Broner vs Maidana

I just watched the Adrien Broner/ Marcos "El Chino" Maidana fight again, this time by myself without any distraction.

First Broner: I was really surprise as to how he slaps his punches, he doesn’t turn his hands when he punches either; so there is no snap at all, and he stands too straight up, leaning back and to his right, chin up in the air, thus, wide open for left hooks.

Maidana: punches too wide and loops his right hand too much, thus missing his target by punching over and above his opponents head. He is a sloppy fighter, but it’s hard to knock success, he won.

Where do they go from here?

Broner: I think lost more than just the fight, I think this fight took allot out of him, because he took a beating, the kind of beating that sometimes are hard to over-come, we’ll see when he comes back against an A class fighter if he indeed lost something.

Maidana: I think will be around a bit. I do think that a fight like Danny Garcia may be able to out-box him, Danny is more of the classy type boxer than Boner; and a fighter like Danny is the kind of fighter that might have Maidana hitting air with his looping punches, but then again; Maidana might be too strong for a fighter with Garcia’s style.

A rematch between Broner and Maidana? I’ll take Maidana by KO.

Bouncing Checks

I mention about not letting my boys fight for nothing, and they never did, but one time our checks did bounced.

In 1983 Don Fraser called me, said he was the matchmaker for a couple of guys that had taken the Olympic over after Aileen Eaton retired. Said they had a USA channel date and asked if I was interesting in a fight for both Frankie and Tony on the card. I told him “of course, I am interested” We talked money and opponents, Juan Escobar for Frankie and Rocky Montoya for Tony, at 10Gs each. Agreeing on the details I went to see Fraser at the Olympic to sign contracts.

With contracts signed the boys who had already been in the gym had 3 weeks to get themselves in great shape, which they did. Weight-ins were on the morning of the fights, everybody made weight.

That night Frankie had the toughest fight of his career. He took an ass beating in the first 4 rounds from Escobar. After the 4^th round I told Frankie I was giving him just one more round and if he didn’t show me anything I was going to stop the fight, he agreed with me. With lumps on top of lumps he went out and won the 5^th round, he won the 6^th round, and won every round there-forth, dropping Escobar late in the 10^th and final round to win a split decision.

Tony who was making his first start since the Howard Davis robbery was not happy about just getting 10Gs. I told him not every fight that he had was going to be a Howard Davis type pay day. He fought and won a unanimous decision, but his mind was somewhere else.

The boys got their pay, minus my cut. Next day we went to the bank and deposit our checks. A few days later we got a notice from the bank that the checks had bounced. I called the flakes that promoted the fights and they told me to run the checks through again, we did, and they bounced again.

Now it was 2 weeks after the fights, and our checks still had not been made good, and the flakes were promoting another show at the Olympic. I called Joey Olmos who was the L.A CSAC head guy on the morning of the coming show. I explained to Joey our situation, he told me to meet him at the weight-ins. I did. At the weight-ins Joey announced to the fighters that were scheduled to fight that night and their managers. That unless I got our money by 5PM that there was not going to be a show that night.

The flakes called me to the side and told me that they would give me a check on the spot. I replied to them that I would accept nothing-less than 3 certified checks. They had till 5PM to come up with the checks, they did. They also promoted their last show that night. Soon they were gone in the wind, never to be heard from or seen again.

Luis Santana and the Cadillac

In 1989 when Tony Baltazar was getting ready for his fight against Buddy McGirt we set up camp at the La Mancha Athletic Club in Phoenix, Arizona. After one month of training at La Mancha it came time to break camp and get ready for our flight to New York City, fight was held In Swan Lake, upstate New York. The night before our departure to New York City the owners of La Mancha, Charlie and Diane, threw a going away party for us at their home in Surprise, AZ. Surprise is about 40 miles from Phoenix. There were about ten of us that drove in two cars to Surprise. The group included Jimmy Montoya, Jerry Cheatham, Grant Elvis Phillips, Luis Santana, Tony, I and others. There was food and drinks served by our host. Luis Santana who was a non-drinker was putting away the tequila that night. Tony and some of the guys left early in one of the cars, soon some other ones left in the second car, left behind without a car was Jimmy, Jerry, Elvis, Luis and me. Our host Charlie said not to worry; we could use one of his cars to get back to the La Mancha when we were ready to go. Around 2:00 AM we thanked Charlie and Diane, told them that it was time for us to get back to the La Mancha. Charlie walked us out to the back of the house where three brand new cars were sitting, two Cadillac’s and a Jaguar; take your pick he told us, we picked one of the caddies. Elvis got behind the wheel, with Jimmy riding shotgun, sitting in the back were Jerry, Luis and me, with Luis, who was Tony’s hired sparring partner, sitting in the middle..

No sooner had we gotten on the road when we got lost, we wind up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The dirt road came to a dead-end in a desert so dark that not even the rattlesnakes could see where they are going. As we made the stop at the dead-end Luis started to get sick, Jerry and I jumped out of the caddie just as Luis barfed on the rear floor of the new caddie. After making sure that Luis was done barfing we somehow got back on the right road; we drove back to La Mancha with our heads sticking out the windows. 

Sunrise found Elvis, Jerry and Luis at a self-serve car wash trying to clean the caddie. When Charlie was told what had happened he said “don’t worry about it, I’ll just get another car” I don’t know if he bought another car or not.

Diane, Charlie and their teenage daughter, Kelly, made the trip to New York with us. We were put up at a hotel on 8^th Ave just off 42 St. On the morning after our arrival we were sitting at the hotel’s coffee shop having breakfast when Diane told us about what Kelly had seen. Kelly had been looking out the window in the middle of the night when she seen what she took to be a prostitute talking to a “john” Kelly told Diane “mom, look, the girl is talking to a “client”

Luis went on to win the WBC Light Middleweight title from Terry Norris on a DQ

Elvis is now the Founder/CEO of Grant Inc, manufacture of boxing equipment.

Frankie Baltazar vs Herman Montes

                                                                     (Amateur fight)

                                            

                                                  By kiki

 In the mid-‘70s the International Press Club in Pico-Rivera was promoting amateur boxing cards, with Tony Mora doing the matchmaking. If memory serves the fights were on Tuesday nights.  

On Tuesday night’s coaches would take their fighters to the IPC hoping to get a fight. The promoters had what some were would call their house fighters; one of them was Herman Montes. Herman had racked up some good wins over some decent opposition. The ‘70s was a time in Los Angeles when the amateur ranks were loaded with very good talent, especially in the lighter divisions, and Herman had fought his share of those talented fighters. Circa 1975 I took Frankie and Tony to the Press Club hoping to get them some action. As soon as we walked in Tony Mora hurried up to me and told me the Montes’s wanted Frankie for Herman, I agreed on the spot. I had studied Herman and knew that his Sunday punch was his right hand, he could knock off a brick wall with that right of his, but at that time his left was weak, so I told Frankie to move to his right, away from Herman’s right. Being that Frankie was a southpaw I figure he could do that for three rounds to win the fight. Frankie boxed beautifully for the first two rounds to win the rounds. He had Herman turning to his left looking to land his potent right hand, but by the time Herman would set himself to throw his right Frankie had already taken another half-step to his right, there by throwing Herman off his stride. In between the second and third round I told Frankie to just keep boxing the way he had boxed the first two rounds and he would win the fight. Bell rang for the third and final round and Frankie is boxing beautifully, then about mid-round he stopped right in front of Herman, and “POW” Herman landed a big right hand, Frankie froze and for a second he looked like he was out on his feet, probably was, but he shook his head and went right back to out-boxing Herman for a decision win…Tony didn’t get a fight that night