Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

Just The Guy You Want In Your Corner

It took a lot to get Jim Jeffries back into the ring to fight Jack Johnson. After a five year layoff at first he didn't want to.But he was getting pressure from all sides about the need to return to a heavyweight champion with a vanilla skin.I mean the world wasn't right having a black man as the baddest ass on the planet.A black man wasn't in his proper place being the heavyweight king.On top of it Jack Johnson wasn't in his proper place in the public eye.He had white wives and wasn't afraid to be a little too debonair amongst white folk.Almost 20 years later when Joe Louis caught a break and defeated Jimmy Braddock for the biggest prize in boxing his people told him straight out ,"Don't be another Jack Johnson."

Well, Joe wasn't another Johnson although he had no qualms about rolling in the sack with Lana Turner or Sonja Henie who had a photograph of Hitler on her piano.Sonja may have thought Adolf was politically correct with his take on Aryan supremacy but when it came to red hot primal satisfaction Joe was her "he man." That's what racism is all about:The men of a particular race wanting to protect their women from another race,especially if that race has a skin closer to black than white.Then there's that paranoia about maybe my woman dreams about wanting to experience that African manhood thing.Jeff,you better come through for us!

Well, Jeff didn't come through .He was outclassed from the opening bell.Johnson knew it right off the bat.He'd play around with ol' Jeff and tease him and taunt him and smile at the crowd as he cuffed him around the ring making The white Hope look like Stepin' Fetchit.

Damn it if Jeff didn't try. But he knew that it was just a matter of time when Jonson would quit toying with him making HIM look like a monkey and finish him off.But as Jeff was getting the tar kicked out of him ,in his corner the former champ and advocate of a lily white world,James J. Corbett kept yelling at Johnson calling him a "n----r."Yes, "Gentleman" Jim had forgotten his manners that day and kept yelling at Johnson caliing him a "n----r." Did "Gentleman" Jim really think that was a wise move? Here's Jeff being tortured by this black giant who I'm sure wanted to humiliate Jeffries as much as he wanted to keep his title.

I'm surprised Jeffries when he went back to his corner after each round a tired bloody mess he didn't tell his old pal to put a lid on it..But then again what are friends for?


Jim Jeffries

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KIcked Out Of The Pearly Gates

He called it"The Bible Of Boxing." It ranked boxers and wrestlers for years. Nat Fleischer was the founder of Ring Magazine and his annual Ring Records Book.His publications were considered the most trustworthy of the boxing rags. Fleischer was always reminding you how the integrity of his publications were irrefutable. Clean as a hound's tooth.Something you could leave on the coffee table and have one of the kids come in a pick it up and start reading and he'd make the sign of the cross.Well, maybe not the sign of the cross.Fleiacher was Jewish.

Fleischer started out ,after graduating from City College Of New York in his native Apple,as a sports writer for the New York Press in 1908.In 1922 ,with the encouragement of Tex Rickard,he published his Ring Magazine. Fleischer In 1942 then started printing his annual Ring Record Book.

Boxing was rife with crooked promoters and mangaers.Gamblers lurked around like fleas on a mongrel. But Fleischer and his Ring Magazine was the last word for rectitude. His rankings of fighters were held with the highest esteem. He couldn't be bought off. There weren't all the multitudes boxing organizations like there are today all under the control of the promoters.Oh,maybe a state or two back then would have its champion but that was seldom and not noteworthy.. if you wanted unadulterated honesty you opened up The Ring. Hell, Mike Jacobs who ran the Garden didn't care who Fleischer thought desereved to be in the top ten..Besides, ,Fleischer had no beef with his fellow East Side pal.

I always thought Nat Fleischer was full of himself ,all 5 feet of him.Today,he's practically unknown. He was quirky.He never called Cassius CLay "MUhammad Ali after the name change.Fleischer would always say that Cassius Clay was his "Christian" name. And Nat was Jewish., In his all time rankings( 1 through 10) of fighters in each of the eight divisions of the time, Clay never made it into Fleischer's top 10. He said he had seen enough of Clay and didn't want to discuss it anymore. Jack Johnson was Nat';s numero uno. Ruby Robert Fitzsimmons was also ranked ahead of Clay.BTW.Joe Louis was number 6.Gentleman Jim Corbett,5. Fleischer died in 1972.He had seen Clay when was at his peak and believed that he was a fad.

But I got to hand it to Fleischer. While everybody and their grandmothers stripped Clay of his title for refusing to go into the Army, Nat Fleischer still considered Clay the champ. "He never lost the title in the ring,"proclaimed Nat.

But Clay wasn't the only fighter Fleischer refused to recognize rightly. Ray Robinson was put at number 5 among the middleweights and got no call in the welterweight division.Kid McCoy was the best light heavy while Archie Moore failed to make on Nat's list.

