R.I.P. Bobby Padilla

                                          R.I.P. Bobby Padilla

Bobby Padilla, A junior boxing champion out of the Resurrection Gym has passed. Bobby was, along with Tony Valle, Angel Soto, Art Frias, et al. one of the junior boxing stars boxing under Jim Lopez wing in those early years of the Resurrection Gym (mid-‘60s) Bobby was one of the guys we could always depend to be ready to spar with my son Frankie on our weekend visits to the Resurrection Gym in those early years. I hadn’t been in contact with Bobby in over forty years, but thanks to Facebook we were able to reconnect last year. Soon after reconnecting I invited Bobby to join us in a couple of Facebook boxing pages ‘Classic American West-Coast Boxing’ and ‘Fight Group’ he joined gladly. He too joined my music page ‘Music and Cigar Lounge’ at first Bobby was posting regularly on all three pages, then as the month passed by due to his illness; he was posting less and less. His last posts were on the first week of June, after that I was fearing the bad news. Bobby I am sorry we never got together for breakfast at ‘Mike’s Puck’ … Our new friendship was cut short as Bobby’s life journey came to an end yesterday (6-22-14) due to throat cancer. R.I.P. Champ!