boxing to win world titles if Matthew wins.
Don't laugh. "Magic" Matthew takes over a fair slice of experience - and ability - at a solid 41-4-2 (16) and has won six out of six in the States, in fights most British fans expected him to lose (Tackie, Zepeda, Vazquez...). They also expected him to lose to Italy's Gianluca Branco in a crack at the European welterweight title early last year but Hatton worked his way to the belt and retained it twice, impressively.
The 29-year-old Hatton lacks charisma but has improved massively under new trainer Bobby Shannon from the dark old days when he was outscored by David Kirk, thrown out against Alan Bosworth and outboxed by Craig Watson. His defence is tighter, his stamina better, his combinations sharper. Much like that classy Welsh stylist of a few years ago, Barry Jones, Hatton thinks 'win the round, win the round' in his fights, a mindset that holds him in good stead as those rounds tick by. Matthew needs to build up the points because he hardly whacks like the now-retired "Hitman".
So, Hatton is a 12-round fighter which begs the question: what happens if a cocky, complacent "Canelo" fails to budge him early and finds himself on the receiving end of Hatton's quick combinations in the later championship rounds? Hatton's punches may not hurt Alvarez, but they may hurt him on the cards.
Yes, Alvarez outscored Lovemore Ndou over 12 rounds last time out (and Ndou had held Hatton to an earlier draw) but Ndou barely threw a punch against the freckled, red-haired, 20-year-old Alvarez (a pro at 15) who looks like the American boy next door, the Irish boy next door (or just the milkman's), and the Mexican fans cherish him and his relentless, heavy handed style, of course, so in all ways he gets the full hype treatment. This man is a real crossover fighter - but is he for real?
We are shortly to find out. I feel that Hatton, out of his natural weight class at light-middleweight, has been stitched-up by Team Alvarez, regardless of the world title at stake and presumably the nice payday Hatton will go home with. At welterweight, Hatton would have made it tough for Alvarez, tougher than many might have imagined. A weight up, Alvarez is big and strong enough to force a stoppage win, possibly on cuts.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... l?ITO=1490

[CNorkusJr]

Wow,great pictures Frank. Gorilla Jones was one of Charlie Powell's trainers at the time my father fought Powell.

[raylawpc]

http://jalna.blogspot.com/2010/06/andy- ... 82010.html


This upset me at the time and still does. Andy was attacked from behind while drunk, like Siki and Quiroga, so he never had a chance. Anyone attacking from the front would have been kayoed - one shot.
I hope Andy has quality of life and he certainly has plenty of good friends. You know, Jimmy Wilde was mugged by a gang of cowardly scum on a Cardiff railway platform in 1965 when he was in his seventies. He never recovered and died a few years later. It's unbelievable.

Tommy Ryan was mugged and robbed in LA back in the early 40s. (He has a cafe in LA and they stole the day's receipts from him.) Henry Armstrong was mugged in St. Louis and never recovered from it.

[bennie]

http://jalna.blogspot.com/2010/06/andy- ... 82010.html


This upset me at the time and still does. Andy was attacked from behind while drunk, like Siki and Quiroga, so he never had a chance. Anyone attacking from the front would have been kayoed - one shot.
I hope Andy has quality of life and he certainly has plenty of good friends. You know, Jimmy Wilde was mugged by a gang of cowardly scum on a Cardiff railway platform in 1965 when he was in his seventies. He never recovered and died a few years later. It's unbelievable.

Tommy Ryan was mugged and robbed in LA back in the early 40s. (He has a cafe in LA and they stole the day's receipts from him.) Henry Armstrong was mugged in St. Louis and never recovered from it.

I was reading the story about Armstrong's mugging. The guys knocked him out from behind (again), took his Jewellery and his wallet, realized who he was from the ID in his wallet, so drove him to his house and left him outside, still unconscious.

[kikibalt]

http://jalna.blogspot.com/2010/06/andy- ... 82010.html


This upset me at the time and still does. Andy was attacked from behind while drunk, like Siki and Quiroga, so he never had a chance. Anyone attacking from the front would have been kayoed - one shot.
I hope Andy has quality of life and he certainly has plenty of good friends. You know, Jimmy Wilde was mugged by a gang of cowardly scum on a Cardiff railway platform in 1965 when he was in his seventies. He never recovered and died a few years later. It's unbelievable.

