Art “Golden Boy” Aragon
By Frank “kiki” Baltazar
Thought I would write, actually I feel compelled to write this on Art “Golden Boy” Aragon since I have being posting lots of stuff on him that It might seem like I have an unnatural obsession with him, when in reality all the stuff that I have been posting comes from a big Aragon fan from the U.K. He sent it to me to post in another site, which I do and then I post them here also, the reason he sends me the photos and articles is because he don’t know how to post them.
I first met Art in 1950 after his 12 round knockout of my childhood hero, Enrique Bolanos. It was a brief meeting, just a young teenager meeting a boxer. I would see him at the fights and always walked up to him to shake his hand. We never became personal friends or friends of any kind for that matter.
Fellow Fight Group member, California Boxing Hall of Fame Senior Vice President, Rick Resnick, knew Art pretty good, used to chauffeur him around town in later years, so I was told. California Boxing Hall of Fame President, Don Fraser, was very close to the Golden Boy.
There has never being another boxer In the City of Angels before or after Art “Golden Boy” Aragon that has captivated the city’s boxing fans the way the Golden Boy did. Any time he fought the joint was always rocking and pack to the rafters.
The man was a star among stars. Played with all the Hollywood starlets of the time, and he was right at home with the rich and famous.
As a fighter, I always said that Art was a very good fighter and he was the most colorful fighter in Los Angeles boxing history, but he certainly was not a great fighter by any stretch of the imagination, I feel qualified to make that statement since I saw most if not all of his fights between 1949 and 1960.
