Tony Baltazar, Raul Bencomo and Jimmy Montoya

On March 19, 1981, on a card headline by Kiko Bejines vs Franco Torregoza at the Olympic Auditorium Tony fought Jimmy Montoya’s fighter Raul Bencomo in a scheduled six rounder. Bencomo proved to be a lot tougher than what we expected. Fight was pretty even going into the fifth round. Around mid-round Bencomo backed Tony against the ropes and in rushing-in for what he thought was the kill ran into one of Tony’s patented short left hooks, Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas. A rematch was in order.

The rematch didn’t take place till the following year, June 26, 1982 on a card headline by Frankie and Tony, also at the Olympic Auditorium. This time the fight was scheduled for ten rounds. This time it was Tony all the way. In the second round Tony hit Bencomo again with his patented left hook. Again Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas…Frankie too won by second round KO vs Abe Perez.

After the fights down in the Olympic’s catacombs (dressing rooms) Jimmy told Bencomo not to worry about losing, that he would get him another fight with Tony. Bencomo told Jimmy: “fuck you!, you fight him, the sonofbitch is crazy, he is trying to kill me!”

Sugar Ray Robinson/Carl Bobo Olson, May,18.1956 Los Angeles. Wearing Flores gloves.

Enrique Bolanos v Luther Rawlings,,,1-16-1952

Chicago Stadium....Won by Rawlings on a 5th round TKO

Aragon/Rawlings...April,27.1949...Detroit.

On a card that included exhibition bouts featuring ring legends Willie Pep and Jack Dempsey, Art Aragon battled Luther Rawlings in the main event, dropping a close 10-round decision to a local favorite in a fight the Associated Press described as "One of the best scraps seen in a Detroit ring in years, so hard-fought it had the crowd of 10,062 tossing paper from the rafters into the ring as a way of cheering the bloody brawlers."

In Sunny California...1947.

Most of our California boxers seem to do their best fighting in their own back yards. In recent weeks, Enrique Bolanos, Jackie Wilson, and Joe Barnum, three Los Angeles top-notchers, all favored to win, were held to draws in bouts in the northern part of the state. While Jesse Flores, Earl Turner and Pat Valentino, best of the 'Frisco favorites, were beaten in scraps at Los Angeles. And all three were favorites to win. These results mentioned above are not just rare cases. Fact is, this thing has been happening for months. The exceptions have been in the cases of Jackie McCoy of Los Angeles, and Julius Menendez of San Jose, two lesser lights. McCoy has been making his best fights in the north, while Menendez has been a consistent winner here in the sunny south.

Aragon/Miceli...Aug,4.1955.

Aragon/Miceli...Aug,4.1955.

In comparison to Archie Moore, who admits 38, and Sugar Ray Robinson, who recently celebrated his 35th birthday, Art Aragon and Joe Miceli, principals in tonight's headliner, are mere kiddies.
Aragon is 27, Miceli one year younger.

But neither could be called a Johnny-come-recently from the standpoint of ring activity. Art has had 84 fights, Miceli 72.
Of the five million residents in Greater Los Angeles, probably four million, nine hundred thousand have seen, read or heard about the Golden Boy. The other hundred thousand must have been goofing.

Aragon is a star of screen, TV, radio and Sunset Boulevard brawls. And of course, the ring. He has many admirers, and even more non-admirers, and both categories bounce for ducats when he's scheduled to fight.

One reason is that this guy doesn't bore you. Never mind the other reason.
It's not necessary to dwell on Senor Aragon's virtues, or vice versa. He's too well known to require embellishment.

Teran/Gault...April,9.1955.

Keeny Teran, 113, one of the most controversial figures in California ring history, was declared the winner by TKO, in round two, over Pappy Gault, 118, former American bantam champ, at Hollywood Legion Stadium. There was a storm of protest from many ringsiders who felt that Referee Tommy Hart had been over-hasty in the stoppage of hostilities. Gault had not been floored. He was staggered by a right to the chin, but seemed to be in possession of all his faculties when the Referee stopped it.

Enrique Bolanos/Jimmy Carter...July,10.1951.