Tommy Ryan was mugged and robbed in LA back in the early 40s. (He has a cafe in LA and they stole the day's receipts from him.) Henry Armstrong was mugged in St. Louis and never recovered from it.

I was reading the story about Armstrong's mugging. The guys knocked him out from behind (again), took his Jewellery and his wallet, realized who he was from the ID in his wallet, so drove him to his house and and left him outside, still unconscious.

Former welterweight champion Don Jordan was mugged on the L.A. waterfront, he later died from the mugging

[kikibalt]

Wow,great pictures Frank. Gorilla Jones was one of Charlie Powell's trainers at the time my father fought Powell.

Charlie, I remember Jones well from back in the day...

[raylawpc]

I have tried my best to FORGET Andy Ganigan. Seriously speaking, I am sorry to hear about Ganigan's problems.

Tom, can you tell me a little about Pat O'Grady's heavyweight Humphrey,was he a sideshow like the butterbean ?

No, he was a serious fighter. I'm in Scottsdale, AZ today with my wife, and we just spent all day walking around at the Desert Botanical Garden, and all evening in Old Town Scottsdale. I'm pooped and heading to bed. I'll write more about Humphrey later.

“Humphrey” was the real deal. His was a very interesting story. He had boxed as an amateur back in the 1950s – mostly in the Pacific NW. Then, in the early 1970s when he was well into his 40s, he decided that he wanted to box pro. He was living in Oklahoma City at the time, and looked up Pat O’Grady. He lumbered into Pat’s office with a Bible in one hand and his boxing scrapbook in the other, vowing to defeat Muhammad Ali and become heavyweight champion of the world. He decided to turn pro when Rocky Marciano died. Claude admired Marciano and wanted to emulate him by becoming the undefeated world heavyweight champion. He was serious. At the time, Humphrey was 6’3” and weighed close to 400 pounds. He started working out at our gym and bugging the hell out of Pat for a fight. Pat finally gave him a 4-round prelim match thinking he would lose, and that would get him out of Pat’s hair. But Claude won, and his career took off from there.

Humphrey’s real name was Claude McBride. Somebody told him that he looked like “Humphrey Penniworth” from the old Joe Palooka comic, so, for his first fight, he wore the poka-dot trunks and was introduced as Claude “Humphrey” McBride. Everybody laughed at him, but they were cheering at the end when he won his fight by KO. He ended up being quite a crowd-pleaser, trained hard, and worked his weight down to about 265. He ran off about 20 wins – including decision wins over Henry Hank and Terry Daniels – before he was matched with Buster Mathis. Pat billed the fight as for the “world’s super-heavyweight title.” Mathis stopped him in three. He never really recovered psychologically from that loss, and became an opponent after that. In 1973 or 1974, he fought Al “Blue” Lewis and gave him hell for a few rounds before being stopped.

On a range of talent, I’d put him with Ron Stander/Jack O’Halloran/Terry Daniels. I saw him kick O’Halloran’s ass in the gym once. The win over Daniels was legitimate. And, remember, Humphrey was in his 40s.

If Humphrey had turned pro in his 20s instead of in his 40s, I think he could have developed into a very good contender. He had the size and talent to have been a formidable heavyweight. He just got started too late.

[kikibalt]

For Tom Ray. Tom do you know this town?/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 6111.story

[bennie]

Bugner learned well from Ali. Here he is eyeballing opponent Scott Welch (who beat the ageing Bugner), with Eric Guy in the middle, the man who arranged the shot.

[Rick Farris]

Wow,great pictures Frank. Gorilla Jones was one of Charlie Powell's trainers at the time my father fought Powell.

I met Gorilla Jones while fighting for his manager Suey welch, who also managed Charlie Powell.

[CNorkusJr]

Tommy Ryan was mugged and robbed in LA back in the early 40s. (He has a cafe in LA and they stole the day's receipts from him.) Henry Armstrong was mugged in St. Louis and never recovered from it.

I was reading the story about Armstrong's mugging. The guys knocked him out from behind (again), took his Jewellery and his wallet, realized who he was from the ID in his wallet, so drove him to his house and and left him outside, still unconscious.

