BoxRec

EL HIJO DEL PUEBLO

Antonio Diaz,the kid who lost to Vic Ortiz the last time out,was born in Michoacan. The bios say he was born in Jiquilpan,but he was really born in Paredonnes,the little village on top of the mountain above Jiquilpan. His parents had his birth record registered in Jiquilpan because there are no government buildings in Paredonnes. Don't see any in the near future either.

Antonio is well known in the area. When he was very young his parents moved to Coachella Valley in California. Most of the people of Paredonnes have moved to the U.S. There can't be more than a hundred people who live there now. My wife's godmother who is 109 years old has lived there all her life. Maybe she knows something the others don't.




Main drag,Paredonnes,Michoacan

Rick Farris wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

Now THIS is a fight card!

Just the other day, Dan Hanley were discussing the old Forum cards that George Parnassus put together.
You would have three or four competitive feature bouts, all featuring the likes of Napoles, Olivares, etc.

The above show would have been a winner regardless of the fight results. The fans the biggest winners.


-Rick Farris

Thanks for showing this Frank. Rick,these are the kind of cards I used to see in TJ during the 60's and 70's. For ten bucks I'd watch Napoles,Saldivar,Olivares,Laguna,and Zarate fighting the main.Add U.S. fighters like Davey Moore,Hedge Lewis,Art Hafey,and the great Sugar Ray Robinson. Guys like Urbina,Baby Vasquez,Soriano,the Pimentels fighting on the undercard. I took it for granted that that was the way it was always going to be.Then came Pay For View.

The last time I saw Allan Malamud . . .

It was late 1990. I was working on a feature motion picture that starred Edward James Olmos, "Talent For The Game."
It was a baseball flick, and we were shooting at Ddger Stadium.

Allan had a cameo role, played himself, a sportswriter.
At lunch, I went up to say hello. It had been nearly twenty years since he had written a feature story on me, for the Sunday Herald, that appeared on Feb. 21, 1971.

Afterwards a friend on the set asked Malamud if he'd really written a story on my career?
To that the L.A. Hall of Famer answered, "Yes I did. We had high hopes for Ricky."

My career was mediocre, at best.
Hearing that Allan Malamud had said such a nice thing made me smile.
In my mind, Mud and Jim Murray were the best.
Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon and Jimmy Cannon had nothing on Murray and Malamud.


-Rick Farris

dagosd2000 wrote:

Rick Farris wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

Now THIS is a fight card!

Just the other day, Dan Hanley were discussing the old Forum cards that George Parnassus put together.
You would have three or four competitive feature bouts, all featuring the likes of Napoles, Olivares, etc.

The above show would have been a winner regardless of the fight results. The fans the biggest winners.


-Rick Farris

Thanks for showing this Frank. Rick,these are the kind of cards I used to see in TJ during the 60's and 70's. For ten bucks I'd watch Napoles,Saldivar,Olivares,Laguna,and Zarate fighting the main.Add U.S. fighters like Davey Moore,Hedge Lewis,Art Hafey,and the great Sugar Ray Robinson. Guys like Urbina,Baby Vasquez,Soriano,the Pimentels fighting on the undercard. I took it for granted that that was the way it was always going to be.Then came Pay For View.

Roger . . . It does not get better than what you saw in TJ. And it never will!

Rick Farris wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:

Downtown Jiquilpan




These little girls practiced in front of our house every evening. Cute little things.




A view of Jiquilpan from our house



Peace and Quiet

What a great place for you and Maria to settle. Simple life, not all the crap we face here.
I guess it all depends what a person wants & needs from life, but it looks like you have the right idea.
I have a feeling that you will one day be regarded as a local legend. Your art & charactor make an impression.


-Rick Farris

Rick 'ol pal,if one day Jiquilpan considers me a local legend it will be because I never wanted it. As Frank says,"No egos allowed."

When I grow up I want to be like Roger....

Rick Farris wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

Now THIS is a fight card!

Just the other day, Dan Hanley were discussing the old Forum cards that George Parnassus put together.
You would have three or four competitive feature bouts, all featuring the likes of Napoles, Olivares, etc.

The above show would have been a winner regardless of the fight results. The fans the biggest winners.