Angeles boxing fans were not very impressed with Jimmy Carter as a world champion, even though he did have little trouble disposing of Enrique Bolanos at the Olympic Auditorium. Carter was declared winner early in the seventh round. Bolanos, not nearly the fighter he used to be, was not credited with a round. Carter was the aggressor throughout, with Bolanos boxing defensively and retreating most of the time. Carter jabbed Enrique repeatedly, but he appeared over-anxious to score a kayo and he missed most of his best blows. The champ came in rather open and Bolanos scored with several left hooks, but there was little steam behind them. One of Carter's left hooks landed low in the fifth heat. Bolanos expressed pain, the crowd booed, and when the bout was resumed, both tore in with a vengeance. First, it was Carter who belted Bolanos limp, but just when it seemed that Enrique was about to cave in, he came storming back with a two-fisted attack that forced the champion to give ground. This spirited onslaught brought load cheers from the Mexican idol's supporters, but it was their only fling. Carter came out fast in the seventh, whipped over a hook that sent Bolanos' mouthpiece sailing through the air, and crossed a right to the mouth that put Enrique down. Bolanos arose at the count of eight, but was in a weakened and dazed condition, and Referee Joe Stone wisely halted it. Carter weighed 135, Bolanos 136.

Gutierrez/Parra...Jan,16.1958...Olympic Auditorium...

One of the weirdest shows in its history was staged at the Olympic Auditorium when Alvaro Gutierrez Mexico, 144 1/2, was awarded a 6th round TKO over L.C. Morgan, Youngstown, 140. This was one of the two tens that topped the card: in the other Ernesto Parra, Mexico, 128, scored a split decision over Lauro Salas, 128 1/2.

The Parra-Salas fight was rated the top bout, and was chiefly responsible for the $6,700 house. But it was the Gutierrez-Morgan brawl which got the headlines next morning. That was a wild melee. One of the customers, a huge fellow, leaped into the ring, picked up Referee John Thomas, a former lightweight, and smashed him to the floor. Pandemonium reigned. As far as the fight had gone, Morgan was well ahead on points. When the rematch comes-it has to come-there will be a big turnout.

Scoring of the Parra-Salas bout: Referee Charley Randolph, 97-92; Judge John Thomas, Salas, 96-95; Judge, Frank Holborow, Parra, 99-93. Some of the ringsiders suffered minor injuries when the fans threw things into the ring-including whiskey bottles.

Wrigley Field, Sept,5.1958...

Dwight Hawkins, 123, Los Angeles, gained a close split nod over Danny Valdez, 125, also from Los Angeles, and Willie Dillon, 148, Chicago, packed too much power for DeWitt Lewis, 148, of Santa Monica and halted him in 58 seconds of the opening round.

COLORFUL CALIFORNIAN- -Jackie McCoy

LOS ANGELES sports scribes have dubbed him the "Ben Hogan of the Prize Ring" because of his miraculous comeback from an injury that threatened to end his boxing career. It was in July, 1948, that Jackie McCoy was injured when a truck brushed up against a street-car in which McCoy was riding. The doctors held out little hope for McCoy ever boxing again. Jackie was under treatment for nearly a year, much of which time was spent in a hospital.

But, McCoy is an Irishman and he wanted to box again, and when an Irishman wants something badly enough-well, sixteen months after his accident, Jackie returned to the ring. And he never looked back. Since his comeback, McCoy has engaged in four bouts, winning over Johnny Efhan and Lawton Disoso, boxed a drew with Cecil Schoonmaker and lost to Reuban Smith. Pretty fast company for a fellow who had spent the previous year in a hospital.

Efhan had fought a drew with Chico Rosa and won 7 of his 8 bouts since arriving from Honolulu; Schoonmaker had defeated Dado Marino, Kui Kong Young and Luis Castillo; Smith had KO'ed Kui Kong Young, Tommy Rhett, decisioned Cachorro Herrera and drew with Luis Castillo. McCoy contends that he was not well when he met Smith and is confident that he can defeat Reuban in a rematch.

McCoy would also like another crack at Harold Dade, to whom Jackie dropped a couple decisions shortly before his acccident. In fact , the good-looking Irishman is very much in a challenging mood and wishes it known that he would welcome matches with any featherweight in the country, and is willing to travel any distance for such contests. McCoy feels that he has reached the peak of his ability and wishes to find out if he has what it takes to defeat the rated boxers; if he hasn't-he will hang up the gloves. McCoy is one of the most colorful boxers on the Pacific Coast.

Although a clever boxer (not a fancy dan, or waltzer), when hurt or floored, Jackie tears in and slugs it out. He has engaged in 44 bouts, losing seven of them. Among those he has defeated are Felix Ramirez, Speedy Cabanella, Alfredo Escobar, Louis Langley, Tony Becerra, Andy Vasquez, Bert White. Jackie makes 124 easily, but takes them on up to 130.

