BoxRec

I remember seeing Collins fight Jimmy Carter for the lightweight title back in 1953 on t.v, Collins was knock down about 8 times in 4 rounds, Collins corner men stopped the fight in the 4th round.




Collins after the Carter fight

Johnson deposes Galindez.

The soccer stadium,Jiquilpan, where El Gato fought when he was 15 years old. They set up the ring in the middle. He remembers his three fights there.

Davey Moore Vs Hogan "Kid" Bassey

kikibalt wrote:
The soccer stadium,Jiquilpan, where El Gato fought when he was 15 years old. They set up the ring in the middle. He remembers his three fights there.

Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez will be honored and inducted into the "W.B.C. Legends of Boxing Museum" which will open it's doors in a couple of weeks at the American Sports University in San Bernardino. Other L.A. honorees include Mando Ramos, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon and Armando Muniz. Lennox Lewis will be in attendence as well as other contemporary boxing legends at the opening day event.

By the way, to any of you who post here regularly, you are invited to be my guest at this years World Boxing Hall of Fame's annual "Banquet of Champions", which will be held at the L.A. Airport Marriott Hotel on October 18th. Frank & Dagos, I've reserved four seats at my table for you nand your wives. I think a lot of the guys who post here and keep this all-time great thread alive, you know who you are and if you are available to attend the WBHOF banquet, I would be honored for you to join us. Lennox Lewis is on the ballot (ballots will be counted on June 26th) and we expect him to be inducted this year(his first year eligable). We won't know for sure until the ballots are in as to who will be inducted in the boxer and expanded catagories, however, in the posthumous catagory former welter champ Luis Rodriguez and former light-heavy contender "Young Firpo" (Guido Bardelli) will be inducted.

-Rick

I watched that fight the other night between Ponce De Leon and Lopez. They were saying that De Leon was born in an Indian village high in the mountains in Mexico. That his older siblings had died of diseases because there were no medical facilities in the area. De Leon wants to put some sort of infrastructure in his village that includes a medical facility that can help sick people .

Mexico has many isolated little villages that need basic care for their people. Last year we were driving from Jiquilpan to Uruapan to see the waterfalls there in the National Park. It was a long winding drive on a two lane road that twisted up and down through the mountains. You see these signs periodically that have the name of a town and an arrow beside the name and the distance in kilometers. Last year while on our trip to Uruapan,I saw a sign by a turnoff that said "Cocucho 10" with the arrow. I turned onto the road. Driving up and down,I finally saw a village. It was around sunrise. There was this old stone church in this square and dozens of Indian women with the brooms made of palm leaves sweeping the street. They were Tarascan Indians of Michoacan. They were speaking their Indian dialect which I couldn't understand. It made a clucking sound. The women worked in unision sweeping down the street. They were wearing bright colored dresses. The kind like the actress India Maria wears. I didn't see any men.

I drove my car slowly through the village. I didn't see a hotel,nor a restaurant,or any kind of business. Just then on a loud speaker some guy was announcing that menudo was being served at the stone church. I drove on to Uruapan.

On the way back,I decided to go through Cocucho again. Again no one in the streets. Still. Hot. Swirls of dust would kick up. As I was driving down a hill ,I saw an old Indian woman carrying a tree branch. I stopped. I asked my wife to ask her where she was going. She said she was going down the hill to look for a doctor because she was sick. She didn't explain what the tree branch was for. I gave her a ride down the hill. I took her to the next town where there was a little clinic. I gave her 200 pesos.

When I got back to San Diego,I looked up Cocucho on the Internet. To my surprise it was there. Evidenly the Indians there make these big urns they call"cocuchas". They're sold in various places. But I wonder how much those Indians make? How much do the owners of the curio shops pay those people? Those Tarascan Indians probably didn't know how much profit those store owners were making off them. It was typical.

After seeing De Leon lose,I felt bad. His boxing skills are very crude. Like the crudeness of his village and the village of Cocucho. But they make beautifull pottery. And Daniel Ponce De Leon is a beautifull person.

Rick Farris wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
The soccer stadium,Jiquilpan, where El Gato fought when he was 15 years old. They set up the ring in the middle. He remembers his three fights there.

Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez will be honored and inducted into the "W.B.C. Legends of Boxing Museum" which will open it's doors in a couple of weeks at the American Sports University in San Bernardino. Other L.A. honorees include Mando Ramos, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon and Armando Muniz. Lennox Lewis will be in attendence as well as other contemporary boxing legends at the opening day event.

By the way, to any of you who post here regularly, you are invited to be my guest at this years World Boxing Hall of Fame's annual "Banquet of Champions", which will be held at the L.A. Airport Marriott Hotel on October 18th. Frank & Dagos, I've reserved four seats at my table for you nand your wives. I think a lot of the guys who post here and keep this all-time great thread alive, you know who you are and if you are available to attend the WBHOF banquet, I would be honored for you to join us. Lennox Lewis is on the ballot (ballots will be counted on June 26th) and we expect him to be inducted this year(his first year eligable). We won't know for sure until the ballots are in as to who will be inducted in the boxer and expanded catagories, however, in the posthumous catagory former welter champ Luis Rodriguez and former light-heavy contender "Young Firpo" (Guido Bardelli) will be inducted.

