Classic American West Coast Boxing

[dagosd2000]

Behind Closed Doors

When Arnold Rothstein got to the crucial eight Chicago White Sox players to throw the World Series in 1919 (They never approached Eddie Collins because they knew he wouldn't go for it and probably rat out everybody) before the start of the games the fans figured something was rotten in Chicago. The White Sox were heavily favored to win.The rumors were running wild and when the Chi Sox lost the series in 8 games(They played the best of 9 back then) there was a grand jury investigation which led to a trial.The scribes called it "The Black Sox Scandal."

The beef was with the owner of the Sox,Charles Comiskey who was a cheapskate chiseler who made Sgt. Bilko look like Mother Teresa when it came to dealing fairly with his team,especially when it came to paying his players what they were worth. But Rothstein was sharp enough to walk away scot free along with the eight players who took the witness stand.But anyone who hadn't fallen off the turnip truck knew that not only the players were bribed but so was the jury. There was a big celebration afterwards by the get out of jail free boys.The innocent threw a big bash and the champagne opened in my grandfathers joint,The Bella Napoli.

But the owners of the teams knew it was time to hire a commissioner who was clean as a hound's tooth and they man they chose was Kennesaw Landis,a federal judge,who quicker than you could take a called third strike banned the eight players from ever playing beseball again.Rothstein continued wheeling and dealing until he was gunned down after he had dropped 400 g's in a poker game where he had left his IOU on the table.

Like I hinted at yesterday,The Bella Napoli was also the meeting place for Al Capone to try to get to Jack Dempsey to somehow do a cartwheel with Tunney to fix the rematch in Chicago. Dempsey didn't come close to shaking hands with Al on this one. He told Capone it would be his last fight.His wife was on his back, Doc Kearns wasn't around anymore.All Dempsey hoped for is that he got paid and walked out of the ring with his brains unscrambled.

Al Capone would eat his spaghetti in The Bella Napoli every night.One time Bugs Moran had the balls to offer the cook 10 thousand dollars to put prussic acid in Al's linguini.The cook figured his life was worth more than 10 grand and went to Capone with the news. Well,Al kept eating his pasta in The Bella Napoli,Dempsey retired,and if you have a Shoeless Joe Jackson autograph it's worth 30 big ones!


Al Capone


Diamond Joe Esposito on the left;his wife,Carmela(my grandmother) far right;my father to her right;I don't know who the other two are; inside The Bella Napoli early 1920's.

[dagosd2000]

When You're Legs Are Gone You're Gone

When my father would go to New York he'd always drop by Jack Dempsey's joint on Broadway and say hello.Dempsey remembered my father when he was a kid and when my grandfather,Diamond Joe Esposito, had the Bella Napoli Cafe on South Halsted.There Dempsey was offered a bribe to someway fix the rematch with Tunney by the boss of bosses,Al Capone.Like i said yesterday Capone never came close to getting what he wanted:Dempsey winning the rematch,the rubber match on the level. They would have had bring Tunney in on it and that was impossible.

I remember one time when Dempsey was visiting Chicago and was invited to eat at Diamond Joe's old house in Little Italy on the corner of Polk And Oakley.. My grandmother lived there still with her daughter andmy aunt Jeanette and her two boys Frankie and Joey.Of course since my father did the inviting his clan all went along for the raviolies.

The cook at the Bella Napoli was brought over to Ellis Island by my grandfather after he went on a search for the best chef in the town of Acerra that was just outside of Naples. That's where my grandfather was born.It's impossible to describe how food tastes in words so I'll make it short-the best Italian food in the world.Even other Italians said so and that's hard to find because they're used to their mama's cooking.MY grandmother learned how to cook from that chef and my grandmother passed those recipes down to my mother and she to my sisters. So Dempsey knew he was in for a gastronomical treat when he came over.

I was only around 10 years old when we were all at the dinner table. There wasn't any talking about fighting.Between my grandmother,my aunt,my mother,and my two sisters the men didn't want to make them feel like an old pair of shoes. When the meal was over and the Brioschi was served followed by cannolis for the women and kids and the anisette for Dempsey and my old man, that the males and the females parted company.

Dempsey and my father and me with my cannoli went into the living room. Dempsey asked about the neighborhood and my old man said that the blacks were encroaching and the old dagos were starting to look for places in the suburbs. My father finally got around to feeling out Dempsey about fighting. He asked him if he ever got the itch again.Dempsey said that when Tunney retired he thought about maybe making a comeback.Sharkey and Schmeling had traded belts(Max winning the first fight on a foul when Max refused to continue after saying he got hit on the balls.,Sharkey was pretty sore. about that.He thought Schmeling was faking.Then Sharkey wins the rematch in a fight that put everyone to sleep)Dempsey said that he thought he could beat both guys.He did beat Sharkey prior to the rematch with Tunney but was behind in the fight and then hit Sharkey low.When Sharkey turned to complain to the ref Dempsey clipped him a left hook..Dempsey was back to Chicago for the rematch.

Dempsey talked about his series of exhibition bouts beginning in 1931.At the time he had been retired but his popularity was greater than ever.Tunney stopped fighting after beating Tom Heeney but Gene was never a fan favorite.A great fighter but kind of a snob who distanced himself from the fans.Dempsey said he was feeling pretty good fighting some active heavyweights but when he fought King Levinsky in Chicago he knew he had lost it for good.
"My legs were gone.If I couldn't get set to land a good blow against Levinsky I knew it was over."
Levinsky,who was managed by his sister ,was sort of a clownish pug in the ring.He'd lunge and hop around and had no defensive skills. He wanted to make Dempsey look inept for 4 rounds and succeeded. Dempsey looked like he was stuck in the mud and couldn't get his legs to do hat he wanted.Hell, he couldn't get his legs under him against Tunney either.Once the legs are gone you're gone.