Tony Baltazar v Robin blake

At the time of Tony’s fight with Robin Blake Bob Arum was still base out of New York City. His man in Las Vegas was Mel Greb. My dealings for the fight were with Greb who was a hard guy to deal with.

We made the fight over the phone, but I had to go to Vegas to sign the contract. Mel wanted me to fly out of Ontario Airport, on their dime, of course, sign the contract and fly right back home. I told him no, that I would drive on Saturday, two weeks before the fight. I told him to get me a room at the Showboat and that I wanted $500 to play the slots, he barked, but I got what I wanted.

Saturday morning two weeks before the fight I drove to Vegas on Connie’s new 1984 Z28 Camaro, made the trip in about four hours. When I got to Vegas there was a room waiting for me at the Showboat, after checking in I called Mel, told him I was at the Showboat, he told me that he would meet me at the coffee shop within an hour.

We met and Mel hands me the contract to sign, well, I am no lawyer, but I could see that everything we had agreed on was not on the contract. The money for the fight was okay, but the 4 rooms for five days, five round-trip tickets from Ontario Airport, meals for five people for five days, 5k for training expenses, Frankie’s fight on the card were not on the contract, when I told Mel that I wanted all that on the contract, he told me to sign the contract and that everything would be taken care off, I refuse to sign the contract until he added all that we had agreed upon, when he did and he handed me a check for 5k and the $500 cash for me to play with I signed the contract.

Saturday before the fight I drove Tony, Frankie, Bobby and Herman Montes, who we had hired as a sparring partner for Tony to Ontario Airport. I paid for the tickets. After the fights when we got paid I was still out the five hundred for the plane tickets, I hit Bob Arum, he told me to see Mel Greb about it. I told Mel that I still had $500 coming for the plane tickets. He bought out a roll of hundred dollar bills, gave me four, I told him it was five, not four that I had coming, “take the four” Mel said to me, I said to Mel “Mel, either you give me five or I’ll take all your money from you” Mel was a little guy..LOL! He gave me the five.

Gil Cadilli/Jimmy Moser...Jan,11.1958...

Once an Angeleno, now a San Franciscan-but still a Californian-Gil Cadilli, 131, scored the unanimous 10-round verdict over Jimmy Moser, 131, at the Hollywood Legion Stadium. Moser substituted for Alfredo Escobar, who withdrew because of "assorted miseries." About 2700 fans paid a gross of $3,540 to see the scrap. Cadilli was penalized one point for a blow below the Mason-Dixon line in the 7th round. The ballots: Referee John Thomas, 96-94: Judge Frankie Van, 97-92: Judge Jimmy Wilson, 97-94. Actually, Moser was substituting for a substitute; when Escober pulled out. Lauro Salas was substituted, but Lauro was unable to go through because he had a previous commitment at the Olympic. Considering the short notice, Moser made a good showing.

Aragon/Flores...Nov,1.1948...San Francisco.

Meeting pretty stiff opposition in young and aggressive Art Aragon of Los Angeles. Jesse Flores Stockton's lightweight contender had to go all out to earn a draw with the latest coast lightweight sensation, it was a fast moving battle all the way with Flores slowed down somewhat by the extra weight around his middle but showing nothing lost by his recent Kayo at the hands of Ike Williams. The house was a slim $5200. Referee "Little" Billy Burke voted for Aragon, one judge marked his card for Flores and the other called it even. Flores came in at 141, Aragon at 136.

Art "Golden Boy" Aragon/Richie Shinn...Sept,20.1948

SAN FRANCISCO-Matchmaker Bennie Ford has a standout lightweight duel for the bowl next monday when Art Aragon, from L.A. clashes with clever Richie Shinn over the ten round distance...Aragon staged two smashers against John L. Davis at Oakland in recent outings and his match with Tommy Campbell was called a two round technical draw when Art suffered a cut eye from an unintentional butt...Senor Aragon is considered one of the top prospects in the southland and is noted for his action fighting.

The Passing Of Henry Armstrong... October 23, 1988

Fifty Years After the Glory, Forgotten Legend Henry Armstrong Quietly Slips Out of the Ring By Jack Friedman, Lorenzo Benet

He fought the fight—his final fight—from a hospital bed a few weeks ago, his battered eyes sightless and his frail body shriveled to 100 lbs. Henry Armstrong lost, of course; he was 75, and his foes were not the kind that he could punch and pound to the resined canvas floor of a fight ring. They were the unyielding enemies born of age: anemia, pneumonia, dementia and, finally, a failed heart. Not a faint heart though. Henry Armstrong never had that.

