Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 10:43
BoxRec
Classic American West Coast Boxing
Page 129 of 1796
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 10:44
Frankie: tell us a bit more on Montes. When he was supposed to win, he lost, and vice versa.kikibalt wrote:
What is his story?
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 10:48
Nice shot. Garza could whack but never really got over that stunning loss to Meza. Shame.kikibalt wrote:
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 10:59
Bennie,
I can't tell you much about John Montes, as I didn't follow his career, I had my own boys to worry about, I can tell you that Tony ko Montes in the amateurs, a real ko, not a tko, he was out for about 10 minutes, the fight lasted about 20 seconds, to do that with 10 oz. gloves I think is quite an accomplishment.
Why they never fought in the pro? I don't know as we were ready for the fight anytime.
I can't tell you much about John Montes, as I didn't follow his career, I had my own boys to worry about, I can tell you that Tony ko Montes in the amateurs, a real ko, not a tko, he was out for about 10 minutes, the fight lasted about 20 seconds, to do that with 10 oz. gloves I think is quite an accomplishment.
Why they never fought in the pro? I don't know as we were ready for the fight anytime.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:05
I remember when Montes licked Freddie Pendleton in 1988, it was a rub your eyes result.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
I can't tell you much about John Montes, as I didn't follow his career, I had my own boys to worry about, I can tell you that Tony ko Montes in the amateurs, a real ko, not a tko, he was out for about 10 minutes, the fight lasted about 20 seconds, to do that with 10 oz. gloves I think is quite an accomplishment.
Why they never fought in the pro? I don't know as we were ready for the fight anytime.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:08
Bennie,bennie wrote:Nice shot. Garza could whack but never really got over that stunning loss to Meza. Shame.kikibalt wrote:
Garza was not a well schooled fighter, he was never taught the basics; in other words he never learned his boxing's ABC's, he got by just on his punch.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:13
True. His chin was never the strongest, either, but he was great to watch. He shook the iron-jawed Marcos Villasana a few times up at featherweight (before losing), which sums up his power. This guy would win or lose by knockout.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,bennie wrote:Nice shot. Garza could whack but never really got over that stunning loss to Meza. Shame.kikibalt wrote:
Garza was not a well schooled fighter, he was never taught the basics; in other words he never learned his boxing's ABC's, he got by just on his punch.
How come Bennie Georgino didn't school him in the basics?
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:15
I didn't see that fight.bennie wrote:I remember when Montes licked Freddie Pendleton in 1988, it was a rub your eyes result.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
I can't tell you much about John Montes, as I didn't follow his career, I had my own boys to worry about, I can tell you that Tony ko Montes in the amateurs, a real ko, not a tko, he was out for about 10 minutes, the fight lasted about 20 seconds, to do that with 10 oz. gloves I think is quite an accomplishment.
Why they never fought in the pro? I don't know as we were ready for the fight anytime.
Fill us in Bennie.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:18
Georgino, was not his trainer, John Montes Sr. was his trainer, so you can't blame Bennie.bennie wrote:True. His chin was never the strongest, either, but he was great to watch. He shook the iron-jawed Marcos Villasana a few times up at featherweight (before losing), which sums up his power. This guy would win or lose by knockout.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,bennie wrote: Nice shot. Garza could whack but never really got over that stunning loss to Meza. Shame.
Garza was not a well schooled fighter, he was never taught the basics; in other words he never learned his boxing's ABC's, he got by just on his punch.
How come Bennie Georgino didn't school him in the basics?
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:19
Pendleton had just done Bramble and Fuentes (Fuentes in about 11 seconds). He was a big favourite to win the Stroh's tournament at the Great Western Forum in LA ($100,000 for the winner), but Montes proved too strong and knocked him out in the 10th.kikibalt wrote:I didn't see that fight.bennie wrote:I remember when Montes licked Freddie Pendleton in 1988, it was a rub your eyes result.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
I can't tell you much about John Montes, as I didn't follow his career, I had my own boys to worry about, I can tell you that Tony ko Montes in the amateurs, a real ko, not a tko, he was out for about 10 minutes, the fight lasted about 20 seconds, to do that with 10 oz. gloves I think is quite an accomplishment.
