Gilman Hot Springs.
Posted: 16 Apr 2013, 09:20
Massacre Canyon Inn, Gilman Hot Springs.
The first fighter ever to train at the Gilman resort was Elmer "Rocky" Beltz, a stiff-punching Los Angeles welterweight who drilled there for his meeting with Art "Golden Boy" Aragon in 1953. Elmer probably was in marvelous condition after six weeks of rigorous training in the smog-free high desert-but he somehow failed to duck when Aragon cut loose with a haymaker at the opening bell, and it was all over before you could say "Gilman Hot Springs." The Beltz debacle almost ruined the Massacre Canyon Inn for ever as a fight camp. Boxing people always a superstitious lot, are quick to form opinions concerning "lucky" and "unlucky" training sites. The Orner camp a stone's throw down the road, was always "lucky"- and it's a matter of record that no fighter who ever trained there or at the Inn ever ran out of gas in a fight. But when Beltz failed to last half a minute with Aragon, it was rumoured that the "Indian Sign" had been placed on him by the long-extinct Ivahs of Massacre Canyon. Whatever the reason. it was several years before another fighter trained at the Inn. Among the well known fighters who trained there at different times were Art Aragon, Sugar Ray Robinson, Davey Moore, Don Jordan, Paul Andrews, Cisco Andrade, Jose Luis Cotero, Hedgemon Lewis, Jerry Quarry, Mike Quarry, Ruben Navarro, Mac Foster, Richie Sue, and Mike Nixon.
The first fighter ever to train at the Gilman resort was Elmer "Rocky" Beltz, a stiff-punching Los Angeles welterweight who drilled there for his meeting with Art "Golden Boy" Aragon in 1953. Elmer probably was in marvelous condition after six weeks of rigorous training in the smog-free high desert-but he somehow failed to duck when Aragon cut loose with a haymaker at the opening bell, and it was all over before you could say "Gilman Hot Springs." The Beltz debacle almost ruined the Massacre Canyon Inn for ever as a fight camp. Boxing people always a superstitious lot, are quick to form opinions concerning "lucky" and "unlucky" training sites. The Orner camp a stone's throw down the road, was always "lucky"- and it's a matter of record that no fighter who ever trained there or at the Inn ever ran out of gas in a fight. But when Beltz failed to last half a minute with Aragon, it was rumoured that the "Indian Sign" had been placed on him by the long-extinct Ivahs of Massacre Canyon. Whatever the reason. it was several years before another fighter trained at the Inn. Among the well known fighters who trained there at different times were Art Aragon, Sugar Ray Robinson, Davey Moore, Don Jordan, Paul Andrews, Cisco Andrade, Jose Luis Cotero, Hedgemon Lewis, Jerry Quarry, Mike Quarry, Ruben Navarro, Mac Foster, Richie Sue, and Mike Nixon.