A Johnnie Flores Story

By kiki

Johnnie Flores, late Los Angeles boxing manager and trainer, and a WWII hero used to tell me all kinds of stories back in the day. One story he told me in 1977 as we were flying to Miami was about a Mexican fighter who was sent to him in the early '60's to handle while the fighter was in Los Angeles to fight a local hero - When promoter Aileen Eaton called a press conference to promote the fight Johnnie discovered that the fighter didn't have any decent clothing to appear in front of the press, Johnnie told me that he needed to dress up the fighter, but how? He said he was not about to put up a couple of hundred bucks at a Robert Hall Clothier store for a suit, then he remembered his uncle Zeferino Ramirez. Mr. Ramirez was the owner of a Southern California chain of mortuaries. Johnnie said he called on his uncle and asked for a favor. After Johnnie explained the situation to Mr. Ramirez the mortician said that he would be more than happy to help 'em out. Mr. Ramirez whom dying male clients were mostly on the poor side had closets at his mortuaries that were full of cheap, cheap, ill-fitted suits to sell to the families of the newly depart grandfather's, father's, uncle's, etc etc - Johnnie drove the fighter to the Zeferino Ramirez Mortuary which was located on Brooklyn Ave in East Los Angeles and dressed the fighter up in a white shirt and blue tie and ill-fitted black suit. Johnnie said that as they were leaving Mr. Ramirez told them to be sure to bring the threads back as soon as the press conference was over as he had a client who was the same size as the fighter waiting to get dressed....I asked Johnnie how did the Mexican fighter do in the fight, "he got KO'd in the first round" he answered