Classic American West Coast Boxing

[bennie]

Muhammad Ali Is Ailing

"That what his brother said,"said Ed the bartender as he set the glass of draft in front of me. "Says he's not well. Doesn't recognize anyone. Can't talk. Doubts whether he'll get through the summer."
"Well there's been talk like that before."
"But did you see the picture of him? He's lost a lot of weight."
"They should have never put him up against Holmes,"I said.
"That was the nail in the coffin."
"Pacheco was right. Somehow he got through so many battles,but the Holmes fight was the one he couldn't find a way."
There was a picture signed by Ali to Burke hanging behind the bar. Burke got that when Ali was in town training for the first Norton fight.
"After the third Frazier fight Pacheco would have no more of it,"I said.
"Holmes would have killed Ali if they hadn't of stopped it."
"They say it wasn't stopped until Elijah Muhammad gave the word to Angelo."
"To think of that,"said Ed shaking his head. "The ref,Dundee,the doctor,the commisioner-all watching that and they wouldn't stop it."
"And here's the thing that gets me. They knew Ali wouldn't quit. They knew he'd die first."
Ed began whiping the bar.
"You know Rog,"he said,"there wasn't a heavyweight who could move around the ring like Ali."
"And there might have never been one with more guts."

They say that Ali is bed-ridden and close to the end, which is terribly sad.

[bennie]

Pipino Cuevas

Another Roger Esty favorite!

A peak Cuevas was a monster. I used to fancy Palomino over him when they were both champs but, having seen Cuevas wing away at men for as many rounds as it took to bludgeon them to the canvas, I now believe that Cuevas would have proved too strong.

[bennie]

Like yourself Roger, I too. was a Norton fan. I did not know much about the man personally, but I liked his presence in the Ring.He will be remembered as a shadow behind Ali, with an asterisk as breaking Ali's jaw, but he was a tough Champion in a very good heavyweight era.
I was in attendance at Madison Square Garden the night Cooney pulverized his right side with a menacing left, and compounding that punch with brutal unprotected punches to his jaw to take him out early in 1st Rd.
As a Long Islander, and on the Great White Hope Bandwagon at the time, we cheered Cooney's victory. As I left the arena with my friends, I thought to myself, Norton was one of my favorite heavies of all-time; he deserved to deliver a better ending than he got.

Just a few years back. Still very much hurting after his car accident.

Norton deserved a rematch with Larry Holmes after their 1978 classic but lost to Earnie Shavers and never really recovered. I don't think it was the smartest move in the world to take on Shavers.

[bennie]

El Gallo,

Eddie 'Motor Boat' Logan got ranked #10 WBC, after defeating (W Dec 10) Rafael Pena in October 1979.

Then he was matched with #2 WBC - Alfonso Zamora at The Forum (November 16, 1979 on the Alexis Arguello
vs. Bobby Chacon undercard).

It was a WBC Elimination bout, with the winner to get WBC Champion - Lupe Pintor, as Carlos Zarate pulled
out of the rematch bout with Lupe.

Eddie won in a war (TKO 9), but took some frighteningly hard-bombs from the Z-Man.

Ring Magazine moved Eddie to the #5 Bantamweight after that win, but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Heard the California Boxing Commission pulled Eddie's boxing license after the win. Too many blows to the head.

I was at the Forum the night he fought Zamora, a big win, but he was lucky he wasn't fighting the Zamora of a couple years previous.
As I said, he was a good little fighter that was brought up wrong, but never in the league of a prime Zamora, Pintor, etc.

Eddie Logan

bantamweight
alias Motor Boat
residence Los Angeles, California, USA
won 8 (KO 3) + lost 7 (KO 2) + drawn 0 = 15
rounds boxed 118 KO% 20



1979-11-16 Alfonso Zamora 32-3-0
Forum, Inglewood, California, USA W TKO 7 10
referee: Vince Delgado

1979-10-23 120 Rafael Pena 116½ 1-0-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA W UD 10 10
1979-09-06 Oscar Muniz 20-1-3
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA L KO 6
1979-07-12 119½ Alberto Davila 119 32-6-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA L PTS 10 10
1979-05-03 Alberto Sandoval 28-3-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA L UD 10 10
1979-03-15 118 Alberto Sandoval 117½ 28-2-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA W MD 10 10
referee: Richard Steele 97-96 | judge: Larry Rozadilla 96-96 | judge: Bobby Rings 97-94

1979-01-18 119 Oscar Muniz 118 16-1-3
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA L UD 10 10
1978-12-14 120 Mario Chavez 118 16-5-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA W PTS 10 10
1978-10-05 Leo Randolph 3-0-0
Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, Washington, USA L PTS 8 8
1975-03-06 118 Benny Rodriguez 119 19-4-0
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA L TKO 5 10
time: 2:55 | referee: Larry Rozadilla

