Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

The Welcome Mat

The other day I referred to Tijuana as the "Murder Capital Of The World." Well,it is, and I didn't invent that phrase. But with that said Tijuana isn't really so bad. There are Tijuaneros that would say it's a really nice place to live.Now I'm not talking about the aristocracy necessarily and there aren't many of them.Sure they're fine with it but then again they probably think of getting kidnapped more than the average guy on the street.

Tijuana passed up San Diego in population .TJ has about 2 and a half million residents spread over a big area give or take a hundred thousand. (It's hard to put a figure on all the squatters.).San Diego is a few thousand below that number.But getting back about the safety of being in Tijuana. For starters, if you didn't know any better, if you walked across the border into Tijuana and took a cab to downtown ,let's say, you wouldn't notice anything that would send a chill down your spine. Oh,maybe the poverty would get to you.To think that a big city like Tijuana could be ,by contrast, so poor to San Diego it makes you think "why?" That's the striking visual difference.

But who's doing all the killing? If you read the papers you know it's the drug traffickers employing their wars against each other. It's this gang against that gang. The gang in Tijuana against the gang from Sinaloa. You see, the gang that finally wins will control the most valued area in Mexico-the border that has the most traffic to the U.S. Everything crosses there-people,commerce, not to mention narcotics.Tijuana is the big enchilada.

But if you're a tourist and just want to visit, nothing is going to happen to you unless you eat at the wrong place and come down with Montezuma's Revenge.However,if you're looking for trouble Tijuana has the goods. When i was working at the school district by the border I'd run into kids that got themselves involved with the narcos. It was usually a common scenario. The narcos would own the nightclubs and the teenagers(drinking age is 18 in Mexico.For the girls it's even younger believe it or not. To entice the girls into the clubs they have what they call "tardeadas" on Sunday where the girls can go in unattended) would congregate in these clubs and come in contact with some vey bad "hombres."This is so some drug dealer can score on some 14 year old chick.I had one girl in my class who was approached by some narco and he wanted to marry her.She refused so he kidnapped her.She got away and told me what happened.I told her she should write a book.Another girl in one of my classes was also pressed into marrying one of these thugs.She also turned him down.A week later they found her cut up unto little pieces floating in an oil drum in the ocean.

It was the same story when I worked at Juvenile Hall. The narcos would ask some kid if he wanted to make a quick thou and smuggle drugs across the border or kill some guy. Then when the kid got nabbed the narcos would let him rot in jail.Kids down there don't want to go necessarily to the gym and emulate Julio Cesar Chavez anymore when they can get a heater and waste some dude to make some fast money.But that's also how a kid builds his rep.It's no civil service job. If you want to get ahead you kill the guy who you take orders from.Then you have to watch you back.Eventually you either wind up n the morgue or if you're lucky you go to jail.

About Tijuana being the "Murder Capital Of The World."I'd love to take you down there some time. I know a good place to eat tacos.

[goose 5]

How is the local media covering the Ramon Gonzalez card, Roger ?

[dagosd2000]

How is the local media covering the Ramon Gonzalez card, Roger ?

I thought thought maybe you'd ask me that. Well,not a word of it anywhere. Local sports reporting in San Diego is dead. They talk about the Padres and maybe a little about San Diego State football and basketball.Prep sports doesn't get noticed anymore. This fight with Gonzalez and Martinez is out at the Indian reservation. Even if it were here in town the media would ignore it. I'll bet you there isn't a sports reporter here in town ,regardless of who he works for,that has even heard of Roman Gonzalez let alone that he's going to fight tomorrow.



Roman Gonzalez

BTW.It used to be that they didn't sell alcohol at the Indian reservations in San Diego county with the exception of Viejas that's right off the freeway heading east.The reason was that it was a long way out to these places on winding unlit roads and they were afraid of drunk drivers having accidents. With that it makes the average fight fan think twice about going out there.

[dagosd2000]

A Voice In The Crowd

If i were to go out into the street with a sign saying that Roman Gonzalez is going to fight tomorrow night no one would break their pace to take time to study it. I could take someone aside and explain that Roman Gonzalez is an excellent fighter.I could show them a video of Roman Gonzalez's craftmanship in the ring. I would win no one over.That's because I'm a nonentity in the scheme of a sports authority.

Now if ESPN would do a crusade on the virtues of Roman Gonzalez and the major networks televise his fights on Pay Per View after a flood of hype, Roman Gonzalez would be sitting on a throne next to Tom Brady in the sport pantheons of the all time greats.The people would believe the Chris Bermans and the Steven A's accolades as gospel if they stepped forward. But these pundits have never heard of Roman Gonzalez.

.But then Roman Gonzalez deserves the recognition. He's getting very little now. The boxing pundits know the name but the guy who pops open a six pack and watches pro football all day Sunday sitting on the couch is oblivious to Roman Gonzalez.I could describe with eloquence and sincerity of an Honest Abe or try to pawn off the idea like a garrulous P.T. Barnum and it would all fall on deaf ears.I don't have a name. I'm some guy shouting from the crowd. I'm not considered an authority. In fact some could make a case and say I've got a screw loose

The convincer has to be corporate. A name brand. Then he can win the trust.He has the consensus with him. I have no one.

