BoxRec

Visit with Armando Muniz . . .

Tonight I attended a board meeting for the WBHOF and spoke with Armando Muniz. I let Muniz know about this thread, and told him he has been remembered here. He asked me to say hello to his "old friend" Frank Baltazar, and said he was going to check it out.

As for "El Gato", I don't know, I haven't spoken with him this week. I'll give him a call, I know he and his friend Barbara were having trouble with their registration, and I really don't know what to do about it. He is really a wealth of great stories and information. He'll take you right down to Guadalajara, and tell some great stories of growing up in boxing with his cousin, Jose Beccera, and best friend Efren "Alacran" Torres, as well as, Felipe Gonzalez, and others.

Maybe I can help them resolve the problem?


-Rick Farris

"Un taco,por favor"
"Con todo?"
"Si con todo."
The guy inside the booth lifted the lid off the kettle and spooned out the "carne" and right away I could smell that familiar smell. I didn't have to taste it to know it was still the same tacos. The tacos had a brothy smell. Plenty of that hot juice that gave it that aroma. Carrots,an onion, all inside a soft warm corn tortilla. A radish on the side. The guy handed it to me on a small paper plate with a napkin.
"Que vale?"
"Diez"
The price had changed. I remember when those tacos were a quarter. Now they were a dollar. I gave him a 5 spot and he handed back 4 dollars and 75 cents. I didn't say anything. He probably figured I didn't know any better. I leaned over a trash can ,the juice dripping off my fingers,and in two bites it was gone. That taco booth had been there forever. The only thing that kept changing was the price of those tacos. I wondered how many times they'd painted over the price on the wooden sign to change the price.

I walked around the corner to the Auditorium. It was a cold night and for some reason Tijuana at night when it was cold made my body shudder. Sometimes I would start shuddering and think I was going to lose control. I hurried to the ticket window because I wanted to get inside away from the cold.
"Un ringside."I said to the woman inside the ticket booth.
"Quinientos."($50)she said. I remembered paying ten dollars for a ringside seat at that Auditorium to watch a Napoles fight. Napoles had been retired for more than 30 years.

Before going to my seat I needed to find the bathroom. The cold outside made me want to "go" all the time. Maybe it was my bladder or my prostate. I really didn't know,or want to know. When I got to the entrance there was crap all over the floor from one end to the other. The bathroom had broken down and so that's what it was,do it on the floor. I wasn't going in there. Seeing that made the urge go away.

I got to my seat near the corner of the ring. I looked up and saw that the crowd was sparse. More sparse than I'd ever seen it in there. I could here echos when the crowd was talking. The first prelim boys atarted down to the ring with their handlers. I recognized one of the handlers,Joe Medrano. Saw him fight in San Diego many times and here in this arena. Always gave them their money's worth.

The fighters looked no bigger than bantamweights at the most. The boys got their instructions from the referee. I knew him. It was Jose Cobian. He was the lead custodian at my old school. I knew he reffed the fights. It was a surprise to see him. I gave out a shout. Cobian looked down at me,and gave a quick thumbs up. He told me once he took pride being a referee.

When the bell rang both fighters rushed at each other swinging wildly. The fans liked the excitement,but also were laughing at both fighters' crudeness. Jose had difficulty seperating both boys even though they weren't that big. But neither was Cobian. During the opening round one of the kids got a bloody nose and there was red all over the front of Cobian's shirt. As the fight progressed it started getting more and more ugly. They were trying to trip and throw one another down in the clinches. They'd rabbit punch and bring their heads under each others' necks. After the first round Cobian had lost control.One of the boys hooked low. Cobian gave him a warning,and then the other kid fouled to get even. Cobian stopped the action and went to each corner warning to deduct more points for dirty fighting. All he got for a response was a loud dose of profanity from each corner.

In the last round both boys went down,one dragging the other with him. The crowd was getting as dirty as the fighters. "Chifles",boos,cussing,and now paper cups ,half filled with beer,were tossed into the ring. One half empty beer hit Cobian in the face. What could he do? The cops didn't move. The crowd just laughed. The fight was so bad that everything around it turned into a circus. The corner men were yelling across the ring at each other and at Cobian to do something,but it was a mess.

The final bell rang and I could see Cobian let out a big breath as he tried to pull the fighters apart. They didn't want to break, and the bell kept ringing real fast. The corners had to jump in to help Cobian. I couldn't tell who won really. Cobian was between the two fighters in the middle of the ring when the winner was announced. Cobian raised an arm and before he could put it down some guy in a suit jumps into the ring and attacks the guy with his hand in the air. Both corners rush into the center of the ring and start punching and kicking. It was hard for me to tell which side was which. All I know was Cobian was under it all. The cops ,all they did, was get closer to ringside so they could get a better view of the action.

Finally after around ten minutes civility was restored, Cobian's shirt was torn and covered with blood, There was a big red welt on his cheek. If that was the first fight,I wondered what was to follow. I knew Cobian couldn't go through that again.

Well if you wouldn't know it. After the first melee ,it was like someone had sprayed the arena with chloroform. The next prelim looked like a try out for a pacifist rally. I think these guys were probably brothers and their last names weren't Quarry. Joe Medrano was working the corner again and all he could do after a while was hang his head. The next fight was a cancellation.The main event was going so slow I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. Evidently one of the maineventers got the same feeling and fell asleep in his corner losing on a DQ.