1974-07-09 117 Flavio Barcena 117½ 9-4-3
Forum, Inglewood, California, USA W PTS 10 10
1974-05-10 120 Francisco Rodriguez 121 3-2-1
Coliseum, San Diego, California, USA W KO 5 10
time: 2:50

1974-04-15 122 Joe Guevara 123 7-0-0
Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, California, USA L UD 10 10
1974-04-02 Fidel Frajo 4-0-0
Sacramento, California, USA W PTS 6 6
1974-02-14 Carlos Estrada
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA W KO 1

It seems harsh to do this after Logan has won. Would they have had neurological evidence?

[dagosd2000]

Pooh

I was a school teacher for 25 years,but never thought of myself as one. My subject area was United States History from the pre Revolutionary War period through the Gilded Age. Where I was at near the border,most of the kids were Hispanic. There were some black and white kids and some Philippinos,but around 70% of the kids were Mexican lineage. Some were born in Mexico. Some were Chicanos.That means they were born in the U.S.

The school was about a 5 minute ride to the border. San Ysidro,the name of the town,was evaluated as an "economically depressed area",but you didn't have to find that out reading the papers. All you had to do is look around.

Most of the kids would go to TJ on the weekends to stay or visit relatives. They frequented the dance clubs and would stay out late roaming Revolution Street until dawn. Tijuana was a tough battle to fight if you were a teacher. The kids in my classes, if they had gone to a school in Mexico,went to public school which didn't lead to much after graduating. One thing though,the schools in Mexico didn't put up with any crap. If a kid was a malcontent,he was out on the street. For example, schools in TJ had strict dress codes that rarely had to be enforced. The kids knew they had to toe the mark. Teachers could hit kids and the parents backed the school up.

The kids knew that at the schools on the U.S. side they could get away with a lot. Teachers couldn't lay a hand on them. You even had to be carefull about breaking up a fight. If a kid got in a beef they just called home or sat him in the office.If it was really something bad they'd just send him to another school.

my career was spent with the "high risk" kids. Sometimes they would be referred as "Special Ed." kids or "challenged." Whatever it was, learning the 13 colonies or who was the president of the Confederacy wasn't a big concern. I could understand it. Some teachers would go ape because they couldn't get the kids to buy in,but it never got me down. What was going on at home was derailing them. That along with the MTV culture.The kids had a father in jail or no father. A stepfather who didn't care. A mother with too many kids and not enough income . The kids could speak English,but preferred to speak Spanish.

I was the teacher who had lived in Tijuana. Though i was an American,I let them know I was "Italian"and my wife was a Mexican national born on a little ranch in Michoacan. I knew more about TJ than they did because I had lived there when I was first married. I spoke good enough Spanish. I was always a hit with their parents.

The girls in that high school,especiallyin my "challenged" classes, were some of the most beautifull creatures I had ever seen. Not the perky cutesy high school silly types,but very serious and would fall very hard for a guy. It was like looking at little Sophia Lorens from the slums of Naples except these girls never ran into a Carlo Ponti. They married some kid from the neighborhood. They were too afraid to branch out. The boys were afraid too,but like any teenage boy they had only one thing in mind.

I remember two sisters in my class.Two little Sophia Lorens. The older one was going with some guy that thought he was Julio Iglesias,but lived with his mommy and didn't want to study or look for a job. She married this guy and they didn't live happily ever after. The younger one would always have some article of clothing with Winny The Pooh on it. One day she told me her boyfriend in TJ had knocked her up. I never saw her wear anything with Winnie The Pooh on it again. She had told her mother,but not her father. The boyfriend in Tijuana dumped her. She dropped out of achool after that.

Later I ran into her older sister near the school.I asked her about her sister. She told me she was working in a little produce store in a strip mall in San Ysidro. Me and the wife were going to TJ that day so I decided to swing by and see her. There she was with her mother and little son inside the produce store.The store was empty. I introduced my wife. We stayed for a while. The girl was glad to see me. Her mother asked my wife if she wanted to buy anyhing and my wife said no.

[dagosd2000]

Two little "Sophia Lorens"- Jiquilpan,Michoacan

[bennie]

Some pictures from the CA Boxing HOF 2012 Event. More on my father's thread (Charley Norkus, Friends & Foes) Page 13

One of Ca. toughest fighters, my good friend, Randy De La O; who was also Honored that day.