The evening ended with Dempsey and my old man smoking a cigar.I pretended my cannoli was a stogie.I guess you can fake a cannoli thinking it's a cigar,but when you're legs are gone there's no way you can fake that thinking everything is OK.


Jack Dempsey




Diamond Joe's house on the corner of Polk And Oakley.It was the day of his funeral after they had gunned him down a few blocks down the street walking back from a union meeting.

[dagosd2000]

Breakfast Of Champions

Vicky La Motta said her husband took steroids during training for his last fight with Sugar Ray Robinson. She didn't say what the drug was or how he took it but she said he took steroids because he had trouble getting down to 160 pounds and he believed that by dieting and taking the drug he could maintain muscle integrity and make weight.

Jake La Motta never mentioned the steroid use in his Raging Bull autobiography. I never heard anyone bring it up to him in an interview. Like I said the other day, fighters ,and athletes in general, don't want to admit to anything that might incinerate them. That goes for taking a dive or using some drug to gain an edge.

There was some talk on the forum about fighters back in the day that had more integrity than today's pugs and wouldn't stoop so low to use a drug to gain an advantage. I don't believe that. Hell,if they could load their gloves with Plaster Of Paris what's the difference? They had steroids in the 50's but they were used ,for example, on burn victims to help keep the flesh on their bodies and they gave it to kids who had stunted growth to make them taller.It wasn't until these Russian weightlifters in the Olympics in the 60's started breaking all these records, because they were shooting up you name it, that it got popular with athletes.I don't know if these Peds help a fighter that much ,like they do in other other sports, anyway. I know if they want to pack on weight it works,but the trade off can be a loss of speed.

I used to lift a lot of weights in my prime. I got up to a 475 pound bench press and seemed stuck there forever.Then i tried my luck with androstenedione(an oral steroid)and within six months my bench press went up to 535 pounds.This was when I was 50 years old.But I was tearing my ligaments to the point that I couldn't lift heavy anymore.Steroids are bad for the connective tissue-makes it brittle.So I stopped with the roids.

In a way I feel lucky that I couldn't continue lifting heavy.I knew a lot of guys that took eveything,even went to the vet,to get the juice.They wound up with enlarged hearts,got strokes and heart attacks,and cancer.They all died before reaching 60.Was it because of steroids? I think so.I'm lucky that I dodged a bullet.

I told you the story when Arnold came to America to train with Joe Gold to win all those Mr. Universe titles. This was around 1968.I was working out in a make shift gym in the back of a health food store in an alley in Ocean Beach in San Diego called Vic's OB Gym.It used to be an old wood garage.So I'm in there with a couple of other fellas' lifting weights and Vic walks in and says "Guess who's coming to the gym tonight? Arnold."
Well,we were all ecstatic.Arnold wasn't well known at the time.This was before he won all those Mr.Universes and made those Conan movies.He showed up but he didn't work out.He said he stopped by Vic's store to buy supplements and then go to Tijuana to buy steroids.We didn't give a s--t.

I've always thought that if it wasn't for steroids Arnold wouldn't have won all those Mr. Univereses and become a big movie star and married a Kennedy and been the governor of California.Me? All I wanted to do is bench press over 500 pounds.


Jake La Motta

[dagosd2000]

The Beginning Of It All

When Joe Louis fought Lee Savold on June !5.1941 it was the first fight that the only way you could watch it(unless you were at Madison Square Garden) was to go to the movie theater and see it on the big screen. It was shown in six cities with New York blacked out.

Louis stopped Savold and that led a lot of people to believe that Joe still had enough in him to beat Rocky Marciano.Louis was always the odds on favorite in every one of his fights. He was so successful that it got to be a habit of thinking that he'd win all the time.Of course watching Louis get hammered by Marciano like that was not only a surprise but heartbreaking.

Of all the black fighters prior to World War II Joe Louis was the most liked by white fans and certainly the most respected.Other blacks like The Mills Brothers,Nat King Cole,and Louis Armstrong were also "accepted" by the white public,and they were big stars.. They weren't the Stepin" Fetchit types like Eddie Rochester Anderson or Mantan Moreland who played the fool,yet they were OK,laughed at but they were well enough;but in no way were they outspoken like Paul Robeson.

After the war things changed.They had to.There were less quality white fighters. Now it was two black guys fighting for a world championship.Today, it's most likely that it's two Latinos(or at least one)

I don't think anyone now cares what color a fighter is except that he put on a good show. Yeah,there's rivalries still.;like a Puerto Rican against a Mexican.This fight coming up with the Mexican Ramirez who's going to fight Bivol,the conqueror of Canelo,is good for business. But there's no hatred there-a natural bias but no lynch mob.

Today,you can watch anything that's a big event but you have to stream it and shell out the dough.I'm waiting for the second coming(If you're a Jew,the first coning) but I won't order it on something like DAZN.I'm sure they'll have it in Tijuana for free.


Rocky Marciano



A lot more than "acceptable."

