BoxRec

dagosd2000 wrote:CINCO DE MAYO

Me and the wife got married on the 12th of April. I was pullin' in a hefty 72 dollars a week running the garden shop at Two Guys Department Store on Rosecrans Street in San Diego. So it was taking up residence in Tijuana if I was going to make ends meet. We didn't exactly live in a penthouse,but because the shack we lived in was so run down,me and the wife named the place"The Penthouse." One small room with a bed and a chair. A light bulb hung down from the ceiling. Later I bought a 10 inch black and white TV that I put on the chair to bring up the equity to the property

Well I remember working a little overtime that week and Cinco de Mayo was around the corner,so I promised I'd take the wife out for Chinese food to commemorate the evening. The road that was in the canyon outside our "Penthouse" was dirt. Bumpy,rocky,and full of dips and holes. My wife had broken the heel on her dress shoes,and she wanted me to walk with her to the shoe repairman to get the heel fixed.

My wife led me down the hill into a ravine.
"Donde vamos?"(Where are we going?),I asked my wife.
She said the shoe repairman was at the bottom of the ravine. I couldn't make sense at what she was getting at. I saw what looked like a wrecked abondoned car in a ditch.
"Ya llegamos"(we've arrived),said my wife.
As we walked closer to the car,I noticed an old man with a shoe in one hand and a little hammer in the the other hand. He looked up at us. When he noticed my wife,he smiled. There was a mutt of a dog sleeping next to the car.
"Maria,como estas milagro!?"
My wife started to laugh and greeted the old man with an abrazo. My wife always laughed when she greeted someone she liked. I looked inside the car. In the back ,where the seat had been removed, was a big pile of shoes and some clothes. I asked my wife later,and she told me this where the old man worked and lived.

The old man's name was Mario. My wife didn't know how long Mario had been repairing shoes in that car in that ditch,but he seemed to get a steady business of repeat customers. Mario said he could put the heel back on my wife's shoe after he put a sole on someone else's shoe. He told us to come back in an hour. When we returned the heel had been put back on and Mario held his head up as he handed the fixed shoe to my wife. I forget what he charged,but I think it was a dollar.

As we were getting ready to go out to eat at the Chinese restaurant,I said to my wife that I felt sorry for Mario having to work like that out of an abandoned car. My wife said that Mario was happy and had a good business and that his dog kept him company. She thought I was a little foolish worrying about him. We ate Chinese food on Cinco de Mayo and then stopped at the the little bar on the corner for a drink. We got back to "The Penthouse" and went to bed. As I was trying to fall asleep,I stared up at the ceiling. I thought my wife was probably right about Mario. Guys like him make the most of what they have and don't sweat the little stuff.

About a week later when I was driving to Tijuana from work,I heard on the radio about a big storm that was going to hit full force in the area. Well it rained real hard for about three days. So hard I couldn't drive my car out of that muddy flooded canyon to go to work. After the rain stopped the neighborhood was a disaster. Trash and garbage all over the place. Mud slldes,dead dogs,cars that had slid down into the canyon from up above,houses off their foundations and houses hanging half off the sides of cliffs. After things dried up a bit,I thought about Mario and whether he survived the storm. I walked carefully into the ravine. Water was still trickling into the gully where his car was. I saw his car at the end of the ditch. The force of the water had moved it back about 100 feet. There were no shoes or clothes in the car. Mario was gone too. So was the dog. No one in the neighborhood seemed to know what happened to Mario. After the storm,I guess everybody was busy looking after themselves and their families.

About 10 years later,me and the wife had moved to San Diego and things were on the upswing. I had gotten my degree and had landed a job teaching school. It was Spring Break,and I decided that me and the wife would take a little holiday in Mazatlan. We were driving to the Tijuana Airport when I told my wife that I had to pull the car over to the side because of a nature call. As I was relieving myself on the side of this cliff,I peered at the bottom of the canyon and saw an old man sitting inside this beat up old car. It was Mario! I couldn't believe it. He had a shoe in his hand. Shoes and clothes were piled in the back just like before, He was talking to a woman and a little boy. He was too far away to hear me if I shouted,and besides we had to catch the plane. I told my wife that I had seen Mario. He must have made it out of that storm OK,and now he was back in business again. My wife was happy. She was happy that everything was the same for him.
"Well not everything",I said."He's got another dog."

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Rodolfo Gonzalez with actress Edy Williams, who was a very big fight fan.

I bet she was.

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Velez was a popular boxer in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1940s and early 1950s in the Featherweight and Lightweight divisions. He was very popular in Spokane during this time period, becoming the area's most popular boxer, after Tiger Jack Fox had retired.

Velez was inflicted with polio as a child, and could not walk without crutches until the age of nine. He boxed with a withered left leg that was damaged from polio, which had left his left achilles tendon paralyzed. Nonetheless, he was still able to move around the ring effectively, though he had problems moving backwards on the leg. Despite the unsturdiness of his legs, he was considered a tough fighter to knock down.