-Rick Farris

Alvaro Gutierrez is the one who ended Art Aragon's career, 1960, another fight that Connie and I were sitting riingside at the Olympic.

kikibalt wrote:When I grow up I want to be like Roger....

Frank ,thanks for the compliment,but I hope no one winds up like me. I never wanted to name my son after me. Frank,it's the traits I see in guys like you and Rick,Brian and Randy,the other posters for example, that I've always tried to aspire to.I consider just about everyone else to be more well adjusted than I am. I don't want to be alone,but I drive people away because I want to be myself. Figure that one out.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHeAFxljpIg


El Muchacho Alegre(for Frank)

Charro Avitia.(Why do I cry when when I hear this?)

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:When I grow up I want to be like Roger....

Frank ,thanks for the compliment,but I hope no one winds up like me. I never wanted to name my son after me. Frank,it's the traits I see in guys like you and Rick,Brian and Randy,the other posters for example, that I've always tried to aspire to.I consider just about everyone else to be more well adjusted than I am. I don't want to be alone,but I drive people away because I want to be myself. Figure that one out.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHeAFxljpIg


El Muchacho Alegre(for Frank)

Charro Avitia.(Why do I cry when when I hear this?)

Thanks Rog....

MY FIFTEEN MINUTES
Allan Malamud &"The Steamer" Bud Furillo . . .


In the 60's and earliest 70's, Allan Malamud was the Herald-Examiner's boxing scribe.
Malamud had come out of the USC Journalism Dept. and was a sports editor for "The Daily Trojan."

I don't know where Malamud learned boxing so well, but he just understood the nature of a tricky beast.
First off, he bonded with the boxers. Malamud would be as warm to an opening act fighter as he was the main eventers.
After my first pro fight, a "draw" that had been a barn burner, Malamud watched me box with Ruben Navarro in the gym.
Ruben was training for Raul Rojas, and he was really sharp. Malamud questioned me on my stablemate's condition.
I told him Ruben was going to out-box and out-fight Rojas. A week later, that was exactly what Ruben did.

I fought on the undercard of that fight, won my second pro bout.
Malamud devoted a few sentences to my fight, made a personal reference to me which was positive and kind.

He also used the "Out-box & out-fight" description of Ruben's fight, and credited me.
It's funny, I have lost a lot of things thru my life. But despite my travels, I have always held on to those clippings.
I just uncovered them. They are my fifteen minutes. My name didn't fit in the top ten, but it found a little niche as history unfolded.
When you read about some of the main events on cards in which I fought, you'll recall the history.

On Febuary 12, 1971, I scored my first pro KO on the undercard of the Buchanan-Navarro lightweight title fight.
Afterwards, I met up with Allan Malamud again, only this time he was with another legend, Bud Furillo.
Furillo was the Herald's sports editor, and a great guy. He and Malamud were like a comedy team together.
Furillo approached me ahead of Allan in the dressing room.
I was removing my boxing shoes, and Ruben Navarro was shadow boxing in the corner, with Julio Flores.
Navarro was up next, ready to head down the aisle following a brief intermission.
Both had come to see Ruben, but they took time to congratulate me.

When I looked up and found myself facing Bud Furillo face-to-face, it was like a dream.
This face I would see everyday, on the second page of the Herald-Examiner Sports section.
His smiling photo right under his column's name . . . "The Steam Room".

Furillo was "The Steamer." I read Furillo when he wrote about the Dodgers, and the Rams, Lakers, you name it.
I delivered the Herald when I was a kid. First thing I'd do when my papers were delivered was read Malamud and Furillo.
After getting their point of view, I could fold the papers and deliver them.
Furillo was a great multi-sport master, and so was Allan Malamud. Sports? Any sport.
You just put Mud and the Steamer in the house and you'll have two of the best stories that could be written.
And you will smile, and be glad you read it.

As I sit looking at Furillo, and then over Malamud, who had just shook my hand, the Steamer tells me that he heard my father was a Bank of America executive.

He suggested a feature story, and Allan would write it.
"Yeah, great!"
I tought they were just blowing smoke up my ass, but then I thought, "Malamud and Furillo wouldn't do that."
I was right, Malamud called me a couple days later.