Former welterweight champion Don Jordan was mugged on the L.A. waterfront, he later died from the mugging

Battling Siki,real name Louis Phal (1897-1925) was murdered just 7 blocks from my firehouse on the westside of Manhattan. On 12/15/1925, the address that his body was found in front of was 350 W 41st by a policeman walking a beat.He was shot twice in back of head. It was believed he was targeted by the same crew that he had a bad tussle with next door at 346 W 41st 6 months earlier in which he was stabbed.It is reported that by 1925. Siki was in a bad way, drunk most of the time and fighting people whenever he thought the moment was right, which was like everyday,he was arrested several times for assault against cab drivers,passerbys and on police officers as well.
The area that he was killed at is still sort of a no-mans land that harbors homeless persons looking for handouts,and a hobo bar, from the coming and going bus passengers at the NY Port Authority Bus Terminal which is located right there. It is pretty much a darkened street which you dont have to transverse when using the Bus Terminal, but a unaware tourist can make a directional mistake. The Bus depot was Not there at the time of his attack, and made it much more of a bad area at the time.

Emile Griffith was visiting a well known gay bar in the Times Sq. area 2 blocks from my firehouse one night. I remember it being around 1988 or there abouts. At that time in the 80's a surge of attacks on gay men increased in the city, from mostly thugs who went around in packs and sought out trouble. Emile came out of the bar early morning and was set upon by a group of 4 men who beat him with in a inch of his life. Broken ribs, severe head injury and loss of blood was part of the assault. It is unknown if Emile got a punch or two in, or if his attackers knew it was him. Most of these attacks happening were random hits on the gay community at large. A passing police car saw the men scatter and probably saved his life.I dont think any of them were eventually caught.
I heard of the incident from the paramedics who treated Emile and visited our firehouse often.

[kikibalt]

[Rick Farris]

Another great photo, Frank!
Everett L. Sanders (Standing-far right) was the founder of the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

[Rick Farris]

Say what you like about Matthew Hatton - the poor man's Ricky, the powder-puff puncher, and so on and so forth - but you cannot knock him for taking on Mexican sensation Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for the vacant WBC light-middleweight title in the States on March 5.
Hatton, a natural welterweight, makes his way to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, to face a light-middleweight puncher with an unbeaten record of 36 fights, 26 of them ending early, including eight of his last 10. Nobody expects Hatton to win but he bears a nice boxing name, so American-TV is buying the younger brother of Ricky. It also helps, of course, that Matthew and Ricky will be the first brothers in the entire history of British boxing to win world titles if Matthew wins.
Don't laugh. "Magic" Matthew takes over a fair slice of experience - and ability - at a solid 41-4-2 (16) and has won six out of six in the States, in fights most British fans expected him to lose (Tackie, Zepeda, Vazquez...). They also expected him to lose to Italy's Gianluca Branco in a crack at the European welterweight title early last year but Hatton worked his way to the belt and retained it twice, impressively.
The 29-year-old Hatton lacks charisma but has improved massively under new trainer Bobby Shannon from the dark old days when he was outscored by David Kirk, thrown out against Alan Bosworth and outboxed by Craig Watson. His defence is tighter, his stamina better, his combinations sharper. Much like that classy Welsh stylist of a few years ago, Barry Jones, Hatton thinks 'win the round, win the round' in his fights, a mindset that holds him in good stead as those rounds tick by. Matthew needs to build up the points because he hardly whacks like the now-retired "Hitman".
So, Hatton is a 12-round fighter which begs the question: what happens if a cocky, complacent "Canelo" fails to budge him early and finds himself on the receiving end of Hatton's quick combinations in the later championship rounds? Hatton's punches may not hurt Alvarez, but they may hurt him on the cards.
Yes, Alvarez outscored Lovemore Ndou over 12 rounds last time out (and Ndou had held Hatton to an earlier draw) but Ndou barely threw a punch against the freckled, red-haired, 20-year-old Alvarez (a pro at 15) who looks like the American boy next door, the Irish boy next door (or just the milkman's), and the Mexican fans cherish him and his relentless, heavy handed style, of course, so in all ways he gets the full hype treatment. This man is a real crossover fighter - but is he for real?
We are shortly to find out. I feel that Hatton, out of his natural weight class at light-middleweight, has been stitched-up by Team Alvarez, regardless of the world title at stake and presumably the nice payday Hatton will go home with. At welterweight, Hatton would have made it tough for Alvarez, tougher than many might have imagined. A weight up, Alvarez is big and strong enough to force a stoppage win, possibly on cuts.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... l?ITO=1490

When the world was watching . . .

