Little known facts about pro fighters

Eugene Hart spent his youth in a wheelchair.

 

Larry Holmes liked to be referred to as “Big Jack” in honour of Jack Johnson, wish it’d caught on.

 

Alexis Arguello did his wraps himself his entire career. In his 75th fight, against Billy Costello, he was forced for the very first time to rewrap. I watched the fight live. He was pissed.

The reason Larry Holmes had a great left jab is that he broke his right quite badly early in his career, and spent the rehab time working on his left.

 

Sumbu Kalambay's birth name was Gerard. It was changed to Sumbu as part of General Mobutu's policy of authenticitie, which required that Zaire's citizens abandon their European names for more traditional African ones.

 

Ok....in an amateur fight, a would be Don King of the era, went prepared to sign the winner of a bout. He signed the winner of the fight, who went on to have an unspectacular career. The loser? His name was Joseph Louis Barrow!

Pedro Montanez was a mainstream celebrity in Puerto Rico and had a large collection in his house of photos taken with other celebrities such as Mexican comedian Cantinflas, Cuban salsa singer Celia Cruz and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Several famous Puerto Rican boxers did commercials on Tv, including Wilfredo Gomez and his daughter for Pizza Hut (the Puerto Rican version of Marvin Hagler's Pizza Hut commercial that same year) Alfredo Escalera for Medalla beer and Samuel Serrano for Schaeffer beer.

Julio Cesar Chavez had a "Julio Cesar Chavez Gum" in Mexico and the American Southwest, and also the Mexican version of the Evander Holyfield Real Deal Boxing was known as "Chavez!". That version of the game was also sold in Southwestern United States states.

Salvador Sanchez died hoping to become a medical doctor. He might have been a great one too, since he was pretty smart.

Roberto Duran and Hector Camacho tried singing careers. Duran had an orchestra. One time he tried joining Puerto Rican legend Hector Lavoe on stage during a televised concert, only to be indirectly rejected by Lavoe, who told him to play the bongos instead lol! Duran is also an airplane pilot who once crashed his plane into a beach.

Meanwhile Camacho was joined by the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo backstage after his fight with Ray Mancini. Menudo was performing in New York and the fight was in Atlantic City so they took the trip to watch the fight and take photos with the great legend. That version of Menudo included another Puerto Rcan legend, Ricky Martin. Both Martin and Camacho appeared very happy on the photo that exists of the meeting.

Carlos Palomino starred in a film named "Fist of Steel", his main supporting actor being Alexis Arguello. Danny Lopez, Armando Muniz and Ruben Castillo also played supporting roles, all as the "good guys".

I had a very unspectacular amateur career of only two fights, despite dreaming big of winning 3, perhaps 4 world titles, being the first Latin world Heavyweight champion and living in a castle. Later, i became a porn star.

Oh and lets not forget, i saw this in person: During the first fight between Edwin Rosario and Jose Luis Ramirez, the would be singer of the Puerto Rican national anthem, Puerto Rican singing legend Danny Rivera, at the last minute did not show up, so Don King himself grabbed the microphone and sang it...I heard he did not pay himself for the act and instead took the money for...himself...lol

 

Really? Was was the issue here?

 

Trinidad was a fraud, a cheater. It was reported in Sports Illustrated, after the Hopkins fight, that Hopkins trainer discovered pre-fight that "Tito's" wraps had been illegally doctored to increase the force of his punches, and he was forced to re-wrap. That would explain his helplessness against Hopkins as compared to his confident destruction of William Joppy. So much for his vaunted 83% knockout percentage. LOL

 

I'm not sure, I imagine it's how he developed such a freakishly powerful upper body though.

 

He wasn’t cheating lol he just had to rewrap his hands because of a technicality, Arguello and De La Hoya have also had to do the same thing before.

 

Ernie Roderick kept Pigeons.
Jock McAvoy was big into Speedway (Dirt Track Motorcycle Racing), and was apparently good at it.
Marcel Cerdan played competitive Soccer and thought about going that route.
Bert Gilroy, after Boxing was a Top Scottish Coach and also a Private Minder (Body Guard) for Glasgow Bookies. Bert also ran Tossing Schools (illegal Gambling), himself with his Brothers.
Jackie Patterson, Scots World Flyweight Champion was Shot dead in South Africa.

Bobby Dodds, the man who fought for 5 Decades and approx 1000 fights, both Sanctioned & Unsanctioned, was a Vegetarian, long before that was ever popular.

Joe Bowker originally set out 'Walking' from Lancashire England in the NW, to London in the South, at the beginning of his Career some 200 odd miles too get to the Hub & Capital of Boxing in the UK... I trust he met with some Rural Lifts and kind heart'd donations for Train fares along the way.

I can't remember much more at the moment but when I was deep into my research 20 years ago, there were lots of little Titbits mentioned like this.

 

Michael Moorer was a firearms Instructor, or still is..

 

Arguello looked awful in the Costello fight. He lost the first three rounds and Billy gassed and punked out.

 

Oscar’s people wrapped him before the Mississippi commission inspector arrived to his dressing area before one of his early fights there. The inspector arrived and said ‘cut ‘em off and do it again, I have to see it’ … and that was that.

 

Thank you SP, I guess the overall point I was making is rewrapping your hands doesn’t always mean anything, In Trinidad’s case the way he had always had wrapped his hands wasn’t allowed… I believe Arguello wrapped his a way that they didn’t approve of to or something minor… I forget, De La Hoya did his a little early so he had to go again as @Pat M has pointed out and you as a trainer would know it would be very hard to cheat without the commission knowing.

 

If the inspector knows what he’s doing (instead of being the governor’s sister’s best friend’s husband kind of appointee) and is attentive, it should be impossible to cheat and get anything by them.

I remember being in one meeting where they had all the trainers in for instructions after the weigh-in at a pro show and the state commissioner said ‘You can use 10 feet of tape under the gauze when wrapping the hands’ … and you could hear the murmurs among those of us who caught it — you can’t put ANYTHING under the gauze when wrapping hands … the tape goes over the gauze and not on the knuckle area. Well, I’m not leaving anything to chance so I raised my hand and said, ‘You mean OVER the gauze, right — no tape under the gauze’ and he actually picked up the rulebook and said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right’ and then read it off from the rulebook while a bunch of cornermen chuckled.

So you never know, and I’d bet my bottom dollar at least one trainer in that meeting would have used tape under the gauze knowing it was wrong but with the deniability to say ‘well the commissioner said we could do it.’

I always liked to apply the old Ronald Regan phrase when it came to other trainers: “Trust, but verify.”

EDIT: I want to clarify, in my days as a boxing trainer I found commission inspectors to be very serious about their jobs and they would sit and watch you tape like a hawk because they took their jobs seriously. They’d sign the wraps front and back and make sure the ink from the Sharpie touched all exposed parts so no one could add tape later, that kind of thing.

I kind of got a good reputation as a hand-wrapper and sometimes I’d end up wrapping for two or three guys who weren’t mine because they asked. I’d always ask if it was OK with their trainer/corner first as you don’t want to step on toes, and none of them ever said no — sometimes they’d ask to watch so they could see if they picked up anything. I’m pretty positive thinking back on it that none of my guys ever broke a hand in a fight. (I was also in demand a bit as a cutman mainly because I had Adrenaline and took it to every fight and had had a bit of luck in stopping a nasty cut or two to get guys through fights — I always said ‘Happy to do it, here’s the deal — if you don’t get cut, you don’t owe me a penny … if you get cut and I open this bottle, you owe me $50 (maybe $100 for a main event)’ and nobody ever tried to short me when I did have to use it.)