So people will name their kids after Tom Brady. And people will think that Roman Gonzalez was named after Julius Caesar.BTW. I'm not driving out to see Roman Gonzalez fight tomorrow.No one has sold me on it.


The Gonzalez fight will be at the Pechanga Indian reservation.Here are some of the "Indians." I bet they are mostly Mexicans.But to hear the hype their great great grandfathers killed Custer.

[dagosd2000]

The Big Squeeze

Stopped into Champs the other morning to touch bases with Jeff the bartender.It was a little after 10.Jeff was wiping down the counter with a towel.
"How's it going Jeff,"I said as I took the stool across the counter from him."Dropped by to see if anything is new."
"You're lucky you caught me at this time.Starting tomorrow we won't open till noon."
"Why's that?"
"Can't keep up with the utilities bills anymore. Ours went up a thousand dollars last month."
"That's a lot,"I said."My place went up a hundred."
"We're opening later and closing sooner."
"Business that bad?"
"People can't keep pace with it anymore.We have to raise our prices because we keep getting our prices raised. "Something's got to give."
Jeff poured me a glass of soda water from the gun. I haven't had a drink in over a year. I don't miss it anymore. I used to get drunk and high all the time but I just don't like that feeling anymore. I'd been slowly backing off for awhile.And now I don't have to deal with the hangover.
"I read your post last night about that fight out at Pechanga,"said Jeff.
"I saw Gonzalez fight about five years ago at the forum.He was still undefeated."
"He shouldn't have any problem with this guy he's fighting you'd think."
"I've never seen this guy he's fighting.You never know."
"Gonzalez had everyone looking at him when they brought him to New York and he laid an egg."
"He could never get by that guy from Thailand."
"When it all comes out in the wash he'll have to beat that guy if he ever wants to go down as an all time great."
"Some have fighters have a nemesis and they just can't ever beat them,"I said. "I think it gets to be psychological."
Jeff filled a glass with Coca Cola from the gun .
" I don't think Joe Frazier could have ever beaten George Foreman in a thousand tries,."said Jeff as he stopped wiping the counter.
"Frazier's style was made to order for Foreman."
"Just like Ronnie Wilson could never get by Mike Quarry.."
"Ronnie fought Mike 3 times and couldn't beat him."
"You think that had to do with Wilson's career going south?"asked Jeff.
"That and a lot of other things. Wife problems. Drinking problems.His cuts.Fighting too much.It all adds up."
"Too bad he had to wind up like he did.He lost everything."
"But it didn't have to be that way."
"He couldn't kick his own demons."
"I guess that's man's toughest opponent."
Jeff finished off his Coke and threw the towel in the sink.
"Well, I got to go in the back and bring out a case of whiskey,"he said.
"Yeah.I got to get going.Just came in to touch bases."
"So you're not going to that fight tonight?"
"No."
"Remember.Starting tomorrow we don't open till noon."
"I'll keep that in mind."


Mike Quarry

[dagosd2000]

Goodbye

I remember my old man on the phone just about every day with what was left of those Outfit guys back in Chicago until one day he didn't call anymore because they were all dead. They either died in prison or got killed in some gruesome manner by someone they probably knew.That's what happened to Sam Giancana. He was subpoenaed by the House Committee On Assassinations to testify behind closed doors about what he knew about the Kennedy assassination. The feds wanted to put all the blame on the Mafia(especially the Outfit) for that hit and now they had the made guy-the Don of Chicago- on the hook. With the way they had changed the laws pertaining to organized crime the Wise Guys were rolling over on each other like circus acrobats.Looking at sentences of 50 years or more was enough juice to make any of those guys that took the oath of Omerta to spill their guts about everything they knew about anything related to the rackets.

The CIA employed the Italian Mafia to whack guys domestically and now the senate was going to investigate what was behind JFK's assassination and there was no way the CIA was going to to take the rap.So they threw the gangsters under the bus.The best way to put an end of any testimony was to kill the guy who was gonna' take the hot seat before he arrived to the witness stand.That's what happened to Giancana. He was in the kitchen frying Salcicce e fagiloi(sausage and white beans)when he let into his house someone he knew and trusted and the guy whacked him.

My father worked under Giancana. They called him "Mooney" but never to his face. "Mooney" ,like when he got angry he came unglued like a lunatic.But to his friends he was "Momo" -Sam "Momo."But my father called him "Sam." "Momo" got his start working for my father's father "Diamond Joe" Esposito running numbers as a teenager.But Giancana wanted to be more than a numbers runner. He wanted a part of the rackets and that meant he had to shoot somebody.Before he turned 20 he had blood on his hands and he didn't want to start wiping it off yet.

