You know the amazing thing here from the O'Grady perspective is he was only a few days past his 17th birthday when he went up against Lopez.Chuck1052 wrote:I saw Sean O'Grady fight Danny "Little Red" Lopez in person at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California. Sean took the fight to Danny, which was the wrong thing to do and resulted in Sean's corner stopping the bout after the fourth round. Yet I felt that Sean had talent as a fighter after seeing him in action.
It is true that Sean faced extremely soft opposition before fighting Danny. Of the early opponents Sean fought, Simmie Black is the only one I know about. Simmie was one of the best-known "tomato-cans" of 1970s and 1980s, losing several times more bouts than he won. Remember Flash Gordon, the renegade publisher who put out the extremely informative and entertaining weekly boxing publication, Tonight's Boxing Program (TBP for short), during the 1970s and 1980s? He wrote a hilarious piece about Simmie, sort of a "Stiff of the Month" profile. According to his record on BoxRec, Simmie had 35 wins (8 by knockout), 165 losses (98 by knockout), 4 draws and a total of 204 bouts.
- Chuck Johnston
That's him in the obit. I worked his corner for many of his fights including Terry Daniels and Buster Mathis.DaveyMac wrote:Are you sure that is the same fella? 10.1 in the 100!
I'm dubious :)
I found stories about the Columbia College and playing football (added it to his boxrec bio) but no mention of him running track at Fresno. Hard to believe Pat O'Grady would not remind the press of something like that.
Curious, do you think that is him in the obit?
Humphrey took it very seriously. He was in the gym every day and trained harder than guys half his age. Until he lost to Mathis, he believed he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I was in his corner the night he beat Terry Daniels. It was a very good fight, and Humphrey deserved the win. Humphrey didn't smoke or drink. Although he weighed 340 pounds when he started out, he was down to about 250 when he fought Daniels and Mathis.Il Duce wrote: He knew the 'deal', and played it for all that it was worth..........No Harm, No Foul.
Humphrey didn't have any relatives. He was an only child. His wife Virginia had a very hard childhood and was not close to her family. The only relative I ever met was his Dad, who lived with them.DaveyMac wrote:Yeah, they are hard to locate. He didn't have any children and his first wife died before him, haven't been able to locate the 2nd one.
The kid in the picture you mentioned won that fight. I know because I was the guy in the corner, whose profile you can barely see in the photo. All of the fights in Oklahoma City were Pro-Am cards. We would start with about ten three-round amateur fights, then move to the pros. The Pee-Wee fights were also three rounds, but they only fought rounds that lasted one minute or less. (Sometimes just 30 or 45 seconds, if I recall correctly, for the five and six-year-olds.) The little guys also wore big 16-ounce Everlast gloves. They were fun to watch, and nobody ever got hurt. And everybody got a trophy!DaveyMac wrote:I don't remember this but I guess O'Grady would use amateurs, even small children, to fill out his cards. I assume it was cheaper.
Anyway the only coverage of the June 5th fights, which definitely happened June 5th is the editorial below about the children by Bob Hurt. It does mention McBride though it doesn't say who won or loss.
The best part of the story is the picture of the kid at the bottom, he's like wth have I got myself into!
I have some pictures of Humphrey in a box somewhere. If I run across them, I'd be glad to scan and post them. Monte Masters came after I was finished in boxing. I began law school in 1978 and devoted all of my energies to that. In fact, I don't even recall meeting Masters.DaveyMac wrote:Thanks Ray! I was so young then that many of my memories have faded. Great to hear you talk about these guys they were all heroes to me as a kid.
Is there any chance you have pictures of Humphrey or Monte Masters that you could scan? All I have are pictures from the newspaper which aren't very good.
Hard to believe I don't remember the amateur fights. I suspect my Father intentionally brought us after they were done knowing that otherwise I would have pestered him forever to get to be one of those kids.
Great to read your posts!
I wasn't there for the fight, Dart. So all I know is what I was told. Blue might have been just being nice. (It was clear watching him and Humphrey together that he liked and respect Humph.) Another guy who told me the same thing was the fellow who went with Humphrey to Halifax for the fight, and this fellow . . . well, you had to take some of the things he said with a grain of salt. But Lew Eskin was there, and he used the Blue Lewis fight to make a point while in the process of chewing me out (a long story), so I don't know if he had any motivation to stretch the truth . . .Dart340 wrote:Ray, love your firsthand accounts of OKC boxing and appreciate what you shared here and in the Tony Gardner threads awhile back. Interesting that Blue Lewis says McBride "almost got him" as other reports of that fight, as documented in a book on Halifax boxing specifically, claim that McBride made a complete non-effort. Other reports suggest he "started doing business later in his career". He's an intriguing character and I wish there was some footage on him.
From the newspaper stories at the time it wasn't a real KO of McBride. He shoved McBride who then hit his head on a hard surface and was KO'd. Nobody seemed to think Bash was a real fighter and couldn't have ever beaten McBride otherwise.Dart340 wrote:BoBo Bash is even a more mysterious character than McBride. He knocks out the gargantuan McBride in his third pro fight as a small heavyweight, gets obliterated by Terry Krueger in his next fight in 19 seconds and then drops 30 lbs a few months later to fight Middleweight Jimmy Claar in New Castle, Indiana of all places and then disappears from boxing. Keep digging, Duce.
No, that's not true. I was in Humphrey's corner. Bobo won fair and square. Humphrey fought like the was in a fog. He did the same thing in Rhode Island against Dino Denis. Those were the two worst efforts of Humphrey's career. The comment by Duce is first I've ever heard that Bobo was a Marine.DaveyMac wrote:From the newspaper stories at the time it wasn't a real KO of McBride. He shoved McBride who then hit his head on a hard surface and was KO'd. Nobody seemed to think Bash was a real fighter and couldn't have ever beaten McBride otherwise.Dart340 wrote:BoBo Bash is even a more mysterious character than McBride. He knocks out the gargantuan McBride in his third pro fight as a small heavyweight, gets obliterated by Terry Krueger in his next fight in 19 seconds and then drops 30 lbs a few months later to fight Middleweight Jimmy Claar in New Castle, Indiana of all places and then disappears from boxing. Keep digging, Duce.
