California Boxing

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Willie Pep v Gil Cadilli

Check out Cadilli's thumb to Pep's eye

 

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Battling Torres and Carlos Ortiz

 

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Jimmy Carter v Cisco Andarde

 

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Enrique Bolanos, Fabela Chavez and Chalky Wright

 

http://www.cemeteryguide.com/gotw-sanders.html

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Ed Sanders

 

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Unbeaten young heavyweight contender Cassius Clay, showed up at City Hall to invite Mayor Sam Yorty to his bout with Argentina's Alejandro Lavorante at the Sports Area. Clay and Lavorante head the 20th annual City of Hope "Fight for Lives" boxing card. Photo dated: July 25, 1962.

 

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"Lavorante will fall in five," proclaimed 20-year old Cassius Clay, nicknamed "The Mouth," before his fight with Alejandro Lavorante at the L.A. Sports Area. That night, Clay knocked out the Argentine heavyweight with a left hook in the...fifth round. Later that year, Lavorante fought John Riggins at the Olympic Auditorium. Knocked out in the sixth round, he slipped into a coma and died. Photo dated: July 20, 1962

 

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Joe Frazier vs Jerry Quarry

 

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I remember Pete well from when he was fighting in the southland

 

Lena Horn-Joe Louis-Johnnie Flores


The later Los Angeles boxing trainer, Johnnie “Mr. Golden Gloves” Flores once told me a story about how he met the beautiful Lena Horn. I was reminded of Johnnie’s story last night as I was watching Lena Horn in ‘Stormy Weather’

Johnnie’s story: soon after WWII ended Johnnie was in a fancy restaurant in New York City with long time heavyweight champ Joe Louis. I don’t know if this was in the late 1940s or early 1950s. According to Johnnie, both he and Louis were broke. They were sitting there trying to figure out how to pay for dinner when in walked Lena Horn with a friend. Louis stood up to invite Horn and her friend to his and Johnnie’s table, and as he was doing so he told Johnnie to order anything he wanted.

They all had a fancy dinner with fancy drinks. After dinner Louis asked the waiter for the check, which he got, he then proceeded to check it out real good, making sure they were not over-charge, after making sure they were not, he handed the check to Lena Horn telling her “take care of this and don’t forget to add the tip to it”

 

Al Stankie: Boxing trainer & manager

I first met Al Stankie in the mid-1960 when he was in the LAPD and he would show up at the Teamsters Gym to work out. After working out for about 2 years he decided he wanted to fight, he was been trained by Louie Jauregui (Mando Muniz manager) so Louie got him some amateurs fights, he won some, lost some, then he wants to fight pro, so Louie got him some pro fights, again he won some, and lost some.


The last time I saw Stankie was in 1990, when he and a kid who was about 16-17 years old wanted to bum some tickets from me for Tony's fight with Camacho in Lake Tahoe, that kid was OSCAR DE LA HOYO.


Too bad I didn't have tickets to give them, if I had given them some, I never would have let De Hoyo forget it..LOL!!


Stankie late became an alcoholic and had to leave the LAPD. It was a sad ending for Stankie. I heard he lost his wife, kids and his house. Don’t know how he is doing now days

 

Not really a boxing story, but...

[FONT=&quot] “El Sobaco”[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Circa 1964 my friend Joe (not real name), who used to run a boxing gym in downtown L.A., and I were coming back from the Chino State Prison after attending some fights, as I was driving back to L.A. Joe asked me: “you want to go dancing?”, “I don’t know Joe, what do you have in mind?”, “I have a lady waiting for me at the International Ballroom” Joe replied .[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] The International Ballroom which was on First Street west of Soto was known as “El Sobaco” (The Armpit) because it stank, I don’t think the people that used to go dancing there believed in deodorant.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot] ”I don’t know Joe, that place is for old people and I am told it stinks in there”[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot] At the time I was 27 years old, Joe was in his mid-60s. It was a place that drew people over 50 years old; so I was not comfortable going there, but Joe wanted to go and since we were in my car I said okay. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We got there and walked up the stair where the ballroom was at, first thing I did was get a close look at the band that was playing, the guys on the band looked so old that they must have started playing back in ’09, I then got a good look at the people, the youngest looked like they were in their mid-50’s. Joe spotted his friend sitting at a table with other people: “c’mon let go to their table”, Joe introduced me to his friend Rosie (not real name) and the rest of the people.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot] As Joe was taking Rosie out to dance he said to me: “find somebody to dance with”, I looked around at the old people and said: “I’ll be at the bar”. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I sat at the bar and after drinking a couple of beers I felt like dancing. I looked for the youngest looking lady to ask to dance, I spotted one, she looked to be in her mid-50’s, asked her to dance: “would you like to dance?”, she looked me up and down: “No, I don’t dance with just anybody, beside you’re too young” “Oh!”, first time I was turned down for been too young!, went back to the bar and nurse a beer until closing time. Back in the car Joe asked me: “how come you didn’t dance?”, “I am too young”, “what?”, “oh never mind!”[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

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Shig Fukuyama

 

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Former world welterweight champion, Don Jordan