BoxRec

Fighters I have shook hands with and/or had photo with over the past 52 years of going to boxing cards in the USA. All were great to meet – no one ever refused a handshake and/or photo when asked.

Retired/Deceased:
Brian Adams, Billy Backus, Lou Bizzarro, Iran Barkley, Nick Barone, Carmine Basilio, Don Elbaum,
Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Tommy Hicks, Larry Holmes, Hedgeman Lewis, Ray Mancini, Joe Mesi,
Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, Willie Pep, Jimmy Ralston, Sandy Saddler, Dick Tiger


Active:
Brandon Adams, Mike Bissett, Kermit Cintron, Leo Santa Cruz, Gennady Golovkin, Michael Grant,
Thomas Hanshaw, Alvin Varmall, Roy Jones, Willie Monroe, Leo Pla, Eric Spence, Roy Jones, Vyacheslav Glazkov, Julian Williams


All-time favorites to talk with: 1) Willie Pep, 2) Ray Mancini, 3) Willie Monroe

I've met,got autographs from or had photos with the following,

lennox lewis
sugar ray leonard
marvin hagler
larry holmes
muhammed ali
michael spinks
roberto duran
iran barkley
roger mayweather
vinny pazienza
greg haugen
naseem hamed
frank bruno
dave boy green
cornelious boza edwards
dave boy mcauley

Vinny paz was the best,allowed me to spend 10 minutes with him while he was training for the roger mayweather fight in vegas,holmes refused to sign an autograph for me.still my all time favourite fighter though.

Yusuf Mack I did a movie with him last year ,he's bigger in the flesh

Alguiffer wrote:Fighters I have shook hands with and/or had photo with over the past 52 years of going to boxing cards in the USA. All were great to meet – no one ever refused a handshake and/or photo when asked.

Retired/Deceased:
Brian Adams, Billy Backus, Lou Bizzarro, Iran Barkley, Nick Barone, Carmine Basilio, Don Elbaum,
Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Tommy Hicks, Larry Holmes, Hedgeman Lewis, Ray Mancini, Joe Mesi,
Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, Willie Pep, Jimmy Ralston, Sandy Saddler, Dick Tiger


Active:
Brandon Adams, Mike Bissett, Kermit Cintron, Leo Santa Cruz, Gennady Golovkin, Michael Grant,
Thomas Hanshaw, Alvin Varmall, Roy Jones, Willie Monroe, Leo Pla, Eric Spence, Roy Jones, Vyacheslav Glazkov, Julian Williams


All-time favorites to talk with: 1) Willie Pep, 2) Ray Mancini, 3) Willie Monroe

Where did you meet Jimmy Ralston?

Did you see him fight?

I've met DLH, Mayweather, and Pacquiao.. Pacquiao was the only one who seemed real.. other 2 were douche bags of the highest order. But that was expected, it's who they are.

bigjack wrote:I've met,got autographs from or had photos with the following,

lennox lewis
sugar ray leonard
marvin hagler
larry holmes
muhammed ali
michael spinks
roberto duran
iran barkley
roger mayweather
vinny pazienza
greg haugen
naseem hamed
frank bruno
dave boy green
cornelious boza edwards
dave boy mcauley

Vinny paz was the best,allowed me to spend 10 minutes with him while he was training for the roger mayweather fight in vegas,holmes refused to sign an autograph for me.still my all time favourite fighter though.

great list, Jack

stevedoc wrote:Yusuf Mack I did a movie with him last year ,he's bigger in the flesh

You dirty get.

Not many, and I've told all the stories before on the forum, but:

David Haye (neither friendly or particularly interested, wasn't rude rude, just didn't seem to want to talk, which is fair enough.)

John Thaxton (was sitting in my seat during Chisora-Williams. I was with a load of big football casual types who were like, "come on move along!" and I was like, boys, I know he's a midget but he could kill me. He begrudgingly moved just as Chisora got the stoppage which everybody missed.)

Taishan Dong (trained with the big fornicator about 10 years ago, before he was a boxer. He didn't speak English nor I Mandarin, although we managed to communicate through gestures. Got my photo with him which he didn't seem very pleased about, but my coach basically ordered him into it.)

Kevin Mitchell (just met him after Groves-Degale at the 02. I think he spoke to us 'cos we had a load of dolled up birds with us. Seemed nice enough, posed for a couple of photos.)

Supposedly Henry Cooper's brother did our plastering or something when I was little and my Dad sort of knew him, but I don't know much about it other than when I first saw Henry Cooper on TV I thought "hey I know him!" They were twins or something right? That one doesn't really count. I once walked past Jane Couch but was too scared to say hello.