The following week the feature came out on the second page of the Sunday Herald-Examiner.
I had just turned 19, a couple weeks earlier. I'd been a pro boxer for nine months, had fought ten pro fights.

I guess you'd say I was about to enter into my "fifteen minutes". Andy Warhol says everybody has "15 minutes" of fame. Those were mine.
It could have all stopped right there, because I had already achieved a major youth goal.
That goal was to become a professional boxer before graduating high school, and being written up by Allan Malamud, a feature, no less.

That's all I needed, and that's about all I got. And you know what, it's one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Dreams do come true, but you gotta help them along. Nothing just happens, you have to make it happen. Take a chance!


-Rick Farris

I've mentioned my cousin John De La O before. After battling cancer he came back to fight again. I don't follow MMA but this is noteworthy. Kudos to John.



De La O victorious in comeback fight

By LOU PONSI
2010-01-03 21:49:09
LONG BEACH – After being diagnosed with cancer in May 2007, the last thing on the mind of mixed martial arts fighter John De La O of Anaheim was getting back in the ring.

"I thought I was going to die, said De La O, 40, who lives in Anaheim. "I was just hoping I'd live long enough for my son to remember me."

Judging by the reaction of the 1,000-plus in attendance for Long Beach Fight Night Sunday at the Hall of Champions Gym, lots of folks will remember De La O for a long time.

Not only did De La O battle back from cancer and get back in the ring, he scored a victory by submission over Alex Rickards at 1:17 of the first round of their 165-pound fight.

"I couldn't believe I didn't cry," said De La O, minutes after locking a hammer choke on Rickards to force the stoppage. "It was probably the only time in my life I didn't cry after being this happy."

Rickards caught De La O with a hard right early in the round before the fighters wound up on the mat.

"It told me I had to get take the fight to the ground, said De La O of the punch.

Now that he has completed the comeback in the ring, De La O didn't commit to fighting again.

He has other priorities.

"I want to become a cancer activist," he said. "I want to have a positive effect on the world."

Still have jet lag. Going to sign off. Good night everyone.

dagosd2000 wrote:

Downtown Jiquilpan




These little girls practiced in front of our house every evening. Cute little things.




A view of Jiquilpan from our house



Peace and Quiet

Beautiful, Rog. The peace and quiet come though loud and clear. A man could be happy there.

By the way, glad to see you back.
Randy

bennie wrote:I took a few shots of Randolph Turpin's old training camp in Llandudno, North Wales, in the summer. He trained atop a mountain; he owned the entire mountain. The complex at the top is now a general tourist attraction, full of tacky gift shops and an overpriced diner.
Only the bar remains in Randy's name.


The summit complex. You can drive to the top, obviously, or catch a cable car or a tram.


The view from outside the bar. That's me, trying to look 'hard'.


The view of Llandudno, taken from a cable car.


A shot on the wall of the bar of Randy's inexplicable loss to Bobo Olson.


The good and bad days.

Looks like you're having a good time, Bennie. The pub alone looks worth the price of admission.
Great fighting pose.

Randy

kikibalt wrote:Off to see my doctors, will be gone all morning....

Hope everything went okay!

Randy

Rick Farris wrote:MY FIFTEEN MINUTES
Allan Malamud &"The Steamer" Bud Furillo . . .


In the 60's and earliest 70's, Allan Malamud was the Herald-Examiner's boxing scribe.
Malamud had come out of the USC Journalism Dept. and was a sports editor for "The Daily Trojan."

I don't know where Malamud learned boxing so well, but he just understood the nature of a tricky beast.
First off, he bonded with the boxers. Malamud would be as warm to an opening act fighter as he was the main eventers.
After my first pro fight, a "draw" that had been a barn burner, Malamud watched me box with Ruben Navarro in the gym.
Ruben was training for Raul Rojas, and he was really sharp. Malamud questioned me on my stablemate's condition.
I told him Ruben was going to out-box and out-fight Rojas. A week later, that was exactly what Ruben did.

I fought on the undercard of that fight, won my second pro bout.
Malamud devoted a few sentences to my fight, made a personal reference to me which was positive and kind.