Like the typical fledgling mobster of his day he knew what it was like behind prison bars but the experience only gained him more connections to the criminal world.He muscled his way to the top of The Outfit in the early 50's.It was then that he became associated with Joe Kennedy and his sons John and Bobby,,the FBI (having compromising pictures of J. Edgar Hoover),and the CIA. It was a perfect storm. JFK got elected because Giancana had swung Chicago in his favor by having dead people's votes counted in the ballot box.The Mob thought that sham would cinch it for them-no government interference.They had Hoover in the fold but then John Kennedy double crossed the Mob by putting his brother in the Attorney Genera's chair-the biggest cop on the block. Bobby was determined to throw all those hoods in jail.

So when all the different sordid parties thought it was time to eliminate John Kennedy because he was a "security risk" the CIA went to their their source for homeland "security" and recruited the Mafia for the dirty deed.On November 22,1963 my father had been removed from the goings on in Chicago 8 years.We were living in sunny California and my father was like a fish out of water. He would get on the phone to Chicago and rue for the good ol' days.Sometimes those fellas' would come out to the coast to visit him. Sometimes they'd throw him a bone.Like the time they bankrolled my father to go to Mexico and spread money around to try get control of gambling operations in the country.But every "official" up to the very top always wanted more than the next guy and even the Mafia didn't have that kind of money.

So my father acted as more of an intermediary.If there was a problem out on the coast my father was the 'go between" who would relay the information back and forth.For instance when Tamara Rand,a lawyer here in San Diego,was wanting to sue the Mob's Alan Glick for part of the action in their Las Vegas enterprises ,she approached my father and asked him if he could call Chicago and receive assistance. Well, my father got on the phone and who was ever on the other end told him that they usually don't kill women but if she persisted they'd make an exception. A few days later, when Rand still hadn't backed off, she was found in her home with a bullet in her brain.

My father when he came out to California like I was tellin' ya' was out of his element. He should have written a book.At least when all those guys he used to call on the phone were in the cemetery.


Sam Giancana

Goodbye-Charlie Parker at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago

[dagosd2000]

Scene in the movie Casino where NIcky Santoro kills Anna Scott who's trying to muscle in on Phil Green's hotels..Joe Pesci plays Santoro who is supposed to be in real life Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.Phil Green is supposed to be Alan Glick in real life.Anna Scott is supposed to be Tamara Rand.She thought my father could persuade the Outfit to see it her way.As you can see in the movie trailer she didn't heed my father's advice to back off.

[chrisjs1985]

Love reading about and seeing Maxie's place. Same with Lew Tendler's in Philly. I even got a classic t-shirt with the log of Tendler's.

Chris
How about those prices? No entree over 5 bucks.Pulled into the drive thru at MacDonalds this morning for a cup of coffee. The guy in front of me ordered I guess breakfast:Juice,coffee, and an egg McMuffin meal.Came to almost 15 dollars!
You know they talk about "Ok back then you made less money and things were cheaper." When I was 18 years old (!964) I was clearing 400 dollars a month working at MacDonalds.I was renting a house in a little cottage at the beach for 60 dollars a month.You can't find a rent in San Diego for under 2 grand.I bought a 57 Chevy Bel Air for 175 dollars. Gas was 20 cents a gallon. Here in San Diego gas has gone up a buck in one week to 5 dollars a gallon..Diesel gas which is the cheapest to make was 9 cents a gallon. Today it costs more than regular gas.

Take me back to Slapsy Maxies and I'll order the New York steak with all the trimmings,have a few whiskey and sodas, and pay no cover to listen to Sinatra sing "All Or Nothing At All" and get out of there having change from a sawbuck.

You can't even breath in places like LA, San Diego, SF without spending money these days. Don't get me started on Vegas! I was waiting to buy a beer in one of the hotels and in front of me a guy gets a water and the cashier says "$7" he says "for a fornicating bottle of water!!?"

[dagosd2000]

An Applicable Place


I was surprised it took until 1960 for Las Vegas,Nevada to have its 1st word championship fight.You figure Las Vegas is the gambling capital of the world consisting of a multitude of casinos and unsavory characters with monikers like Bugsy,Blinky,and Ace.What went on in the backrooms ranged from breaking hands to breaking heads.Inside the "count rooms" the skim was going on like kids with their hands in the candy jars.When they iopened the sports book the Wise Guys were bull rushed the town like it was the opening day of Disneyland.There were no pro sports teams in Vegas ,just professional boxing.- a sport run by promoters whose credentials wouldn't pass a litmus test for keeping your punches above the beltline.

That 1st world title go was between Benny Paret,the challenger,and Don Jordan,the champ. Jordan was an enigma if you ever saw one. He was more impressive being introduced center ring than showing his fighting skills. I always thought he had talent but for some reason he never wanted to display much of it.But I bet(excuse the pun) that had a lot to do with the sordid ilk that managed his career.Frankie Carbo and that "Blinky" guy. Jordan lost his title to Paret who was full of pep while Jordan fought like he needed to take a poop.Later after Jordan couldn't fight anymore he told everyone that he was a "hit man" for the Mob and had killed like 30 dudes."Hit men" don't go round saying things like that.

That fight opened the way for more title fights, and today Las Vegas is the most lucrative venue in the world for the sport that has the biggest purses for its champions.