[dagosd2000]

Playing With Fire

Ran into Vargas today when I was in Tijuana.Filled the car with gas,got a haircut,and ate some tacos de cabezas at the La Especial stand on Revolution Street. I was eating at a table outside when I saw Vargas walking by.
"Hey amigo ,"I yelled."Let me buy you some taco and sit down."
Vargas stopped in his tracks.He turned and saw me and smiled.He took a chair next to mine.
"Enjoying your lunch?"he said smiling his friendly always smile.
"Can I get you a taco?"I asked.
The La Especial has been there since 1952.The only thing they have are the tacos e cabeza and if you want a cold soda.
"I just ate,"said Vargas.
"Anything new since the last time I saw you?"
"I told you I sold the gym.I was going to the Caliente Sports book where the Jai Alai Palace is. I work at the seller window."
"Well don't let me make you late for work,"
"I'm all right.I'll sit with you for a little. I've got some time."
"Did you see the Canelo fight?"
"We had it at the sports book. We didn't get as much action on it as I thought."
"See any of the old crowd?"I asked him.
"You know I bumped into Paco Valdez the other day?"
"You mean the featherweight who used to fight a lot at the Auditorium?"
"Yeah.That's him."
"Where did you see him?"
"I was driving in the Rio approaching that first glorietta by the Bola when I had to stop for a red light. This guy came out into the intersection with these long knives and he was pouring gasoline on them and then setting them on fire and then he'd swallow them. "
"Yeah.A fire eater."
"It was Paco Valdez.I didn';t recognize him at first but it was him."
"Did you say anything to him?"
"Before the light changed he was passing the hat .Then it changed before he got to my car.I drove on."
"That's something."
"I'm glad he didn't see me."
"Some of those guys make pretty good money,"I said.
"I was in his corner when beat Sigfrido in the bullring..That was a pretty big upset."
"I was there.He was fighting on the undercard of the Olivares fight when he fought that guy from Japan," I said. "I lost track of him after that."
"He went down to Guadalajara to fight and some guy broke his jaw.He didn't fight much after that."
"And know he's a fires eater in the street."
"Like I said he didn't see me."
I began starting on my second taco.
"Vargas,you sure you don't want a taco?"
"No.I got to get going.I don't want to be late for work."

[dagosd2000]

The Secret's Still Not Out

Archie Moore liked to have this aura of mystery about him. He liked to have people guessing about how he did it.Sometimes he'd let them in on some of his tricks of the trade.Other times Chinese water torture wouldn't let him spill his guts.

He had this recipe for a barbeque sauce that he said he concocted and wasn't about to let anyone in on it. He wanted to market it but for some reason he never got around to it.I'd see him at the annual Martin Luther King festival at Ocean View Park every year.He had his little stand set up cooking up a mess of chops,ribs,and chicken, and then basting the fare with ample amounts his homemade sauce. I got to admit it was delicious. One afternoon he was in the process of spreading his sauce over everything when this little old black lady who had lived in the neighborhood forever went up tp Archie's stand and asked him if he'd tell her what was in his sauce. i was standing near the stand when I heard her query.I thought Archie would give her some kind of sang and dance but instead he said he would gladly let her in on the secret.Well, just then Mary Wells and her backup group launched into a number and drowned out everything.I couldn't hear a word of what Archie was saying to the old gal.

I don't know if Archie went to his grave with that recipe for his barbeque sauce.I was surfing the internet a while back and ran across an ad for "Archie Moore's Buffalo Wing Sauce." It was a bottled product featured at Arche Moore's Restaurant in New Haven ,Connecticut.Now I know in the late 40's Moore tried to make a go of it with a fried chicken joint in Southeast San Diego but he couldn't keep the doors open.

I doubt if there's any correlation between all that stuff going on in Connecticut and what Archie Moore had going in San Diego.That ad I read said that that Archie Moore's restaurant back east was established in 1898. Now I know Archie Moore was old but but I don't think anyone would have swallowed the line that he was slapping barbeque sauce on the bird back before the 20th century.


Archie Moore




It was amazing the number of black groups that would show up for that Martin Luther King festival every year:James Brown ,Ray Charles,JImmy Smith,Sam Cooke, Junior Walker,just to name few.But it was never advertised by the white media. I think since it was held in the ghetto they thought no white people would go. And to tell the truth I don't think the black community wanted to see whitey there anyway.I always went but I never had a problem.I played football on that all black football team The Ghetto Messengers.I made sure I stayed close to them.

[dagosd2000]

The Archie Diet

Archie Moore traveled to way down Australia in early 1940 and stayed for 9 months clearing out the local opposition.He liked going to some guy's hometown and beating his opponent and anyone else that was a neighbor.When he returned to the USA from the country/continent he told everyone that he had brought back with him a recipe for a diet that he discovered traversing across the Outback where he stumbled upon a tribe of aborigines who let him in on an ancient tribal fare that guaranteed to shed pounds without losing strength or muscle mass.

Well, 'ol Arch had everyone guessing and trying to get him to let the cat out of the bag.
"When I was down in Australia I had trouble getting down to weight until the natives let me in on their secret."
For a fighter to shed pounds can be a trying ordeal;arduous self starvation often draining a man so when he finally makes the scales and gets into the ring he doesn't have enough left in his gas tank to take a ride around the lock. So c'mon Arch let us in on the secret.But he was not only a mongoose, he had a bit of the fox in him.

I can't remember how it happened or when but Archie's trade secret finally was divulged to the world.Maybe there was a double agent sparring partner who leaked the news;perhaps it was Doc Kearns who got tired telling the story of how he loaded Jack Dempsey's gloves in Toledo and wanted to get the spotlight shone on him about Archie's restricted repast. But here it is straight from the tribesmen from the Outback of Australia passed on to Archie Moore and now to the rest of the world.

"Take a piece of raw meat and chew it until you get all the blood and juices into your stomach and then spit out the rest."
Hmm. I wonder if Archie ever bumped into Jake La Motta while he was traversing the Australian Outback?


Archie Moore

[dagosd2000]

https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxin ... inson-peds

Jake La Motta on using steroids and drinking the blood from a raw steak. Interesting

[dagosd2000]

He Never Trusted Anybody

That's what Jake La Motta believed. He never trusted anybody.
"From early as I can remember I never trusted anybody.You trust a guy and pretty soon you find he's using you to give you a screwing....If you don't trust anybody,and make sure you don't give a good goddamn about anybody, you're safe.If some guy sells you down the river,you got only yourself to blame,it's your own goddamn fault."
That was straight out of his mouth.Jimmy Cannon called him "probably the most detested man of his generation."W.C. Heinz added insult to injury when he said of La Motta,"He will probably go down into the books as one of the most unpopular sports figures of all time." So why did all the dagos in the Southwest Side of Chicago take to Jake more than his counterpart,Rocky Graziano?

