Brilliant article on the original showman Ike "The Belfast Spider" Weir

Who's the dude in your avatar, P...I mean..err..Bujia Baby?

 

Its Zapata, what does El Buija actually mean? Its Zapata's nickname right, but its 'The ?'

 

A great nickname, do you know how he got it?

 

Makes sense then. I'm just away to read this article now.

 

Just skip the big words...you should be able to fill in the gaps.

 

To me he sounds very much like a Featherweight pre Walker Law Kid Gavilan in terms of his style. What do you think?

He has that long sinewy body, showmanship, odd rhythm and stance aswell as having the substance to go with his style.

 

****. I was going to say I wouldnt have thought Zapata would have been the type of guy to be a sparky. I'm a gullible ****.

You have confused me now though, does El Buija actually mean 'The Spark-Plug' and if so do you know how he got the name?

 

Yeh. Griffo definitly seemed to have been majorly influenced by Weir, who in part was majorlyinfluenced by Sullivan by thinking that fighters were born and not made so he did not need to train.

I quite like reading about Young Griffo, I am far from an expert but I have read Mike Casey's article on him and kept my eyes and ears open for him. Seems to have been a complete defensive whizz, could do every single trick in the book and invented some of them on the spot. His party piece was going into a bar and standing on a cloth goding people to hit him and making them miss without taking his foot from the cloth. This won him many a free drink.

Who would you think is better Griffo or Weir?

But do you think the Gavilan comparison is apt? Or have I got him wrong?

 

Yeh 'Spark-Plug' makes you think of a big puncher. Zapata was real sharp but possesed very little power.