One of Fleischer's flaws was that he wanted to be hands on with everything that he could touch.He was at ringside at the 2nd Ali/Liston fight . When Sonny decided to roll around the ring from that tap on the chin,Joe Walcott,the ref,panicked. He didn't know when to pick up the count.But when he finally did Sonny had risen from his heart attack. Jersey Joe then motioned him forward but there was nosey Nat yelling at Walcott that Sonny had rolled around the canvas for 18 seconds. HE WAs COUNTING!Well.Walcott may have been a fair to middlin' heavyweight but as a ref he stunk.Like a frightened puppy obeying his master,Walcott waved the fight off. Hell, Sonny would have had a second heat attack anyway, but there was Nat imposing his will.

When Fleischer died he left everything to his son in law ,Nat Loubet who later passed the publication to his son in ,law, John Ort. But Ort gave way to Don King who got his hooks into him. Ort then was ranking King's fighters. You could say it wasn't a big deal. No one went to jail over it. But after that episode they had to scratch that "Bible Of Boxing" jazz.

[dagosd2000]

The Phone Call

Nat Fleischer always believed that the reason Benny Leonard hit Jack Britton, after knocking him to his knees in their fight for Jack's welterweight title ,was that Benny "didn't want the championship." I never bought that.Leonard was probably the best Jewish fighter ever,and the ghetto couldn't fathom why their hero would have pulled off such a bonehead move. Fleischer,the editor of Ring Magazine,had the answer. For some unknown reason Benny didn't want to rule the roost at 147 pounds.

Years later Manny Seamon ,who was training Leonard along with Ray Arcel,divulged what had really transpired.Every thing was above board until just before the fighters left their dressing rooms in the old Garden. Leonard was summoned to the telephone. He got his orders.He was to throw the fight. Leonard was devastated.He told his corner that all his friends had put money on him and he didn't want to let them down.He was in tip top shape and was looking forward to giving Britton a trimming. The odds were in Leonard's favor to beat Britton so the Wise Guys( more than likely Arnold Rothstein and his crew) figured here was an opportunity to screw the bookies and make some money.

I was reading a round by round account from one of the New York papers describing the action that night. Entering the hard luck round this scribe had Jack ahead by as few rounds. He wrote that Leonard didn't look his old self.He was lethargic,had lost his dazzle.Then in the 13th Leonard caught Britton with a hard body shot that sent him to his knees.It was a borderline punch. The referee asked if Britton could continue. He said he could and was still down.It was then that Leonard rushed over and clipped him a shot to the head.There was a lot of confusion but the referee had no choice but to DQ Benny. The crown stayed atop Britton's head.

Benny kept mum on what he did but he knew that all bets would be off if the outcome was decided on a foul. Seamon's take adds up a hell of a lot more than Fleischer's wanting to go with Benny not wanting to be the welterweight king.But Leonard had to be careful.He had double crossed the biggest gambler in the country,,Rothstein.-the guy who fixed the 1919 Would Series.I'm sure Leonard wanted to keep that under his hat instead of running up to Nat Fleischer and giving him something to write about.


Jack Britton

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I had a headache.Listening to this made it go away.

[Flatnose]

I had a headache.Listening to this made it go away.

Film Noir.

[dagosd2000]

I had a headache.Listening to this made it go away.

Film Noir.

[dagosd2000]

It's Only A Movie

Yesterday I posted the song Body And Soul from the movie of the same name about a fighter named Charley Davis,played by John Garfield, who, as he gets deeper into the game finds he's intertwined with the unsavory characters that are commonplace with boxing. I liked the movie.It's a film noir classic made before the school of method actors took over after the war.It's not to say that method acting was the right way to go.There are so many factors in putting a movie together that the style of acting is just one part of it.

Before I get going with this want to say that movies are an escape for me.When I watch a movie like Body And Soul i get caught up with the fedoras and double breasted suits,the bulky cars,the dial telephones,and everyone smoking a cigarette.The movies are in black and white because there was no color back then. I mean there was but from the late 40's through the mid 50's there was no color.If you were around you know what I'm talking about.I couldn't watch Body And Soul if it was filmed in Technicolor.Black and white was apropos.

Boxing probably lends itself to the movie industry as the right model to capture the ironies of life with all the highs and lows,and eventually ending on a melancholy note. There were some that had a happy ending. Somebody Up There Likes Me was kind of goofy with Paul Newman miscast as a moronic Rocky Graziano. The movie concluded with the second Zale fight.That was short lived.

George Foreman said his favorite boxing movie was Raging Bull.Now that was pretty realistic.I think that flick still holds the record for the most F Bombs dropped in a movie.Angelo Dundee said once that Errol Flynn's portrayal of Jim Corbett in the movie Gentleman Jim was the best job of an actor emulating a fighter. Ange said in the fight sequences his footwork was amazing .Maybe Dundee was unaware that those fight scenes would only be filmed in 30 second intervals because Errol Flynn had a bad ticker and would run out of breath if it went any longer.BUt then who could take Dundee that seriously?