Why they never fought in the pro? I don't know as we were ready for the fight anytime.
Fill us in Bennie.
True to form, Montes then lost in the event semis to Fuentes.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:24
No.kikibalt wrote:Georgino, was not his trainer, John Montes Sr. was his trainer, so you can't blame Bennie.bennie wrote:True. His chin was never the strongest, either, but he was great to watch. He shook the iron-jawed Marcos Villasana a few times up at featherweight (before losing), which sums up his power. This guy would win or lose by knockout.kikibalt wrote: Bennie,
Garza was not a well schooled fighter, he was never taught the basics; in other words he never learned his boxing's ABC's, he got by just on his punch.
How come Bennie Georgino didn't school him in the basics?
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:31
Bennie,
One thing I notice in John Montes, when Tony and Frankie would spar with him in the gym was, self-doubt, I don't think he really believed in him-self, I also don't think it was in him to be a fighter.
One thing I notice in John Montes, when Tony and Frankie would spar with him in the gym was, self-doubt, I don't think he really believed in him-self, I also don't think it was in him to be a fighter.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:33
He swallowed it against Camacho, for sure. Camacho barely hit him and he went down and and stayed down. Then he had a war with Boza.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
One thing I notice in John Montes, when Tony and Frankie would spar with him in the gym was, self-doubt, I don't think he really believed in him-self, I also don't think it was in him to be a fighter.
Bizarre fighter.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:40
Hard to figure...no?bennie wrote:He swallowed it against Camacho, for sure. Camacho barely hit him and he went down and and stayed down. Then he had a war with Boza.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
One thing I notice in John Montes, when Tony and Frankie would spar with him in the gym was, self-doubt, I don't think he really believed in him-self, I also don't think it was in him to be a fighter.
Bizarre fighter.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 11:42
Enigmatic, as they say. I watched his brother (Herman) chin an aging Cuevas with a cracking left hook. They could fight - only when they wanted to.kikibalt wrote:Hard to figure...no?bennie wrote:He swallowed it against Camacho, for sure. Camacho barely hit him and he went down and and stayed down. Then he had a war with Boza.kikibalt wrote:Bennie,
One thing I notice in John Montes, when Tony and Frankie would spar with him in the gym was, self-doubt, I don't think he really believed in him-self, I also don't think it was in him to be a fighter.
Bizarre fighter.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 13:27
Bennie; here is a Herman Montes interview.
The Luck of the Draw: Herman “The Kid” Montes Talks About His Career and How the Welterweight Title Eluded Him
Interview by Dan Hernandez
“Fighters today don’t seem to have what we did. Work the body and then kill them with a hook or cross. You work that body all through the fight and you get them tired, but not today. They’re all headhunters” -- Herman “The Kid” Montes
Herman Montes contacted me recently regarding one of my articles and giving me a little history of his fighting at the famed Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. He said that he had knocked out former WBA Welterweight Champion, “Pipino’ Cuevas on March of 1985, in one of the last scheduled main events at the old arena. I responded to Montes and we had a good time reminiscing about a touch of boxing’s past and what he is doing today to promote the sport.
Herman had a boxing record of, 32-4-4, 20 KO’s. He fought in one the strongest, most competitive divisions in boxing, the welterweights. When we spoke, I told him that I saw a video of his fight with Cuevas and was impressed by the left hook that he felled the former champion with, for the full count of ten. He said, “You should have seen the first two rounds!” It was a battle worth seeing, with both men hitting and hurting each other prior to the aforementioned left-hook, which was a thing of beauty and left Cuevas flat on the ring apron long after the count had been completed. Herman felt that his title shot would come soon after this victory, instead he followed this fight with a TKO loss to Jorge Vaca, who avenged an earlier TKO loss to Montes.