Oh! And Adam Booth, who could count as a boxing personality. He was cool, spent a while talking to me, and looked at me like I was mad when I suggested Sakio Bika as an opponent for Groves. This was back before Groves fought Froch, and I always though Froch would kill Groves just because of how he looked at me. It said a lot. I'm amazed Groves did as well as he did.

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Alguiffer wrote:Fighters I have shook hands with and/or had photo with over the past 52 years of going to boxing cards in the USA. All were great to meet – no one ever refused a handshake and/or photo when asked.

Retired/Deceased:
Brian Adams, Billy Backus, Lou Bizzarro, Iran Barkley, Nick Barone, Carmine Basilio, Don Elbaum,
Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Tommy Hicks, Larry Holmes, Hedgeman Lewis, Ray Mancini, Joe Mesi,
Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, Willie Pep, Jimmy Ralston, Sandy Saddler, Dick Tiger


Active:
Brandon Adams, Mike Bissett, Kermit Cintron, Leo Santa Cruz, Gennady Golovkin, Michael Grant,
Thomas Hanshaw, Alvin Varmall, Roy Jones, Willie Monroe, Leo Pla, Eric Spence, Roy Jones, Vyacheslav Glazkov, Julian Williams


All-time favorites to talk with: 1) Willie Pep, 2) Ray Mancini, 3) Willie Monroe

Where did you meet Jimmy Ralston?

Did you see him fight?

I saw Jimmy Ralston fight at the Aud in downtown Buffalo several times in the late 1960s (1968 & 1969 if memory serves me right). I remember one of the cards clearly, he was on a card with heavyweight Vic Brown. After the Brown fight ended, Bown's opponent took a run at Brown in his corner and Brown decked him. I remember first meeting Jimmy Ralston back in the day at a restaurant on Hertel(?) Ave. I recently saw him and said hello to him at a card in Niagara Fallls in Feb 2014 that was put on by Pretty Girl Promotions. Nice guy.

Alguiffer wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Alguiffer wrote:Fighters I have shook hands with and/or had photo with over the past 52 years of going to boxing cards in the USA. All were great to meet – no one ever refused a handshake and/or photo when asked.

Retired/Deceased:
Brian Adams, Billy Backus, Lou Bizzarro, Iran Barkley, Nick Barone, Carmine Basilio, Don Elbaum,
Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Tommy Hicks, Larry Holmes, Hedgeman Lewis, Ray Mancini, Joe Mesi,
Eddie Mustafa Mohammad, Willie Pep, Jimmy Ralston, Sandy Saddler, Dick Tiger


Active:
Brandon Adams, Mike Bissett, Kermit Cintron, Leo Santa Cruz, Gennady Golovkin, Michael Grant,
Thomas Hanshaw, Alvin Varmall, Roy Jones, Willie Monroe, Leo Pla, Eric Spence, Roy Jones, Vyacheslav Glazkov, Julian Williams


All-time favorites to talk with: 1) Willie Pep, 2) Ray Mancini, 3) Willie Monroe

Where did you meet Jimmy Ralston?

Did you see him fight?

I saw Jimmy Ralston fight at the Aud in downtown Buffalo several times in the late 1960s (1968 & 1969 if memory serves me right). I remember one of the cards clearly, he was on a card with heavyweight Vic Brown. After the Brown fight ended, Bown's opponent took a run at Brown in his corner and Brown decked him. I remember first meeting Jimmy Ralston back in the day at a restaurant on Hertel(?) Ave. I recently saw him and said hello to him at a card in Niagara Fallls in Feb 2014 that was put on by Pretty Girl Promotions. Nice guy.

Do you know if there is any footage of Jimmy Ralston's fights?

I heard he was good. Would love to see some.

I have met a lot of top well known fighters but out of my list the top 2 are sugar Shane Mosley overly nice great guy all around and Manny He was also very nice, the nicest known fighter that I have fought would be Chazz Witherspoon great guy Fres Oquinda and Eddie Chambers all great fighters and great guys

Nonito donaire-well wasnt really a meet i sparred him a few times when we were both amatuers being that we were both at kings at the time. Nonito is a genuinely all around cool guy.

Bobo olson-went into kings back in 99' real nice guy would sign anything for anyone who asked. The whole gym was in awe because he actually shared a ring with the greatest of all time.

Chavez jr- at the mgm grand before a fight i believe back in 06' just turned pro real nice guy.