But Las Vegas has gotten too big for my britches.It used to be back when the Mob was in town that a lot of things were comped as long as you were playing at one of the tables. You could eat for practically chump change,drinks were on the house as you were long emptying you were doing curls with a one armed bandit. You could watch Sinatra and his Rat Pack at The Sands without taking out a mortgage.. During the day you could hear a dago like Louie Prima and his gang in the lounge wailing up a storm on the hotel's dime.You knew the dealers and the waiters and the bell captains.You knew whose palms to grease.It was like one big happy family.

But today all that's gone.The entertainment stinks. The big names are dead and gone giving way to the of glitz of impersonators and nasal voices. The old landmark hotels were razed and replaced with these monstrous glass conundrums.The only thing on the house is some nut case ready to leap 30 floors to the asphalt parking lot.

Awhile back I Googled what the price was to watch Canelo fight some creampuff whose name I can't remember. Stub Hub had nose bleed seats going for a cool thou. Ringside was 10 grand. I'm glad I got YouTube.

I remember when Sonny Liston was trying to find himself after bailing out twice against Clay. Oh ,there was always the talk about the fix was in with both of them fights.Let's face it. Sonny's pals had longer yellow sheets than Sonny had on file with the cops.You know Liston was never granted a license by the New York commission to fight in the Empire State because of his criminal record.Today,fighters put that on their resumes.

They say someone gave Liston a hot shot of heroin. His wife said her husband was afraid of needles.How else does a hype get the dope in his arm? I've never bought her story. Liston knew he could never catch up with Clay so he sat in his corner,and then looked for a place to fall the next time.And he grew fond of dope.He lived in Las Vegas and I guess for him it was better than jail. He was one of 25 kids and an ex con.I guess a lot is a lot better in the world until you stick that needle in your vein.


Sonny in Las Vegas.I don't think I need to do any explainin'.He's probably holding the Dead Man's Hand

[dagosd2000]

The Second City

Chicago is often referred to as the "Second City" because its population is second behind New York although in recent decades Los Angeles has moved ahead of Chicago.But the nickname sticks and I don't think any acts of Congress are in the works to correct that moniker.

As you know by now I've voiced on the forum some of my experiences growing up in the Second City.I've gone back several times. I have no more relatives back there anymore. They are either dead or moved away a long time ago.. My wife has a sister living in East Chicago with her husband. Her two sons live near by with their wives and kids.They all speak Mexican still after living there for 30 years and they all they think about is the ranch back home in Michoacan.

The old Italian neighborhood on the Southwest Side has practically disappeared. My grandmother sold the house that was once Diamond Joe's to the city in the early 60's so they could help make room for the University Of Illinois at the Chicago campus.The school is nice but to venture outside the grounds and you're putting your life at risk. The area is run down and dangerous.It was "white fight" in the 50's with most of those dagos moving to the suburbs.Even the Mob bosses skeddadled. to burgs like Oak Par,Oak Lawn,and Riverside. My old man transported us to Riverside in the mid 50's but every other weekend we'd go back to the corner of Polk and Oakley Boulevards to the old haunts to visit my nana and my aunt and her two boys Frankie and Joey. (On the other weekend we'd go visit my aunts and uncles and their clans that had moved to the North Side).My mother ,who was a Massessa, was the only one in her family to marry an Italian -,my old man. Her brothers and sisters married a conglomerate of Germans,Poles,and Paddies.

Anyway, the point I want to make here is if you had to put a face on Chicago whose might that be?You figure New York has a lot of household names-the Roosevelts of Oyster Bay and the Hyde Park Roosevelts,Mayor La Guardia,all those Tin Pan Alley ilk like Berlin and Gershwin,and crooners like Sinatra and Ella,musicains like The Duke and Miles,and then the sports legends like The Babe and The Manassa Mauler.And that is just a quick list. But Chi Town?

Let's face it.The biggest most popular figure who's synonymous with Chicago was a criminal.Do I have to even say his name?But Big All doesn't get any second billing to any hood in The Apple or anywhere else.Capone is right alongside the other American infamous like Billy The Kid,Jesse James,and Dillinger.

Now you might want to say that Michael Jordan would qualify for a Chicagoan representative mug. But I associate Jordan more with basketball and the NBA.

So if Al Capone is the larger than life legend of America's Second City you can thank my grandfather Diamond Joe.When Johnny Torrio was running the rackets in Chicago he went to my grandfather and asked him who would be a good successor to his empire.My grandfather ,who got his start in Brooklyn, related to Torrio about a brash young Italian who was his underling brandishing a scar on his face named Alphonse Capone.He had nerve and he had smarts.Torrio told my grandfather to summon him to The Patch. There you have it.

Imagine if Capone had stayed in New York?Then if were asked who was the face of Chicago you might have to put tongue in cheek and say Oprah


Al Capone

[dagosd2000]

Before anybody challenges me on my last post and says "How about Barak Obama?" I was thinking that too but I can't honestly nominate him because,let's face it,he was born in Kenya.