Both Graziano and La Motta were friends.They landed in the same reform school and learned how to box. I don't know if La Motta bought Rocky any Christmas presents,let alone trusted him,but Rocky went on after fighting as a popular celebrity. Jake was a heel. What threw gasoline on the fire was the Billy Fox fix that got Jake in the doghouse. Later,Rocky was on television as a standup comedian and as a guest telling his funny stories about boxing and life in general. He didn't mind making a fool of himself to draw a laugh. Jake didn't want anybody laughing at him or with him. Rocky was a regular foil for Martha Raye on her TV show being her "goomba".They had audiences in stitches.And then there was that farcical bio/ pic "Somebody Up There Likes Me" starring Paul Newman as Graziano who came off more like Crazy Guggenheim.

Jake in the meantime was persona non grata.When Madison Garden gave Sugar Ray Robinson a retirement sendoff at the arena they invited former foes Carmen Basilio,Gene Fullmer,Bobo OLsen, and Randy Turpin to lift Ray on their shoulders and carry him around the ring. Jake was sitting at home watching Gunsmoke.But in the poolroom in Little Italy Jake got top billing.Graziano was never the Rocky that Marciano was.Why?Becuase the dagos in that poolroom knew that Jake was a bad boy. Graziano was no saint either,but Jake had beaten Ray Robinson(maybe got gypped out of another decision)got tossed in the slammer for pimping underage girls in his bar in Miami,and most of all never trusted anybody.You see all those greaseballs that shot pool in that poolroom were like Jake in the respect that they never had the words "I'm sorry" in their vocabulary.

White guys liked Rocky.White guys kept their distance from Jake.

OK.Now you're waiting for me to add something to that movie Raging Bull.That's what put La Motta on the map. La Motta said he took his ex wife Vicky to see it. When it was over Jake turned to her and asked,"Was I really that bad?"
"You were worse,"she shot back."

Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta. De Niro won the Academy Award for best actor. Jake finally got to go on the Tonight Show



Rocky Graziano on The Martha Raye Show

[dagosd2000]

Caught On Tape

The other day I stumbled upon something on Youtube I thought didn't exist:Jake LaMotta's first fight with Bob Murphy and Jake's scrap with Danny Nardico. I'll lead off with Irish Bob.

After LaMotta got massacred on Saint Valentine's Day in Chicago by Ray Robinson,losing his title,Jake made the decision to move up a division to light heavyweight. For Murphy at Yankee Stadium, Jake packed on 15 pounds. The winner of the fight was to meet Joey Maxim for the championship.Jake was the betting favorite.But LaMotts was outgunned from the start.Jake never had a big punch.In over 80 victories he only scored 30 KO's.Murphy was a banger. He also had a dislike for Italians.

I told you I worked with a guy who was Murphy's sparring partner and close friend.His name was Earl Anderson.All he talked about was Murphy. It was like Murphy walked on water.But Anderson said that Murphy had it in for Italians.An example:Anderson said he was with Murphy in Boston bending their elbows at some bar when Rocky Marciano walked in with some friends.Right away Murphy cut a swathe towards Rocky and his crew and grabbed Marciano by the collar.Luckily there were enough sober bodies around to prevent a non title fight.

When the bell rang for the start of their first fight Murphy went right after Jake. Jake didn't back down but he lacked the heavy artilery. Murphy had a powerful left hand and used it t attack LaMotta's body.Jake was an arm swinger.He never learned how to put his shoulder and his back into his punches, But LaMotta never wanted to learn anything from anybody anyway.He said he never listened to what Al Silvani had to tell him. Jake never did roadwork.Jake was Jake and you either swallowed it or took a powder. You can see in the film LaMotta protecting his side holding his right arm against his ribcage. By the 7th round he knew he couldn't last. The bell rang for the 8th raund.Jake was still on his stool.

LaMOtta stayed at around 175 pounds for the rest of his career. In 1952 LaMotta was in the ring with Danny Nardico. Jake had had over 100 fights by then. It was a crossroads fight for both men. For years LaMotta had said he'd never been knocked down in fight.It was a legacy.But guys who were at that fight said it ain't so.LaMotta really showed his wear and tear in this one.Nardico was snapping his punches off.Jake tried to counter but he was spent. Nardico had him on the ropes in round 7 and hacked him down like chopping cordwood. There was no round 6.

Jake LaMotta was a first ballot IBHOF inductee. You can see the picture if him sitting with the other inductees and his goombas all together ,Carmen Basilio and Willie Pep.Billy Conn is also in the picture.He's standing as far away from those dagos as possible.


Jake LaMotta

[goose 5]

When Raging Bull came out Lamotta made the rounds of various talk shows and pushed the narrative that he was ducked for years by the top guys at 160 when in reality he could have fought Charley Burley and had rematches with Burt Lytell and LLoyd Marshall as well as bouts with Holman Williams in 1944 and 1945. He'd say things like"Robinson and me fought so often cause nobody would fight either of us." I never once heard anyone call him out on his claims.

[dagosd2000]

When Raging Bull came out Lamotta made the rounds of various talk shows and pushed the narrative that he was ducked for years by the top guys at 160 when in reality he could have fought Charley Burley and had rematches with Burt Lytell and LLoyd Marshall as well as bouts with Holman Williams in 1944 and 1945. He'd say things like"Robinson and me fought so often cause nobody would fight either of us." I never once heard anyone call him out on his claims.