But whether you like a good Joe Palooka serial with Joe Kirkwood Jr. hamming it up as the blond KO artist or Rod Serling's heavy handed Requiem For A heavyweight with Tony Quinn playing the pathetic Mountain Rivera, there is one thing they all have in common:the actors portraying the fighters are just actors acting out the parts. In real life they were no more fighters than the average guy waiting at the bus stop.

But like I said,movies are an escape for me. Oh.I get caught up into thinking that it's not make believe. But when they flash "The End" when it's over I come down to earth again.Besides watching movies is better than drinking and there's no hangover.


Anthony Quinn as Mountain Rivera

[dagosd2000]

Welcome Mat

Continuing with the subject of boxing movies;one I should have mentioned yesterday was Fat City.John Huston,the director, scored a KO with this flick depicting the barren life of fighting in the barren part of Northern California where they bring in water to to grow the crops that feed the country. Without the water not much would produce.Up there boxing is part of a stoop laborer's entertainment on a Saturday night and cold beer quenches the thirst. Huston grew up in that wasteland so he had an insider's look at things.He also did some amateur boxing in dried up towns like Salinas,Modesto,and San Jose so he wrapped it all together without inventing too much.

What grabbed my attention was the roles of the guy,Ruben,,(played by Nicholas Colasanto) who owned the gym in town and his assistant/trainer/friend,Babe.(played by the original Golden Boy, Art Aragon).If they didn't strike a chord with me.If you haven't seen the movie I'll fill you in with this angle that's as commonplace with boxing as saying "I love you in a whorehouse."

This kid,I'd say he's around 18,19,named Ernie Munger gets involved with his girlfriend to the extent that he wants to be a stand up guy and marry her..He thinks he can become a fighter.So he goes to Ruben's gym and Ruben says "Sure .why not?"Right off the bat Ruben tells Ernie to put on the gloves and get in the ring .After sparing a minute or so with one of the prelim boys, and not showing anything, Ruben tells the kid that he's got the goods. Babe is backing Ruben up to the hilt and now the kid is dreaming how he's going to spend all his money when he gets to be champ.

Well,Ernie wins some and then there are some where he doesn't last long enough for a guy to buy a hot dog and a beer and find his seat.But what Ruben and Babe can make off a guy like Ernie helps pay the rent.Whether they're sincere or not is not the point.They got Ernie believin'.Those two have never had a fighter who could put them on Easy Street and they know they never will.

I'm going to stop here.This is the point I want to make.It happened with me. I stumbled into the obscure 32nd Street Navy Gym in National City,CA.,sparred a few unimpressive rounds not knowin' nothin' and here's every hungry hanger on in the gym telling me that I'm the next Joe Frazier and they want to be my manager.Well, I knew better.I told them all I'd think about it but they kept hammerin' away. But this type of hook like I said is commonplace.In a way it's like a whorehouse. You walk in a whorehouse and all the whores tell you that you're the man. It's all lies.I'm wasn't the next Joe Frazier and certainly not the next Johnny Wad.


Art Aragon

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Black On Black

Sam McVey,who fought jack Johnson twice and lost both times and who Johnson hired as a sparring partner for years,died broke. Jack picked up the tab for McVey's funeral.Johnson was about the only fighter around at the turn of the century and shortly after who had the moxie to parley his talents in not only becoming the first black heavyweight champion but to put aside enough money that when it was over he didn't wind up on skid row.

It wasn't until Joe Louis took a big leap forward that black fighters started to emerge from anonymity and get the opportunities to fight for titles.The war had a lot to do with that.Besides, there were fewer white guys who came back from overseas and wanted to be pugs. It was undeniable that black fighters were emerging as the best in the divisions.But when that time finally arrived for guys like Archie Moore,Ezzard Charles,Ray Robinson,and Joe Walcott they always remembered their childhood idols of the ring and were considered pathfinders.

When Sam Langford was found in a cold water tenement and half blind in Boston ,Joe Louis came to his aid to lend a helping hand. Joe Walcott,the heavyweight champ,always gave credit to the welterweight king, Barbados Joe Walcott, and adopted his name. Big Joe said that Barbados Joe was the best he ever saw. But at least he was one of the few back then to win a championship.He fought Joe Gans,another champion,but both fellas' died sick and penniless.

YOu wonder what those old black fighters would say today watching a Mayweather rake in all that dough?It would probably be something like,"Good for them. Too bad I was born before all those cats got fat again."*



Sam McVey

*Fat again is an expression used by blacks meaning that times are good again.

[goose 5]

Jersey Joe must have seen the Barbados Demon on film; no way he saw him fight in person-he was born after
the other guy retired.

[dagosd2000]

Jersey Joe must have seen the Barbados Demon on film; no way he saw him fight in person-he was born after
the other guy retired.

