Tony Baltazar

Okay. I was going to ask you if you knew Rudy's ring philosophy...in terms of whether he turned his guys into fighter/sluggers, or inclined them toward technical boxing.

I know every fighter has his natural style, that all trainers recognize and work around, but the trainers themselves often have an influence that rubs off on the boxer's choice of ring tactics and styles.

 

I have never being around Rudy as a trainer. He and his brothers used to train in the same gym in which I trained my sons...He got into training long after I retired from the game.

 

Here's another question for Frank -- did you have access to, or at least know what was happening in, the training camp of the very young Jerry Quarry? I'm talking about that period between 1965 and 1967, when Quarry was being trained by his father Jack and Johnny Flores. I heard there was some kind of conflict between Jack and Johnny. Do you know what the issue was? Did it concern Jerry's training, and what kind of strategic/tactical fighter Jerry was supposed to become? Did Jack and Johnny have different philosophies about how Jerry should fight? Thanks.

 

Tony Baltazar, Raul Bencomo and Jimmy Montoya

On March 19, 1981, on a card headline by Kiko Bejines vs Franco Torregoza at the Olympic Auditorium Tony fought Jimmy Montoya’s fighter Raul Bencomo in a scheduled six rounder. Bencomo proved to be a lot tougher than what we expected. Fight was pretty even going into the fifth round. Around mid-round Bencomo backed Tony against the ropes and in rushing-in for what he thought was the kill ran into one of Tony’s patented short left hooks, Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas. A rematch was in order.

The rematch didn’t take place till the following year, June 26, 1982 on a card headline by Frankie and Tony, also at the Olympic Auditorium. This time the fight was scheduled for ten rounds. This time it was Tony all the way. In the second round Tony hit Bencomo again with his patented left hook. Again Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas…Frankie to won by second round KO vs Abe Perez.

After the fights down in the Olympic’s catacombs (dressing rooms) Jimmy told Bencomo not to worry about losing, that he would get him another fight with Tony. Bencomo told Jimmy: “**** you, you fight him, the sonofbitch is crazy, he is trying to kill me”

 

Kenmore, I'll back to your ? in a bit

 

Kikibalt,

Was there any plans at all for Tony to fight Edwin Rosario, Alexis Arguello, or Ray Mancini during his career?

 

Only Mancini. Never could make the fight though.

Arguello: in 1979-80 Frankie was ranked #1 by both the WBC and Ring magzine. We were offer a title (130 lbs) fight with Alexis. My partner, Jackie McCoy and I didn't think Frankie was ready for AA, we were try to find a way out without saying no. We were offer 35K so we grabbed on that as our way of saying no by asking for 75k. If they would had said yes to the 75k we would had taken the fight, but they said no...Instead Ruben Castillo fought AA for what I heard was 40k and got his ass kicked.

 

Ken, I don't have any inside info on the problems between Johnny and Jack. I do know they were co-managers with Johnny doing the training. When Johnny got fired before the first Ali fight his contact still had a few months to go, so he was paid 40k for the fight.

 

Did you guys ever consider going after Sammy Serrano? Frankie could've beaten him for sure.

 

Oh yes!! But they would never sign. Kept telling us they would fight Frankie, but all they did was "talk"

 

actually, his fight w Robin made me a fan of Blake's. Most fighters from ELA dont pan out. Meanwhile, check out the hand speed of Blake's :bbb

Take that Tony, and that, and that, and that!

 

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Tony Baltazar v John Montes


A cross-town rivalry between Tony Baltazar and John Montes had been building up in the late '70's. Both had being getting some good amateur wins, so it was just a matter of time that they fought. On our part we were ready to fight Montes at any time.

John Montes came into the junior boxing program scene in the early '70's, whereas Tony started in '64 and by the mid- '70's (1976) had already won the National Junior Olympic title. We felt that Tony was too experience for John at that point.

At the time they fought, Felix Villareal, was the amateur matchmaker at the Olympic Auditorium. Felix called me on a Monday and said that the Montes's wanted to fight Tony on Thursday night, I said okay. Felix then said that it had to be at '32, again I said okay, Tony can make '32 if that’s what they want I told Felix. Thursday morning, Tony and Frankie and I went to the weight in’s. Frankie was with us because he was fighting the main-event against Shig Fukuyama that night. Both Frankie and Tony made weight easy.

That night before the fights started I run into my Uncle Florentino, my dad's brother at the Olympic. He was with a group of Montes fans. He told me that Tony better win as he was betting every one of his friends that were backing Montes. Tony ended the fight with a beautiful left hook in under-30 seconds of the first round. Frankie stopped Fukuyama in the fourth round.

 

I love these stories.

You talked above about a proposed fight with Mancini. What's the story there -- when was it supposed to happen and why didn't it happen.

And I know you aren't unbiased, but let's say that fight takes place in Youngstown, Ohio, at Mancini's post-Arguello peak: who wins, how and why?

 

I really don’t like to get into this kind of discussions when it comes to my boys. But I’ll answer your question.


First of all I would not have taken a fight for Tony against Mancini in Youngstown, why not at the Olympic in L.A.? or Las Vegas?


Why the fight never happened? I really don’t know. I had discussions with Top Rank couple of times. My feeling was that Top Rank didn’t want to put Mancini in with a puncher like Tony, as Ray was easy to hit and at 135 pounds (1982-83) Tony could ko anybody that stood in front of him. It was the boxer types that gave Tony trouble and Mancini was far from being a boxer type.


Had they fought around 1982-83 who would have won? I think that Tony would have busted Ray up and would have won by a tko in the late rounds.


Regardless of who would had won, one thing is a given, it would had being a donnybrook of a fight.