Good point. That black murderer's row contingent would have loved to have fought either of those guys on a regular basis.One guy who I think got unnoticed was Eddie Booker.Archie Moore could never beat him and got stopped once.Booker I'd hear Moore say that Booker was one of the toughest fighters he ever fought.Booker was undefeated in his first 44 fights until losing a decision to Fritzie Zivic in New York.That fight was probably fixed. He fought later with diminishing eyesight due to an opponent who had doctored gloves and finally wound up legally blind.

[dagosd2000]

U.S. Heavyweights?(Read About Them In The History Books)

I"ve been reading the thread about U.S. fighters and why they're rarer than white rhinoceros.It's the same old argument-blame it on TV,PPV,HBO,.NAW. You''re approaching it from the wrong angle.TV never hurt football ,baseball ,or basketball. Boxing is just too damn hard for American kids to get involved with.

Before the big war there was no Little League or Pop Warner Football.If a kid wanted some exercise he had to wait to go to high school where he could play sports and put on his lettermen's jacket.Some schools offered boxing in the PE department but those were times when a lot of kids never got that far in school and had to go to work to help their families or if they wanted something for their own.

If a kid back then wanted to break a sweat he could go to one of the local boxing gyms to prove his manhood and fulfil a right of passage. Today, it's all different. After GI's got discharged they pushed their baby boomer kids to get an education.It they wanted to play sports on the school team that was fine.But they weren't telling their sons to be prize fighers.Boxing was for the underclass and whitey didn't fit that mold anymore.Parents spoiled their kids and gave them allowances. The black kids and Latino kids were still getting the leftovers so they were filing the cards at the arenas.

But today there's youth sports by the ton, but you won't find boxing at your neighborhood rec center.There's Little League and Pop Warner Football.For the hoopsters there are teams galore. Boxing? Try to find a boxing gym in your hometown.

Now about all that's left in the U.S. are Latino fighters and you won't find many of them in the big boy division.The black kids go to school and fill up the prep rosters. MIchael Jordan Si,Muhammad Ali just a name.Us dagos moved to the burbs with mommy and daddy and they wanted to become more sophisticated and no way my old man wanted me to be another Rocky Marciano. The bottom line is that boxing is a damn hard sport that takes sacrifice and hard work.Kids in the good 'ol USA would rather go to one of these fly by night MMA gyms and learn to fight dirty and kick a guy in the balls or catch a pass in the end zone and screw a cheerleader.

Sonny Liston.If you read his life story you know he was never homecoming king at Happy Days High.

[dagosd2000]

Campeon

I was mulling over what I was going to write today when I logged onto the forum and read where Eder Jofre had passed away. I'm having a hard time putting it into words. I know that Chris Smith, who wrote that excellent bio about Eder, is taken by this.I met Eder last year at Rick Farris' West Coast Hall Of Fame ceremonies.The day before the event there was a meet and greet get together at a watering hole in the Arts District of LA all put together by Chris. Eder was being recognized along with Michael Nunn and Carlos Zarate.I think most people wanted to meet Eder.

Eder arrived with his daughter,,son,and a pretty female interpreter who translated what was being said to Eder and his family.Of course there were the usual autograph hounds and the ones who crowded him to have a picture taken.What was bittersweet was that Eder was in the depths of dementia.I'm not sure if he was cognizant of his surroundings. His son held his hand as he guided it to sign his name on everything from picture cards to postage stamps.The cameras clicked and the interpreter.held him straight not to make the images come out blurry.Everything moved like a fast paced assembly line.I sat next to Eder and stayed with him .along with his son and the interpreter.What I wanted to know about Eder or any comments I had to make I spoke through the interpreter and Eder's son in Spanish though their first language was Portuguese.

Eder Jofre was undoubtedly Brazil's greatest fighter;maybe the greatest bantamweight ever.But he never got the recognition he deserved. It took him a couple of years before the IBHOF inducted him into their circle. Outside of Brazil he isn't well knnwn,and the way the current boxing buffs remember boxing they can't even pronounce his name.

Soccer has always been center stage in Brazil. Mention Pele,Ronaldo,or Neymar and eyes light up. Ask about Eder Jofre and you might get an answer like ,"I think my grandfather knows about him."

Eder Jofre was the best bantamweight I ever saw.Too bad he didn't fight more in the U.S. Maybe then the IBHOF might have voted him in on their first ballot..

My deepest sympathies to his family.




Two great bantamweights:Eder Jofre and Carlos Zarate

[dagosd2000]

The Crowd Chaser

On August 21,1964,when Johnny Persol met Henry Hank,20 years of nationally televised boxing under the management Madison Square Garden and the Gillette Company came to a close.There were a few televised fights after that date but the formal agreement had heard the final bell.

The fights at that time were aired on Saturday nights being switched from Friday evenings. The broadcasts were shown on the ABC network. If you were around then the other two national networks,CBS and NBC,had offerings in the same time slot as the fights, Jackie Gleason's American Scene Magazine (CBS) and Flipper(NBC).The fights from The Garden couldn't draw a greater audience than a show about a porpoise and Gleason who was trying to hang on with a passe version of his old act minus The Honeymooners.

In San Diego ,my burg,there was a local station ,channel 6:LA had three,channels 5,11,and 13;for the Spanish speakers there was channel 12 from Tijuana. There were your options. Johnny Persol and Henry Hank was the crowd chaser for the fights on national TV on a weekly basis.

So your sitting around the your comfy living room in San Diego with mom and dad and brother and sis' and the Irish Setter and everyone takes a vote of what to watch on the tube in prime time.Mom and dad opt for Jackie Gleason,the kids for the porpoise,and the dog wants to watch Lassie but it's been off the air for years. The local channel 6 has already signed off the air.The rabbit ears can't get the LA channels without the screen looking like a snowstorm and no one speaks Mexican. I guess you'll have to read about who won the Johnny Persol /Henry Hank fight in the papers.