He was, after all, the only man in all boxing history ever to hold three championship titles at the same time: featherweight, welterweight and lightweight. "The word 'great' gets misused a lot, but not in Henry's case," says Ray Arcel, 88, the trainer of such world-beaters as Roberto Duran. "He was far superior to today's champions." Fight fans called him "Homicidal Henry" and "Hammerin' Hank" for the relentless style of attack that earned him 152 victories—100 by knockout—in a 14-year career stretching from 1931 to 1945. "He'd always work the stomach with two or three punches, and then he'd go after the chin," remembers Aldo Spoldi, 76, the only one of Henry's 27 opponents in 1937 who heard the final bell. "It was a victory just to be standing with him after 10 rounds."

Last month at the Century City Hospital in Los Angeles, it was Armstrong who lay curled on his side, about to be vanquished at last. He had been in and out of the hospital six times during the past year, and his life functions had been surrendered to feeding tubes and IV needles. Dr. Abe Green, the 34-year-old physician charged with his care, would gently take his huge, knobby mitt and check his pulse. "You know," he said once, looking into his patient's clouded eyes near the end, "I can't help but wonder what he's thinking."

He might have been thinking about the fortune he won and squandered. Or about Velma, the wife he loved who died in his arms. Or perhaps he thought about those 10 glorious, unique months in 1937-38 when he held the titles in three different weight classes at once. That's what the world best remembers about Henry—the part of the world that remembers him at all.

Then again, he might have been drifting back to Columbus, Miss., where he was born Henry Jackson, the 11th of 15 children of a Cherokee Indian mother and Negro-Irish father. His family later moved to the slums of St. Louis, and there, at 14, Henry met his first neighborhood bully. "I swung a big looping right at him and he tumbled out of sight down a coal chute," he recalled years afterward. "I discovered I could punch, and it felt wonderful."

After high school—he was student body president and class poet laureate—Henry worked as a railroad spike driver for $1.50 a day. Then he saw a news story about a fighter named Kid Chocolate who earned $75,000 in one night. He hopped a freight to L.A. with his best buddy, Harry Armstrong (whose surname he later adopted as a seal of friendship), and the two began fighting up to three bouts a night in the amateur arenas, the so-called "buckets of blood," around L.A. It was 1931, and the hungry days of the Great Depression had begun. When a manager offered them $3 to sign their first contracts, Henry was ecstatic. "I hadn't seen a dollar bill in six months," he said. "We bought a 10-cent loaf of bread, a big jar of jelly and some liverwurst. Man, did I feel big."

His first title fight took place in L.A. on Aug. 4, 1936, when 16,000 fans watched him hammer out a pug named Baby Arizmendi. Soon after, entertainers Al Jolson and George Raft bought Henry's contract. Jolson named his friend Eddie Mead as manager, and Henry was on his way. In October of '37, weighing 124 lbs., he licked Petey Sarron for the featherweight title. In May, 9 lbs. heavier, he ripped the welterweight crown from the legendary Barney Ross. The decoronation was savage; it looked like "Armstrong had used a battle axe," wrote Grantland Rice, the leading sportswriter of the day. Little did Granny know.

"Eddie told me to carry Ross for the last three rounds," Henry told New York Times writer Dave Anderson years later. "I guess he had a deal with Ross.... When the 13th round began, I said, 'How you feeling, Barney?' He said, 'I'm dead.' He just leaned on me the last three rounds." After the fight, Ross retired.

Eleven weeks later a 134-lb. Armstrong went to war with Lou Ambers, the lightweight champ, and after 15 brutal, bloody rounds took that title. A year later in a rematch, Ambers took it back.

"We both agreed later that those two fights finished us," says Ambers, now 75. "It took everything out of us." Save their mutual admiration. In Henry's hospital room as he lay dying was a card from his old rival. It said: "Keep fighting and get well soon."

When the Boxing Hall of Fame opened in 1954, Armstrong was one of the first three inductees, along with Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. Like Louis, he by then had learned the fight game's most durable axiom: The man who does the bleeding is often bled financially. Some time later, Armstrong and Louis talked about it.

"Joe," said Henry, "what happened to your money?"

Louis laughed. "I came out of it in bad shape," he said. "But I heard I came out of it better than you."

Henry blamed "too much high living and not enough bookkeeping" for the half million or so that slipped away. But he had help from Eddie Mead, a shady player who once tried to persuade Henry to take a dive. Henry refused. "I can't say he robbed me," Armstrong once said, but "he lost a lot of money on the horses, a lot of my money too." When Mead died in 1942, the fighter discovered that he owed Uncle Sam $250,000 in back bills he thought the manager had paid. Henry ended his 17-month retirement and returned to the ring. "The trouble really started when I tried a comeback," he came to believe. "My manager made me drink gallons of beer to gain weight."

