Classic American West Coast Boxing

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1950s middleweight, Willie Vaughn

Willie was the gate-keeper at the Forum's tunnel (the entrance where the boxing people enter) during the Forum's glory days

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Alfredo Zuany was one of the first Mexican heavyweights.

I seen Zuany fight live early in his career, when he was still fighting prelims.

In the '60 Zuany trained young kids at the Resurrection Gym in East Los Angeles

[bennie]

RIP, Daniel "Pop" Hanley.

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Art Aragon (R) v Raul Perez, Stockton, Cal. April, 1956

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[Cholo]

Art Aragon (R) v Raul Perez, Stockton, Cal. April, 1956

Frank, the legendary 'Golden Boy', Art's slipped inside Perez left, and is ready to unload that awesome left hook. Great shot...

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Art Aragon (R) v Raul Perez, Stockton, Cal. April, 1956

Frank, the legendary 'Golden Boy', Art's slipped inside Perez left, and is ready to unload that awesome left hook. Great shot...

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The Eastside Arena, located at East Ninth and Lenora, opened for business in 1930. By all accounts the arena was nice facility. But it is apparent that there were difficulties staging cards here. The Great Depression had something to do with the lack of success when this arena opened for business.

Babe McCoy staged some cards here, circa early 1940s, but only for a very short time. The arena was used a final time in December 1954/January 1955 by Cal Eaton and his group, while the Olympic Auditorium was undergoing repairs.

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Paul check this out

http://boxrec.com/forum/search.php?keyw ... sf=msgonly

[Cholo]

Paul check this out

http://boxrec.com/forum/search.php?keyw ... sf=msgonly

Thanks Frank, Johnny Gonsalves and the Golden Boy great photos, you were at the fight at the Olympic...

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[scartissue]

RIP, Daniel "Pop" Hanley.

Thanks, Steve. Pops would love to be having the craic with us all right about now.

Dan

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Eddie Chavez from San Jose, California, was a very good boxer and was top ten rated in the early 1950s.

I seeing Chavez and Enrique Bolanos fight live in 1951 at the Hollywood Legion. Bolanos winning a 12 D

On the same card Keeny Teran and Gil Cadilli fought to a 6 round draw

That night in 1951 was one of my most memorable nights in all my years of watching fights

Thanks, Paul, for the magazine cover.

[raylawpc]

Frank, I've been meaning to ask you: Do you think the reason Aragon became "the fighter everyone loved to hate" in LA was because he defeated the popular Bolanos?

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Frank, I've been meaning to ask you: Do you think the reason Aragon became "the fighter everyone loved to hate" in LA was because he defeated the popular Bolanos?

That was one of the reasons, but another reason and maybe a more important one was that he went on radio and said he wasn't Mexican. And you just can't say that in LA if you do happen to be Mexican....But I think Art knew what he was doing and that was to draw all the Mexicans in to see him get beat and since in his hay days he always fought for a percentage of the gate, he would usually get 27%. So he didn't mind having all the Mexican fans scream for his blood because next day he would need a wheelbarrow to carry his money to the bank.

[raylawpc]

Frank, I've been meaning to ask you: Do you think the reason Aragon became "the fighter everyone loved to hate" in LA was because he defeated the popular Bolanos?

That was one of the reasons, but another reason and maybe a more important one was that he went on radio and said he wasn't Mexican. And you just can't say that in LA if you do happen to be Mexican....But I think Art knew what he was doing and that was to draw all the Mexicans in to see him get beat and since in his hay days he always fought for a percentage of the gate, he would usually get 27%. So he didn't mind having all the Mexican fans scream for his blood because next day he would need a wheelbarrow to carry his money to the bank.

Oh yes, I forgot about that! Didn't he claim that he was Greek?

[kikibalt]

Frank, I've been meaning to ask you: Do you think the reason Aragon became "the fighter everyone loved to hate" in LA was because he defeated the popular Bolanos?

That was one of the reasons, but another reason and maybe a more important one was that he went on radio and said he wasn't Mexican. And you just can't say that in LA if you do happen to be Mexican....But I think Art knew what he was doing and that was to draw all the Mexicans in to see him get beat and since in his hay days he always fought for a percentage of the gate, he would usually get 27%. So he didn't mind having all the Mexican fans scream for his blood because next day he would need a wheelbarrow to carry his money to the bank.

Oh yes, I forgot about that! Didn't he claim that he was Greek?

He said he was Italian

[raylawpc]

That was one of the reasons, but another reason and maybe a more important one was that he went on radio and said he wasn't Mexican. And you just can't say that in LA if you do happen to be Mexican....But I think Art knew what he was doing and that was to draw all the Mexicans in to see him get beat and since in his hay days he always fought for a percentage of the gate, he would usually get 27%. So he didn't mind having all the Mexican fans scream for his blood because next day he would need a wheelbarrow to carry his money to the bank.

Oh yes, I forgot about that! Didn't he claim that he was Greek?

He said he was Italian

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Al Cruz was national Golden Glove champion...Circa 1950

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I see these Knockout Magazine covers and I can understand why I feel cheated when I watch boxing now days.

I grew up watching boxing in the later 1940s-early ‘50s. It was an era when topnotch prospects fought each other on the under cards and top ranked fighters fought each other in the main events at the Olympic and the Hollywood Legion and other Southern California venues. Case in point, the Kenny Davis v Al Cruz fight, here we had two of the top amateur fighters and top pro prospects of their era fighting each other to see which one would move up the ladder of their chosen profession. Sometime we would have a winner and a loser, sometime a fight would ended up a draw, and when it did there would be a rematch.

That is why, in my opinion, the greatest fighters in the sports history ca...me from those years. Not saying we don’t have great fighters now days, we do, but we had more of them back in those bygone years

This is not a put-down on to-days fighters they fight who their promoters pick. Now days managers don’t play an important part as they once did back in those years. When a fighter sign up with a promoter it’s the promoter calling the shot and said promoter is just concern with the bottom line.

My rant for the day on today’s boxing.

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