Question for AlFrancis and Chinxkid (and nayone else whos Dad was a pro boxer)

Yeah.

 

He was really of the 40's GP. Came into it in '44, fought thru '51. But you're right, the game was stacked with talent. Right after WWII, guys came home to find not a lot of employment opportunities. A helluva lot of them went into the ring.

I have a question for Al Francis, if you're out there. How did his fight career effect your dad as far as how he handled himself on the street? The great majority of fighters I've known well enough are true gentlemen outside the ring. Usually the last ones to get into a beef, even though a lot of pretend tough guys egg them on. Any thoughts on this, or just on what it means to be an authentic tough guy?

 

He knows I support him in anything he does. I took him to the dojo with me when he was a kid and now he's a blackbelt in Shotokan Karate. The problem we came across was when he wanted me to actually train him. I'm simply not qualified and told him so, but knowing as he does how I feel about the price a boxer has to pay, how many dues most will pay well after their career's ended I don't think he believes me.

 

This is a great thread.

Al must be busy at the mo

 

I've been thinking more on this, T; at first it's hard for me to imagine him with a full right hand. But on reconsideration I'd have to say that yeah, I think he would have been a boxer. He was only 5' 9", huh I'd have to look into it to see what his intact reach was, but not crazy long. But the thing of it was, he was fast, was slick from what I know. He used to say, joking of course, but with a good dose of healthy self-confidence, maybe a bit of delusion thrown in, "If I had two hands, I'd have run Sugar Ray Robinson out of that ring." Of course I doubt he really believed it. But it speaks to a recent thread on here that was about excuses fighters make for a loss. I think they're all that way. To admit to themselves they have limitations is against their competitive natures. I honestly never heard him say that a fighter would have been too much for him, and though to address GP's question a few posts back, I never heard him talk about how the fight with LaMotta may have gone, I'd have been shocked to hear him give the edge to Jake. What purpose would that serve?

 

Thanks for posting your thoughts there Chinx. Yeah, most fighters have excuses for their losses, ESPECIALLY the great ones. They just find it hard to accept losses because they are winners. You said your dad thought Robinson wlaked on water though yeah?

 

Funny that your dad overcame adversity in his life as well. My old fella always says that the time he was in hospital as a kid and then coming out watching the other kids running and playing football when he couldn't is what gave him the determination that served him in his boxing career. Patience is another word he uses.
I think you're probably right in that if I had taken it up serious he would of been there 100 percent. He'd actually managed fighters after is own career but got disillusioned with some fighters who had talent but in his opinion didn't give it 100 percent, didn't walk the walk. He was pretty straight about it, he'd tell them if he thought they were wasting their time, you might as well pack it in lad. He said to me once "if you really want to do this you'll do it". Well I didn't so I suppose he was right.
I can't really imagine what my dad would of done for a living if he hadn't been a fighter. He did go into he pub business after he retired but that was because he was a name and got the opportunity of taking one of the most prestigious pubs in Liverpool at the time. he told me once that he got a job as a plumber's mate when he was a young lad. One day the plumber asked him to pass over a particular type of wrench and me dad passed him the wrong one. This plumber said "Ay Al, will you **** off cos your driving me ****ing mad day dreaming. Why don't you just stick to the boxing". That was the last day he did any manual work haha.
What about your dad, what did he do apart from the boxing?
I know what you mean about the physical fallout of years in the ring by the way.
As for your lad it would be hard to stand in his way, "if he really want's to do it". Does he know much about his grandad? All you can do is get involved and make sure he's getting looked after by the right people.
I suppose what we want for our kids is all relative. I'm a welder whereas my wife has got an internet business. I'm pretty sure I would rather they followed in her footsteps. My dad was once quizzed by someone in the anti boxing brigade why anyone would want to be a boxer. His response was "I'd rather be a boxer than a miner".

 

Hey Al, have you seen Cinderella Man? Russel Crowe, playing Braddock says something like that, that the risk of death in the ring is no more than labourers working triple shifts (in the depression) or something like that.

 

Like you say, most boxers on the street are real gentlemen and my dad is one of them. I've been around boxers all my life. Dad's a real placid fella, never had anything to prove on the street and most decent people respect that. You do get the odd fella though who wants to prove how hard he is , specially when you're in the pub game. I remember once my dad had to have word with a barmaid who he knew was giving her husband free ale at his expense. Next day the husband was in on the bounce, all 240 pound of him, my old fella although only a bantam was at 36-37 about 175. This fella threw a shot that my dad slipped and came back with a left hook to he body. They had to drag the fella out the pub, he went down like a balloon. 2 days later he was back in, thought it was a lucky punch. This time a right hand on the chin put him to sleep. Unbelievably 2 weeks later me dad bumped into him round the shops and he wanted another go, he just couldn't except what this little easy going fella had done to him twice. He was lucky this time cos my dad told him to **** off and walked away.

 

I think that's how my dad saw it as well.

 

Hahahaha.

 

I love this story, Al. Rings a lot of bells for me. And we have one more thing in common, it seems, my dad had a bar after he got out of the ring as well. Like yours, he had the name and got some backing. We lived on top of his bar when I was a kid, but he kept me out of there because of the Wild West kind of saloon it ended up to bed. Our towns, Pittsburgh and Liverpool are similar it seems. Tough towns, a lot of blue collar workers. You mention that you're dad figured boxing was an easier racket than working the mines and my dad did a few months, might have been weeks actually in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. That was enough to make boxing look like a cushy life, I guess. He told me that in the year or two after HS before he went into the ring, (he was a late starter, 19 yrs. old), that he had 18 jobs and hated all of them. Boxers are like musicians or actors in that way, find it hard to fit into the straight world. His bar, Charley Affif Ringside Saloon attracted all the guys who wanted to make a name for themselves by taking out a known fighter. He used to say he had more KO's in his saloon than he ever had in the ring. He kept it until there was a shooting and his white collar clientele stopped coming in. He once had one of those gimme jobs for the city as a building inspector. It was the time of the Big City Bosses and Pgh had Mayor Davy Lawrence. He got my dad the job and I'm sure it must've been a sight to behold. Believe when I tell you this guy couldn't hammer a nail. Once called an electrician when he couldn't get a lamp to go on, only to find once the guy showed up that the bulb had burned out ... lovin' thread of course. Gotta run for a minute but I'll be back in twenty....