[chrisjs1985]

Campeon

I was mulling over what I was going to write today when I logged onto the forum and read where Eder Jofre had passed away. I'm having a hard time putting it into words. I know that Chris Smith, who wrote that excellent bio about Eder, is taken by this.I met Eder last year at Rick Farris' West Coast Hall Of Fame ceremonies.The day before the event there was a meet and greet get together at a watering hole in the Arts District of LA all put together by Chris. Eder was being recognized along with Michael Nunn and Carlos Zarate.I think most people wanted to meet Eder.

Eder arrived with his daughter,,son,and a pretty female interpreter who translated what was being said to Eder and his family.Of course there were the usual autograph hounds and the ones who crowded him to have a picture taken.What was bittersweet was that Eder was in the depths of dementia.I'm not sure if he was cognizant of his surroundings. His son held his hand as he guided it to sign his name on everything from picture cards to postage stamps.The cameras clicked and the interpreter.held him straight not to make the images come out blurry.Everything moved like a fast paced assembly line.I sat next to Eder and stayed with him .along with his son and the interpreter.What I wanted to know about Eder or any comments I had to make I spoke through the interpreter and Eder's son in Spanish though their first language was Portuguese.

Eder Jofre was undoubtedly Brazil's greatest fighter;maybe the greatest bantamweight ever.But he never got the recognition he deserved. It took him a couple of years before the IBHOF inducted him into their circle. Outside of Brazil he isn't well knnwn,and the way the current boxing buffs remember boxing they can't even pronounce his name.

Soccer has always been center stage in Brazil. Mention Pele,Ronaldo,or Neymar and eyes light up. Ask about Eder Jofre and you might get an answer like ,"I think my grandfather knows about him."

Eder Jofre was the best bantamweight I ever saw.Too bad he didn't fight more in the U.S. Maybe then the IBHOF might have voted him in on their first ballot..

My deepest sympathies to his family.




Two great bantamweights:Eder Jofre and Carlos Zarate

Thanks Roger. What a great event that was and what a great week. I will really miss knowing that this great man is alive but his memory and legacy will live longer than anyone. He is immortal. Two beautiful moments I had with him that stand out are thus: I would ask him every day, a couple of times "How are you champ?" and he would respond saying "Happy. Very, very happy." He told me "I am the happiest man in the world." Another was when I was seeing them off at the airport and I gave Eder a hug and told him "Thank you." He asked what I was thanking him for and I told him for everything, for coming here and allowing me to be part of his life and he said "I am the one who is thankful to you for everything you have done. You have made me very happy."

[dagosd2000]

[/quote]
Thanks Roger. What a great event that was and what a great week. I will really miss knowing that this great man is alive but his memory and legacy will live longer than anyone. He is immortal. Two beautiful moments I had with him that stand out are thus: I would ask him every day, a couple of times "How are you champ?" and he would respond saying "Happy. Very, very happy." He told me "I am the happiest man in the world." Another was when I was seeing them off at the airport and I gave Eder a hug and told him "Thank you." He asked what I was thanking him for and I told him for everything, for coming here and allowing me to be part of his life and he said "I am the one who is thankful to you for everything you have done. You have made me very happy."
[/quote]

Chris,you sure will have a great part in keeping Eder Jofre's memory alive for eternity. If it hadn't been for you I would have never met the man. Thank you,Rog


My pal Chris James holding his award for best boxing book of the year for 2021 at last year's West Coast Boxing Hall OF Fame."Eder Jofre :Brazil's First Boxing World Champion." Best boxing bio I've ever read.

[dagosd2000]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated ... E2%80%9364

Top 30 TV shows for the 1963-1964 season. Saturday Night Fights never got a call. If enough people were watching it the network(ABC)would have worked something out with Madison Square Garden and kept it alive.No one wanted to sponsor it anymore.It was a losing proposition.

[dagosd2000]

The Toughest Guy He Ever Fought

When they used to ask Archie Moore who was the toughest guy he ever fought he'd have several answers depending on what mood he was in.I heard him say Charley Burley.He'd say Eddie Booker was as tough as any(Booker was the first fighter to stop Archie).Moore never came close to beating Ezzard Charles,but I never heard him say his name.You would think that Moore,who lossed to Rocky Marciano give give him a call but I never heard Moore mention The Rock when it came to fighters who gave him a hard time.Archie was always sore at Harry Kessler,the referee of Moore's fight with Marciano, in Archie's attempt to be the first light heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Moore griped about Kessler giving Rocky a "long count" in the 4th frame when Archie caught him with a right hand.Rocky got up after that knockdown and beat Moore to a pulp.

Moore never had much trouble with white fighters.Joey Maxim ,who he won the light heavyweight title from,never pushed him. Bobo Olson got smoked.Teddy Yarosz decinsioned Moore in 1939 but Yarosz was a good fighter back then ,had a lot of fights with some name guys,was a middleweight champ while Moore was still kind of wet behind the ears.I know there's Moore's first fight with Yvon Durelle-yeah that was a hard fought come from behind win.But the rematch was a cakewalk.

But putting all that aside,I'd say Archie Moore's toughest white guy opponent was a local San Diegan called "Shorty" Hogue. Shorty's real first name was Willis.He had a twin brother named Willard who they called "Big Boy." The brothers lived out in the east county in a one horse town named Campo.. It was redneck as hell and they could have moved it to deep in the heart of Texas and it wouldn't have missed a lynching.I used to listen to all those old timers who'd belly up to the bar in George Radovich's Arizona Cafe at the beach and they'd talk about Shorty Hogue and how he didn't like Archie Moore because he was black.Those guys at the bar didn't like blacks either.Oh,those guys knew their fighting.Radovich had handled Bob Murphy in the amateurs and The Arizona was one of his favorite watering holes. They liked going to the fights and were up on everything.They'd get drunk at The Arizona,go to The Coliseum to tak in the fights,and then go to Tijuana to raise more hell,and then come back with a case of the clap.