He also used the "Out-box & out-fight" description of Ruben's fight, and credited me.
It's funny, I have lost a lot of things thru my life. But despite my travels, I have always held on to those clippings.
I just uncovered them. They are my fifteen minutes. My name didn't fit in the top ten, but it found a little niche as history unfolded.
When you read about some of the main events on cards in which I fought, you'll recall the history.

On Febuary 12, 1971, I scored my first pro KO on the undercard of the Buchanan-Navarro lightweight title fight.
Afterwards, I met up with Allan Malamud again, only this time he was with another legend, Bud Furillo.
Furillo was the Herald's sports editor, and a great guy. He and Malamud were like a comedy team together.
Furillo approached me ahead of Allan in the dressing room.
I was removing my boxing shoes, and Ruben Navarro was shadow boxing in the corner, with Julio Flores.
Navarro was up next, ready to head down the aisle following a brief intermission.
Both had come to see Ruben, but they took time to congratulate me.

When I looked up and found myself facing Bud Furillo face-to-face, it was like a dream.
This face I would see everyday, on the second page of the Herald-Examiner Sports section.
His smiling photo right under his column's name . . . "The Steam Room".

Furillo was "The Steamer." I read Furillo when he wrote about the Dodgers, and the Rams, Lakers, you name it.
I delivered the Herald when I was a kid. First thing I'd do when my papers were delivered was read Malamud and Furillo.
After getting their point of view, I could fold the papers and deliver them.
Furillo was a great multi-sport master, and so was Allan Malamud. Sports? Any sport.
You just put Mud and the Steamer in the house and you'll have two of the best stories that could be written.
And you will smile, and be glad you read it.

As I sit looking at Furillo, and then over Malamud, who had just shook my hand, the Steamer tells me that he heard my father was a Bank of America executive.

He suggested a feature story, and Allan would write it.
"Yeah, great!"
I tought they were just blowing smoke up my ass, but then I thought, "Malamud and Furillo wouldn't do that."
I was right, Malamud called me a couple days later.

The following week the feature came out on the second page of the Sunday Herald-Examiner.
I had just turned 19, a couple weeks earlier. I'd been a pro boxer for nine months, had fought ten pro fights.

I guess you'd say I was about to enter into my "fifteen minutes". Andy Warhol says everybody has "15 minutes" of fame. Those were mine.
It could have all stopped right there, because I had already achieved a major youth goal.
That goal was to become a professional boxer before graduating high school, and being written up by Allan Malamud, a feature, no less.

That's all I needed, and that's about all I got. And you know what, it's one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Dreams do come true, but you gotta help them along. Nothing just happens, you have to make it happen. Take a chance!


-Rick Farris

Rick, no one can take that away from you. You are a part of the history of boxing in the West Coast. I really enjoy reading about your experiences. I learn more about you every time I read one of your stories.

Everyone has a niche. Your's is to write about the golden and near golden age of boxing. You do it quite well. I think Mel would be proud.

Randy

There's a good article about my cousin Louie Burke's Jr. middleweight, Austin Trout, in Doghouseboxing.com

http://www.doghouseboxing.com/Ken/Hissner010210.htm

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:When I grow up I want to be like Roger....

Frank ,thanks for the compliment,but I hope no one winds up like me. I never wanted to name my son after me. Frank,it's the traits I see in guys like you and Rick,Brian and Randy,the other posters for example, that I've always tried to aspire to.I consider just about everyone else to be more well adjusted than I am. I don't want to be alone,but I drive people away because I want to be myself. Figure that one out.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHeAFxljpIg


El Muchacho Alegre(for Frank)

Charro Avitia.(Why do I cry when when I hear this?)

Rog, don't sell yourself short, Pal. To quote Sinatra "You're A number One" or a little closer to home quoting our Brian Higgins "you're a stand up guy". I don't think anyone here would disagree with that.

Randy

Rick Farris wrote:Not inexplicable at all . . . Bobo was of Swedish descent
_____________________________________________

About Olson . . . Mel Epstein got to know Bobo Olson during the years he lived in San Franciso.
Epstein had a lot of respect for the former middleweight champ, but was most fascinated by the man's love life.
Seems that Olson had wives all over America including Hawaii, San Franciso and New York.
I don't know the whole story, but I guess there came a time when all three found out about each other?
I gotta give the man credit, one wife is a lot of work. Three wives?

