Eder Jofre & Sugar Ray Leonard unite in LA!!

Haven’t written it yet, it will either go on IBRO or I’ll even send it to the Ring. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

“Here’s just a small caption of the epic week. It had been a vision a few years ago to write a book on Eder Jofre and bring him back to Los Angeles, a city which has deep significance in his career. It was a dream came true and the whole experience exceeded expectations. I’m planning to write a very detailed feature on this whole experience so this is really just the cliff notes.

The Jofre family, Eder and his son Marcel Jofre & daughter Andrea Jofre arrived last Thursday. That day we went to visit my friend Carlos Zarate at his sons home and the camaraderie between these two families was really beautiful to see. I really appreciate them both for the affection they continue to show me. On Friday we were invited to an amazing sunset dinner and saw the wonderful art of the genius Jun Aquino. Incredibly, Jun painted a brand new Jofre painting and a surprise painting of Carlos and presented it with him. To see the excitement and appreciation of Mr. Zarate was so heart warming. On Saturday we had an amazing fan gathering/meet & greet where award winning author Gene Aguilera was signing his book and the legends Carlos Zarate, Eder Jofre, and Michael L Nunn Nunn we’re signing machines and felt the warmth and appreciation of so many knowledgeable boxing lovers. Nunn & his lovely fiancée Beverly fell in love with the Jofres and vice-versa. Thank you Mike for genuine warmth and affection you showed them. Melvin Perez was invaluable throughout this whole experience too as he put his schedule on hold to take part in so much of this stuff. Also Carolina Massote who selflessly went to Cancun for 14 days to quarantine before arriving here to act as the Jofre family interpreter. She was as valuable here as she was on the book.

On Sunday, Mr. Nunn and Mr. Jofre were inducted into the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame alongside such class acts as Douglass Fischer, Richard Steele, Gabriel Ruelas, Oscar De La Hoya, Rafael Ruelas, Art Hafey, Adrian Arreola, Sue Tl Fox, Roberto Diaz, Roy Englebrecht, Fighting Harada and Lee Espinoza. Posthumously inducted were Alberto Reyes, Johnny Tapia (who’s wife Teresa gave a very moving speech), and Ceferino Garcia. This event exceeded all expectations and was simply incredible. Rick Farris and Dan Hanley outdid themselves. The bar was high, now it’s impossibly high. But they continue to exceed expectations. Jeff Crawford and Juan Carlos Medel came to the event and got to meet Jofre, who fought both of their father’s. These were unbelievable reunions.

On Monday, we had a fantastic gathering at my friend Jose Pollo’s restaurant El Pollo Fino, where we had incredible food among great people and another awesome meet and greet with Zarate, Jofre, and Nunn. On Tuesday we took Eder back to The Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles thanks to Steve DeBro and Gene Aguilera. This was an incredible experience as they don’t just let anybody go inside. Jofre won his first world title here in 1960. We then went to a friends lovely home for home made pizza and saw an incredible sunset. Later that evening Yuriko Miyata came to the house as we went live with Japan and witnessed a zoom meeting between Jofre and the only man to have defeated him, his great friend, Fighting Harada. Eder spoke a bit of Japanese and Harada looked as happy as a child on Christmas morning.

On Wednesday, thanks to my man Akbar Abdul Muhammad, we had a special invitation inside the incredible home of none other than Sugar Ray Leonard. I am still in awe that I got to see Jofre, Leonard and Nunn boxing together and enjoying this historical moment. Leonard was a perfect gentleman and showed us such hospitality and warmth. A class act.

Today, the Jofres embarked on their journey back home and people are already asking me when can they come back. They were a hit. They felt the warmth and affection of knowledgeable boxing folks and just out and out good people. Eder is a very happy man right now. Thank you to every single one of you who contributed with bringing them over here and thank you to everyone who shared this with us. You all know who you are. I absolutely do plan to bring them back next year. This experience was too rich to only do once. I won’t stop. You have my word. (Photos Nate Wren)”