Barak Obama

[dagosd2000]

A friend of mine who read my post said to me that Barak Obama wasn't born in Kenya. That was a just a mean rumor spread by people who didn't like him.I told him I knew that and was just kidding.Everybody knows Barak Obama was born in Nigeria.

[dagosd2000]

The Skit

It must have been 20 years ago but I saw on the tube a skit done by the black comedian Chris Rock. He went to a boxing gym and asked each black fighter separately that before they fought a white opponent did they ever think that this guy's ancestors might have been a slave master and did that thought motivate him to kick his ass. Every black fighter answered "Yes." Now they didn't seem pissed off but it was more like a natural percetion.Something they took for granted.

On the other hand what would happen if someone asked a white fighter what he is thinking prior to stepping into the ring with a black fighter? If you go back 50 ,60 years or more you might have got an "honest" answer like "I can't stand n---rs so I don't want to lose to one of them."

Take Joe Louis for example. He was the greatest heavyweight of his day but no white guy wanted to lose to him. With maybe the exception of the 2nd Schmeling fight I don't think the fans ever had Louis' back except the black neighborhood. Outside the ring the white establishment was always after Louis. The promoters like Uncle Mike Jacobs,who Louis entrusted his money to, scammed him out of his earnings, When Jim Braddock was coerced to fight Louis the deal didn't go down unless Jimmy's manager,Joe Gould, got a 10% cut on the rest of Joe's title defenses for the next decade. That figure turned out to be a cool 150 thousand dollars.When the IRS went after Louis there was no one in his corner advising him on the pitfalls with paying Uncle Sam in April. When Louis' 500 thousand owed in back taxes was assessed he found himself having to resort to endeavors like becoming a wrestler until he had to stop because of a heart ailment.Granted Joe was a free spender and loaned money that was never paid back.Every hanger on had put the bite on him but Joe never bit back.If any black fighter had a beef with a white guy it was Joe Louis. The press wasn't any better.They called him names like ":gorilla" and ape." But back then they could get away with it.

Today in boxing there isn't much to the racial thing anymore. Terence Crawford accuses Bob Arum of not helping out black fighters when it comes to time to putting together mega matches."Racial bias" is the term his lawyers use.Floyd Mayweather Jr. came out all right.So what does Crawford do? He hires a defense team comprised of all white guys.I wonder how that's going to go over in a courtroom?


Terence Crawford

[dagosd2000]

A Guy Named Joe

When I was playing football for San Diego City back in 1968 I made friends with the custodian of the boys' locker room.HIs real name was Everett but everyone called him "Gus."Well,he was friends with everyone who crossed his path.He'd been there for so long a time that he had seniority on everyone else since he'd hired on with the school just after he got out of the Navy in 45.He was a good ol' boy.Gus had a a big pie face and a wide grin to match. He was missing his front teeth and you could hear him always sucking on the remaining ones he had left in his mouth.He didn't have much hair left on his sandy head but that didn't stop him from combing it straight back. and show how bald he'd gotten.His standard dress was a threadbare T Shirt that covered his pot belly and a an similar frayed pair of blue jeans.

Gus was from somewhere down South. I think it was Alabama.When he spoke it was a dead giveaway that he'd never lived in Boston.His voice was thick as molasses.Anyway, he was one of the most affable guys you'd ever want to meet.During the football season he took care of the teams gear,made sure the practice and game day uniforms were washed regularly,and fixed any equipment that needed fixin'.

Gus liked to go to the fights at the old Coliseum that was only a few blocks from the school.One Tuesday me and him took in a card after practice. When he got to our seats we got to talking about boxing,mostly about fights at the Coliseum.He'd seen all the old timers in the area and up and down the coast.Rusty Payne,the Hogue brothers,Charley Burley,Johnny Romero,and of course Archie Moore.

Somehow the conversation drifted to Joe Louis.Gus told me that when Louis won the title from Braddock Joe went back to Alabama where he was born and visited the farm where his parents were sharecroppers.Louis' parents didn't live or work there anymore but word had got back to Joe that the owners of the farm were having a struggle.it was in the throes of the depression.Louis remembered that the old couple who owned the farm were always nice to his parents and treated them with respect.Well, there was the heavyweight champion at their front door with a wad of cash to get them through some tough times.As I'm writing this Joe Louis is probably running the gym inside those pearly gates.


Joe Louis

[dagosd2000]

Your You Know What Stinks Like All The Rest

Maybe it's because I'm not in awe of any of today's fighters or managers or any promoter that's raking in the big bucks like an Arum.A fighter like Canelo Alvarez is.socking his money away.But you know it's different down in Mexico.Canelo Alvarez could walk down the street in Mexico yet he wouldn't necessarily draw a big crowd.Mexicans have their favorites but they're not star struck like the fans in America,They don't live and die with their teams.Even a name like Canelo Alvarez won't last long in a discussion.

It's a fatalistic thing. Sooner or later Canelo Alvarez will go the way of all the great Mexican fighters.He'll max out and then he'll start to go bad. When finally at the end he'll be taking a beating.If he's lucky the aficianados will forget in short time. If not,they'll throw beer at him.As much important as it is to be a hero in Mexico,the people are waiting for the time when the inevitable sad end comes to pass.Then will come the verbal barbs.,the laughter.Often it's a lot worse.

