BoxRec

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:Frankie, remind us of that ride in the car with Joe Louis again. What was he like to talk to, etc?
A nice guy?

I want to post a little story here about how I met the man that I think was the greatest heavyweight of all times Joe Louis , in 1977 we, my son Frankie Baltazar , the late Johnny Flores trainer, an myself left L.A to go to Miami Fl., Frankie was going to fight Francisco Villegas on Don King's u.s tournament , Larry Holmes was also going to fight , that was the week end the scandal broke, anyway getting back to Louis it was a sad & happy experience for me , sad because I was seening Louis working for Don King ,he was suppose to be our driver , happy because I met the greatest heavyweight of all time ,he was to drive us where we needed to go , well I was't going to let the great Louis drive the Baltazar's around , him and Johnny were old buddys from back in the WWII days , so I had them sit in the back of the car an I took the wheel an I drove Joe Louis around.

Bennie,

Above is the post that I posted some time back on Joe Louis, I found Louis to be a man of not too many words, and he spoke so low that it was hard for me to hear what he was saying when he and Johnny were riding in the back of the car, when we were just hanging out I found him to be a very humble man, but at the same time fun to be around, it was a great experience for me to say the least.

kikibalt wrote:Five Time World Title Challenger Mitsunori Seki Passes Away
June 12th, 2008
By Jim Amato

photo courtesy David Martinez private collection
World Flyweight Championship / Tokyo, Japan / June 27, 1961
Mitsunori Seki (left) loses 15 round split decision to Pone Kingpetch

I recently learned that one of Japan’s first great boxers, Mitsunori Seki passed away. He was the victim of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 66. Seki was good enough to challenge for a world title no less then five times during the 1960’s.

Seki first attempted to win the flyweight title from Thailand’s Pone Kingpetch. On this occasion Seki lost a close decision. Seki would move up to bantamweight but he met disaster at the hands of Mexico’s Joe Medal who stopped him in five. Seki then entered the featherweight division and eventually earned a shot at champion Sugar Ramos. The talented Ramos proved to be too much for Seki and retained his crown. Ramos would later lose his championship to the great Vincente Saldivar. Seki would get yet another chance as he met Saldivar. It was a tough fight but Saldivar would retain his title. It was close enough to justify a rematch so Saldivar and Seki went at it again. This time Saldivar proved he was the best featherweight in the world.

Saldivar would then relinquish the title after defeating Howard Winstone and the WBC matched Seki with Winstone for the vacated crown. Seki would lose by a controversial stoppage thus failing in his fifth attempt at world honors. Seki would retire with an outstanding 61-11-1 record. He scored 35 knockouts. Seki along with Hiroyuki Ebihara, the great Fighting Harada and others helped follow 1950’s flyweight titlist Yoshio Shirai in establishing Japan as a force to be reckoned with in the world of boxing. At the time of his death Seki was a successful and respected trainer. May he rest in peace.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:Frankie, remind us of that ride in the car with Joe Louis again. What was he like to talk to, etc?
A nice guy?

I want to post a little story here about how I met the man that I think was the greatest heavyweight of all times Joe Louis , in 1977 we, my son Frankie Baltazar , the late Johnny Flores trainer, an myself left L.A to go to Miami Fl., Frankie was going to fight Francisco Villegas on Don King's u.s tournament , Larry Holmes was also going to fight , that was the week end the scandal broke, anyway getting back to Louis it was a sad & happy experience for me , sad because I was seening Louis working for Don King ,he was suppose to be our driver , happy because I met the greatest heavyweight of all time ,he was to drive us where we needed to go , well I was't going to let the great Louis drive the Baltazar's around , him and Johnny were old buddys from back in the WWII days , so I had them sit in the back of the car an I took the wheel an I drove Joe Louis around.

Bennie,

Above is the post that I posted some time back on Joe Louis, I found Louis to be a man of not too many words, and he spoke so low that it was hard for me to hear what he was saying when he and Johnny were riding in the back of the car, when we were just hanging out I found him to be a very humble man, but at the same time fun to be around, it was a great experience for me to say the least.

The big man deserved to be pampered.

kikibalt wrote:

diego,

I worked at Oscar Mayer's (Vernon, Ca.) in 1960-62, also working there at the same time was
very good ex-featherweight (Late 1940s-early 1950's) Fabela Chavez.

kikibalt wrote:
Los Angeles Sports Arena, Gato won the title from Carmona there.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Los Angeles Sports Arena, Gato won the title from Carmona there.

NICE venue. This is where Norton bust the jaw of Ali. Muhammad said it happened in the second round but can be seen talking in his corner well into the later stages.

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:

diego,

I worked at Oscar Mayer's (Vernon, Ca.) in 1960-62, also working there at the same time was
very good ex-featherweight (Late 1940s-early 1950's) Fabela Chavez.

WTF? We don't see cars like this over here, and that is probably no bad thing. Did Oscar Bonavena turn up in this when he got shot?



PS: Only kidding.

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Los Angeles Sports Arena, Gato won the title from Carmona there.

NICE venue. This is where Norton bust the jaw of Ali. Muhammad said it happened in the second round but can be seen talking in his corner well into the later stages.

Bennie,

That Ali/Norton fight I believe was at the Forum.

kikibalt wrote:

diego,

I worked at Oscar Mayer's (Vernon, Ca.) in 1960-62, also working there at the same time was
very good ex-featherweight (Late 1940s-early 1950's) Fabela Chavez.

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:
Los Angeles Sports Arena, Gato won the title from Carmona there.

NICE venue. This is where Norton bust the jaw of Ali. Muhammad said it happened in the second round but can be seen talking in his corner well into the later stages.

Bennie,

That Ali/Norton fight I believe was at the Forum.

bennie wrote:Norton won in his hometown, then. Anyone got a pic of the San Diego Sports Arena?

dagosd2000 wrote:

bennie wrote:Norton won in his hometown, then. Anyone got a pic of the San Diego Sports Arena?

Bennie
Just sent Frank a photo.

kikibalt wrote:

bennie wrote:Frankie, remind us of that ride in the car with Joe Louis again. What was he like to talk to, etc?
A nice guy?

I want to post a little story here about how I met the man that I think was the greatest heavyweight of all times Joe Louis , in 1977 we, my son Frankie Baltazar , the late Johnny Flores trainer, an myself left L.A to go to Miami Fl., Frankie was going to fight Francisco Villegas on Don King's u.s tournament , Larry Holmes was also going to fight , that was the week end the scandal broke, anyway getting back to Louis it was a sad & happy experience for me , sad because I was seening Louis working for Don King ,he was suppose to be our driver , happy because I met the greatest heavyweight of all time ,he was to drive us where we needed to go , well I was't going to let the great Louis drive the Baltazar's around , him and Johnny were old buddys from back in the WWII days , so I had them sit in the back of the car an I took the wheel an I drove Joe Louis around.

Bennie,

Above is the post that I posted some time back on Joe Louis, I found Louis to be a man of not too many words, and he spoke so low that it was hard for me to hear what he was saying when he and Johnny were riding in the back of the car, when we were just hanging out I found him to be a very humble man, but at the same time fun to be around, it was a great experience for me to say the least.

kikibalt wrote:
Tony Baltazar, Alex Ramos and Jerry Cheatham

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:


diego,

I worked at Oscar Mayer's (Vernon, Ca.) in 1960-62, also working there at the same time was
very good ex-featherweight (Late 1940s-early 1950's) Fabela Chavez.

Frank
I read about you working for Oscar Meyer in the Dan Hernandez article. But isn't it about time you stop driving that Wiener Mobile and get yourself another car?