Top Lt-Heavy Contender Honoree, and a pleasure to talk to about his life experiences, Jesse Burnett


My Good Friend from California and a BoxRec Poster, Chuck Johnston

Jesse would have been champ today - easy.

[CNorkusJr]

Jesse was strong and quick for his size and would be a Champion somewhere today.

[dagosd2000]

Retired In His Corner

"How's he taking it?"
"Hard to say. The wake for her was in the bar."
"He must have known."
"Hard to say. He's in a home now. All he does is ask where she is."
"You think his family will sell the place?"
"Oh,I don't know. Everything happened very sudden.She kept the bar going."
"Why did you close the office?"
"They kept raising the rent. Too many expenses.I can do my tax work here."
Just then his wife entered the small den.
"You have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. You didn't forget?"
"No dear I didn't."
I could see the tubes strewn on the living room floor connected to various oxygen tanks. Since I had seen him last he'd lost a lot of weight. He was wearing white surgical gloves on both of his hands.His arms were blotchy.
"My wife doesn't like that we moved the office to our home."
"You know all the furniture takes up too much space."
"But we're saving money dear."
"Then I'll expect you to take it off my fee."
The old guy laughed.
"You know if I bend down I can hear better. What did you just say?"
"Nothing. Only joking."
"I'll give you a call early next week when to sign the forms."
I got up from the chair.
"You know what rest home he's in?"
"No I don't."
"I'd like to see him."
"His grandson says he doesn't recognize anyone."
"It's a shame. But you could see it coming."
"He took a lot of shots in the ring."
"Did he know he made the California Boxing Hall of Fame?"
"I don't know. I know she did."
"Well give me a call when you're done."
"I sure will."
"Be sure not to raise any hell in the meantime."
"Don't worry. I'm not budging an inch."

[dagosd2000]

Jackie McCoy in his boxing days

[El Gallo]

Hedgemon Lewis

Yeah, that's Hedge.

[dagosd2000]

Blast From The Past-John Bardelli,Pops Hanley,Dan Hanley, and Rick Farris

[dagosd2000]

A Distant Shadow

"Did you ever straighten out that immigration mess?"I asked Pete.
"Yes I did,but I had to stay three days in Ciudad Juarez."
I was waiting for my bridge to get repaired at my dentist's in TJ. Even with my insurance I couldn't get a better deal. Besides her husband owned the factory where they made the molds. She told me to come back in an hour and a half. In the meantime I thought I'd look up Pete at his bar in the Coahuila. I knew he'd be there in the day.I pushed open the swinging doors. I smelled the Pine Sol.
"How come you're in here so early?"he asked me.
"Getting some dental work done. Thought I'd drop by and think about old times."
"I'm here in the morning. The nights are too much for me anymore."
"I haven't been down here in years at night. I don't think I could have a good time if I tried."
Me and Pete had had our share of getting every inch inch of excitement out of the Coahuila at night time. The Coahuila was about the only part of town that stayed the same.If there's women for the asking there will always be men who who will have the questions and the women will have the correct responses.
"You'll be interested to know that I looked up Jose Napoles in Juarez,"he said.
"How's he doing?"
"He's got diabetes,but I don't think it's adjusted his way of life."
"At least not his approached to it,"I laughed.
"He was always happy go lucky all right."
"Except when he was in the ring."
"I remember when he had his club in the Zona Rosa in Mexico. Some police came in and tried to extort money from him.I guess he and his boys beat them up ,took off their pants,and threw them out in the street."
" That's a real macho thing to do.It sounds like him"
"I heard they fired those cops after that."
A couple of women walked inside. They were old and heavy and dressed plainly. They sat by the door at the front of the bar.
"I saw him after he retired with his band at the Rancho Grande,"I said.
"His wife was a real good singer in that band."
"That was his wife he married in Mexico after coming from Cuba."
"I know he had a lot of kids with her."
"I lost count after eight."
"He's trying to work with some fighters,but he can't keep them in the gym."
"The fight game has slowed a lot in Mexico. Kids want to make money the easy way working for the cartels,"I said.
One of the women at the end of the bar walked to the juke box and put some money in. It was one of those old songs by Los Panchos.
"You know Pete I learned a lot about Mexican music in the Coahuila."
Pete laughed.
"What else did you learn?"
"I learned that old fighters don't die they just fade away."
"Didn't one of your generals say that?"
"I think he did."