Finally, his eyesight faltering from years of punishment, Armstrong quit for good in 1945. His drinking kept up though, and one night in 1949 he landed in an L.A. drunk tank. Next day Judge Ida Mae Adams balefully told him, "Henry Armstrong, you're letting down a million boys."

Eventually, Henry embraced temperance, took up religion and was ordained a Baptist minister. It was too late to save his first marriage, and so in 1960 he returned to St. Louis and Velma Tartt, the high school sweetheart with whom he'd already had two children out of wedlock. So, strangely, began the happiest chapter of his life. He became a spokesman for the local Boys Club and a fixture at civic affairs and sports banquets.

Then one night Velma complained of chest pains. Armstrong raced her toward the hospital, but halfway there she turned to him and said, "Stop the car and hold me." Moments later she died in his arms. He never really recovered from that, friends said. A third marriage lasted just long enough for his bride to find out he was broke. Then he met Gussie Henry, a nurse's aide he had known 45 years earlier in L.A. The two wed in 1978 and settled in L.A.

On a visit to his old St. Louis neighborhood a year later, however, Henry was viciously mugged by two street punks. They stole his wallet, his Hall of Fame ring and, far more important, his pride. Newsman Bob Burnes remembers visting his old friend in the hospital: "He looked up at me with his battered face. The first words out of his mouth were, 'I would have taken them both out in a minute in my prime.' "

After that, the champ's health deteriorated steadily. Gussie, now 75, remained in Henry's corner, shaving and bathing him each day and helping him dress. They lived in a modest two-bedroom home, getting by on the $800 that Social Security sent each month. Later she sat by his hospital bedside, squeezing his gnarled hands. "I do what I can for him," she said. "But it's like the song. Nobody wants you when you're down and out."

There were flowers, though, during those final days, and cards from longtime friends. As Henry lay on his clean white sheets, his eyes would sometimes flicker in the sunlight pouring into his fourth-floor room. You couldn't help but wonder, then, what those sightless eyes were seeing. Perhaps they had turned inward to see the glory of Henry Armstrong's time. Or perhaps they caught a glimpse of a greater glory about to come.

—Jack Friedman, and Lorenzo Benet in Los Angeles

Art Aragon/Bolton Ford...Aug, 26. 1949...Hollywood Legion Stadium.

Art Aragon and Bolton Ford. For seven days now, those two names have been a major topic of conversation among fistic followers of this locality. Whenever aragon's name is mentioned, it is invariably followed by "Golden Boy" "20 knockouts in 40 bouts," or "Jimmy Roche's comin champ." He's up against a spoiler of no mean ability tonight. When you think of Bolton Ford you'll probably think too of his wins over Paulino Montes in this very ring late last year. Or his decisive whipping of Irvin Sheen, because of his unorthodox style Ford will be a definite match for young Aragon. Both boys have had a share in the national rankings at one time or another. Both have quite a deal at stake tonight. Ford has never been knocked out. If he gets by Art, he'll succeed where eight others have failed this year. On the other hand if Artie flattens him, we'll go along with many observers who see a brilliant future in boxing for Art Aragon.

Art Aragon/Tony Chavez...Sept,16.1949...

San Jose Tony Chavez comes to Hollywood Legion Stadium proceded by a sizable reputation as a durable little fisticuffer. He has faced some highly explosive punchers in past bouts and as yet has never been counted out in ring combat. That could be, perhaps, the reason why he's shown no great awe for the pulverizing power of Art Aragon, that is why he his in a position to spring the upset of the year here tonight.

Local fight men agree there aren't many lightweights in captivity capable of whipping the "Golden Boy"; In the same breath they'll tell you Art has got himself no softie for an opponent tonight. And when men in boxing think enough of a fight to take on the interest typical of the fight fan it's almost a sure indication that a sizzling battle is expected.

Because of a series of circumstances, Art Aragon has been forced to literally smash his way to the top of the lightweight heap. He's had trouble getting the top fighters in the nation to face him. He has but one alternative in such case and that is to prove, by comparative performances, that he his without doubt the outstanding 135 pounder on the left coast. He has the punching power to put his point over; And you can believe that he has the will to use that punching power. He has already knocked out 21 of his 42 foes; Tony Chavez is bound to change those figures one way or another.