Registering a two round knockout over Francisco Lisboa in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 11, 1985, Herman retired from professional boxing immediately after this fight, at the insistence of his wife, and has remained an active trainer of youth in trying to provide direction and pride ever since.
He has also remained involved in boxing related activities with many of his contemporaries. Excellent fighters such as Armando Muniz, and former world welterweight champion, Carlos Palomino, among others have been active in securing a good, positive environment for the youth of the community.
DH: How did you come to RSR?
You know, I just by chance found you on the website yesterday. I was messing around. I always look up boxing…I just love boxing, and it just attracts me. I was just looking and there you were. I contacted you because you are a local; you’re from the area of East Los Angeles.
DH: Yes, I am in Monterey Park, by way of ELA. My wife teaches in the area, did you go to school locally?
Yes, I went to a local Catholic School. A buddy of mine teaches, I’m sure you heard of him, Armando Muniz. As a matter of fact, my 15-year-old son was one of his students.
DH: I thought Muniz did bail bonds.
He does that also, on the side. He is a busy man…He goes to meetings every single day, he belongs to the Lions club, and he belongs to a lot of things.
DH: I met him at the Hall of fame in October. Did you attend?
Yeah, I was sitting right on top. My brother, Johnny Montes, was sitting next to me and Ricardo Lopez, the undefeated strawweight champion was sitting directly in front of me.
DH: You know a lot of boxing personalities, don’t you?
Yes, and I like to surf the net, looking up old time buddies of mine like Tony Baltazar and old time sparring partners. I try to find out whatever happened to these guys and where do they live now. I’d rather be on this computer than watching TV. My wife is a TV bug and I’m a computer bug.
DH: It is curious how fighters like Cuevas become champions and you never had a title shot. How does that work?
Yes, and today’s fighters that you see on TV…how did they ever make it. It’s unbelievable. Actually, Armando Muniz and myself watched the Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad fight and we were asking ourselves how these guys ever made it on TV.
DH: The big money came into boxing after you left, didn’t it?
There were only one or two world titles to fight for in those days. Now there are so many titles that everybody gets a chance to fight for one. You had to be really good and beat a lot of people before you were even given a chance to fight for a championship. Now you see fighters with under 17 fights fighting for a world title.
DH: You had a great record. Why did you stop?
My last fight was in Indonesia. When I knocked out Pipino Cuevas, you would think that it would have opened the door for me to fight a world champion and I waited six months. Went to Indonesia and fought there, came back, got married to my lovely wife of today, we have been married 25 years. She just told me to get out of boxing, get a good job and go on. There is no sense of staying on, it’s really political and you better get out of it before you get hurt. So I did, I listened to her. Today she says: “You see.” There are so many ex-boxers today who can’t even talk, or carry on conversations too well. She says: “I stopped you while you were still young and you wouldn’t get hurt.”
DH: It’s nice to hear about a successful marriage. Do you have children?
Yes, we have four children, ages 30, 27,26, and 16. Our last one lives at home. We have three extra bedrooms that are empty here. All the older ones are gone.
DH: So you’ve done OK after boxing?
Yeah, I retired from boxing and we live here in Indian Hills, Riverside, California. We work…we’re not wealthy or anything, we just have every day jobs, the all-American home and neighborhood.
DH: Nothing wrong with that. And you have all your faculties.
That’s a plus.
DH: I saw part of that fight with Cuevas on YouTube.
Too bad you didn’t see the first and second rounds. It was like that type of fight through the whole three rounds. It was basically a war. We were trading leather. I trained hard for this fight, I just had to win. I lived in Whittier, California then and I would run in those hills over there. A lot of up hills and you know, no pain, no gain, and I wanted to be in shape for this guy.
DH: Your record shows a knockout over Raymundo Torres. Was that “Battling” Torres?
