BoxRec

I woke up around midnight and couldn't go back to sleep, so I woke up the boss, and I ask her "do you want to make whoopies?" with one eye open, she starts laughing, and she tells me "don't start anything you can't finish", what can I say to that, but, "wow you really know how to hurt a guy" I felt like flipping her the bird, but I didn't, instead I watch tv for a while.

Photo and caption by Dan


Rick and Monica with Monica's friend Kathy Skyles. Barging into the
picture is none other than 'Irish' Gil King

"Ted Williams"

By Diego

Former IBF light-middleweight champion Roman "Made in Hell" Karmazin looks to get back on track against American veteran Bronco McKart in a 12-rounder in California next month (December 20).
Karmazin must have been through Hell in recent months in the wake of a disastrous and wholly unexpected defeat to Alex Bunema at Madison Square Garden at the start of the year. The usually dangerous, body-punching Russian copped one on the chin from the strong African in the 10th round, and that was basically that. Karmazin had appeared a bit shaky throughout, although he was ahead on points at the stoppage.
Trained by Freddie Roach out of Los Angeles, Karmazin is now 35 and faces a tough road back. He had dropped his IBF belt to St Louis southpaw Cory Spinks in 2006 on a majority decision, then took apart two decent opponents last year prior to Bunema, a durable, rugged type and nothing more. Karmazin made him look like a million dollars.
At his best Karmazin has quick hands - and his punches are sharp. He is big for a light-middleweight yet he came in surprisingly light for Bunema. You wonder if he panicked in the final days leading up to the fight? Either way, this is one of those 'must win' fights for Karmazin.
To his opponent, the tall McKart who probably has weightmaking issues of his own at a creaking 37, although "Superman" is one of those lean types and he certainly knows his way round a boxing ring at 51-8-1 (31). McKart comes off a decent draw with Raul Marquez (originally announced as a win for Marquez) and - get this - holds a win over that man Bunema, on a split decision after 12 hard rounds way back in 2001 - he beat the man who beat the man.
McKart is tough and canny, with pretty good reflexes for a man of 60 fights, a southpaw, but he lacks pop in his punches and Karmazin does not.
Unless Roman is slipping fast, one can expect him to force a hard-earned decision.

At the President's dinner on Friday before the Banquet from L to R is
Yaqui Lopez, Emile Griffith, Marvin Johnson, Alberto Reyes (of Reyes
boxing eqpt.), Gilberto Mendoza of the WBA, Miguel Diaz and
again...'Irish' Gil King

'Mexicutioner' Pacquiao set to fight De La Hoya

Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao hopes to extend his winning streak when he faces Oscar De La Hoya on Dec. 6. He plans to fight at short range to score points early and wear out his rival.
By Lance Pugmire
LATimes

Topic No. 1 regarding Manny Pacquiao's decision to fight Oscar De La Hoya at 147 pounds is the jump in weight -- some 12 pounds greater than the Philippine star's current standing as world lightweight champion, and a staggering 41 pounds greater than Pacquiao's pro debut bout at 106 as a 17-year-old.

Pacquiao calls it a "nonissue."

"It's muscle, not fat," Pacquiao says, crediting training and nutrition techniques. "And I won't lose any speed. Speed can be developed in training, and that's what I'm doing."

Considered the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Pacquiao is walking around now near 150 pounds. He's buoyed by information from his trainer and promoters and is convinced he'll extend his current eight-fight winning streak that includes victories over Mexican stars Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.

A computer study shows that in recent years De La Hoya's punch and jab rate steadily deteriorates after the sixth round in his fights. Longtime Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler drove in from Las Vegas to script with Pacquiao a strategy to beat the same fighter whose early career Trampler once so artfully directed.

Boxing followers have tabbed Pacquiao "The Mexicutioner" because of this winning streak, and Pacquiao is confidently promising De La Hoya, 35, will be the next to fall in their Dec. 6 fight.

"I think so," Pacquiao, 29, says, relaxing in his upscale Los Angeles apartment after a recent Hollywood gym training session. "He's not the good Oscar I saw before. He's still dangerous, but not as good as he was before."

Pacquiao will earn a guaranteed $11 million plus a possible pay-per-view percentage for the fight.