Moore and Shorty were rivals for bragging rights in San Diego early. Hogue beat Moore twice by decision.Shorty was about the only white fighter that would step into the ring with Moore.Moore finally got to Shorty in what turned out to be Shorty's last fight.Moore was scheduled to fight his brother "Big Boy" outside at the ballpark,lane Field when "Big Boy" cut his knee on a cr bumper walking from the parking lot.Now there's "Shorty" sitting at ringside with a snootfull and they needed a replacement.Well, "Shorty" had no problem taking off his pants.However,he didn' finis the 2nd round.It was his last fight.

Moore had to be content to fight all those black murderer's row fighters and vice versa. During the big war the titles were frozen and those black fighters would have nothing to do but fight each other.By 1950 a lot of those murderer row fellas were past their primes. Moore caught a break when he hooked up with Doc Kearns.Moore would have never fought Joey Maxim if it hadn't have been for Kearns.But Archie had to agree to fork over a big part of his purse for life to get where he wanted to be.

I'm sure Moore would have liked to have fought that triad of Zale,Graziano ,and La Motta. When Jake talked all the time that no one wanted to fight him or Sugar Ray he was blowing smoke out his ass.Archie Moore would have feasted on those three.That's why when you watch the film of Moore finally winning the championship in a breeze against Joey Maxim,Archie isn't jumping around and kissing the canvas.He knew he should have been champ a long time ago.


Eddie Booker


The Arizona Cafe down by the beach. George Radovich proprietor:managed Bob Murphy in the amateurs(did some amateur fighting himself),played football for the San Diego Bombers semi pro team,During the summer all those LA Ram players like Bob Waterfiied,Skeets Quinlan,Crazy Legs HIrsch would come down to San Diego and bend elbows in The Arizona with George.Bob Murphy would stagger in and get drunk and pick a fight with anyone who got in his way.They'd all go sport fishing and stay drunk,play cards all night.and go to Tijuana and f--k al the whores until they all tapped out.Sometimes one of then would wind up in the Tijuana jail and have to sleep it off until they could scrounge up 17 dollars for bail(17 dollars was the magic number to make bail)

When George died he left the bar to his son who never came in the joint and didn't drink and didn't carouse around like his old man.George was happy that his son stayed away from the place. When his son got the deed he sold the bar for a song with everything intact.He left all the memories behind.

Today the Arizona has been completely remolded inside with a slew of flat screen TV's and micro beers on tap..There's a picture of Bob Murphy they have on the wall for some reason.When I come in (which is very seldom) I try to explain the picture and the way things were.No one seems very interested.

Put a quarter in the jukebox and this was typical

[dagosd2000]

The Party On Santa Monica

If you were ever at the bar in The Arizona and ordered a drink that required a blender like a margarita the bartender would tell you to go down the street..The Arizona didn't have a blender.George Radovich never thought of having one.Drinks that necessitated a blender were for sissies. There wasn't any beer on tap either,just bottled beer. Budweiser was the main one. They had Coors but since it was brewed out West it was for sissies.Maybe one of the barflies would have one in front of her and that was about it. If you wanted hard liquor there was every kind of whiskey in the world.Scotch and rye were popular but bourbon was the biggie But you could also count on plenty of vodka on the shelf because Radovich was a Serb and everyone that worked in his joint was one too..

Like I said, Radovich was a Serb and every bartender in there was a Serb and he never hired a female Serb bartender except for the old fat gal who was the cook in that little kitchen they had on the side before you got to the bowling alley. Man,could she cook up some delicious homemade hot meals. The main dishes were meat of some kind with sides of potatoes and vegetables and plenty of hot rolls with butter oozing over everything.You had to eat your food at the bar but no one cared.

All them Serbs belonged to the same church and a group called the Serbian Defense League.The Serbian Defense League was dreaming of one day kicking Tito out of Yugoslavia and then forming their own country(you guessed it)Serbia.They all spoke Serbian and Russian to each other when they didn't want you in on what was going on.

Radovich put his mother in the apartment upstairs from the bar.I had a girlfriend who was a Serb ,and part of that clique, and she would drop in on Radovich's mother to see if everything was OK.

Oh yeah,I mentioned the bowling alley.Radovich had one built in the back in 1942.It only had seven lanes.Bowling and all those Serbs were joined at the hip. It was cultural thing.Radovich didn't empty his wallet to install automatic pinsetters until he got tired of paying for those pin boys(myself included)to get patched up at the docs for getting hit on the noggin by a errant bowling pin.

Ok, down to a hard core boxing story. I was tellin' ya' about how Bob Murphy would get kick up his heels in The Arizona and become unpredictable.Well,Radovich was tellin' me about the time Murphy was at the bar and feeling no pain howver was administering it on the customers.George wanted him out of there but didn't want him to escalate the carnage so he told Murphy that there was a party on "Santa Monica."Santa Monica is the name of the cross street behind the building.The ruse worked.Murphy and his pals stumbled out to the alley and got in a car and drove off.Radovich was tellin' me that everything was copacetic now that Murphy had left the premises when around two hours later George gets a phone call at the bar.One of the guys sitting at the end picked up the phone.George was behind the bar slinging drinks.
"George it's for you ,"shouted the customer.
"Who is it?"shouted back George without turning around.
"It's Murphy,"
"What the hell does he want?"
He says he drove up to Santa Monica and wants to know where the party is."
Radovich said he stopped what he was doing and shook his head.
"Tell him I'll get back with him."