It was his son. He was pretty good but I had a good hook in those days and I caught him in the first round.
Fighters today don’t seem to have what we did. Work the body and then kill them with a hook or cross. You work that body all through the fight and you get them tired, but not today. They’re all headhunters.
DH: Did you ever consider going into training?
Oh yeah, I have. I ran the boxing program for the City of Paramount for six years. I started from scratch with them, and then I left and went to the City of Hawaiian Gardens for ten years. Now today I was running the Jurupa Valley Boxing Club here in the community. I was volunteering my time, doing it for the county. The county opened a brand new facility and I will run it for them. It’s for the community to keep the kids off corners and stuff. You know, troubled kids.
DH: Do you charge the kids?
Twenty-five dollars a month for these kids, and they do have to have a USA Boxing license that provides them with insurance and that’s a one-time pay of forty dollars per year. Then they pay the $25.00 per month to get boxing lessons and use the facilities. That’s pretty cheap.
DH: How many kids are enrolled?
I’d say about 30 youths per night. We work them out and take them to shows. I just had a show December 16, 2007. It was successful and there were 19 bouts. People come from San Diego, the high Desert, and local area cities. They show up and get the bouts for their kids. This is held at a youth boxing club and it’s in the City of Rubidoux. It’s brand new, John Tavaglione, second city supervisor for the City of Riverside, put it up and let us do this program there. It is a non-funding program and we all volunteer our time. Armando Muniz is the President and I’m the Director.
DH: So you do the hands-on training?
Yes, I do the hands-on and direct the program.
DH: Have you done this since you stopped boxing?
Yes, basically. I was reading the paper here in the area about two years ago and it was talking about youth boxing. I called the number that was there and said hey, I’d like to be a coach. They brought me in and set me up as the director, because they needed a director.
DH: Do you work a full-time job in addition to this volunteer work?
Oh Yeah. It’s a labor of love. It’s all dedication. I love doing it. It’s great atmosphere. I love teaching these kids and giving them confidence and self-discipline. Confidence is the main thing for a lot of these kids that come from a broken home. They get into the Gym and they learn.
DH: How old were you when you retired?
I was young, I was 26.
DH: So you still had a career in front of you if you had wanted.
Yeah, I got married, re-married. I got married before and then I got married again and married the right girl this time. And we’ve been married for 25 years.
DH: How did you feel about quitting?
It wasn’t easy. It was tough. It was hard to give up the limelight…it wasn’t something that I just did overnight. I thought it over, thought about it really good and I did it. I look back sometimes and wonder if I had stayed another 6 months or so, maybe I would have gotten the world title shot. You just never know in life.
DH: Have any of your kids become boxers?
No, if they don’t ask me to do it, I don’t push them to do it. My son today is 16 and he plays high school football. I’ve taken him to the boxing club and he hasn’t put a glove on or anything, so I’m not gonna make him do it.
DH: Do you keep in touch with a lot of former boxers?
Not a lot, but I see them at the world Boxing Hall of Fame. I spoke with Frankie Duarte, Armando Muniz, Carlos Palomino. We are all involved in the youth movement. Carlos fought Muniz and won twice. We had to go 15 rounds in those days.
DH: Do you like the 15 round distance better than 12?
Oh yeah. We had more time to wear the guys down that were not in the best of shape. You had three more rounds to prove yourself and it was more of a challenge.
DH: That’s why they call them the championship rounds.
Yes, they changed to 12 rounds when Ray Mancini stopped Kim and he died. But people are still dying in the ring. You could die from one punch in any round and I don’t know if it helped or not.
DH: Did you know Mike and Jerry Quarry?
They were from before my time but I went to a function and I have a tape of Jerry singing the National Anthem. This was about a year before he passed away.
DH: How did you keep going when you’d get hit?
You would get hit on the nose and it would really hurt. Oh man, it would hurt. But then we always went back the next day and boxed again. You got over it and kept going.