-Rick

Thanks again Rick

The stone church of Cocucho

Cocucho Lady and her "cocucha"

A Balloon in Cactus

Mexican Beauty

By Maggie Van Ostrand

In a magazine interview, I was asked who had the most beautiful face of all time. I unhesitatingly answered, "Dolores Del Rio."

Not Garbo, Dietrich, or Elizabeth Taylor can compare with Dolores Del Rio. Though only five foot three inches in height, Dolores del Rio appeared to be tall on cinema screens all over the world. Sinuous and sensual, she was widely regarded as the female Rudolph Valentino. She starred in "Flying Down to Rio" (1933), with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in supporting roles, and she was still a star when she appeared in Woody Allen's 1983 film, "Zelig." Precious few other actresses have retained both beauty and stardom for over fifty professional years.

Delores del Rio - Mural - Hollywood, California
Born into an aristocratic Mexican family as Lolita Dolores Martinez Asunsolo Lopez Negrette in Durango Mexico on August 3, 1905, she was always called Lolita by family, including second cousin, silent screen idol, Ramon Novarro. Her father, a prominent banker, lost the family fortune during the Mexican Revolution, but his daughter's beauty was never lost.

Educated in a convent, she married writer Jaime Martinez Del Rio at the age of 16, and the couple moved to Mexico City where they were very socially active, until the dissolution of their marriage. At a Mexico City tea party, Hollywood film director Edwin Carewe, was struck by her dark beauty, and invited her to star in his 1925 silent production of "Joanna." She emmigrated to California, and starred in many silent films of his and other directors.

Although Del Rio spoke fluent English, the advent of sound exaggerated her accent, limiting her range of roles. But the fans seemed to find her accent charming, so she retained Hollywood stardom through the forties. Unlike today's stars, Del Rio looked as magnificent with all her clothes on, as in the title role of 1934's "Madame Du Barry," as when she appeared all but nude in 1932's "Bird of Paradise."

In 1930, she married famed MGM art director and production designer, Cedric Gibbons, from whom she was divorced in 1941. Just in time, too, since Orson Welles (10 years her junior) fell madly in love with her. In fact, she collaborated with him on his 1942 film, "Journey Into Fear," in which she starred.

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Joe Medel and Eder Jofre

Joey Orbillo as a pre-teen amateur.

Lupe Velez

A Beautiful Suicide

Tempestuous Mexican actress Lupe Velez parlayed her voluptuous figure and tireless energy into a south-of-the-border musical comedy career before she was 20.

In 1926, Velez moved to Hollywood, where she secured a role in The Music Box Revue and was featured in a handful of Hal Roach two-reelers. Her first major role in a feature film was as Douglas Fairbanks' fiery vis-à-vis in The Gaucho (1928); she made her talkie debut in D.W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements. In 1933, she married Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller, a union distinguished by loud, headline-grabbing public spats; they were divorced in 1938.

Velez drew a lot of attention at Hollywood parties. Velez, who was known to not wear underwear, would toss her dress over her head to show off for the crowd. Velez liked to be the star of the show but her best performance was her grand finale.

The following year, with her career in the doldrums, Velez starred in an RKO programmer called The Girl From Mexico; this led to the popular Mexican Spitfire series, in which the irrepressible Velez was teamed with rubber-legged character comedian Leon Errol.

She returned to Mexico in 1944 to star in Nana, which was not the success she hoped it would be.

In December of that year she found herself pregnant and unmarried, and so the depressed actress refused to have an abortion because it was against her Catholic religion. Her solution was to overdose on downers. Velez fixed up her hair and makeup and put on sexy lingerie.

Unfortunately, the pills and the Mexican meal she had eaten a few hours earlier didn't mix so well. The next morning, the maid found a trail of vomit from the bed to the restroom. Velez was dead, her head stuffed down the toilet.

kikibalt wrote:

Davey Moore Vs Hogan "Kid" Bassey

Frank
Davey Moore was another American fighter I saw exit the downtown bullring without changing his clothes in the locker room. Jumped right out of the ring . His gloves still on. They threw his robe over him and rushed him out the door. Hailed a cab and off to the border. Don't know if he collected his money. Probably his life was more important at the time. Shouldn't have been so rough on Kid Irapuato.

kikibalt wrote:
Joey Orbillo as a pre-teen amateur.

I don't think any of the other boys picked on him in class.

Maybe my favorite movie"Viva Villa" Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa Leo Carrillo as Sierra

diego

kikibalt wrote:

Moreno vs Chestnut 1957

Frank, during his ten-year career Ike Chestnut fought some great featherweights, from coast-to-coast as well as in Mexico. He was inducted into the WBHOF in 2006 posthumously, after passing away in 1985, at age 59. I've read a lot about Chestnut, heard lots of stories, a few from Dwight Hawkins who had boxed with Chestnut in the gym. I know you saw him at the Olympic, the Hollywood Legion, and probably other venues? You likely saw the fight the above pic came from? How did Chestnut fight, could you share your memories of what you saw, or your thoughts relating to Ike Chestnut? I wish I could post his record, just for the conversation that his opposition would stimulate.

-Rick

kikibalt wrote:
Joe Medel and Eder Jofre

What a match-up! I wish I could have seen it. Frank, I know you saw Eder Jofre in the ring in L.A. What are your memories?

-Rick