Bob Murphy

Another jukebox standard at The Arizona

[dagosd2000]

No Matter How Hard I Try To See It...

Sometimes I wish they didn't have that clip on Youtube of Charley Burley fighting Oakland Billy Smith.For the life of me I don't see nothing in Burley except that he reminds me a lot of Nicolino Loche-a fighter more interested in evading punches than throwing them. But Loche had a record of something like 117 wins against only 4 defeats.Out of all those wins he was only able to stop 14 of the opposition.Butley put together 50 KO's in 83 wins so you can say he had more of a wallop than Loche,but looking at that fight with Smith is either Burley had an off night or Smith was that good or Burley made a deal to carry him.

Just about every one of those Black Murderer Row fighters claimed that Burley was the best of that fraternity. Archie Moore thought so. Eddie Booker echoed that.Eddie Futch said that Burley ws a better version of Roy JOnes in his prime and no one could lay a glove on Jones when he had it all together. But JOnes could also put them away.So did Burley looking at his record.But it's that damn clip of him fighting Smith that confuses.

Smith said that he didn't think Burley was as great as they made him out to be. Well, that can't be so after what all his peers have said about him.But again,it's that damn clip on Youtube of him in the ring with Oakland Billy Smith. I just don't see it.


Charley Burley


The last couple of rounds.The entire fight is like this.

[dagosd2000]

Que Rico El Mambo

I wish I had a dollar for every pug that when he got his hands on a little dough opened up a bar. Sugar Ray Robinson had a place in Harlem and Sugar being the egomaniac that he was named his place "Sugar Rays." But why the hell not? Here was the greatest fighter ever so put your moniker in front with neon lights.

Jake La Motts had his club in Miami Beach which he turned into an early version of a Jeffrey Epstein teenage girl hooker hangout.

My pal Rodolfo Gonzalez told me that when he won the championship he bought his mother a house by the racetrack in Tijuana and a bar in the red light district in the Coahulia.Ole!

My favorite fighter Jose Napoles opened up a club in the Zona Rosa in Mexico City.I've been to the Zona Rosa.It's in the middle of the city and it's full of swank nightclubs with full on floorshows,fancy restaurants, and plenty of good looking women for a price.I went there one time with my Chilango brother in law and saw the king of the mambo,Perez Prado and his band.The place went wild.There's that famous story about how the plainclothes came in one night to Mantequilla's joint to shake him down. Jose wouldn't put up with it and he and his boys took take these gentlemen into the back room and worked them over.Then they striped them of their clothes and threw them out into the street.Now who was going to press any charges?

There seems to be a pattern here. These type A fighters with the raging hormones open these joints to attract women as much as to make a buck. But the fun never lasts long because these guys may know how to fight but can't manage a business. But what the hell.If they can't run a business that's their worry. As long as I'm having fun is all that counts.


Lilia Prado dancing in the Zona Rosa with Perez Prado's band.Sexiest dancer I've ever laid my eyes on

[Chuck1052]

No Matter How Hard I Try To See It...

Sometimes I wish they didn't have that clip on Youtube of Charley Burley fighting Oakland Billy Smith.For the life of me I don't see nothing in Burley except that he reminds me a lot of Nicolino Loche-a fighter more interested in evading punches than throwing them. But Loche had a record of something like 117 wins against only 4 defeats.Out of all those wins he was only able to stop 14 of the opposition.Butley put together 50 KO's in 83 wins so you can say he had more of a wallop than Loche,but looking at that fight with Smith is either Burley had an off night or Smith was that good or Burley made a deal to carry him.

Just about every one of those Black Murderer Row fighters claimed that Burley was the best of that fraternity. Archie Moore thought so. Eddie Booker echoed that.Eddie Futch said that Burley ws a better version of Roy JOnes in his prime and no one could lay a glove on Jones when he had it all together. But JOnes could also put them away.So did Burley looking at his record.But it's that damn clip of him fighting Smith that confuses.

Smith said that he didn't think Burley was as great as they made him out to be. Well, that can't be so after what all his peers have said about him.But again,it's that damn clip on Youtube of him in the ring with Oakland Billy Smith. I just don't see it.


Charley Burley


The last couple of rounds.The entire fight is like this.

Based on his record, Charley Burley was a great fighter. But he had a lot of boring bouts and was far from being charismatic. As a result, Burley was not much of a drawing card for a fighter of his ability and stature, even in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Ezzard Charles and Sugar Ray Robinson were good drawing cards in Pittsburgh. Charles was a far more exciting fighter as a middleweight and light-heavyweight than as heavyweight.

- Chuck Johnston

[dagosd2000]

Based on his record, Charley Burley was a great fighter. But he had a lot of boring bouts and was far from being charismatic. As a result, Burley was not much of a drawing card for a fighter of his ability and stature, even in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Ezzard Charles and Sugar Ray Robinson were good drawing cards in Pittsburgh. Charles was a far more exciting fighter as a middleweight and light-heavyweight than as heavyweight.

- Chuck Johnston
[/quote]


Fritzie Zivic was also from Pittsburg.When Burley and Zivic fought in the Steel City the crowd was behind Zivic. I know a lot of that had to do with race.Burley's management experiences weren't the greatest. He'd walk into the gym and be greeted by some guy who'd tell him that he just bought his contract for 200 bucks. He never was handled correctly.It's said his fight with Archie Moore was made at the last minute and that he had to drive up from San Diego(where he was living at the time)to fight Moore at The Hollywood Legion Stadium.When he was inducted into the IBHOF he was too ill to make the trip to Canastota.He seems to be more revered today than when he was alive. Better late then never.


Knocked Archie Moore down 4 times in winning a decision.BUrley also missed out on some big purses.

[goose 5]

I'm with you, Roger, on Burley-Smith. Not impressive but I'd bet Burley carried him.