DH: Did anyone else in your family box for a living?
My brother, Johnny Montes, he fought seven world champions. He fought Hilmer Kenty, James Boza-Edwards, Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, and others. He had belts, state, inter-continental, etc. He was real good.
DH: Which of your fights do you find the most memorable?
Me and Pipino Cuevas and me with Jorge Vaca. Vaca…I knocked out in Mexico where he lived and a year or two later he beat Lloyd Honeyghan for the world welterweight championship. So eat my heart out, there you go, I beat this guy and he’s the world champion.
DH: Why is that Herman?
Timing, style, Lloyd Honeyghan, he fought with Vaca, I don’t know why. Reach, style…I guess.
DH: But positively, you did get to do some traveling didn’t you?
Yeah, I got to see a lot of the United States and meet different people. It’s fun to go to these different places and meet all these different people. You get to attend all the ceremonies before the fight and everybody wants to meet you. They shake your hand and you know it’s a good feeling.
DH: It sounds like boxing was good to you.
Good memories.
DH: Do you have any stories that you’d like to share?
When we were kids, my brother and myself. Tony and Frankie Baltazar were kids at the same time we were. When we were kids we were told by my Dad, Oh, I should explain that we came from a divorced home and our dad would pick us up and take us to the gym and before he would take us home he would lecture us saying: “Ok Mijos, (sons), don’t box with each other when I drop you off at home. Don’t do it cause you guys could get hurt,” blah, blah, blah.
So what do we do, we get in the backyard and we were boxing with each other and I cut my brother on the inside of his mouth. He needed stitches but we couldn’t tell my Mom or Dad because we would be in trouble. My mom was getting ready to take us to Legg Lake Park where we would run, and on the way this drunk driver runs a red light and hits us head on, thank God we weren’t hurt. But my brother said that he cut his lip when the car hit us. We lucked out!
We loved boxing more than any other sport right from the start. My Dad was the coach at The International Boxing Club on Whittier Blvd. and Montebello Boulevard. And we were there all the time. I was even privileged in school with special treatment from the teachers because I was a Golden Glove champion. In fact, when everybody had a letterman sweater, I had one for the Golden Gloves, so it was unique.
DH: Is there anything that you would like to say to the RSR Readers in closing or about the sport of boxing?
It’s breathtaking. I got to fight on the undercard of the Salvador Sanchez-Juan La Porte fight in El Paso, Texas. And for me to meet Sanchez and appear before the world title fight, it was an experience to remember. We got to party in Sanchez’ suite afterwards and that was memorable. Danny “Little Red” Lopez was my stable mate and a real good guy, and he and my trainer, Benny Georgino and a few others all had a terrific time at that party.
The Luck of the Draw: Herman “The Kid” Montes Talks About His Career and How the Welterweight Title Eluded Him
Interview by Dan Hernandez
“Fighters today don’t seem to have what we did. Work the body and then kill them with a hook or cross. You work that body all through the fight and you get them tired, but not today. They’re all headhunters” -- Herman “The Kid” Montes
Herman Montes contacted me recently regarding one of my articles and giving me a little history of his fighting at the famed Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. He said that he had knocked out former WBA Welterweight Champion, “Pipino’ Cuevas on March of 1985, in one of the last scheduled main events at the old arena. I responded to Montes and we had a good time reminiscing about a touch of boxing’s past and what he is doing today to promote the sport.
Herman had a boxing record of, 32-4-4, 20 KO’s. He fought in one the strongest, most competitive divisions in boxing, the welterweights. When we spoke, I told him that I saw a video of his fight with Cuevas and was impressed by the left hook that he felled the former champion with, for the full count of ten. He said, “You should have seen the first two rounds!” It was a battle worth seeing, with both men hitting and hurting each other prior to the aforementioned left-hook, which was a thing of beauty and left Cuevas flat on the ring apron long after the count had been completed. Herman felt that his title shot would come soon after this victory, instead he followed this fight with a TKO loss to Jorge Vaca, who avenged an earlier TKO loss to Montes.
