According to Henry Armstrong's record on the BoxRec website, his ten-round bout with Kid Moro, a Filipino fighter, which took place in Pismo Beach, California on November 3, 1933 ended in a draw. According to the information on Armstrong's record, a report found in the Reno Gazette said that Referee Freddie Gilmore rendered the decision in favor of Armstrong and had to have a police escort due to a near-riot in the crowd which included a large number of Filipinos. The report also said that a "state commissioner" who saw the bout reversed the decision. During the 1980s, I looked at microfilm rolls of the San Luis Obispo Telegram for results of bouts on Pismo Beach boxing cards which took place during the 1920s and 1930s. San Luis Obispo is located about fifteen miles from Pismo Beach. According to what I found in the Telegram, Armstrong did get the decision in the bout, which set off a riot in the crowd. But there wasn't any indication that the decision was changed. In fact, the California State Athletic Commission was known to stand by the decisions of referees in such cases at the time. It should also be pointed out that boxing shows staged at Pismo Beach were very dependent on the large number of young Filipino migrant farmworkers who were working in area at various times of the year during the 1920s and 1930s. As a result, there were usually Filipino fighters on Pismo Beach boxing cards, especially in the main events, during that time. - Chuck Johnston
The idea that a bunch of migrant Filipino farm workers rioting against any decision going against their man is hardly surprising. Good thing Pacquiao wasn't around then, or they'd have burned the place to the ground.
After the bout in Pismo Beach, Henry Armstrong fought Kid Moro for a second time in Stockton and a third time in Watsonville, both ten-round bouts ending with draw decisions. During the late 1920s and the entire decade of the 1930s, the success of boxing shows staged in Pismo Beach, Watsonville and Stockton was usually dependent on attracting a large number of Filipinos working and living in the vicinity of the mention communities during various times of a given year. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, there were about 45,000 Filipinos living on the mainland of the United States with about 30,000 of them living in California during that year. In both California and the rest of the mainland, Filipino males outnumbered Filipino females (Filipinas) by a ratio of 13-to-1 at the time. The vast majority of the Filipinos on the mainland were within fifteen-to-thirty years of age range and had migrated to the United States during the 1920s. At a given time, sixty percent of mainland Filipinos were farmworkers, usually migrant workers who did the arduous stoop labor in the agricultural fields, notably in California. During the 1930s, Filipinos were about ten percent of the farmworkers in California. In a very short time after a massive number of people started to migrate from Mexico to the United States in 1917, Mexicans became the largest group in the California farmworker force by a considerable margin. There were relatively few white people who did arduous stoop labor in the agricultural fields of California during the 1920s, but there would be plenty of them from the Midwest, notably from Oklahoma, who were doing such work during the 1930s when there were few other options due to the Great Depression. The remaining forty percent of the Filipinos on the mainland worked in service jobs (dishwashers, other restaurant workers, houseboys, busboys, etc.) and in the Alaska fisheries. Much like the Chinese migrants in the United States during the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th Centuries, the vast majority of the Filipinos on the mainland were single largely due to the relatively small population of Filipinas, the social mores and the miscegenation laws in the United States before World War II. Despite working for relatively little money on the mainland during the 1920s, the Filipinos were known as virtual clotheshorses when going out on the town, wearing nice McIntosh suits. Being single men meant that they often had more disposable income than their married counterparts. A large number also went to gambling places, taxi dance halls (ten cents a dance) and places where there was prostitution. Yet Filipino boxing fans often bought general admission tickets for fight shows instead of the more expensive ones. During World War II, Filipinos on the mainland were older as a group than the average American serviceman. Yet an amazing number of such Filipinos eagerly enlisted and served with great distinction during the war. Doing the arduous stoop labor in the agricultural fields may have helped many of the Filipinos endure the hardships of military training than many serviceman who were much younger in age. After the war, many Filipinos continued to work in the agricultural fields. It is often forgotten that there were Filipinos who played a very important part in the farmworker labor movement with the iconic Cesar Chavez being the best-known leader. But relatively few younger Filipino immigrants have worked in the fields. - Chuck Johnston