In training, Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 knockouts) has practiced counterpunching options to De La Hoya's famed left hook. His drills include stepping away from his opponent's left and firing combinations or multiple body shots. Pacquiao ducks a left to his head, then pounds two blistering punches to trainer Freddie Roach's body, flashing a trademark menacing glare as De La Hoya's scorned ex-trainer tells his star, "That's good. Always move."

Roach makes it clear he wants Pacquiao to avoid the Golden Boy's left, and the trainer knows his southpaw fighter packs a powerful left of his own -- one that will be helped by the use of smaller, 8-ounce gloves on fight night. Team Pacquiao has studied how De La Hoya's face puffed up in his last fight against Steve Forbes, and is confident its boxer can scuff him up even more.

"Load up on that shot, then get off," Roach tells Pacquiao of his left hand. "You're never flat-footed, always on your toes. Don't let him catch you."

When Pacquiao initially balked at agreeing to this fight because of money -- he ended up accepting the smaller 68-32 split of the purse -- Roach told Pacquiao about the time he trained De La Hoya in Puerto Rico before his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2007.

"We brought in a small [106-pound] southpaw named Ivan Calderon, and Oscar couldn't hit the guy," Roach says. "I've always remembered that. He had trouble with speedy, little guys. Oscar lost control of the fight against Floyd because he didn't cut the ring off. I told Manny I thought this would mean he could beat De La Hoya."

Catching Pacquiao will not be easy. His closest friends brought him a Jack Russell terrier for camp, and they say the energetic little dog is the only creature who kept up with the boxer as he made frequent runs along Griffith Observatory up to the Hollywood sign.

During a training break, Roach elaborates on their strategy:

"This fight is not as much about adjusting to Oscar's size as it is adjusting to his left hand," Roach says. "If we can take away his jab, that nullifies his hook. You do that with constant movement, and Manny is definitely capable of keeping that up at a high level for 12 rounds. I'm counting on Manny's youth and conditioning."

Pacquiao describes his southpaw fighting stance as "my advantage." He's used to fighting right-handers like the orthodox De La Hoya and knows the history: De La Hoya has only two southpaws of note on his resume: Pernell Whitaker and an aged Hector "Macho" Camacho.

"It's not easy for him," Pacquiao says.

De La Hoya's obvious strengths are his power and 6-inch reach advantage, which Roach wants to counter by having Pacquiao fight "at short range" to score points early and then capitalize as fatigue hits the older fighter.

"We believe Oscar wants to get Manny out early," says Eric Brown, Pacquiao's assistant trainer. "Oscar's a tough guy, but he fades real bad. We'll take the body away, and by the eighth, Oscar will be done."

Pacquiao is coy when asked about the plan to peak in the later rounds.

"Maybe," he says.

Roach is more detailed.

"Timing is everything in this sport, and when you look at some history of guys coming down in weight later in their career, they get killed: Roy Jones Jr. did after he fought at heavyweight, Sugar Ray Leonard did against Terry Norris," Roach says. "Oscar's going to gain 10 pounds after the weigh-in, and my guy's speed is too much. He'll attack Oscar all night long, and he'll win over a lot of Oscar fans. It's perfect timing."

Pugmire is a Times staff writer.

bennie wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:You Chicago Irish Hooligans don't know nothin' about beating a hang over after a night of drinkin' and whorin' around.We Italians eat Menudo too,but we call it Tripe. Nothing like cow stomach in tomato sauce. Add some hominy,oregano,onion,and a squeeze of lemon. Splash some hot sauce in there and now you can start acting like a degenerate again. Hide the women and children I've had my cow stomach.

My dogs like tripe.

Bennie, my friend Karl Nelson used to be America's top breeder of Airedale Terriors. He is the only American to ever judge the terrier breed at Krufts (spelling?) the big dog show you guys have each year. Karl used to feed his champion Airedales tripe each night. I asked him "why?" He told me he'd learned from an old English Breeder that Tripe is good for the dogs coat and also keeps them breeding long after the age a dog normally should. I guess in a sense, tribe is kind of a breakfast for champions. I think I'll have tripe for thanksgiving and then chase Monica around the house.

-Rick

kikibalt wrote:For all you tamale eating guys, the best tamales in SoCal,
I had a doctor appointment in L.A. today and on the way back
I stopped at Juanito's and picked me up a dozen, and order 4
dozens for the holidays, check'em out below.

