Art Aragon

By Cholo

August 1956, when Aragon was awarded a ninth-round TKO over Cisco Andrade, a local product who is a top contender for the world lightweight title, in an outdoor fight at Wrigley Field, the referee, Abe Roth, a retired furniture store owner who officiates as a hobby, was suspended on the grounds that he had mishandled the fight. When Aragon heard about it the next day his reaction was, "What-only one official got suspended? I must be slipping."
Aragon made news when a Los Angeles welterweight Dick Goldstein caught him as he was leaving the Olympic Gym in downtown Los Angeles, whirled him around and punched him on the chin.
His motive supposedly was that he had been told Aragon had said he would knock him out in the first round if the two ever were matched, and Goldstein was anxious to disprove this evaluation of his ability. When asked why he didn't punch Goldstein back, Art said, "I wanted to save him.
I may decide to fight him in the ring some time." The next person to take a punch at Aragon was one of the most prominent figures in California boxing circles, Babe McCoy, when the Olympic Auditorium's matchmaker, whose weight is estimated at anywhere from 250 to 300 pounds. It happened just a month after the Goldstein incident.
Aragon was walking out of the Olympic Auditorium after watching the fights, and McCoy stopped him in the aisle to inquire about $125 Aragon allegedly owed him. Art answered him with an insult, and McCoy countered with a haymaker right that missed. It was good for Page One headlines the next day, though, and the only one hurt in the incident was Olympic promoter Cal Eaton, who had tried to seperate the two and caught one of Babe's subsequent wild rights on the jaw..