Oscar larios-while vacationing in Mexico ran into him at some local fights. Nice guy always smiling.

Andre Ward- again same gym when we were teenagers.

Lucas Matthysse -the guy is all class as nice a guy as it gets.

Sammy Vasquez
Paul Spadafora
Gene Fullmer
Rock Graziano
Willie Pep
Joey Giardello
Fritzie Zivic
Billie Conn
Marcel Cerdan
ROberto Duran
Leon Spinks
Sandy Sadler
Eder Jofre

I'm meeting AJ tomorrow so if anybody has anything interesting to ask him let me know.

Used to see Baby Joe Mesi around the bars in Buffalo all the time. Good dude.

Other than that just Danny Garcia. Really nice guy as well, will take a picture with anyone.

johnswan1 wrote:I'm meeting AJ tomorrow so if anybody has anything interesting to ask him let me know.

Do you feel you're being moved along too conservatively?

Would you fight Tyson Fury next summer should he beat Wlad?

What are your long term aspirations? Do you see yourself winning a world title then retiring young, or fighting on until your late 30s like Wlad?

Amir Mansour
Gerald Washington
Michael Hunter
Grag Haugen
Floyd Mayweather Sr

Only 2

Alan Minter in a nightclub in 1990 .................... He was a pleasant guy.

Mike Tyson about 5 years ago ..................... He was shopping in Asda in St Helens, he was very friendly and happy to chat.

My favorite boxer growing up was Vinny Pazienza and he ended up walking in to the Boy's and Girl's Club in my town out of nowhere. I ended up sitting down with him and asking him a million questions and he loved every minute of it and couldn't have been nicer to me. Most people you meet fail to meet your expectation but it was quite the opposite with Paz. Such a cool guy and one of the great Italian boxers we've had.

Tyson Fury - Top bloke, spent about twenty minutes chatting to him.

Romeo Romaeo - Quite shy and humble but seemed a nice kid.

Richie Kates, Frank "The Animal" Fletcher, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Andrew Golota

My brother met Larry Holmes and Ron Lyle.

He said he had a few drinks when he met Lyle, and my brother did a Drew Bundini Brown imitation that Lyle did not appreciate.

My brother said Lyle gave him a look that said, "Shut up you drunk obnoxious white college boy."

Ryan Rhodes
Naseem Hamed
Jonny Nelson
Herol Graham
Clifton Mitchell
Clinton Woods
Paul Jones
Billy Hardy (when he was training for the Naz fight)

My brother usewd to box at Wincobank, I boxed at a few places including Glyn Rhodes gym.

Jonny and Herol were great guys. I've had a cup of tea at both of their houses, and we used to look after Herol's son. He's the same age as my youngest brother.

All of them are top fellas, with the exception of Naz. He was a total dickhead. The rumours of his dickheadness being an act are greatly exaggerated. Either that or never really dropped it.

I met Davey Hilton Jnr. He asked me to shave all all my pubic hair and give him a blow job. He was my cellie in prison.

I also met Yusuf Mack from close quarters. He bust a nut in my face on film.

I'm hoping to meet Orlando Cruz next.

I met Emile Griffith once at the Hall of Fame in the gents; but all he did was look at my d1ck at the urinal.... Laugh, and walk off

reggaereggae wrote:I met Davey Hilton Jnr. He asked me to shave all all my pubic hair and give him a blow job. He was my cellie in prison.

I also met Yusuf Mack from close quarters. He bust a nut in my face on film.

I'm hoping to meet Orlando Cruz next.

I met Emile Griffith once at the Hall of Fame in the gents; but all he did was look at my d1ck at the urinal.... Laugh, and walk off

you need to stay in more.

jockpunk wrote:Used to see Baby Joe Mesi around the bars in Buffalo all the time. Good dude.

...

What's happening with him? Is he still in politics? He retired 36-0 with 29 KO's.

Never mind, I answered my own question:

Political career

On February 14, 2008, Mesi publicly expressed his interest to run for the New York State Senate. He attempted to fill the 61st District seat vacated by Mary Lou Rath.[6] He won the Democratic primary for the seat on September 9, 2008. [7] Mesi lost the general election to Republican Michael Ranzenhofer.[8]

Most recently, Joe has taken a position with the Democratic Senate Majority heading up a local Buffalo liaison office. Mesi's name was circulated as a potential Democratic candidate to replace the retiring Jim Hayes in the New York State Assembly. The assembly seat was won by Raymond Walter.

A number of other ex-heavyweights have gone into politics. Vitali and Valuev come to mind. Who else?