The word got out that I had bought some tamales from Juanito's yeserday and all
the familia showed up to eat tamales last night.... ;;-)

Main Street Gym (Los Angeles)
From Boxrec Boxing Encyclopaedia

Carlo Curtis--an unsung friend of boxing and particularly of the omnipresent newsboys who were on every street corner or safety zone by the street car lines in the 1920s, '30s and '40s--opened this training facility at Third and Figueroa, circa 1924, and soon began to put on pro boxing shows on Saturday nights.

The place had two floors, with the upper story used only on fight nights to accomodate the gallery gods, cheaply, and yet with an excellent vantage point to take in all the action. There was usually one ring used for sparring, which was located at a point farthest from the main entrance. That ring abutted against the stage, also at the back, which never saw much practical use. The main floor of the gym itself was on the second story of the entire building, which housed a bar and grill downstairs. Fight films were shown constantly at the bar during regular business hours.

On Thanksgiving Day, Curtis would shut down for business in order to host a couple hundred appreciative newsboys to turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Thus, the Main St. A.C., which promoted the Saturday bouts, became known as the Newsboys' Club. Many years later, Gig Rooney, who managed Jackie Fields, opened a similar gym with that name on Mission Road, near the old Eastside Brewery.

The old Main St. Gym had an undeniable scent of arnica and wintergreen that permeated the scene, day-in and day-out, with dozens of boxers going through the various paces of their workouts. Speed bag, heavy bag, skipping rope, shadow boxing, and every once in a while, a minor rumble in the locker room area, when two boys would have at each other for whatever reason that had been festering.

Several "characters" could be found in this gym, such as the cherubic Fabela Chavez--too young to box pro and too good for the amateurs, sparring with some of the top pros several times a week, biding his time until he could obtain a license to box professionally. Chavez would hold his own and more, for a couple or rounds, but then the pro boxer would kick the workout into high gear and squash the kid's zealous attitude, forcing his handler, Johnny Villaflor, to call "time."

Another standout character was "Tiger" Napoleon--a former boxer from the Philippines, who was the unofficial "barker" at the gym, using a huge megaphone to call out the names of the boxers taking the ring for sparring sessions. "Tiger" was said to be a graduate of Stanford University. He he spoke with a thick accent.

In the 1940s, Joe Kelly was the barker at the head of the stairs leading to the gymnasium. It was he who collected the fifty-cent admission, or waved you in if you were one of the working fraternity, press, club employee, manager, trainer, etc. It was he who also sold you the current Knockout or The Referee magazine. He was later the door man at the Teamsters Gym.

The Main Street Gym burned down in 1951 and was replaced almost immediately by the Moose Gym at the top of the old Angels' Flight, which itself was replaced by the new Main St. Gym -- across the street from the original one.

bennie wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:You Chicago Irish Hooligans don't know nothin' about beating a hang over after a night of drinkin' and whorin' around.We Italians eat Menudo too,but we call it Tripe. Nothing like cow stomach in tomato sauce. Add some hominy,oregano,onion,and a squeeze of lemon. Splash some hot sauce in there and now you can start acting like a degenerate again. Hide the women and children I've had my cow stomach.

My dogs like tripe.

What are you saying Bennie?

kikibalt wrote:I woke up around midnight and couldn't go back to sleep, so I woke up the boss, and I ask her "do you want to make whoopies?" with one eye open, she starts laughing, and she tells me "don't start anything you can't finish", what can I say to that, but, "wow you really know how to hurt a guy" I felt like flipping her the bird, but I didn't, instead I watch tv for a while.

Women have all the right answers. Everything from"I've got a headache."(never stopped me) to "No,my hand hurts." :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQWiz1ptA-E
Hunter Hancock tribute....2000
Hancock died Aug. 4, 2004, I was privileged to have received
a phone call from Hancock 2 month before he died.

McDonalds in Old Mexico

One of my photos, I've posted one similar before.

Photo and caption by Dan


Pops with George Chuvalo

Photo and caption by Dan


Emile Griffith, still looking good. Recognise Hassan in the background. Hey Gil,
show him that left hook of yours, but this time with enthusiasm.

kikibalt wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQWiz1ptA-E
Hunter Hancock tribute....2000
Hancock died Aug. 4, 2004, I was privileged to have received
a phone call from Hancock 2 month before he died.