Velez had a successful amateur career in Seattle, but had to begin his pro career outside of Seattle, because the local ring doctor would not allow him to fight due to his leg injury. Velez rose quickly to main event status boxing out of Spokane, fighting one 4-rounder, 6-rounder, and 8-rounder, before moving to his first ten-rounder, where he battered Spokane Featherweight Joey Dolan in a thrilling one-sided brawl in Spokane in March 1948. It was only after this win, and subsequent wins, that Velez was allowed to make his ring debut in Seattle. (According to the Oct. 2, 1950 Tacoma News Tribune, he had temporarily retired for a year.)

Velez's father was Puerto Rican and his mother was an Alaskan Native. Joey was the older brother of fellow boxer Bob Velez.

BoxBuzz wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Rodolfo Gonzalez with actress Edy Williams, who was a very big fight fan.

I bet she was.

http

Another shot of Edy Williams........how do you get that lucky?

Anyway I had to figure out a way to chime in without disrupting the flow too much.....at 61,000 views and counting you need some of this beatiful jewelry mixed in to make up for all the ugly mugs.

Hey I mean that in a good way.....don't take it too personal.

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:CINCO DE MAYO

Me and the wife got married on the 12th of April. I was pullin' in a hefty 72 dollars a week running the garden shop at Two Guys Department Store on Rosecrans Street in San Diego. So it was taking up residence in Tijuana if I was going to make ends meet. We didn't exactly live in a penthouse,but because the shack we lived in was so run down,me and the wife named the place"The Penthouse." One small room with a bed and a chair. A light bulb hung down from the ceiling. Later I bought a 10 inch black and white TV that I put on the chair to bring up the equity to the property

Well I remember working a little overtime that week and Cinco de Mayo was around the corner,so I promised I'd take the wife out for Chinese food to commemorate the evening. The road that was in the canyon outside our "Penthouse" was dirt. Bumpy,rocky,and full of dips and holes. My wife had broken the heel on her dress shoes,and she wanted me to walk with her to the shoe repairman to get the heel fixed.

My wife led me down the hill into a ravine.
"Donde vamos?"(Where are we going?),I asked my wife.
She said the shoe repairman was at the bottom of the ravine. I couldn't make sense at what she was getting at. I saw what looked like a wrecked abondoned car in a ditch.
"Ya llegamos"(we've arrived),said my wife.
As we walked closer to the car,I noticed an old man with a shoe in one hand and a little hammer in the the other hand. He looked up at us. When he noticed my wife,he smiled. There was a mutt of a dog sleeping next to the car.
"Maria,como estas milagro!?"
My wife started to laugh and greeted the old man with an abrazo. My wife always laughed when she greeted someone she liked. I looked inside the car. In the back ,where the seat had been removed, was a big pile of shoes and some clothes. I asked my wife later,and she told me this where the old man worked and lived.

The old man's name was Mario. My wife didn't know how long Mario had been repairing shoes in that car in that ditch,but he seemed to get a steady business of repeat customers. Mario said he could put the heel back on my wife's shoe after he put a sole on someone else's shoe. He told us to come back in an hour. When we returned the heel had been put back on and Mario held his head up as he handed the fixed shoe to my wife. I forget what he charged,but I think it was a dollar.

As we were getting ready to go out to eat at the Chinese restaurant,I said to my wife that I felt sorry for Mario having to work like that out of an abandoned car. My wife said that Mario was happy and had a good business and that his dog kept him company. She thought I was a little foolish worrying about him. We ate Chinese food on Cinco de Mayo and then stopped at the the little bar on the corner for a drink. We got back to "The Penthouse" and went to bed. As I was trying to fall asleep,I stared up at the ceiling. I thought my wife was probably right about Mario. Guys like him make the most of what they have and don't sweat the little stuff.

About a week later when I was driving to Tijuana from work,I heard on the radio about a big storm that was going to hit full force in the area. Well it rained real hard for about three days. So hard I couldn't drive my car out of that muddy flooded canyon to go to work. After the rain stopped the neighborhood was a disaster. Trash and garbage all over the place. Mud slldes,dead dogs,cars that had slid down into the canyon from up above,houses off their foundations and houses hanging half off the sides of cliffs. After things dried up a bit,I thought about Mario and whether he survived the storm. I walked carefully into the ravine. Water was still trickling into the gully where his car was. I saw his car at the end of the ditch. The force of the water had moved it back about 100 feet. There were no shoes or clothes in the car. Mario was gone too. So was the dog. No one in the neighborhood seemed to know what happened to Mario. After the storm,I guess everybody was busy looking after themselves and their families.

