One of the great fight venues was LA's Olympic Auditorium. I, cannot begin to list all the great fights, and wrestling events held there. The weekly televised shows in the 60's brought weekly wars into your living room. The Mexican-American fans would pack the house to watch there favorite fighters go to war. And on occassion if there favorite fighter lost, riots would break out, or the place would get torched. Anybody have any personal stories to share of attending fights at the Olympic Auditorium?
Ive always been fascinated by the Olympic. Ive spent years trying to track down its film library, which nobody seems to know what happened to it. Id be interested in hearing some stories about Jerry Quarry's family constantly getting into fights ringside when he was fighting (and thats just the women).
Boxing was huge in LA in the glory days of the Olympic during the 60's and 70's. Don Chargin, was the matchmaker for boxing promoter Aileen Eaton. Jimmy Lennon Sr. introducing the fighters, **** Enberg, behind the microphone. Alot of great fights and history. Gotta be some great stories.
I've been to the Olympic many times.My mother used to take me. I saw quite a bit of wrestling in the early 70s. I was very young and don't recall the fights we saw but my mother like Armando Muniz so I'm guessing ive seen him. The last time i went I saw Roger Mayweather, Azabache Martinez and Marcos Villasana from the 4th row. I remember one night they introduced a fighter at ringside. He had a blond bombshell girlfriend and each time she went to the bathroom she was escorted by 4 security guards.
Some great footage on Art Hafey the Toy Tiger documentary Johnny Owen's trainer Dai Gardiner told a friend of mine all of the water was stolen from his corner the night he fought Lupe Pintor I've written this before, another poster from here sat ringside didnt see no skullduggery
As someone who attended a fair number of fight shows at the Olympic Auditorium from the middle 1970s to the 1990s, I enjoyed watching fights there more than at any other venue. This is despite the fact that the Olympic was in a very dilapidated state and located in a bad area of Los Angeles when I saw fights there until middle or late 1980s, a time when quite a bit of refurbishing of the arena took place. The configuration of the Olympic meant that most fans had a much better view of the action compared to what they would have at the newer and bigger indoor arenas which were build with basketball and hockey in mind. The other boxing venue that stands out in my memory was the Strongbow Stadium in Bakersfield, California. I saw a fight show there during the early 1980s. Build during the early 1940s and with a capacity of about 1,000, Strongbow had concentric-shaped rows of seats which surrounded the ring and were set at an angle for good viewing The stadium was build with wrestling and boxing in mind. It appears that the two versions of the larger Wilmington Bowl (which were located in Wilmington, California) also had concentric-shaped rows of seats when fight shows were being staged at both venues during a period from the 1920s to the 1950s. - Chuck Johnston