There's no film that I know of of Barbados Joe Walcott. He died in 1935.He was pushing a broom and missing a thumb(result of a gun going off in his hand) laboring as a custodian. Jersey Joe got to know him after he retired from boxing.The same with Archie Moore.I used to hear Moore talk a lot about him in his boys club.Moore said that Barbados Joe Walcott used to give him pointers about fighting.I heard Moore say once that Walcott told him to find out during a fight where on the body his opponent felt the most pain from a punch and then go to work on it.I presume the same with Jersey Joe.Sounds like Barbados Joe Walcott could have been a great trainer.

[dagosd2000]

A Funny Story



First time I've posted the above picture on the forum.Of course it's President Eisenhower with Rocky Marciano and Joe DiMaggio.. Hearing Rocky talk about it made me laugh. For starters there were several pictures taken of Marciano with the president. The story goes that Eisenhower wanted to invite 50 of his most favorite and popular athletes to the White House and have lunch. However, The picture of the trio was published in a lot of the papers across the country.

Marciano went on to say that when he got back home to Brockton,Mass he walked inside the neighborhood bar and ordered a drink. Standing next to him was this old Italian fellow. He taps Rocky on the shoulder and says
"I saw your picture in the paper the other day. Who do you think you are?Some kind of big shot now that you got your picture taken with Joe DiMaggio?"

[dagosd2000]

Crossing The Line

I never heard Archie Moore praise a white fighter.However I never heard him diss one either.In fact I never heard him bum rap any fighter. The other day I told you that he'd talked about Barbados Joe Walcott as a positive influence.Charley Burley was the best he fought.He asked Sugar Ray Robinson to be the best man for his fifth marriage.There was a Mexican fighter in San Diego ,who was involved in a car wreck and charged with manslaughter.Moore helped raise money for his defense.The bottom line with Moore was that if you were a fighter or once had put on the gloves you belonged to a fraternity. Muhammad Ali was the lone exception.

Don't get me wrong.There were few fighters that relished the rapport that he had with the scribes.He loved to sit down with them and take off on a thread of anything that came to his mind.With that twinkle in his eye he captivated them with words that on the surface might have seemed blase, yet they all walked away believing that they had digested something sagacious.

He could hold an audience better than Sugar Ray or Joe Louis but when Clay landed on the scene Moore was swept aside.If he had beaten Clay instead of lost he would have commanded a greater assembly but he was flattened becoming a fulfillment of Clay's poetic prediction.

Moore was present at the Fight Of The Century sharing the microphone with Don Dunphy and Burt Lancaster.He had nothing to say of significance but neither did his his colleagues have anything to engrave in stone. But even Ali losing overshadowed anything they had to say.

Moore was in George Foreman's camp for the fight with Ali in Zaire. Between Moore and headmaster Dick Saddler they came up with one of most inept game plans of how to put Ali in the loss column.Watching Moore hustling at the end to put on Foreman's robe was a trifling moment.

When they put together that mythical fight between Ali and Rocky Marciano,Rocky got miffed that Ali kept up up with all that prefight bad mouthing. Angelo Dundee told Marciano it was only an act,something to hype up the event,but Marciano wouldn't see it that way. Very few sympathized with Rocky.Why were you so upset?Gee,you're sensitive.

When Tony Galento called Joe Louis a bum before their fight he touched a nerve with Joe. He said nothing but he wanted to take it out on Galento. He wanted to carry Tony through as much punishment round after round as he could muster.When Galento knocked Louis down Joe decided to end the carnage. After the fight Galento blamed his loss on his corner by telling him to"box" Louis after scoring the flash knockdown. Galento sniveled about that loss for the rest of his life.Not even my dago father never bought that argument.


Tony Galento

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Handwriting On The Wall

George Raft,the actor,said that he told his friend Joe Louis not to fight Rocky Marciano, who was also his friend. At the time that Marciano and Louis faced each other in the ring Louis had only lost twice in 68 fights.But Louis was fighting on borrowed time. He was 37 years old. Since losing his bid regain the title from Ezzard Charles he was on a 8 fight win streak, but in 6 of those victories he couldn't put his adversaries away. If ever a fighter showed his age at th end of his career it was Joe Louis. He was showing that solar plate on top of his head in the back,his skin now fleshy wasn't taut and muscled like when he was in his twenties fighting all those bums of the month ghosts they offered him on the altar.His movements had slowed. The once piston jab was now more of a a push instead of having all that horsepower behind it. Yet going into the fight the bettors had him the favorite.

I remember as a kid when Marciano knocked Louis through the ropes and his leg dangling on the bottom strand of the ropes. A reporter at ringside couldn't fathom that ugly sight and impulsively removed Louis' leg from hanging over that precipice. I don't think anybody wanted to see it end that way except all those Italians where I lived on the southwest side of Chicago.Those dagos were celebrating Marciano's victory like Caesar's triumph at Alesia. But that night those wops couldn't have cared less about any Roman legions or empires.They had a new king,Rocky Marciano,to put on their shoulders.