The two most macho men in Mexico-Pancho Villa and Zapata-were assassinated. The greatest Latin hero,Columbus,was brought back to Spain in chains.When Francisco Madero succeeded in overthrowing the dictator,Diaz in the revolution,,all the generals who fought alongside Madero turned on him as soon as he sat on the throne in Chapultepec Castle. Three Mexican presidents-Madero,Carranza,and Obregon-were betrayed and killed in a span of ten years including heroes Zapata and later Villa.

Sometimes I think of Salvador Sanchez and wonder how his boxing exit would have been like if he hadn't crashed his car into that semi truck.Like the rest of the former champs climbing into the ring and get his lunch against some guy who couldn't have held his jockstrap when he was on top.

When I was trying to find the great Jose Napoles in Ciudad Juarez awhile back I'd ask around the barrio and get answers like,"You trying to find manteca(lard)?" finished off with a lot of laughter.

You see, what Mexicans think is that everyone is an equal, or no better than the next guy, because to put it simply(and crudely) there's not a person on the planet whose s--t doesn't stink.

So when Canelo Alvarez walks down the street in Guadalajara and farts he's the same as everybody else.


Canelo Alvarez

[dagosd2000]

The Fighting Charro

Oh,yesterday I was going on about how Latinos eventually eat their heroes.They do,but those men of the hour are of the lionhearted breed. They live by the sword or the glove and their demise eventually comes at the hands of a bigger sword or glove, But Latinos,and I'll focus here on the Mexican idols,the ones who bring music to the heart never fade away.Their lilt drifts through the mind like a beautiful dream.Since this is supposed to be a boxing blog I can work in a singer who in his spare time liked to partake in the Sweet Science. The most famous of the "Tres Imoratales" -Pedro Infante. The other two cherished charros being Jorge Negrete and Javier Solis.

But Infante was the renaissance man of the trilogy. He was more macho.He was athletic and had broader shoulders..His sex appeal was a trait not an invention.And although he oozed with an Type A virility he could melt a heart with his lyrical intonations.Whether in the saddle or in the ring he could be as suave as the best of song's romanticizers.

America had its singing cowboys like Gene Autry,Tex Ritter,and Ken Maynard. But with their twang and rough around the edges may have been gentlemanly with the ladies and fond of kissing their horses yet lacked the passion of the "Charro" .The Charro would never translate to the American idiom of "cowboy." Just the word piques your senses into smelling like something you stepped on in the barn.

During his day Pedro Infante was the shiningness star of the Mexican Golden Era of Cinema.Another of Infante's bold ventures was aviation. A pilot ,who had survived two crashes, he was killed in 1957 piloting a converted bomber taking off from Mexico City enroute to Merida,Yucatan.The country was brought to its knees.Over 300 thousand mourners were at his graveside including America's icon Frank Sinatra.

Today,the younger generation in Mexico likes to copy the style of the American songsters.But this drivel will never usurp the immortality of the country's most cherished man of song.Roam the streets of the pueblitos and ranchitas and you hear his his voice emanating from nowhere and everywhere.His life was a song for the ages.






The Immortal Voice Of Pedro Infante

[dagosd2000]

:d

[dagosd2000]

Pedro Infante as Pepe "El Toro" in the movie of the same name.Not exactly Julio Cesar Chavez but but will pass muster

[dagosd2000]

I Never Laughed So Hard.I Never Cried So Hard

I figure if Pedro Infante merits a peek of his boxing prowess on the forum I can't leave out this guy out..For some damn reason every time I watch him in a movie or just think about him I run the gamut of emotions. I'm either ignited to laugh my ass off or I'm fighting back the tears.

His name was Mario Fortino Alphonso Moreno Reyes.The world knows him as Cantinflas.To say he was a comedian is to sell him short. Like Chaplin he embodied the spirit of the "Everyman."The faceless,nameless creatures who have no malcontent nor evil intentions in their bones. Their skeletons in the end are the only blank clues that are left,and no one is interested. He was no Champion Of The Underdog.He was one of them. A microcosm that reveals that a man's worth is not measured in fame and fortune.

He had to be born with it. I think he was always in nature's flow.The good and the bad are often interchangeable. Irony is the mantra to make you laugh and cry. Truth is a moving target.Living at the bottom sometimes can make you see the truth.

Cantinflas has been called "Mexico's Charlie Chaplin". Maybe this can bring you somewhat into focus about the way was he was. I never thought Chaplin could hold a candle to him. Chaplin never spoke a word.He was a Silent Era star. But if you're in his corner you might say he was so endowed with the mime words would have been superfluous.But when "talkies" took over Chaplin thought that it would be short lived.A fad. But he knew he couldn't speak a worthwhile line. Chaplin said that Cantinflas was the "Greatest comedian of all time."

