Cliff Babe Mooney

Name: Cliff Babe Mooney
Alias: George Viorel
Hometown: Macon, Georgia, USA
Pro Boxer: Record

This may be George Viorel. If so, the following comes from an Oct. 15, 2003, post at the cyberboxingzone.com's forum, under the topic entitled: "LA Boxing in the 30's and 40's:

My boxing coach, George Viorel, was in the Navy on the Arizona from 1932-1936. There were world champions who trained in the Navy at that time. When he first joined, he was sent to the Navy Pier in Chicago, where he was introduced to boxing. His coach was Freddie Sharp. His won his first match by way of knock out with a wild haymaker that happened to k.o. the favorite. A little later while training with the rest of the Navy fellows he came across Barney Ross who beat him senseless. Barney later showed my coach a few pointers. Later on he was stationed on the Arizona battleship. That was when he started training with Freddie Sharp. Freddie Sharp was the worlds Light weight champion, and went by the name of either Willie Ritchie, or Honeyboy Finnegan. (This is hard to get straight from my coach who is 90 years old now). They travel around the world, and he saw the Jimmy McClarnin vs Barney Ross fight in person at the Polo Grounds in NY. While they were docked in Cuba, he fought and beat Kid Chocolate. (But he says Chocolate was past his prime.) I also have a picture of him beating up Chalkey Wright. I'll have to ask him where that fight took place. In July of 1935, he fought on the undercard of Freddie Steele vs Vince Dundee in Bremerton WA (a navy shipyard). After he got out of the Navy, he continued to train at The Main Street Gym in L.A. There he sparred many of the greats. He said it was such a unique place, with a restaurant dowstairs, and the gym upstairs with a guy on a megaphone announcing what world champions were upstairs training. He spared Henry Armstrong on several occasions, and would go out and eat with him afterwards. Once when Tony Canzoneri was there training for a fight, his handlers wanted my coach (who was a lightweight) to spar with him. He knocked out Tony in the first round! is handlers where so mad at him, they paid him and told him to get the hell out of there. He also sparred with Ceferino Garcia while he was preparing to fight Barney Ross for the welterweight title. He became good friends with Aurel Toma (bantom weight contender). Toma was from Romania, which was were my coach's parents were from, and they spoke Romanian to each other. He said that Toma would have won the Bantom weight title, but while Toma was sparring Manuel Ortiz at the Main Street Gym, he took it to him (whipped him), and therefore was never given a shot at Ortiz' title.

My coach said every Tuesday (I think), he would go the Hollywood Legion Stadium and was world title fights. And on Thursdays (I think) he would go the Olympic Auditorium and see those fights. He said NOTHING compared to the Hollywood Legion Stadium. It was the most magnificent place where all the stars would come to watch the fights. He was hired by Lou Salica to scout Manuel Ortiz when they fought. He said Manuel Ortiz also paid him to Scout Lou Salica! (I wonder who paid him more...) He would tell me how Manuel Ortiz love women and tequilla, and how Ceferino Garcia loved blond haired women. And how for being a worlds champion, Henry Armstrong was always broke and he would by his dinner for him. My coach managed a grocery store in El Centro there. He said Speedy Dado was about the best fighter he ever saw. He was good friends with him as well. Bill Rastorfer