They talked about that fight in all the bars and poolrooms in the Patch.Joe Lous had beaten a slew of Italian fighters in his day but Rocky settled that score.Yet when Rocky walked inside Joe Louis; dressing room after it was over to console him, Marciano wept.
"Don't feel sorry for me," said Joe. "I'm all right."

I think of some of those greaseballs standing on the corner of Polk and Oakley laughing about how Marciano beat Joe Louis.If those guys could have only have seen Rocky cry.



George Raft

[Alguiffer]

I read (and look forward to) your posts, enjoy seeing your art work and have become interested in the types of music you post. All of your art work is very nice (my favs have been the paintings of Basilio and Pep) but this painting of Raft is incredible - it really captures the presence and command of the actor - I can hear his raspy voice coming thru the screen.

[dagosd2000]

I read (and look forward to) your posts, enjoy seeing your art work and have become interested in the types of music you post. All of your art work is very nice (my favs have been the paintings of Basilio and Pep) but this painting of Raft is incredible - it really captures the presence and command of the actor - I can hear his raspy voice coming thru the screen.

Thank you for the kind words.Did you know Raft turned down the lead part of Rick Blaine in Casablanca. Begey took it and never looked back!



Carmen Basilio

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No Laughing Matter

Tony Galento once beat up Jackie Gleason. Gleason was a guest on Rocky Marciano's show where the former champ featured someone from the sports or entertainment world and then they would watch a replay of a fight with Rocky doing most of the talking.Rocky had Gleason on the show and he asked Jackie if he had any experiences that connected with fighting. Gleason said he was doing a stand up comedy act in a joint in Newark called the Miami Club.Gleason said it was a tough room. They had a nickname for it-The Bucket Of Blood. One night Gleason said that every time he started his act there was "this little bald headed guy "in the audience that would start heckling him. Jackie said that he had finally had enough of this guy and told the proprietor that he would continue his routine but not before taking this guy outside and straightening him out. Well, Gleason walks outside with this dude and begins to start in on him.Well,the next thing Jackie remembers he's coming to on the sidewalk with a doctor administering to his cuts and bruises. When Jackie gets helped to his feet he asks the owner "who was that guy?"
"Tony Galento,"smirks the owner.
"You mean to tell me you let me go outside with Tony Galento the fighter?"
The owner shrugged his shoulders.
"Well you're such a wise guy..." laughed the owner.
Jackie was sitting there with Rocky and threw his hands in the air smiling. Then he he asked Rocky if he had ever fought Galento. Rocky smiled a little..
"No I never did but you took on the meanest street fighter around."
I guess the joke was on Gleason.


"The Great One",Jackie Gleason

The Honeymooners theme written by Jackie Gleason who fashioned himself as a composer. Always thought this was beautiful melody

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Just had to throw this in. Great stuff.They don't make 'em like this anymore.

[dagosd2000]

Oldie But Goodie

I scour YouTube for film footage of the old time fighters,the legends I heard them talk about in the pool room when I was a kid,the roughnecks that Ring Magazine touted s being able to lick any of the best they had to offer today. And that was back in the 50's when fighters like Marciano,Robinson,Moore,and Pep were dominating . An era with fresh memories of Joe Louis.Later, there would come Ali and Frazier and Foreman. Under them would emerge Griffith,Rodriguez,Napoles,Monzon,Hagler,Duran,Hearns,Arguello,and Foster.And that was just for starters.Here's the list compiled by Nat Fleischer in 1974 of the top fighters of all time in the eight divisions:
1.Heavyweight-Jack Johnson
2.Lightheavyweight-KId McCoy
3.Middleweight-Stanley Ketchel
4.Welterweight-Barbados Joe Walcott
5.Lightweight-Joe Gans
6.Featherweight-Terry McGovern
7.Bantamweight-Georger Dixon
8.Flyweight-Jimmy Wilde

But I know where Fleischer was coming from. He saw in person most of those guys fight.He felt he had us at a disadvantage because we weren't around to see any of those fighters like he did. But beginning in the 1940's and rapidly developing in the 40's and into the 50's. the quality of the showcase fighter went from
standard" to "prime."

But let me focus on what 'ol Nat saw in the days when they were putting cocaine in Coca Cola.Let's go with his list.For starters there's no film of McCoy,Walcott,and Dixon.Ketchel shows up with Billy Papke and Jack Johnson. Ketchel does nothing but hug and lunge with Papke.Johnson toys with him throughout the fight. Gans can be seen throwing the fight with Terrible Terry, but we can see what Joe's made of fighting Battling Nelson even with TB ravishing his lungs. He's got perfect posture in the ring and shows sharp skills.McGovern can only be seen fighting Gans and you can throw that fight out because of the fix.Wilde looks good against Pancho Villa.JImmy is tough and strong but keeps his hands low and gets popped around pretty good finally giving way to the Pinoy fighter.