The old general hospital in Tijuana was named after the president of Mexico at the time,Miguel Aleman.It was Cantinfdlas who raised the money to build the structure giving concerts in the city, and also kicking in his own dime. But the president wanted his name on the door. Cantinflas didn't care.The people knew.

He could have been the president of Mexico if the elections were on the level. But the spin doctors said it was OK to be funny.but not the top man in government.He never ran for office.He couldn't sell out that way. The people loved him. The rich wanted to be associated with his name.The por were inside his heart.

When he died it was like the passing of a saint. A Mother Teresa.

When I was working at Juvenile Hall they would often put me in the section of the "illegal" kids. The Mexican kids who had crossed the border and were nabbed for breaking the law. Most of it was for stealing.As soon as their paperwork was processed they would be sent back. For me working with them was the the most friendly task.They never complained.They always picked up after themselves. I didn't have to harp on them to tell them what to do.Hell, they were getting three squares a day.They had their own bed,hot showers and a flush toilet.On Fridays I'd bring some Mexican movies to show them in the rec room.I made sure I always included a Cantinflas flick.You never heard such laughter. I sometimes get all watery eyed just thinking of it.

[dagosd2000]

Mario Moreno "Cantinflas"

Psalm 37:1 The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

[dagosd2000]

Having None Of It

The bully fighterthe intimidator;he employs that mad dog to get an edge on the other guy before the fight.Most of these meanies are heavyweights but sometimes one of the lighter ilk tries to work his temper onto his opponent.If he can sell it he's won half the battle.

Roberto Duran was a master at causing shaky knees in the opposite corner.He had Ray Leonard thinking before their first fight that maybe Bobby wouldn't be satisfied unless he sent him from the ring into an ambulance.

The Latino bully(and there weren't many of them )wields a more vociferous venom than let's say his black heavyweight counterpart like the stoic killers Liston and Foreman who could melt their opponents with just a stare and a glare.However,.Tyson verbalized the menacing a lot more. Bobby was more like Mike.

Bobby's mommy was Mexican and his daddy Panamanian.Perfect breeding for the first male son.There's no doubt that Bobby wanted to enact as much physical damage to his opponent as possible. Before the fight if he could jab with a dose of machismo on his prey it would make victory the usual routine going through his standard wild gesticulations.

Looking back at Bobby's fights with the other 3 Kings- he did a pretty good job. He had Marvelous Marvin thinking.Hagler did enough to win without wanting to strike a nerve that might have unleashed Bobby's ire.Ray Leonard had those deer in the headlight eyes early in the first fight.Then towards the end he gathered himself and was coming on but too little and late.And now there's Hearns. Would "The Motor City Cobra" be immune to Bobby's pre fight spell?

I heard Emanuel Steward once say"All that macho bulls--t Duran was trying to lay on Hearns, Tommy wasn't going for it."And with Hearns reaction the psyche job backfired in Bobby's face. It wasn't like Hearns had to give rebuttal. He just looked at Bobby like he was a joke. Hearns was always a fast starter and against Bobby he broke a speed record. He wanted to tear his head off from the get go. When Bobby tried to fire back Hearns kicked in the after burners.The final right hand put Bobby's face on the canvas before his knees hit the deck.

Oh afterwards Bobby offered his excuses:I was "drained","He caught me with a good punch" ,and "I would have done better in the rematch."

After round one I knew that Bobby was in over his head.When the bell rang he extended his glove to Hearns like a good sport. Since when was Roberto Duran ever a good sport?

Tommy Hearns

[dagosd2000]

Playing It Straight

I sometimes wondered about this interview with Muhammad Ali before his last defense of his title(Zora Folley) before he was forced into that semi retirement.I wonderd if anyone thought it was worth putting it up on YouTube.The thing that impressed me about the interview was the the interviewer was some old school old timer with dark rimmed glasses wearing the standard suit of the day who hadn't got caught up in the Ali hysteria.It wasn't in his nature. Like the other one on ones everything had to be staged with a phony entertainment taking precedent with all the pretentious buffoonery. The old guy played it straight and didn't have any reason to ham it up with Ali .He was not a fellow who wanted to get cute with Ali and share the limelight.He played it like he always did-close to the vest That was the way he was brought up.

Ali picked up on it immediately and returned comments in an equally straightforward manner.There were no poems.No cutting remarks. No insults.The fireworks were left in the case.His intonation was tuned to medium level.Ali never baited the old guy into something wild and crazy.He condescended to the old guy.The scene was as gentlemanly as it could want. When asked about what he should do if defeated,Ali answered that he'd "retire" all in a normal tone of voice.He didn't feel he was being slighted nor acted like he'd been hit below the belt.

Ali was smart.He was real smart. His range of perception was keener than any fighter who ever lived.He could run the gamut.In this rare type of interview you saw Ali as a down to earth human being.I think he was like that by nature.All that other showmanship was just an act.



You don't have to hold onto your seatbelt for this one. I'd say it's kind of refreshing.