[dagosd2000]

"Mantequilla" Napoles

[dagosd2000]

A Cold Cloth

"Ed,what's the fire truck doing outside?"
"They found Bev passed out in the bathroom .She hit her head on the sink,"said the bartender.
I usually don't drop by the bar,especially on a Saturday night,but I saw the fire truck and wanted to see what happened.
"She's been pretty bad lately,"said Ed. "I can't have her doing that in here. It's bad for business."
"Ever since Artie left her,she's been a mess."
"Maybe it would have been better if they would of had kids."
"I don't know. Artie was always sniffing around.Besides the women threw themselves at him."
"When he was going good in the ring he had plenty of women,"said Ed.
"But it came back to haunt him."
Bev was sitting in the back booth. The firemen were asking her questions.
"Bev should have figured there'd be trouble,"I said.
"At first she saw her priest."
"Didn't she move back with her folks?"
"She was causing a lot of problems with them."
"Didn't Redd Foxx say if he didn't like anyone'I hope your daughter marries a fighter?'"
"I think it was 'jazz musician,'but it's pretty close to the same,"said Ed.

"Didn't she check herself in a few times?"
"I think she takes too much of that medicine they prescribe for her."
"She shouldn't be drinking with that stuff."
"Well like I said. I can't be having that in here. Now they'll make a report on this place."
One of the firemen walked over to the bar.
"Well,"said Ed,"is she all right?"
"We won't call an ambulance,but we need the address on this place."
"Here's a card,"said Ed.
"Did she hit her head hard?"I asked.
"She's got a bruise and a lump."
I could see out of the corner of my eye that Bev was talking to some of the women in the bar.
"She'll be Ok,"said the fireman,"I went in the bathroom and made her a cold cloth."

[dagosd2000]

L.C. Morgan

[dagosd2000]

Top Billing

Clyde and Ollie rolled into The Club 13 after their shift at the shipyard. The bar was undrneath the freeway ramp. The place was crowded with ship fitters,painters,and welders from the yard. The juke box was blaring and the pitchers were flowing.
"Ollie,you ever wonder why they put someone's name always in front of another?"asked Clyde.
"What do you mean?"
"Take boxing for instance.Why is it always called the Dempsey/Tunney fight when Tunney beat him twice."
"I never thought of it that way,"said Ollie.
"And they always call it the Ali/Holmes fight. Holmes almost killed him."
"You know your right,Clyde."
Both boys were working pretty fast on their pitcher of beer.
"Here's one,"said Ollie."How about Martin and Lewis?"
"You know I never thought of that."
"Jerry Lewis was the funny one."
"Yeah. And how about Abbott and Costello?"
"Sure. Costello told the jokes,"said Ollie.
The boys had drained the picher of beer.
"It probably has to do with popularity,"said Ollie.
"You know Ollie, the only person who deserves top billing is God."
"God is not a person but you're right."
"We need another pitcher."
"Right again."
Ollie waved the bartendress over.
"Another pitcher boys?"she asked.
The bartendress opened the spigot and the beer flowed in the pitcher.
"How would you like to roll around with her?"asked Clyde.
"I'd love to put my face in that rack."
"I'd love to put my face in every orafice of her body,"said Clyde.
The girl came back with a full wet pitcher of beer.
"Honey. Me and my friend Clyde were just talking. We think no one should put their name in front of God when making a list.God should always get top billing."
"I'm with you on that," the bartendress said.
"I'm sure God agrees with us ,"said Clyde as he poured himself a beer.
"I'm sure She would,"said the bartendress.

[dagosd2000]

Cisco Andrade

[scartissue]

Blast From The Past-John Bardelli,Pops Hanley,Dan Hanley, and Rick Farris

Rick, I never saw this one before, dude. I know the look on Pops' face. He was about to let out one of his famous Co. Limerick bellows. Tooo funny and thanks, man.

[CNorkusJr]

Blast From The Past-John Bardelli,Pops Hanley,Dan Hanley, and Rick Farris

Rick, I never saw this one before, dude. I know the look on Pops' face. He was about to let out one of his famous Co. Limerick bellows. Tooo funny and thanks, man.

Like Father, like Son.
You can be very proud of that !!!

[dagosd2000]

Father and Son

[dagosd2000]

Sugar Ray Robinson

[dagosd2000]

Joe's Place

Different fighters in San Diego were a big draw at one time. Of course Art Hafey was one of those boys. He had that big left hook that could take you out of there and that's what the fans came to see.

One night he was to face off against against a pretty good featherweight from across the border named Olguin,but like would sometimes happen the fighter was a no show. I once sat next to Mickey Davies the matchmaker at the Coliseum.He told me he never had a card go off as planned. He ran a list of reasons. The fighter tested for drugs. The fighter had a passport problem. The fighter wanted more money. The fighter was in jail. I made up my mind that I didn't want to become a matchmaker.