Registering a two round knockout over Francisco Lisboa in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 11, 1985, Herman retired from professional boxing immediately after this fight, at the insistence of his wife, and has remained an active trainer of youth in trying to provide direction and pride ever since.
He has also remained involved in boxing related activities with many of his contemporaries. Excellent fighters such as Armando Muniz, and former world welterweight champion, Carlos Palomino, among others have been active in securing a good, positive environment for the youth of the community.
DH: How did you come to RSR?
You know, I just by chance found you on the website yesterday. I was messing around. I always look up boxing…I just love boxing, and it just attracts me. I was just looking and there you were. I contacted you because you are a local; you’re from the area of East Los Angeles.
DH: Yes, I am in Monterey Park, by way of ELA. My wife teaches in the area, did you go to school locally?
Yes, I went to a local Catholic School. A buddy of mine teaches, I’m sure you heard of him, Armando Muniz. As a matter of fact, my 15-year-old son was one of his students.
DH: I thought Muniz did bail bonds.
He does that also, on the side. He is a busy man…He goes to meetings every single day, he belongs to the Lions club, and he belongs to a lot of things.
DH: I met him at the Hall of fame in October. Did you attend?
Yeah, I was sitting right on top. My brother, Johnny Montes, was sitting next to me and Ricardo Lopez, the undefeated strawweight champion was sitting directly in front of me.
DH: You know a lot of boxing personalities, don’t you?
Yes, and I like to surf the net, looking up old time buddies of mine like Tony Baltazar and old time sparring partners. I try to find out whatever happened to these guys and where do they live now. I’d rather be on this computer than watching TV. My wife is a TV bug and I’m a computer bug.
DH: It is curious how fighters like Cuevas become champions and you never had a title shot. How does that work?
Yes, and today’s fighters that you see on TV…how did they ever make it. It’s unbelievable. Actually, Armando Muniz and myself watched the Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad fight and we were asking ourselves how these guys ever made it on TV.
DH: The big money came into boxing after you left, didn’t it?
There were only one or two world titles to fight for in those days. Now there are so many titles that everybody gets a chance to fight for one. You had to be really good and beat a lot of people before you were even given a chance to fight for a championship. Now you see fighters with under 17 fights fighting for a world title.
DH: You had a great record. Why did you stop?
My last fight was in Indonesia. When I knocked out Pipino Cuevas, you would think that it would have opened the door for me to fight a world champion and I waited six months. Went to Indonesia and fought there, came back, got married to my lovely wife of today, we have been married 25 years. She just told me to get out of boxing, get a good job and go on. There is no sense of staying on, it’s really political and you better get out of it before you get hurt. So I did, I listened to her. Today she says: “You see.” There are so many ex-boxers today who can’t even talk, or carry on conversations too well. She says: “I stopped you while you were still young and you wouldn’t get hurt.”
DH: It’s nice to hear about a successful marriage. Do you have children?
Yes, we have four children, ages 30, 27,26, and 16. Our last one lives at home. We have three extra bedrooms that are empty here. All the older ones are gone.
DH: So you’ve done OK after boxing?
Yeah, I retired from boxing and we live here in Indian Hills, Riverside, California. We work…we’re not wealthy or anything, we just have every day jobs, the all-American home and neighborhood.
DH: Nothing wrong with that. And you have all your faculties.
That’s a plus.
DH: I saw part of that fight with Cuevas on YouTube.
Too bad you didn’t see the first and second rounds. It was like that type of fight through the whole three rounds. It was basically a war. We were trading leather. I trained hard for this fight, I just had to win. I lived in Whittier, California then and I would run in those hills over there. A lot of up hills and you know, no pain, no gain, and I wanted to be in shape for this guy.
DH: Your record shows a knockout over Raymundo Torres. Was that “Battling” Torres?