[dagosd2000]

The Art Of The Deal Isn't In San Diego

All the time I spent hanging around the boxing gyms in San Diego there was not much talk about any of the local based fighters going up against the champion in any of the 8 divisions. When Ken Norton beat Muhammad Ali ,in that big upset at The Sports Arena ,Norton was virtually a MIA in Sa Diego by that time. San Diego was where he got his pro start.But Norton was up in LA with Eddie Futch most of the time training with his stalemate Joe Frazier and other heavies who could offer a bit more of a challenge that was unavailable in this ol' "Navy Town."In fact even the heavyweights that were seen on the local cards did most of their prep work in LA.Chuck Haynes,Jack O'Halloran,and Ski Goldstein ,for example,packed their bags and trekked to Los Angeles to scour the gyms for a decent workout.

I'd say of all the familiar faces that graced the squared circle at the Coliseum Art Hafey probably had the best rep.When he landed his big left hook to Ruben Olivares' breadbasket in Monterrey ,Mexico causing "El Puas" to emit his mouthpiece onto the front row seats a rematch was in order. This time in LA at The Forum.But Olivares was so damn popular with the aficianados ,not to mention he could fill any house in the Southland ,Art would have had to knockout the Mexican to win.He didn't and lost a SD that was a metaphor to one of the James' Gangs bank robberies.

When the transplanted from Portland,Or. Denny Moyer was called up to fight Carlos Monzon in Spaghettiland it raised a few eyebrows. The fork had been stuck in Denny awhile back. But for 5 interesting rounds he held a good account of himself with King Carlos. Then when Monzon caught him on the ropes with a few good shots the ref stepped in and called the "massacre" off.Now they could have called that one a non title fight. Better still, a "no title" fight.

San Diego has been called a "town at the end of the line." Somehow the tourist bureau named this burg "America's Finest City." America's 7th largest city in population San Diego has only one major pro sports teams left-The baseball Padres. The football Chargers moved up to Los Angeles when the voters down here decided they didn't want to shell out tax payer money to build a new stadium. There were two different basketball franchises in the 70's but they went belly up. The Rockets moving to Houston.The Clippers to the open arms for San Diego sports refugeees,Los Angeles.

But it's unfair to judge the worth of a city by how many pro sports teams it has.Personally,if I had to say what San Diego had going for it I'd say TIJUANA.

[dagosd2000]

Homage To A Champion

When Marcel Cerdan was killed in that airplane crash in the Azores in October of !949 along with his trainer Jo Longman they were enroute to the United States.Cerdan was scheduled to fight Jake La Motta in the return bout after losing the crown to Jake in Detroit's Briggs Stadium.Cerdan ,during the 3rd round was flipped by Jake during a clinch and landed on his left shoulder tearing his labrum. With his injured shoulder disabling any worthwhile power in his punch and the pain progressing to the point where he couldn't even lift up his arm the Frenchman couldn't come out of his corner for the 10th round.

The talk of the continent was Cerdan's affair with the famous French singer Edith Piaf. Marcel was married and had kids and Edith had a list of paramours longer than Cyrano De Bergerac's nose. Of course the naughty French lapped this kind of stuff up..

Piaf's flings up to this time had been with men of the entertainment genre.Marcel was a jock. When the two met Cerdan was the European middleweight champion and Edith was at the height of her singing career.Their first encounter was in a club in Paris' infamous Montmarte district.Marcel went out on the town after beating the African/American fighter Holman Williams. It was inside the cabaret where both Edith's and Marcel's lives would come apart after a torrid romance.

Edith would be at ringside shouting "Keel eem Marcel" at all of Marcel's fights in Europe and the United States.When Cerdan lost to La Motta he went back to France to regroup for rematch. Longman thought it would be good for Marcel to separate from Edith for awhile..Edith stayed in New York singing at New York's posh Club Versailles.Cerdan was to come back to America after te first of the year but Edith wanted her lover boy back before New Years Eve sooner than scheduled and kept calling him up on the phone begging for him come back to her embrace. Marcel relented and boarded that plane that made that routine stop in the Azores to pick up more passengers.It crashed shortly after takeoff killing everyone on board.

But the point is that let's say the plane hadn't crashed and Cerdan came back to America and fought Jake again. It wouldn't have mattered if Cerdan had won or lost. The relationship between Edith and Marcel would have eventually come to a boring end like all those "May Through December " romances do. Life becomes too routine and the spark is extinguished. So it's on to new romantic adventure. Marcel would have gone back to the wife and kids(and probably jumped the fence again) and Edith would have found and hooked a new lover boy.

But Marcel died suddenly in a ball of fire. That wasn't how it was supposed to end. Edith always broke things off on HER terms. When that didn't happen it caught her flush on the chin and in the heart. She had a collapse that she never recovered from. Her downward fall was into an abyss of drugs and alcohol that manifested itself into self destruction.She never made it to 50.

After Cerdan's death Edith wrote a song in his honor and to her memory of him.She named it L'Hymne a' l'amour(A Hymn To Love).Here it is performed by her.I've also included her signature song that she also composed La Vie En Rose.





Edith Piaf and Marcel Cerdan at D'Orly Airport.Paris 1947.

[goose 5]

Great Cerdan stuff, Roger.