The crowd shuffled toward the exits. As I got to the opening I saw on the wall a big framed picture of "Mantequilla" Napoles in his fighting pose. I was outside and the cold hit me again.It was colder than before. I shoved my hands inside my jacket. I felt the ticket stub in my pocket. I tossed it out as I walked briskly towards my car. I turned the corner and saw the guy inside the taco booth. I smelled the the tacos again. I slowed a little,but thought I better get back to the car before I froze to death.

kikibalt wrote:
Henry Tillman

I've got an amateur video of Tillman getting poleaxed by Canadian Willie DeWitt in the first round in Reno in December 1983.
Six months later, Tillman outpointed DeWitt to win Olympic heavyweight gold.

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Carl Bobo Olson, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Lennon, Lauro Salas & friends

With friends like that, it's easy to smile.

Bobo and his two wives.

Archie Moore & Carl Bobo Olson

kikibalt wrote:

You know, they say even Duran ducked Cervantes.

kikibalt wrote:

Loy came over here and destroyed a decent Scot in 1979. He looked hot right up until he ran into the super-featherweight version of Hector Camacho (ouch) and was stopped in seven. He essentially drifted from the sport after that. Shame. Losing to a young, ambitious Camacho was no disgrace.

Louie Loy Sr., I believe that his wife on the left, not sure.

kikibalt wrote:
Louie Loy Sr., I believe that his wife on the left, not sure.

I assume that's his father-trainer. Jesus, he did his son no favours pitching him in with Camacho in New York!
It's easy to be wise in hindsight, of course.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Louie Loy Sr., I believe that his wife on the left, not sure.

I assume that's his father-trainer. Jesus, he did his son no favours pitching him in with Camacho in New York!
It's easy to be wise in hindsight, of course.

And all for 17 thousand dollars.

kikibalt wrote:

Frank,Did you see that fight? I didn't know "Gato" had him down. Sometimes when you see the result in the record book,it doesn't give you the whole truth. For instance I didn't know Cervantes was floored.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

You know, they say even Duran ducked Cervantes.

Bennie
Here's something interesting. I was just looking at Cervantes's record. I noticed he was stopped by a very good fighter from Venezuela by the name of Cruz Marcano. At one time it was thought that Marcano might retire undefeated. I looked at Marcano's record and was surprised at what I discovered. Marcano lost one fight. He lost to a Mexican fighter by the name of Memo Morales in Venezuela! Morales finished his career with 3 wins and 11 losses. I saw Morales get destroyed by Antonio Gomez in Tijuana in 3 rounds .I didn't know it at the time,but this was right after Morales's fight with Marcano. At the time I saw the fight ,I didn't even know Morales had fought Marcano. Makes you think twice about the expression"bum of the month."

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

Frank,Did you see that fight? I didn't know "Gato" had him down. Sometimes when you see the result in the record book,it doesn't give you the whole truth. For instance I didn't know Cervantes was floored.

D,

Yeah, I was there for that fight, Rodolfo started fast and was wining the fight, then he got cut and that gave new breath to Cervantes and he started coming on, the cut was bad so the fight was stopped with Rodolfo ahead.

George Parnassus & Hiroyuki Ebihara

An additional avenue to try to get a line on where the Olympic films may be.

There are people who are fight film collectors.

They are not that interested in making money from what they do in some cases,

but just in increasing their beloved collection.

They will go to any length to add to their collection.

Such collectors would constantly keep their ear out for any chance of getting additional films.

One such collector is Tony Fosco in Chicago.

As I remember, Fosco had some contact with Randy Shields at one point (meaning he was on the West Coast) and he had the collection from Fullmer’s manager Marv Jensen of a huge number of western US fights.

Calling Fosco and asking him what he might know or have heard about the Olympic films would make sense.

Also any other such collectors, if there are any.

kikibalt wrote:
Mike & Jerry Quarry in the early days at the Olympic.

Hey Frank,
I was there. This is how it went. Jerry's looking at his brother and says,"Kooky,Kooky lend me your comb."

Hey Buddy my wife just brought in my new great grandson as I was writing this. He's two weeks old. Abram Angel. Got this little bib on with a little horse on it. I can see why your wife didn't watch your boys fight. I think I'm getting soft as I get older.

dagosd2000 wrote:Hey Buddy my wife just brought in my new great grandson as I was writing this. He's two weeks old. Abram Angel. Got this little bib on with a little horse on it. I can see why your wife didn't watch your boys fight. I think I'm getting soft as I get older.

Hey dude, enjoy your grandson, man I sure have fun with my grandkids.

We all get soft with old age

Tony "Tiger" Lopez & Loreto Garza

Hey, I know its probably been said before but I just want to say what a pleasure it is to read this thread, it really is awesome... keep the good work up fellas, you should be getting paid for this you know!....

kikibalt wrote:
Tony "Tiger" Lopez & Loreto Garza

Nice pic of Lopez, one of my favourite fighters of his era, never in a bad fight...

silkov wrote:Hey, I know its probably been said before but I just want to say what a pleasure it is to read this thread, it really is awesome... keep the good work up fellas, you should be getting paid for this you know!....

Thanks.

Paid? not me, I just do it for the love of the game.

R-to-L
Harold Lederman, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Rodolfo's love of his life Barb Cornell