Frank
I'm still at work. It's cold. Looks like rain. We haven't done the oldies for a while. How about putting a quarter in the juke box? Diego

Please, Disregard this test post

Dongee wrote:test

What's "test?"

THANKSGIVING

All the darkened arenas where fighters bled and poured their sweat to pay the rent. All the punches they dealt and received to buy food for their families. This was how they made their living. A human body that wasn't prepared for that kind of life despite all the road work and sit ups and sparring partners that readied them to step into the ring to fight another like him.

Now he's old beyond his age and doesn't remember the fights he had in all those arenas that don't exist anymore. Like the old fighter,those smoky coliseums have been broken down so the new faces can never tell what they once were or who the battlers were that made the crowds roar.

Explain to the youth who the Golden Boy was ,or The Olympic where he made his living ,and you'll get a puzzled smile. But we can put it together ,if only from memory. We're thankfull that we lived there once,and now we can see it in a dream that can never be lost.

Happy Thanksgiving, Guys. Enjoy your day, eat a lot of good food, give thanks and stay safe.

Randy

Heralded by his promoter Dan Goossen as "the most feared fighter in boxing today", Paul Williams takes on possibly the most experienced in Denver veteran Verno Phillips on Saturday night in California, scheduled for 12 rounds.
Southpaw Williams is the reigning WBO welterweight champion with a big, big decision win over Mexican superstar Antonio Margarito last year over the championship distance - before Margarito pounded out an 11-round stoppage of Miguel Cotto. While Antonio seemingly stalls at a 'natural' rematch with the towering Williams, whose reach is longer than the Klitchkos', Paul "The Punisher" eases up and down the weights in destructive fashion like one of those old-time fighters of the 1950s. He destroyed full Minnesota middleweight Andy Kolle in the first round in September and slick Puerto Rican welterweight Carlos Quintana in the first round before that in June. The smouldering, 27-year-old South Carolinan had been outsmarted by Quintana in a previous meeting in February (outpointed over 12 rounds) but avenged his only defeat in the most emphatic way possible, bombing out Quintana in 135 seconds and dropping him twice in the process. With some justification Team Williams says its man is avoided by the likes of Margarito, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Kelly Pavlik...
Hats off to Phillips for stepping up to the plate on the night of his 39th birthday, a man who most definitely likes his fights - and his cake - damn hard. Light-middleweight Phillips is remembered here for a loss to Paul "Silky" Jones back in 1995. He dropped the slippery Sheffield man with a cracking right hand in the first round but failed to nail him again was shaken himself in the ninth, although he still looked to have done enough at the end of 12, in my opinion. The decision, in Sheffield, was a majority one. Phillips knew he wouldn't get it.
Phillips turned pro in January 1988, when Williams was all of six, and suffered his one and only stoppage loss six months later: the much bigger Carl Sullivan wore him down in five rounds. Typically, Verno went in with Sullivan in his very next fight and lasted the full eight (to lose on points). Nothing has really changed. Earlier this year Phillips ventured to Cory Spinks territory in St Louis and punched out a shock but deserved 12-round decision over the son of "Neon" Leon, a brilliant, brilliant win, a win which secured him this birthday payday. His other victims include Julian Jackson, Lupe Aquino, Gianfranco Rosi, Rafael Williams, Santos Cardona, although the likes of Ike Quartey, Silvio Branco, Kassim Ouma and Kenny Gould have beaten him in turn.
Paul Williams is almost a pussycat compared to some of them.
The obvious question going in is, will Williams become the first man to stop Phillips in 20 years? No, in a word. Williams will look to stop him in the nearly rounds, of course, especially after his last two bombings, fail, settle down, use his height and reach, and box his way to the points.

Boxer Arreola will fulfill his promise to a slain friend


Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Heavyweight boxer Cristobal Arreola, photographed at the Lincoln Boxing Club in July 2007, will fight Florida heavyweight Travis Walker at the new Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario on Saturday night.
By Bill Dwyre

Many people wear their emotions on their sleeve. Heavyweight boxer Chris Arreola wears his a bit higher.

It is a quiet weekday afternoon, the slightly overcast kind that Vin Scully calls a "soft day." Arreola, an imposing man of muscle and width and tattoos, sits in the backyard of his Riverside home and looks out on treeless hills and dirt paths carved out by various off-road vehicles.