So in my oldie but goodie era I have Johnson and Gans as the only class champs on Fleischer's list and I''ll give Wilde the benefit of the doubt. But then there was another fighter worth fighter.Sam Langford,There's no film of Jack Britton nor Harry Greb. But here's the guy who might have been the best of that bygine era.,Fleischer's number 2 lightweight,Benny Leonard.In fact you can make a case that he was the best lightweight ever.When they talk about the best lightweights on the forum it's the same cast of charchters:Mayweather,Whitaker,Duran,Ortiz,Arguello,and Sanchez.If you want to see something special the standard to watch is Leonard's fight with Lew Tendler.

Tendler was the top contender and was supposed to test Leonard to the max.On top of it he was a southpaw. Almost the entire fight was filmed.Leonard had the most amazing footwork,balance,and offensive and defensive skills I have ever seen in a lightweight or maybe any fighter. Tendler was no slouch but he was out worked,punched,and just couldn't cope with Leonard. Leonard would break apart Tendler with a stiff jab,land smart counters,and put himself in position to attack or defend. He was a Fred Astaire in there with boxing gloves..He was quick as they come.The complete package.No wonder Ray Arcel said he was the greatest fighter he ever had or ever saw period. And didn't Arcel train that other lightweight?I think his name was Duran.


Benny Leonard

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If It Says Don't, Do It Anyway

I've been a few times to the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City to take in the fights.My wife's sister lived in the capital with her Chilango husband.I don't know who got on my nerves more,my wife' sister of her know it all husband. He had a degree from the big university there and he was in politica.Everyone called him "Licenciado" and his mother let him manage her uniform factory that made school uniforms for all the school kids.He spoke better English than me and he was always bum rapping the United States yet he had never been there. I'd take him to the fights.The first time he told me that had never gone before and that he was afraid that he'd get rolled.Nothing ever happened.

By the time I started going to Mexico's answer to Madison Square Garden it didn't feature many significant fights anymore. The big time Mexican fighters were fighting in LA or Tijuana or in some outdoor venue like a bullring where they could pack the fans to the doors. But I envisioned seeing something reminiscent like when legends like Kid Azteca, and Baby Arizmendi had everybody on their feet.But it never turned out that way for me. I probably saw a half a dozen fights inside the old building and just about every bout stunk.

I saw Ruben Olivares fight his swan song there and he got knocked out in two rounds by a kid who had a 1 and 2 record.Everyone was there to give Rockin' Ruben a big last hurrah but instead of cheers it was jeers.I can't recall the names of the main eventers I saw there.I know Mario Olmedo was one and he wasn't anything to write home about. But like I said,by the time i started going, the big name fighters in Mexico may have paid there dues inside the Arena Coliseo but because the peso at that time was taking a nose dive (and that's was what those fighters got paid with), guys like Julio Cesar Chavez,Jose Luis Ramirez,and Bazooka LImon left premises virtual strangers.

But I can say I went there to the Arena Coliseo. What used to get me was when you walked inside there were all kinds of signs posted on the walls saying "No Apuestas"(No Gambling).Well, if that wasn't an open invitation.People were throwing money across the ring at each other and shouting out what odds were available.Put up a sign in Mexico that says you can't do something and they'll do it anyway even if it's just for spite.


THe Arena Coliseo,Mexico City

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Your Mother Is A Whore

Wrestling is more popular than boxing in Mexico. It always has been ,and with boxing on the wane, wrestling will continue to surpass boxing in fan support.Once Canelo fades away it's a lead pipe cinch.

Mexicans refer to wrestling as "lucha libre". It's more of a cult than a sport. Many of the wrestlers escape from the drudgery of their daily lives and reinvent themselves as some sort of comic book character-hero or villain. You see wrestlers in the U.S. and they're big giant steroid freaks. Mexican luchadores aren't necessarily big.Most look like some guy that walked in from the street. The wrestlers form groups and clubs and practice on their own.Many wrestle for free only so thy can get the chance to to exhibit their second selves.

Most of the wrestlers wear some sort of mask. The mask hides the real self and adds to the allure of the make believe .It's not uncommon to see wrestlers walk around in public wearing their masks.Kids,especially,like going to the lucha libre.I know many of my adult friends down south still have their scrap books with pastings of their favorite comic book heroes of the ring. From every pueblo to the largest cities put on a show. The attendance is strong. There are the good guys against the bad guys. The fans attach themselves to either. The fans chant obscenities to the wrestler they don't like. It gets pretty gross.
"Your mother is a whore."
Stuff like that.But it doesn't have mean intentions. It's part of the fantasy like the wrestling.You see old ladies chanting ."Your mother is a whore" smiling all the way. It's weird.