It was his son. He was pretty good but I had a good hook in those days and I caught him in the first round.
Fighters today don’t seem to have what we did. Work the body and then kill them with a hook or cross. You work that body all through the fight and you get them tired, but not today. They’re all headhunters.
DH: Did you ever consider going into training?
Oh yeah, I have. I ran the boxing program for the City of Paramount for six years. I started from scratch with them, and then I left and went to the City of Hawaiian Gardens for ten years. Now today I was running the Jurupa Valley Boxing Club here in the community. I was volunteering my time, doing it for the county. The county opened a brand new facility and I will run it for them. It’s for the community to keep the kids off corners and stuff. You know, troubled kids.
DH: Do you charge the kids?
Twenty-five dollars a month for these kids, and they do have to have a USA Boxing license that provides them with insurance and that’s a one-time pay of forty dollars per year. Then they pay the $25.00 per month to get boxing lessons and use the facilities. That’s pretty cheap.
DH: How many kids are enrolled?
I’d say about 30 youths per night. We work them out and take them to shows. I just had a show December 16, 2007. It was successful and there were 19 bouts. People come from San Diego, the high Desert, and local area cities. They show up and get the bouts for their kids. This is held at a youth boxing club and it’s in the City of Rubidoux. It’s brand new, John Tavaglione, second city supervisor for the City of Riverside, put it up and let us do this program there. It is a non-funding program and we all volunteer our time. Armando Muniz is the President and I’m the Director.
DH: So you do the hands-on training?
Yes, I do the hands-on and direct the program.
DH: Have you done this since you stopped boxing?
Yes, basically. I was reading the paper here in the area about two years ago and it was talking about youth boxing. I called the number that was there and said hey, I’d like to be a coach. They brought me in and set me up as the director, because they needed a director.
DH: Do you work a full-time job in addition to this volunteer work?
Oh Yeah. It’s a labor of love. It’s all dedication. I love doing it. It’s great atmosphere. I love teaching these kids and giving them confidence and self-discipline. Confidence is the main thing for a lot of these kids that come from a broken home. They get into the Gym and they learn.
DH: How old were you when you retired?
I was young, I was 26.
DH: So you still had a career in front of you if you had wanted.
Yeah, I got married, re-married. I got married before and then I got married again and married the right girl this time. And we’ve been married for 25 years.
DH: How did you feel about quitting?
It wasn’t easy. It was tough. It was hard to give up the limelight…it wasn’t something that I just did overnight. I thought it over, thought about it really good and I did it. I look back sometimes and wonder if I had stayed another 6 months or so, maybe I would have gotten the world title shot. You just never know in life.
DH: Have any of your kids become boxers?
No, if they don’t ask me to do it, I don’t push them to do it. My son today is 16 and he plays high school football. I’ve taken him to the boxing club and he hasn’t put a glove on or anything, so I’m not gonna make him do it.
DH: Do you keep in touch with a lot of former boxers?
Not a lot, but I see them at the world Boxing Hall of Fame. I spoke with Frankie Duarte, Armando Muniz, Carlos Palomino. We are all involved in the youth movement. Carlos fought Muniz and won twice. We had to go 15 rounds in those days.
DH: Do you like the 15 round distance better than 12?
Oh yeah. We had more time to wear the guys down that were not in the best of shape. You had three more rounds to prove yourself and it was more of a challenge.
DH: That’s why they call them the championship rounds.
Yes, they changed to 12 rounds when Ray Mancini stopped Kim and he died. But people are still dying in the ring. You could die from one punch in any round and I don’t know if it helped or not.
DH: Did you know Mike and Jerry Quarry?
They were from before my time but I went to a function and I have a tape of Jerry singing the National Anthem. This was about a year before he passed away.
DH: How did you keep going when you’d get hit?
You would get hit on the nose and it would really hurt. Oh man, it would hurt. But then we always went back the next day and boxed again. You got over it and kept going.
DH: Did anyone else in your family box for a living?