About 10 years later,me and the wife had moved to San Diego and things were on the upswing. I had gotten my degree and had landed a job teaching school. It was Spring Break,and I decided that me and the wife would take a little holiday in Mazatlan. We were driving to the Tijuana Airport when I told my wife that I had to pull the car over to the side because of a nature call. As I was relieving myself on the side of this cliff,I peered at the bottom of the canyon and saw an old man sitting inside this beat up old car. It was Mario! I couldn't believe it. He had a shoe in his hand. Shoes and clothes were piled in the back just like before, He was talking to a woman and a little boy. He was too far away to hear me if I shouted,and besides we had to catch the plane. I told my wife that I had seen Mario. He must have made it out of that storm OK,and now he was back in business again. My wife was happy. She was happy that everything was the same for him.
"Well not everything",I said."He's got another dog."

Great story diego, as always, you haven't seen Mario again?

kikibalt wrote:Do you guys remember Baby Cassius (aka Eric Thomas) a fighter that lost more then he won, but a colorful fighter he was.

Expug wrote:
Ive only known of one other fighter who had polio as a youngster and a withered leg as well.
There was a middleweight who was a native American who fought out of Chicago in the 70s named Warren Thunder.
He was a game fighter and tough.
I wonder if Scar remembers him?

scartissue wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
The weigh-in for Rodolfo's second title defense against Antonio Puddu. Puddu on the scales, El Gato mugging for the camera while Jackie McCoy and Cannonball Green (with the hat) look on.

Guts Ishimatu must have been some fighter to depose Rodolfo a fight after this (in Japan). Ken Buchanan also conceded to Ishimatu in Japan, of course, and Kenny could travel.

Bennie, I actually never thought a great deal of Suzuki. El Gato was a pitiful excuse in their first fight. Absolutely weak as water trying to make weight. And one of Gonzalez' main attributes was that he was as strong as a bull, always putting the opponent on the back heel. Running into Bennie Georgino that time I mentioned before, I said to him, "Bennie, I didn't know that you were working Gonzalez' corner with McCoy the night he lost his title to Suzuki." He replied, "That poor guy had no business in the ring that night. He was so weak I had to lift him off his stool a couple of times." I was equally surprised that he got the decision over Buchanan, but there was something to that too, wasn't there? Wasn't it an injured eye or thumb he received in sparring? If asked 100 times who would win between Suzuki and Gonzalez or Buchanan, I would always reply Gonzalez or Buchanan. Maybe El Gato can give us his view on these fights.

Scartissue

Boxingnut wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Andy Kendall and Dick Tiger

Tiger didn't do badly for a kid who made his way from Nigeria to Liverpool and shivered his way through a few British winters. He is still the greatest African boxer ever, in my opinion.

Tiger worked in the same Liverpool factory as my father as did Hogan "Kid" Bassey.

Expug wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Velez was a popular boxer in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1940s and early 1950s in the Featherweight and Lightweight divisions. He was very popular in Spokane during this time period, becoming the area's most popular boxer, after Tiger Jack Fox had retired.

Velez was inflicted with polio as a child, and could not walk without crutches until the age of nine. He boxed with a withered left leg that was damaged from polio, which had left his left achilles tendon paralyzed. Nonetheless, he was still able to move around the ring effectively, though he had problems moving backwards on the leg. Despite the unsturdiness of his legs, he was considered a tough fighter to knock down.

Velez had a successful amateur career in Seattle, but had to begin his pro career outside of Seattle, because the local ring doctor would not allow him to fight due to his leg injury. Velez rose quickly to main event status boxing out of Spokane, fighting one 4-rounder, 6-rounder, and 8-rounder, before moving to his first ten-rounder, where he battered Spokane Featherweight Joey Dolan in a thrilling one-sided brawl in Spokane in March 1948. It was only after this win, and subsequent wins, that Velez was allowed to make his ring debut in Seattle. (According to the Oct. 2, 1950 Tacoma News Tribune, he had temporarily retired for a year.)

Velez's father was Puerto Rican and his mother was an Alaskan Native. Joey was the older brother of fellow boxer Bob Velez.

Ive only known of one other fighter who had polio as a youngster and a withered leg as well.
There was a middleweight who was a native American who fought out of Chicago in the 70s named Warren Thunder.
He was a game fighter and tough.
I wonder if Scar remembers him?

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Lopes

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Lopes

Just a great, great shot of a moody-looking Lopes.

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Lopes

Just a great, great shot of a moody-looking Lopes.

Bennie, do you remember Lopes?

kikibalt wrote:Lopes was a good fighter, I seen him fight a few.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Lopes was a good fighter, I seen him fight a few.

What were his strengths, Frankie?

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Lopes was a good fighter, I seen him fight a few.

What were his strengths, Frankie?

Good boxer, cagey, not much of a puncher, he fought all the top fighters of his era.