Little known facts about pro fighters

Sam Langford also gave McVey a key and told McVey he’d been given it to pass on to someone uglier then him Langford thought McVey would have to keep it for life, he worried he himself might’ve too if not for meeting his pal.

 

Willie Pastrano, who was half Cajun despite his Italian father, once prayed to the grave of voodoo queen Marie Laveau to help him throw the right hand. He claimed it worked, and in his next fight, the right threw itself.

 

That’s interesting

 

I’ve been telling people Trinidad is a menace for 25 years!

 

I don’t agree with all the soot you throw at Trinidad but I don’t condone him obviously ducking Carmen Basilio.

 

Andrew Golota was a bodyguard of a well known Polish gangster Pershing and did some jobs for him also f.e. was extorting people on his behalf.

 

You’d think he’d have brought the Cadilac to be more like Robinson.

 

That was in preparation for the Peralta rematch, after Peralta had battered him in a non-title fight. His right succeeded in opening a cut over Peralta's left eye that led to an eventual stoppage. He relayed the story in Peter Heller's "In This Corner" book.
(I would've posted a video of the fight itself, but it doesn't appear to be on YT despite the footage existing.)

 

Larry Fine actually became a beloved character actor. In that he acted as a character.

 

John Mugabis mailbox had “The Beast” written on it

Jack Ruby’s childhood pal was Barney Ross,Ross's commanding officer in ww2 was John F Kennedy

Tony Canzoneri was a made man in the Bonnano crime family

 

More people around New Orleans believe in or have practiced voodoo than would openly admit it. Especially the farther back you go. No one knows which of Marie Laveau’s many graves is the real one — I want to say there’s three or more, and some say the real one isn’t any of the known ones.

Willie was a storyteller and you can take a lot of what he says with a grain of salt. He’s from the ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’ school.

A guy from my town who was a trainer who knew Willie and got to know Angelo Dundee through him. The local guy would take his son, who was an accomplished amateur who later had a pro career, down to New Orleans to spar with Tony Licata and spend time with Willie.

He relayed a couple of Willie’s stories to me.

When Willie fought Archie Moore (a draw, with more ringsiders seeing it Archie’s way), he said Archie patiently stalked him and talked to him. “That footwork of yours is beautiful,” Archie would say. “You move better than anyone I’ve ever seen.” Then Archie started coaching him a bit, along the lines of, “When you throw that jab, with that footwork of yours you should change directions.” Willie fell into the trap and took one of Archie’s suggestions …. Moore ran him into a right hand that ran his bell. “For the rest of the fight,” Willie said, “he may as well have been talking Chinese. I wasn’t going to listen to him after that.”

When Willie fought Harold Johnson for the title, he was a substitute for a substitute. Mauro Mina pulled out with an injury, then Henry Hank. They called Angelo Dundee to offer the championship bout on short notice.

Angelo, excited, called Willie.

Dundee: “How’d you like to fight for the title?”

Pastrano: “Against Harold Johnson?”

Dundee: “Yes, his opponent fell out. They’re offering you a shot!”

Pastrano: “Hell no. That son of a ***** can hit. You call them back and tell them no.”

Dundee talked him into it and, of course, Willie won the light heavyweight crown.

 

Willie reportedly even had a retirement speech prepared to read following his anticipated loss.

Another fun fact: during fights, he kept his wedding ring tied to his boxing shoelaces (the camera zoomed in on it during the pre-fight intro vs. Torres).

 

After retiring from the ring, Ted (Kid) Lewis (real name Gershon Mendlehoff) became a bodyguard for Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Fascist Party. I would say the prevailing question at the time would have been, "Ted, what were you thinking?"

 

Sailor Tom Sharkey was the original, original drummer for Steely Dan.