Epstein told me that's what happens to a man who is "over-sexed". "Fighters & women don't mix," he'd warn.
Mel really had a problem with boxers that were involved with women. Like it was the worst curse possible.
I know that women have ruined many a boxer, but life is life.


-Rick Farris

Oversexed? Nah, sounds like the sex drive of your typical Swedish male.

raylawpc wrote:

Rick Farris wrote:Not inexplicable at all . . . Bobo was of Swedish descent
_____________________________________________

About Olson . . . Mel Epstein got to know Bobo Olson during the years he lived in San Franciso.
Epstein had a lot of respect for the former middleweight champ, but was most fascinated by the man's love life.
Seems that Olson had wives all over America including Hawaii, San Franciso and New York.
I don't know the whole story, but I guess there came a time when all three found out about each other?
I gotta give the man credit, one wife is a lot of work. Three wives?

Epstein told me that's what happens to a man who is "over-sexed". "Fighters & women don't mix," he'd warn.
Mel really had a problem with boxers that were involved with women. Like it was the worst curse possible.
I know that women have ruined many a boxer, but life is life.


-Rick Farris

Oversexed? Nah, sounds like the sex drive of your typical Swedish male.

According to Mel, it was no secret that Bobo Olson was hung like a race horse, not a prizefighter.
A fact that created both opportunities and problems for Olson.
"The poor bastid didn't have a chance, too many broads!" Mel lamented.



-Rick Farris

Rog, don't sell yourself short, Pal. To quote Sinatra "You're A number One" or a little closer to home quoting our Brian Higgins "you're a stand up guy". I don't think anyone here would disagree with that.

Randy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rog . . . Yeah, we are all f_cked up. I don't care what anybody says, I say "look in the mirror".
You have the balls to look in the mirror. I do too, and yeah, I'm a few french fries short of a Happy Meal.
As far as I can see, you are doing alright, amigo. You can't judge the second half of life by the first.
Today we kinda do things with more solidity, to kinda make up for the mistakes made in days gone by.
Today, when I knowingly think of doing the "wrong thing", I first ask myself, how will it affect others.
That usually changes my plans. If nothing else, I carry my own water.

-Rick Farris

bennie wrote:I took a few shots of Randolph Turpin's old training camp in Llandudno, North Wales, in the summer. He trained atop a mountain; he owned the entire mountain. The complex at the top is now a general tourist attraction, full of tacky gift shops and an overpriced diner.
Only the bar remains in Randy's name.


The summit complex. You can drive to the top, obviously, or catch a cable car or a tram.


The view from outside the bar. That's me, trying to look 'hard'.


The view of Llandudno, taken from a cable car.


A shot on the wall of the bar of Randy's inexplicable loss to Bobo Olson.


The good and bad days.

Robinson vs. Turpin . . . Earl's Court, London.

I had the opportunity to attend a legendary rock concert at Earl's Court in 1994, forty years later.
Pink Floyd - "Pulse" tour.

The concert was great, but I sure would have loved to have seen that fight.
Cheers, Bennie.


-Rick Farris

Rick you just hit on my earliest boxing memory I was ten years old in 1951 & my old man let me stay up to listen to the SRR v Turpin fight on the radio. The old man was a big boxing fan & I have carried the torch on, The Sugar man is still my all time favorite glad to say my two sons have the same interest

telboy66 wrote:Rick you just hit on my earliest boxing memory I was ten years old in 1951 & my old man let me stay up to listen to the SRR v Turpin fight on the radio. The old man was a big boxing fan & I have carried the torch on, The Sugar man is still my all time favorite glad to say my two sons have the same interest

I was born in 1952, so it's good to hear your memory. Teach your sons well, you can teach them about real boxers.


-Rick Farris

Fascinating story of Jim Robinson and the fate of other Ali opponents. I wish Stephen Brunt who authored FACING ALI: 15 FIGHTERS, 15 STORIES had done a good and as insightful and moving a research job as did Wright.

Thanks for posting.

Adam Heach
http://adamheach.wordpress.com/
Pugilism: In Search of the Lost Heavyweight Division