I was talking a little about the Arena Coliseo yesterday. That's still the numero uno venue for lucha libre.My granddaughter's husband is a small time wrestling promoter in Tijuana.Once a month he puts on a card at the Rancho Grande Bar on Revolution Street. He does pretty well.He tells me that his big dream is to have a promotion at the Arena Coliseo.

When I was working at that school down there coaching American football I was approached to try my hand at wrestling.I was working out at one of the local gyms and a wrestler ,who was also pumping iron, asked me if I would be interested. I took him up on it. I went to the Municipal Auditorium where the wrestlers were practicing their routines. They told me the pay was 200 a week. I'd wrestle on Saturday in TJ and Sunday in Mexicali.They were thinking of naming me "El Gringo."

However when they showed me what they wanted from me I couldn't pass muster.Mexican wrestling is very acrobatic. More than what they do in the U.S. They wanted me to start standing on the top ring rope and then do a back flip onto the mat. I would have wound up in the hospital. My body isn't too flexible. So I passed on bring a wrestler in Mexico.

I remember when I was first married and living in Tijuana with the wife and kids.Every Saturday morning I'd take them to one of the big movie houses downtown and watch the films. it was a quarter to get in. Mexico knows that people need to have fun so they give them things that they can afford:movies,circuses,parades,wrestling matches. The movies were mostly kids stuff. Cowboys were a biggie. Every one of those guys could sing.La India Maria was a popular actress with the common folk. She would dress up in her bright clothes and act sort of like a female Charlie Chaplin.Then there was Mexico's answer to Chaplin who I thought was a lot funnier,Cantinflas.But the flicks the kids liked best were the ones starring Mexico's most famous wrestler,El Santo..He was a living legend.A hero like Superman.

Well, there you have it. Lucha Libre will always be the the eternal child in every adult Mexican mind.Mexico's "Rosebud" so to speak.
"Your mother is a whore."


Here's Jose Napoles giving El Santo a hand.Everybody wanted to fight alongside El Santo


My granddaughter husband's show at the Rancho Grande Bar in TJ

[Chuck1052]

J. B. Long, my paternal grandmother's stepfather and uncle, had one of the biggest sheep operations in Montana during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with as many as 175,000 sheep. J. B. Long felt that a sheepman needed to have access to two acres of land per head. During his peak years, J. B. Long had a huge lease on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in the northeastern part of Montana for summer grazing. After the reservation land was made available to settlers, J. B. Long had far less sheep by the middle 1910s.

In an attempt to find suitable range land, Donald Wilson and Thomas Chamberlain, representing J. B. Long & Co., made a trip to the southwestern part of the United States in 1920 and to Mexico in 1921. While in Mexico, they visited Francisco "Pancho" Villa's 500,000-acre ranch in Durango and came away very impressed with the activity and farm equipment on it. But they observed that very little was taking place in other agricultural areas that they visited in Mexico. In contrast with the farm equipment that Villa had, the Mexican farmer generally had a wooden plow and a crowbar to use to plant corn. This was soon after the Mexican Revolution. In an interview, Wilson felt that it was far too risky for Americans to make large investments in Mexico at the time. Eventually, Wilson and Roy Clary, the manager of J. B. Long's interests in Montana, secured a large lease on the Blackfeet Reservation and had a substantial number of sheep there during the 1920s and 1930s.

- Chuck Johnston

[dagosd2000]

J. B. Long, my paternal grandmother's stepfather and uncle, had one of the biggest sheep operations in Montana during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with as many as 175,000 sheep. J. B. Long felt that a sheepman needed to have access to two acres of land per head. During his peak years, J. B. Long had a huge lease on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in the northeastern part of Montana for summer grazing. After the reservation land was made available to settlers, J. B. Long had far less sheep by the middle 1910s.

In an attempt to find suitable range land, Donald Wilson and Thomas Chamberlain, representing J. B. Long & Co., made a trip to the southwestern part of the United States in 1920 and to Mexico in 1921. While in Mexico, they visited Francisco "Pancho" Villa's 500,000-acre ranch in Durango and came away very impressed with the activity and farm equipment on it. But they observed that very little was taking place in other agricultural areas that they visited in Mexico. In contrast with the farm equipment that Villa had, the Mexican farmer generally had a wooden plow and a crowbar to use to plant corn. This was soon after the Mexican Revolution. In an interview, Wilson felt that it was far too risky for Americans to make large investments in Mexico at the time. Eventually, Wilson and Roy Clary, the manager of J. B. Long's interests in Montana, secured a large lease on the Blackfeet Reservation and had a substantial number of sheep there during the 1920s and 1930s.