Arreola, 25, is only days from entering the ring for the 26th fight of a professional career that has been inching its way, since September 2003, toward a level of prominence that could make him famous and wealthy. He will fight once-beaten Florida heavyweight Travis Walker on the first-ever boxing card at the new Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario on Saturday night. His bout will be the semi-main event to Paul Williams versus Verno Phillips at junior middleweight (154 pounds).

There is plenty of boxing going on these days, but this card is attractive enough to be the HBO "Boxing After Dark" show.

Arreola knows he is on the doorstep of something big, that fighting Walker is not like slugging it out with some of the bloated bags he has faced while building a reputation with 22 knockouts on the way to a 25-0 record. He knows this is serious business, that his dream of being in boxing's big time -- "I want it in Staples Center, September 2009, a title fight maybe against one of the Klitschko brothers" -- is closer with success in Ontario.

But for the moment, he is lost in thought elsewhere. Asked the innocuous question of how this boxing stuff got to be serious, he gazes into the distance and appears to choke up. After a pause, he tells the story of Alex Carranza.

"He was my best friend. We were like brothers," Arreola says. "When I was a kid, my dad started me boxing, and, from the time I was 7 years old, until I was maybe 16, that's all I did. Go to school, go to the gym, come home, do homework, go to bed. Every weekend, all over L.A., they'd have boxing shows and I'd be there."

By the time he was 16, he was boxed out, he says. His parents divorced, his mother moved him to Riverside, and one day, at a barbecue, he met Carranza.

"He was this huge dude, maybe 6-5," Arreola says. "Right from the start, we hit it off. Pretty soon, everybody just expected us to be with each other. It was kind of like, here come the two big Mexicans."

Arreola says it was Carranza who got him back into boxing.

"It was seven or eight years ago," he says. "We're sitting around, watching boxing on TV, and I see these guys fighting who are just terrible. And I'm saying how I could whip all these guys. So Alex says to me -- he had this squeaky little voice that was funny on a big guy -- 'OK, if you're so bad, stop talking and go do it.' "

So Arreola did, winning the National Golden Gloves title in Reno in 2001 at 178 pounds and, with a slight pause for the birth of his daughter, Danae, 6, never looking back.

Carranza drove him to Reno for the Golden Gloves and was at almost all his other fights, except when his job as a truck driver kept him away.

"He never wanted anything," Arreola says. "He was just my friend. . . . He always said all he wanted from me was to take him to the good parties and to let him get up in the ring one time with me after a fight."

On Oct. 27, 2007, Arreola took Carranza, 25, to what he thought would be a good party. It was just a few miles down the road from where he lives, he says.

"I went to get some beer," he says, speaking more slowly now. "I came back and there were people running around in a panic. They said, 'Alex has been shot.' I went into the backyard and people told me he had just fainted.

"I bent over him and tried to lift him. There was no blood. Then my finger went into the bullet hole in his back and I knew it was bad."

There had been a dispute, several men with guns started shooting, Carranza had shielded a woman and a bullet entered his lower back and had done serious internal damage without exiting. Carranza died, the woman was wounded in the leg and another man, shot five times, survived.

According to Arreola, the shooters left the party and were never apprehended. He says he doesn't care. "I'm not an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy," he says. "Besides, it wouldn't bring Alex back."

Scheduled to fight in St. Lucia in November 2007, Arreola canceled.

"I went to his funeral," he says. "It was an open casket. There was this huge dude in this wooden box. I couldn't take it. I still feel him with me."

Arreola has a regret. He never brought his friend up into the ring with him, as Carranza had asked. He was waiting for bigger fights, bigger moments.

But he has done the best he can to fix that. Since his last fight, he added to his extensive collection of tattoos. High on his left arm is a picture of Carranza. Underneath is written: "The Good Die Young."

"Saturday night will be his first time in the ring with me," Arreola says.

[email protected]

Randyman wrote:



Happy Thanksgiving, Guys. Enjoy your day, eat a lot of good food, give thanks and stay safe.

Randy

What is the lowdown on Thanksgiving? We have Christmas and a big turkey then, but no Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKAGIVING YOU AND YOUR'S, GUYS....

Don't eat too much!....