1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Paul Gonzales Arrested

[Ruthless-RKO]

1984 Olympic Super Flyweight Gold Medalist Paul Gonzales (16-4, 3KOs) of East Los Angeles was arrested December 29th for lewd acts upon a child at the Eddie Heredia Boxing Club in East Los Angeles. 8 felony counts were filed against the 53-year-old former NABF flyweight champion as he is currently being held at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.

Gonzales was a trainer at the gym and became the 1st Mexican-American Olympic gold medalist in 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He had a rivalry with former world champion Hall of Famer Orlando Canizalez in which they split a pair of fights.

[SenorPipino]

This saddens me because I used know Gonzales somewhat during that 1984 LA Olympic year, when I was working at a suburban newspaper next door to the fighter's East LA hometown.

Gonzales used to come into our office handing out press releases in preparation for the Olympic trials. I think they were in Texas.

When he won the trials and subsequent box-off, he would return to our office, ready to give interviews about his preparations for the summer games .

I think I might have been the only true boxing fanatic there, so I latched on to Gonzales.

Nicest kid. I think he was maybe 19.

He fancied himself a combination of some of that day's outstanding fighters. I recall he thought of himself as an Arguello type, although truth be told, Gonzales had very limited power.

Just a tricky light flyweight, who used his speed and excellent technique to outpoint foes.

Gonzales invited me down to the Hollenbeck Youth Center where he trained under ex-cop, ex-fighter Al Stankie.

Stankie was an unhinged piece of work, to put it mildly. Yelling and screaming at no one in particular and ducking his head under the ring to bellow indecipherable nonsense.

How Gonzales persevered and prospered under Stankie's deranged guidance, is a mystery to me.

Nevertheless, Gonzales brought home the Gold in front of a hometown audience and was named the outstanding boxer of the tournament.

And this was a US team that boasted an incredibly strong lineup--Holyfield, Whitaker, Breland, Taylor, Hill, Biggs and Tate.

After he won the medal, Gonzales returned to our office on several occasions, always wearing the gold medal and the US team warm up suit.

It was the first and only time I've handled an Olympic Gold so it was pretty cool.

Now a celebrity, Gonzales politely signed autographs for at least a half hour. Like I said, just a very nice kid.

Gonzales pro career has to be considered something of a letdown.

He never seemed physically strong enough to compete with veterans especially as he moved up to bantamweight.

He did score a decisive win over Orlando Canizalez when both were up and coming undefeated fighters.

But when they met again for the world title several years later, the much improved Canizalez manhandled Gonzales and stopped him on a TKO.

Gonzales retired in 1991, putting together a 16-4 (3) mark.

Fairly pedestrian considering much was expected from him.

In the 90s you would read about Gonzales making derogatory remarks about East L.A's newest Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya.

Maybe it was jealousy.

Until DLH, Gonzales was proud to be ELA's only golden Olympian, and then suddenly he was practically forgotten as Oscar became a local and then worldwide superstar.

It must have grated on Gonzales.

I hope the charges against Gonzales turn out to be unfounded. I still remember that proud, courteous young man.

Unfortunately, a person's dark side has a way of eventually surfacing---in this case in a very embarrassing, public manner.

We'll just have to wait and see how the up and down saga of Paul Gonzales finally plays out.

[JMac]

Sad news.

[littlepug]

This saddens me because I used know Gonzales somewhat during that 1984 LA Olympic year, when I was working at a suburban newspaper next door to the fighter's East LA hometown.

Gonzales used to come into our office handing out press releases in preparation for the Olympic trials. I think they were in Texas.

When he won the trials and subsequent box-off, he would return to our office, ready to give interviews about his preparations for the summer games .

I think I might have been the only true boxing fanatic there, so I latched on to Gonzales.

Nicest kid. I think he was maybe 19.

He fancied himself a combination of some of that day's outstanding fighters. I recall he thought of himself as an Arguello type, although truth be told, Gonzales had very limited power.

Just a tricky light flyweight, who used his speed and excellent technique to outpoint foes.

Gonzales invited me down to the Hollenbeck Youth Center where he trained under ex-cop, ex-fighter Al Stankie.

Stankie was an unhinged piece of work, to put it mildly. Yelling and screaming at no one in particular and ducking his head under the ring to bellow indecipherable nonsense.

How Gonzales persevered and prospered under Stankie's deranged guidance, is a mystery to me.

Nevertheless, Gonzales brought home the Gold in front of a hometown audience and was named the outstanding boxer of the tournament.

And this was a US team that boasted an incredibly strong lineup--Holyfield, Whitaker, Breland, Taylor, Hill, Biggs and Tate.

After he won the medal, Gonzales returned to our office on several occasions, always wearing the gold medal and the US team warm up suit.

It was the first and only time I've handled an Olympic Gold so it was pretty cool.

Now a celebrity, Gonzales politely signed autographs for at least a half hour. Like I said, just a very nice kid.

Gonzales pro career has to be considered something of a letdown.

He never seemed physically strong enough to compete with veterans especially as he moved up to bantamweight.

He did score a decisive win over Orlando Canizalez when both were up and coming undefeated fighters.

But when they met again for the world title several years later, the much improved Canizalez manhandled Gonzales and stopped him on a TKO.

Gonzales retired in 1991, putting together a 16-4 (3) mark.

Fairly pedestrian considering much was expected from him.

In the 90s you would read about Gonzales making derogatory remarks about East L.A's newest Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya.

Maybe it was jealousy.

Until DLH, Gonzales was proud to be ELA's only golden Olympian, and then suddenly he was practically forgotten as Oscar became a local and then worldwide superstar.

It must have grated on Gonzales.

I hope the charges against Gonzales turn out to be unfounded. I still remember that proud, courteous young man.

Unfortunately, a person's dark side has a way of eventually surfacing---in this case in a very embarrassing, public manner.

We'll just have to wait and see how the up and down saga of Paul Gonzales finally plays out.

Thanks for that very interesting mate, by the way I worked as a printer in the newspaper game for years and always loved the vibe you got back then in that industry

[Nile4000]

REAL sad news. Hope it's not true.

[Kalan]

I remember a time when Hurricane Carter, Sonny Liston, Carlos Monzon, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Gustav Scholz, Tony Ayala, or any boxer would be accused of doing something terrible... It was always "Another Black Eye for Boxing"

That got so overused they finally stopped saying it, which is a relief...

I hope Paul comes out of this without a long prison sentence... I remember the Manhattan Beach Pre-School Scandal where 7 teachers were arrested and accused of sexually molesting young children... A new DA, Ira Reiner, was elected, took charge of the investigation and eventually dropped all the charges... They were all phony... All the kids were coached to come up with improbably terrible accusations by interviewers who planted things in their minds and praised them all the more the worse their accusations got... But for several months it was living Hell for those poor teachers.

Somebody with common sense said... "All these teachers have never been accused of anything.. Now they're all going to conspire to molest little kids???" .... It didn't make any sense so they switched out the interviewers and investigators.