Johnny Miller (of Stockton)

Name: Johnny Miller
Hometown: Stockton, California, USA
Birthplace: Stockton, California, USA
Promoter: Record
Pro Boxer: Record

Author Leonard Gardner, who wrote the 1969 novel Fat City, (later made into a movie by John Huston in 1972), tells in a 2019 interview in the Paris Review how he met the old pro boxer Johnny Miller. This was in Stockton when Gardner was a young amateur fighter himself. Miller's life and career had similarities with the character Billy Tully in the novel. Miller had asked Gardner if he would spar, like described in the novel about the first encounter between Tully and Ernie Munger in the gym. ("You a pro?"). Miller and Gardner actually sparred a few rounds, Gardner doing well with his long reach, claimed Gardner.