I haven't been to a fight in awhile, not much happening in Southern California these days.
The old venues are dead, and I have no desire to drive way out in the desert to watch a card filled with second-raters.
The Honda Center is an arena of sorts, and I like Canelo. I don't think he is great, but he comes to fight and he can punch.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez throws a good hook to the body, a Mexican boxer's signature.
Hatton? He's coming into the other guys territory, even though not Mexico, you know who the crowd will be rooting for.
Canelo has found himself in trouble more than once, and who knows, maybe this Brit will make him look bad?
I have a friend who's wanted to go to a fight with me for a long time, and this will be the fight.
Not many choices these days. At one time, all I had to say was, "Pick a thursday."
For years thursday night was fight night at the Olympic Auditorium, and you could always depend on a great card.
You'd always see competitive fights at the Olympic, quite often featuring world rated, sometimes world champion fighters.
It mattered what you did when you fought at the Olympic, people were watching. The World was watching.


-Rick Farris

[raylawpc]

For Tom Ray. Tom do you know this town?/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 6111.story

Not well. It is in far NE Oklahoma. As the story says, it was a mining town. As I recall, it always had a pretty good football team. BTW, the town's name is pronounced "Pitcher."

Something similar happened to a town near us in Missouri called Times Beach in the early 1980s. The EPA closed it and leveled it because of dioxin contamination when a contractor sprayed its roads with oil laced with the stuff. He did it in other towns, but Times Beach was the worst hit. The town was right along I-44. Everthing is gone, and its just a green zone area now.

[THEHAMMER321]

Tom, can you tell me a little about Pat O'Grady's heavyweight Humphrey,was he a sideshow like the butterbean ?

No, he was a serious fighter. I'm in Scottsdale, AZ today with my wife, and we just spent all day walking around at the Desert Botanical Garden, and all evening in Old Town Scottsdale. I'm pooped and heading to bed. I'll write more about Humphrey later.

“Humphrey” was the real deal. His was a very interesting story. He had boxed as an amateur back in the 1950s – mostly in the Pacific NW. Then, in the early 1970s when he was well into his 40s, he decided that he wanted to box pro. He was living in Oklahoma City at the time, and looked up Pat O’Grady. He lumbered into Pat’s office with a Bible in one hand and his boxing scrapbook in the other, vowing to defeat Muhammad Ali and become heavyweight champion of the world. He decided to turn pro when Rocky Marciano died. Claude admired Marciano and wanted to emulate him by becoming the undefeated world heavyweight champion. He was serious. At the time, Humphrey was 6’3” and weighed close to 400 pounds. He started working out at our gym and bugging the hell out of Pat for a fight. Pat finally gave him a 4-round prelim match thinking he would lose, and that would get him out of Pat’s hair. But Claude won, and his career took off from there.

Humphrey’s real name was Claude McBride. Somebody told him that he looked like “Humphrey Penniworth” from the old Joe Palooka comic, so, for his first fight, he wore the poka-dot trunks and was introduced as Claude “Humphrey” McBride. Everybody laughed at him, but they were cheering at the end when he won his fight by KO. He ended up being quite a crowd-pleaser, trained hard, and worked his weight down to about 265. He ran off about 20 wins – including decision wins over Henry Hank and Terry Daniels – before he was matched with Buster Mathis. Pat billed the fight as for the “world’s super-heavyweight title.” Mathis stopped him in three. He never really recovered psychologically from that loss, and became an opponent after that. In 1973 or 1974, he fought Al “Blue” Lewis and gave him hell for a few rounds before being stopped.

On a range of talent, I’d put him with Ron Stander/Jack O’Halloran/Terry Daniels. I saw him kick O’Halloran’s ass in the gym once. The win over Daniels was legitimate. And, remember, Humphrey was in his 40s.

If Humphrey had turned pro in his 20s instead of in his 40s, I think he could have developed into a very good contender. He had the size and talent to have been a formidable heavyweight. He just got started too late.

Tom thanks for the info on Humphrey, I read about him in one of the boxing magazines years ago.