Cocoa Kid rec'd a horrible tribute at hall of fame weekend

They should have found someone to talk on his behalf. Grandson or Granddaughter.

 

Cocoa Kid is the guy that had Holman William's number right?

 

I am not at all sure that anyone is left. I tried to find someone but could not. There may be someone out there but even they may not know who he was.

Which is why it's important that we do.

 

Okay.... Ed Brophy, the director of the IBHOF just called. He said that he was encouraged to contact Carlos Ortiz and ask him to do Cocoa Kid's induction. Carlos is a Puerto Rican Hall of Famer and it would be appropriate, so they reasoned.

I have no problem with that. Carlos was, he reassured, contacted before the weekend and he said that he would do the induction. Unfortunately, Oritz failed to mention that he didn't know who Cocoa Kid was before the ceremony.

That's what happened.

Brophy et al. assumed that Carlos knew about his Puerto Rican countryman through "stories from his childhood." I told Brophy that such would be impossible because no one was really sure of Cocoa Kid's ethnicity until only a year ago.

During Cocoa Kid's career, he was considered Cuban -in an effort to ride the tails of Kid Chocolate; Puerto Rican, particularly in local Connecticut papers; and African American. In fact, one of his managers was interviewed years after Cocoa Kid had disappeared and he laughed at how they sold everyone the myth that he was Puerto Rican when he was, said the manager "as much an American Negro as Joe Louis."

--It turns out that he was two out of the three!

I told Brophy that "of all the fighters in modern history, none this side of the ring-deaths sacrificed more than Cocoa Kid," and that the damage that was done at his induction has to be undone. Brophy said that he will have me to do a ringside seminar in Canastota next year to honor and inform the fans about Cocoa Kid.

That would make this better. I give Brophy credit. There was, after all, good faith on his part in asking Ortiz to induct Cocoa Kid, he did call me after I emailed him, and he is going to let me make it right next June.

 

I think I may have to make that trip, Springs. Count me in.

 

That'd be good.

 

Yes, and here's the thing: A fighter like Holman Williams is not a guy that has a number. During his prime, he could outbox boxers and outpunch punchers, he was great inside, mid-range, and outside, he could counter like hell, he had a vicious right hand, and he was defensively among the best ever.

To beat a guy like that -once- can be explained -travel fatique, off night, a carry that was miscalculated, a hometown decision, injury, the flu .... but to beat a guy like that -in his prime- routinely is something else.

It can only mean that Cocoa Kid was a special fighter, which he was.

 

excellent, the way it should be!

No great fighters should go unheralded... and there are hundreds of them!

 

just catching up on this thread and THANK YOU STONEHANDS!!

 

"A Crown for Cocoa Kid"

http://queensberry-rules.com/2012-articles/june/a-crown-for-cocoa-kid.html

 

very, very, nice.

I love that, and this type of recognition applies to soooo, so many great "unheralded" fighters, God Bless them all - imagine the matches in Boxing Heaven - True Greats meeting one another, leaving NO Question who the Best Are!!!

thanks Stonehands.