My brother, Johnny Montes, he fought seven world champions. He fought Hilmer Kenty, James Boza-Edwards, Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, and others. He had belts, state, inter-continental, etc. He was real good.
DH: Which of your fights do you find the most memorable?
Me and Pipino Cuevas and me with Jorge Vaca. Vaca…I knocked out in Mexico where he lived and a year or two later he beat Lloyd Honeyghan for the world welterweight championship. So eat my heart out, there you go, I beat this guy and he’s the world champion.
DH: Why is that Herman?
Timing, style, Lloyd Honeyghan, he fought with Vaca, I don’t know why. Reach, style…I guess.
DH: But positively, you did get to do some traveling didn’t you?
Yeah, I got to see a lot of the United States and meet different people. It’s fun to go to these different places and meet all these different people. You get to attend all the ceremonies before the fight and everybody wants to meet you. They shake your hand and you know it’s a good feeling.
DH: It sounds like boxing was good to you.
Good memories.
DH: Do you have any stories that you’d like to share?
When we were kids, my brother and myself. Tony and Frankie Baltazar were kids at the same time we were. When we were kids we were told by my Dad, Oh, I should explain that we came from a divorced home and our dad would pick us up and take us to the gym and before he would take us home he would lecture us saying: “Ok Mijos, (sons), don’t box with each other when I drop you off at home. Don’t do it cause you guys could get hurt,” blah, blah, blah.
So what do we do, we get in the backyard and we were boxing with each other and I cut my brother on the inside of his mouth. He needed stitches but we couldn’t tell my Mom or Dad because we would be in trouble. My mom was getting ready to take us to Legg Lake Park where we would run, and on the way this drunk driver runs a red light and hits us head on, thank God we weren’t hurt. But my brother said that he cut his lip when the car hit us. We lucked out!
We loved boxing more than any other sport right from the start. My Dad was the coach at The International Boxing Club on Whittier Blvd. and Montebello Boulevard. And we were there all the time. I was even privileged in school with special treatment from the teachers because I was a Golden Glove champion. In fact, when everybody had a letterman sweater, I had one for the Golden Gloves, so it was unique.
DH: Is there anything that you would like to say to the RSR Readers in closing or about the sport of boxing?
It’s breathtaking. I got to fight on the undercard of the Salvador Sanchez-Juan La Porte fight in El Paso, Texas. And for me to meet Sanchez and appear before the world title fight, it was an experience to remember. We got to party in Sanchez’ suite afterwards and that was memorable. Danny “Little Red” Lopez was my stable mate and a real good guy, and he and my trainer, Benny Georgino and a few others all had a terrific time at that party.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 13:39
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 13:43
Poncho Valasquez, Don Chargin & Frankie Baltazar...Circa 1969
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 14:20
Guys, check this out. I don't think Conrad had a clue what he was doing in the corner.
Dan Hanley
Dan Hanley
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 14:23
Thanks for posting those interviews, Frankie. A funny thing about Herman's knockout of Cuevas is Graham Houston's view of the finish. Cuevas went to throw a big left hook and Montes beat him to the punch with a shorter left hook and Cuevas went down and out. It was the cleanest knockout you could ever wish to see. Anyway, Houston, who gets it right most of the time but when he gots it wrong gets it disastrously wrong, wrote that Cuevas went down from the leverage of missing his left hook and knocked himself out by banging his head off the canvas.
Plonker.
Plonker.
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 14:40
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 14:45
Posted: 28 Apr 2008, 14:51
Posted: 29 Apr 2008, 01:31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzgYHML5rbo
Carlos Ortiz vs Battling Torres
Carlos Ortiz vs Battling Torres
Posted: 29 Apr 2008, 03:33
Youtube is ninety-nine per cent shite but one per cent is OK. I came across Raul Rojas against Numata the other day and Rojas is killing the Jap then ducks into the wildest uppercut you will ever see in your life and gets sparked.