Well it was like that the night of the Hafey fight. For some explanation this Olguin never arrived before the bell. They had to scramble to find a replacement. It was announced before the first prelim that Hafey would be fighting someone else. The Colisuem was packed to the doors. There were some whistles and boos,but I think the crowd at least wanted the other guy to put up a good show.

I don't remember the other guy's name. I would look it up in the record books,but soon after I'd forget it. What I remember about him was the name on his terry cloth robe in small block black letters,"Joe's Place." When he climbed through the ropes wearing that I made sure I knew were the closest exit was.

He was a black fighter and I think the announcer said he was from Pittsburgh. When he took the robe off you could see his body was soft especially around the belt line. He wore his trunks high.

The gong rang and Joe's place moved slowly across the ring in a crouch. Hafey didn't work too hard for most of the round,but let go with his hook before the bell sounded. Joe's place who hadn't offered anything during the frame turned on his heel and went to his corner.

The next round was over fast. Hafey hooked him on the side hard and Joe's place was on the canvas. He reeled around. The ref never counted. The crowd rushed out and I looked over my shoulder. There was Joe's Place on his stool with his guys working in him.

In California if you got knocked out you couldn't fight again in the state for a month. I figured I wouldn't ever see Joe's Place again. At least not in California for a month.

Tijuana had a lot of venues in those days. One arena was built down from Caliente called "Arena 72". It was like the Coliseum in San Diego. Small but noisy with enthusiastic fans. I had read on a poster the week before that Anaya was fighting there.I didn't recognize the name of his opponent except the name was American. Anaya was on his way up with a fight against Jose Legra. I bought my tickets at Huizar's taco joint on Revolution the day before so I wouldn't have to wait in line.

The Arena 72 was filled that night.The town was intersted in Anaya. He was one of those fighters that either knocked you out or was knocked out. Anaya entered the ring first to a big hand. Then came his opponent walking down from the dressing room . On the back of the robe was "Joe's Place" in black block letters.

Well Joe's Place didn't get the courtesy from those Tijuana fans like he got in San Diego. I'm not saying they showed much of a likng in San Diego,but the "aficianados"that night were very rambunctious to say the least. Again I looked for the nearest exit.

This one was over before the cornermen climbed down from the ring.The gong sounded. Anaya missed with a right hand and Joe's Place" found his normal spot on the floor. The ring became bombarded with various missles and I scampered for the door. I wasn't into showing my dissastisfaction.

To think that this guy was in San Diego just a week before. I guess he needed a few pesos. Oh. Joe's place was not his real name of course. If you give me a minute I can look it up in the record book.

[dagosd2000]

Mickey Cohen

[dagosd2000]

Field Of Broken Dreams

"I'm telling you Fred never played for the Chicago Cubs,"I said to the kid.
"But he always talks about Banks and Williams and Santo and all those guys,"said Ronny. Ronny grew up with Fred's boys in school. I helped coach them in Little League.
"Fred just says that to people who don't know. He doesn't talk like that around the guys he went to school with."
Ronny went over to the dumbell rack and grabbed a couple of 70 pound dumbells.
"I remember when you were lifting heavy,"he said.
"Those days are behind me. I stick with the machines now."
Ronny laid down on the prone bench and started pressing.He pumped out six fast ones.
"Is Fred's older boy Terry still up at the school?"I asked.
"Yes he helps out with the baseball team."
"I remember when Fred wanted his boys to one day play short and second with the Cubs."
"Didn't Teddy die of leukemia?"
"Yes. That was terrible. The kid was only twelve.I remember seeing the boy in the open casket in a Cub's uniform.Fred took it real hard. Fought the bottle after that.His wife tried to keep the family going ."
"She passed away a couple of years back."
"Cancer ran in her family. She was a strong woman."
Ronny grabbed the dumbells again and started pressing.
"I'm getting a good pump,"he said.
"Does Fred come around the field much to watch practice?"
"He's there everyday,"said Ronny.
"If his father hadn't of interferred so much Fred might have made it to the bigs."
"I remember Fred's dad.You'd see him a lot."
"After Fred's double A year,the old man thought he was ready."
"What happened?"
"The organization told his old man to get lost. Then they released Fred. It was the days before free agency. That was the end of his career."
"Didn't he play with some of those Cubs that were on the 69 team?"
"He did in the minors. Sometimes when they were in town they'd ask Fred to throw batting practice."
"Fred says he has Don Kessinger's jersey."
"He bought it on EBay."
Ronny grabbed the dumbells again.
"Are you through working out?"he asked.
"I've put in the motions. I'm out of here."
"See you around."
"If you see Fred again tell him I said 'hi' and ask him about the time he hit in the game winning run to win our soft ball league championship."