Okay, so, something I was reading in another thread reminded me of an experience I had about three years ago. I was talking to this homeless guy who was walking the same direction I was after I'd given him a couple bucks and he said he was a former pro boxer who fought in Ali's era. This seemed plausible, as he looked to be easily over 200 pounds and was quite muscular despite being about seventy years old. I asked him his name, but as his lispy, raspy speech was extremely difficult to understand (his voice was kind of like a cross between Miles Davis and Marlon Brando in their later years) and I had to ask him to repeat his name three times before pretending to have gotten it out of politeness. We shook hands and parted ways at the next intersection, without me ever having clearly heard his name. He was a black guy, about 6'1" or 6'2", and I'd guess his fighting weight was around 215. As I recall I'm pretty sure he said he fought Quarry. His skin tone was closer to someone like Frazier than Ali. Anyone have any idea who this guy might have been? At the time I went on boxrec and Youtube as soon as I got home and for a while I think Ted Gulick was my leading candidate before I ruled him out. (According to Wikipedia he was already dead or living in another city or something.) So anyone got any guesses? Aside from the information already provided this guy would have been homeless in Los Angeles around 2014-2015.
Interesting post. Difficult to pinpoint however. I would try to comb through Quarry's opponent list see if a face is recognizable to you. Maybe jimmy woody?
That's a tough one. Scrapiron Johnson was too short. Several other guys that come to mind likely wouldn't have been in LA, were already dead, or just don't measure the right height.
Scrap Iron vs Liston: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...2kiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5qoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5464,2163486 Scrap Iron vs Quarry: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...-ZdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K18NAAAAIBAJ&pg=3727,4675336
I will give you a word of warning. It is a common tactic among old soaks, to pretend to be a well known local fighter. I am not saying that this is the case here, but it is a possibility that you should be aware of!
True. It happens in other fields, too. I once worked in a drug store and waited on someone claiming to be country singer / guitarist Merle Travis. At this point the real Travis had been dead a good ten years (which I found out later). I was skeptical but the druggist bought the man's story hook, line, and sinker.
Stan Ward likely had too much going for him to end up homeless. Wasn't he a high school teacher? There was a recent video posted somewhere where he was coaching young fighters and talking about his days as an active boxer.
I looked through his old opponents on boxrec, he seems to be the most likely. He's 6 feet tall, he fought him in Las Vegas which is not too far from LA, he looks muscular, and looks to be quite dark too. Lou Bailey was another name on his record that looked possible.