- Chuck Johnston

Interesting story about your relatives Chuck. Villa's ranch in Durango,Canutillo,was granted to him by the Mexican government after the war by the Mexican president De La Huerta. It was to accommodate Villa's 50 Dorados and their families and Villa's wives and children.Besides farming and ranching with American bought equipment that impressed Vills tremendously,he had constructed a school on the property. He made it mandatory for all the children and adults to attend. He paid the teachers top salaries.He felt the solution to Mexico's problems could be remedied with a school system modeled after the U.S.An interesting sidelight..Villa told the construction workers to put the windows of the school at an elevated height.He didn't want the students to be staring out the window and not paying attention to the teacher.


Pancho Villa

[dagosd2000]

Hidden Losses

When I was a kid living in the Southwest Side listening to all those older guys talk about the most herald fights of the day, chomping down on their fried baloney sandwiches,I of course knew that the victor would have to be a goomba.There were four fights that was like talking about sacred scripture with those guys:Jake LaMotta pinning the first loss on Sugar Ray Robinson,Willie Pep's decision over Sandy Saddler, Rocky Marciano's KO of Joe Louis,and Carmen Basilio winning the middleweight title from Sugar Ray. The mugs of those four Italians could have been carved on the face of Mount Vesuvius.

But those fried baloney eaters never talked about Willie Pep being stopped three times by Saddler.Nor did they ever mention that LaMotta dropped five to Robinson.The rematch of Basilio and Robinson?Like it never happened. If I were to bring up one of those losses it was like I had committed a sacrilege.The priest was waiting for me inside the confessional. There was no room for debate.Pep was a better fighter than Saddler. LaMotta had Robinson's number. Basilio could lick Robinson any day of the week.And for good measure if I said that Louis was past his prime when he fought Marciano those greaseballs acted like they wanted to put out a contract on me. I mean I was talking about things that could get me in trouble.

When Basilio finally called it quits those guys that neighborhood crew lost interest with the fights. Giardello would go on to win a title but it was short lived.By the time Ray Mancini arrived there was no more interest.Besides,Arguello beat him fair and square and even though Mancini called himself a champ still ,he wasn't.

I sometimes think of what those toughs thought of Benvenuti.He was one of those Italians from Italy.A real Italian.But being a real Italian fighter to one of those guys on Taylor Street wasn't as big a deal as being an opera singer like Caruso.Besides,when Monzon sent Nino to the canvas on all fours those dagos probably went to the bar and put a quarter in the jukebox and played Sinatra's recording of "That's Life." The hell with Caruso.


Willie Pep

[Chuck1052]

J. B. Long, my paternal grandmother's stepfather and uncle, had one of the biggest sheep operations in Montana during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with as many as 175,000 sheep. J. B. Long felt that a sheepman needed to have access to two acres of land per head. During his peak years, J. B. Long had a huge lease on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in the northeastern part of Montana for summer grazing. After the reservation land was made available to settlers, J. B. Long had far less sheep by the middle 1910s.

In an attempt to find suitable range land, Donald Wilson and Thomas Chamberlain, representing J. B. Long & Co., made a trip to the southwestern part of the United States in 1920 and to Mexico in 1921. While in Mexico, they visited Francisco "Pancho" Villa's 500,000-acre ranch in Durango and came away very impressed with the activity and farm equipment on it. But they observed that very little was taking place in other agricultural areas that they visited in Mexico. In contrast with the farm equipment that Villa had, the Mexican farmer generally had a wooden plow and a crowbar to use to plant corn. This was soon after the Mexican Revolution. In an interview, Wilson felt that it was far too risky for Americans to make large investments in Mexico at the time. Eventually, Wilson and Roy Clary, the manager of J. B. Long's interests in Montana, secured a large lease on the Blackfeet Reservation and had a substantial number of sheep there during the 1920s and 1930s.

- Chuck Johnston

Interesting story about your relatives Chuck. Villa's ranch in Durango,Canutillo,was granted to him by the Mexican government after the war by the Mexican president De La Huerta. It was to accommodate Villa's 50 Dorados and their families and Villa's wives and children.Besides farming and ranching with American bought equipment that impressed Vills tremendously,he had constructed a school on the property. He made it mandatory for all the children and adults to attend. He paid the teachers top salaries.He felt the solution to Mexico's problems could be remedied with a school system modeled after the U.S.An interesting sidelight..Villa told the construction workers to put the windows of the school at an elevated height.He didn't want the students to be staring out the window and not paying attention to the teacher.


Pancho Villa

Roger, I should have added that Donald Wilson was a native of Scotland and immigrated to the U.S. when he was about 20 years ca. 1905. In other words, he was in his thirties in 1921. Tom Chamberlain was about 64 that year. By that time, both Wilson and Chamberlain had a tremendous amount of experience in the sheep business, especially Chamberlain. The lack of range land was a big problem for the Montana sheepmen by the middle 1910s. But the biggest problem that they would ultimately face was the greatly diminished demand for wool, mutton and lamb after World War II.

- Chuck Johnston